Selected quad for the lemma: ground_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
ground_n	face_n	hand_n	left_a	1,460	5	10.4795	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A58159	A collection of curious travels & voyages in two tomes ... / by John Ray ...	Ray, John, 1627-1705.; Rauwolf, Leonhard, ca. 1540-1596. Seer aanmerkelyke reysen na en door Syrien t́ Joodsche Land, Arabien, Mesopotamien, Babylonien, Assyrien, Armenien, &c. in t́ Jaar 1573 en vervolgens gedaan. English.; Staphorst, Nicolaus, 1679-1731.; Belon, Pierre, 1517?-1564.	1693 (1693)	Wing R385; ESTC R17904	394,438	648

MEcha is seven and thirty days Journey from Caire and all over Desarts it is a days Journey from the Red-Sea the Port of it is called Gidde which is a little Town wherein are two Castles on the two sides of the Port one on each side and the Turks say that Eve lies buried there They shew her Sepulchre which is in length 38 or 40 steps of a man's walk and hath no other Ornament but a Stone at each end Mecha is about the bigness of Marseilles in the middle whereof is the Kiaabe or Beytullah that is to say the House of God which the Turks say was first built by the Patriarch Abraham This House is about fifteen foot in length eleven or twelve in breadth and about five fathom high The Threshold of the Door is as high from the ground as a man can reach his Hand being within filled up even with the Threshold The Door is about a fathom and an half high and a fathom wide and is in the corner to the left hand when one faces the House This Door is of beaten Silver and opens with two leaves they go up to it by a Ladder supported by four Wheels two whereof are fastened to the lower end of the Ladder and the other two to two wooden Posts about the middle of it by means of which Wheels the Ladder is run to the Wall when any body is to enter into the Beytullah This House has a flat Roof supported by three Pillars of an Octogone Figure which are of Aloes-wood as big as the Body of a man and about three fathom and a half long they are of one entire piece each and yet run in a streight Line the length of the Building which is hung with red and white Stuff having here and there these words upon them La Illah Illallah Mouhammed Resoul allah At the same corner where the Door is but on the other side by the Wall is the black Stone which they call Hadgiar Asuad and is had in veneration by them because as they say Abraham stood upon it when he built that House and that it served him for a Scaffold to the end he might make no hole in the Wall it rising higher or lower as he pleased and being for that purpose brought him by the Angel Gabriel There is a Court about this House which the Turks call Haram and it is encompassed with Walls with three rows of Pillars and Arches on the inside of it The four Sects of Mahometanism have their places of Prayer in this Court which are the Hanifi Chafii Maliki and Hambeli each in one of the four parts of the Court with their Faces turned always towards the Beitullah or House of God This House is begirt with two Belts of Gold one below and the other on high On one side of the Terrass that covers the Beitullah there is a Spout of beaten Gold about a fathom long that jets out to carry off the Rain-water that falls upon the Terrass The same House is covered on the out-side with Hangings of black Silk which is a kind of Damask and every year there are new ones sent from Caire at the charges of the Grand Signior Ten days Journey from Mecha upon the Road to Damascus is the City of Medina three days Journey from the Red Sea The Port of it is called Iambo which is a little Town of the same shape and bigness as Gidde Medina is about half as big as Mecha but it hath a Suburbs as big as the Town it self Much about the middle of that Town there is a Mosch in a corner whereof is the Sepulchre of Mahomet covered in the same manner as the Monuments of the Turkish Emperors are at Constantinople The Sepulchre is in a little Tower or round Building covered with a Dome which the Turks call Turbe This Building is quite open from the middle up to the Dome and all round it there is a little Gallery of which the out-side Wall has several Windows with Silver Grates to them and the in-side Wall which is that of the little Tower is adorned with a great number of precious Stones at that place which answers to the head of the Tomb. There are rich things there also of an inestimable value sent by the Mahometan Kings during so many Ages which are fastened within this Gallery all round the said Turret Among others at the place which answers to the head of the Tomb there is a great Diamond half as long as ones Fore-finger and two Fingers broad over which is the Diamond which Sultan Osman the Son of Sultan Ashmet sent thither and is equal to that which the Ottoman Emperors wear on their Finger These two Diamonds were heretofore but one which Sultan Osman caused to be sawed in two in the middle Lower down there is a Half-Moon of Gold set with Diamonds of great worth The Pilgrims see not Mahomet's Tomb because that Turret wherein it is enclosed hath no Windows being only open above as hath been said but such as make any stay at Medina have liberty and leisure to enter into the Turbe and see it when there is no clutter of Strangers there that is to say three or four months after the departure of the Pilgrims who see no more but the aforesaid Gallery and the Riches that are within it through the Silver Grates of the Windows which we mentioned before Those then who enter into the Turbe see that the Tomb hangs not in the Air as many have falsly written and which is more never did hang so but is upon the flat Ground raised and covered like the Tombs of Turkish Emperors and Bashaws The Turbe is hung all round with Hangings of red and white Silk like Damask which cover all the Wall except at the place where the great Diamonds are for there they are tuck'd aside that the Diamonds may not be covered Round all these Hangings are the aforementioned words in Characters of Gold La Illah Illallah Mouhammed Resoul allah These Hangings are renewed every seven years by the Ottoman Emperors unless when a new Emperor succeeds before the seven years be accomplished for in that case the Emperor renews them so soon as he comes to the Throne The Door by which they enter into the Gallery is of Silver and so is the other that goes out of the Gallery into the Turbe When the Pilgrims to the number of Two hundred thousand Souls are come to Mecha at the usual time which is a short while before the little Bairam and that it is the day before the Vigil of the said Bairam they go and lye at a place called Myne half a league from Mecha and next day being the Vigil of Bairam they go half a league farther off to another place called Arafa which is a great Plain in the middle whereof there is a Rock or rising Hillock and on the top of it a Member or place for preaching in into which steps a Scheikh who preaches to all the

