Axabist and presumably a Muslem, made the pilgrimage as Hajj Ahmad in the summer of 1925, when the Wahabis, occupying. Mecca, were still at war with ex-King Ah, who held all the ports: of the Hijaz. Rutter, therefore, had to make a detour. He came down from Cairo to Mossawa, on the African coast, crossed in a dhow to a port in Asir and proceeded thence by land through Kunfudha to Mecca. He was the first European to traverse this part, two hundred old miles, of the west coast of Arabia.
Mr. Rutter only interested, it] seems, in the social and religious life of the Arabs. To those who fare interested in the geograp! and topographic aspects of the country, the narration is sorely, lacking. But his. preference sidering his qualities, are not to be disdained. His scholarship sound, his manner is direct and his discernment often goes beyond the surface complexities to the simple and elemental, He does not wholly admire the Arabs, and he is not entirely at home in his adopted faith. He is both fascinated and repelled. What he accepts he does not always accept whole-heartedly, thankfully, ike a pious Muslem, and what he rejects he does not' always reject with good grace. Take, for inthe following about hospitality fs ersentialiy '0 grasperene_who The Arad, Semite a8 ie the Jem, does not give. ite must de geest, and protect the Fanitive from "blood it he fated to do tection im the day Yet'on another page we are told that "to honour and succor the gpiest is the first law in their (the 'Arabs!) ethical code and faithfully they obey To cite another example, he speaks of the Arabs, fon more than one occasion, as. thieves, But when he lost' his saddle bag, it was found a day after by a Bedouin who brought it to him with its contents intact. One may generalize in the same manner. about the selfishness, for instance, of the English.
In many amusing pages is reflected a envious - temperament—a mixture of mysticism and drivelity which not only evokes the genial
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.