My exceptional physique protected me from the disease and exhaustion of which not a few of our number died by the wayside, and the other pilgrims, in consideration of my youth and piety, gave me willingly the few handfuls of rice and dates that I needed to support life and strength.
"You have read about Mecca; and your _hadji_ barber, who of course has been there, has doubtless related his experiences to you scores of times in the plains, as he does everywhere.

As you may imagine, I had no intention of returning towards Roum with my companions.

When I had fulfilled all the observances required, I made my way to Yeddah and shipped on board an Arabian craft, touching at Mocha, and bearing coffee to Bombay.

I had to work my passage, and as I had no experience of the sea, save in the caiques of the Golden Horn, you will readily conceive that the captain of the vessel had plenty of fault to find.

But my agility and quick comprehension stood me in good stead, and in a few days I had learned enough to haul on a rope or to reef the great latteen sails as well as any of them.