about with a strong Cudgel and striketh in every Street on one or more Doors made strong for that purpose as if it were upon an Anvil several times which resounds through all the Street When the Christians pray they observe almost the same Ceremonies with the Turks Persians and Arabians c. they turn themselves towards the South they speak low in the beginning lift up their Hands bend their Heads and whole Bodies downwards then they fall down upon their Knees kiss the Earth several times and pray with great Devotion which Custom the Jews keep also and that without doubt because the Patriarchs used the same in their Prayers as we read in the Seventeenth Chapter of Genesis Verse 3. and 17. And Abraham fell on his face Exod. xvii 11. When Moses held up his hands Israel prevailed and in 1 Kings xviii 42. is said And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel and he cast himself down upon the earth and put his face between his knees and also Nehemiah viii 6. And all the people answered Amen Amen with lifting up their hands and they bowed their heads and worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground So did Christ himself lying on his Face vehemently pray the Third Time If we Christians did but mind the Fervency and Zeal of the Heathens and Superstitious in their Prayers we should see what reason we have to awake from our Laziness and Coldness in our Prayers and to pray with earnestness There live in Turkey so many Christians that they inhabit the greatest part of that Country wherefore considering their great number to speak according to all human probability it would be an easie matter to subdue the Turks without the assistance of any outlandish Power and to drive them out of their own Countries did not God Almighty who visiteth us for our manifold Sins set them over us as a Punishment For although the Turkish Emperor sets his B●glerby's and Bashaws as great and mighty Lords here and there over great Provinces and Countries to rule them with great Zeal and Severity and and to order all Business according to his pleasure so that among so great a number of People and considering their severe Reign and Government where small Transgressions are vigorously punished there is not easily to be feared an Insurrection yet he could not be half so strong without the help of the Christians that live amongst his People nor be able to bring together such mighty and numerous Armies of good and experienced Soldiers The Christians for the most part wear as well as the Turks long Cloaths and gird their Loins with fine and soft Rollers some of Silk and others made of Cotton in them they keep still to this day their Money chiefly the poor as some with us that have no Pockets do in their Handkerchiefs tied up in a strong knot the same without doubt did the Ancients wear as the Words of Christ our Saviour Matth. x. 9. give us to understand where he speaketh to his Disciples and sends them into the whole world saying Provide neither gold nor silver nor brass in your purses In the German Bible we read Girdles With such a one without doubt the Prophet Agabus did tie the Hands and of the Apostle Paul in Cesarea in the House of Philip when he would make him to understand that the Jews at Jerusalem would take and tie him and at length deliver him up into the hands of the Heathens as you may read in the 21st of the Acts. Now altho the Christians go as well as the Turks in long Cloaths so that that way they are hardly to be distinguished from one another yet they are distinguished by the peculiar Colours of their Turbants which they wear for the Turks wear white ones as also do the Arabians and Persians only these put behind to it a red coloured Cloth and the others make it up in another form and let one of the ends hang down behind to defend their naked Necks from the excessive heat of the Sun But the uncircumcised that have a differing Religion are not allowed to wear a white one unless another Colour be mixed with it much less a green one which Colour being their Mahomets and esteemed to be holy is not allowed to be worn by any Body neither Turks nor Christians except to their Priests and some Pilgrims that have been on Pilgrimage to Mecha neither in Turbants nor other Cloaths So the Armenians have blue the Nestorians flesh colored the Grecians Maronites Surians and others have white ones with blue Lists wrought into them But the Jews have yellow ones as they have in our Country yellow Bonnets yet when they have a mind to travel afar off as into Mesopotamia Assyria Persia or into the Indies c. seeing that the Turks hate them that so they may travel the securer and with little Charges they put on white ones by the way and pretend to be Tschelebys or Noble Men nay sometimes Messengers of the Cambre which they may easily do because they understand the Languages yet not without great danger But they stay not long in a place that they may not come to be known There are also some Jewish Physicians which instead of the yellow Turbants wear red high Hats of Scarlet they exceed in number the Turkish ones that go cloathed like the common people They are commonly more Able and Learned because they can read the Physical Books of Galen and Avicen c. in their original Languages Greek and Arabick which they generally understand But for the Latin Tongue very few of them understand that neither have they any good Books in it but what they have received in the taking the Island Cyprus So much of the Christians in general But because I have made mention of Christians of several Nations that inhabit the Temple of Mount Calvaria what places in and without the Town of Jerusalem each of them are possessed of and with what Errors in Religion they are contaminated I cannot but relate in particular of each of them as much as I could understand and learn in that little time CHAP. XI Of the GREEKS AS the ancient Greeks in former days did excel almost all other Nations in Wisdom and Understanding and used to have their Children instructed at home in thir own Universities in all manner of Learning so in our times we find the contrary for in all Greece there is not one University to be found where such Discipline and Learning flourishes as did anciently just so is the desire of Learning and instructing their Children extinguished in them They take greater delight in idle Discourses and rather love Idleness which they have learned very well since they truckle under the Turkish Yoak 'T is true they write the Greek Language but which is as corrupt and different from the Ancient as the Italian is from the Latin The Turks despise them for their Laziness and Cowardize and on the contrary they love