The Dutch do not so leave the management of their pilgrimage from Java,
which, it will be remarked, stands second only to India on my list in
respect of numbers. Their policy is a very definite one and seems
justified by results. There is no disillusion, they argue, for a
Mussulman greater than to have visited Mecca, and they say that a
returned hajji is seldom heard to complain in Java of his lot as the
subject of a Christian power. Besides the disappointment which all
pilgrims are wont to feel who come with exalted hopes and find their
holy lands undistinguishable from the other lands of the world, the
pilgrim to Mecca certainly has to encounter a series of dangers and
annoyances which he cannot but recognize to be the result of Mussulman
misgovernment. From the moment of his landing on the holy shore he finds
himself beset with dangers. He is fleeced by the Turkish officials,
befooled by the religious touts of the towns, and sometimes robbed
openly by actual highway robbers. The religious government of the land
has no redress to offer him, and the Turkish guardians of the peace who
affect to rule are only potent in demanding fees. At every step he is
waylaid and tricked and ill-treated.
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