Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XI.djvu/327

 MECCA MECHANICS 315 undulating surface composed of about a dozen smaller stones of different sizes and shapes well joined together with a small quantity of cement, and perfectly smoothed. It is said to have been broken in pieces by order of a he- retical sultan in 1022, but was cemented to- gether and bound with a silver ring. The color is black and metallic, and the stone is worn smooth by the lips of worshippers. Burck- hardt thought it looked like a mass of lava containing several small extraneous particles of a whitish and of a yellowish substance; while Burton says it appeared to him like a common aerolite. The pilgrims who walk around the Caaba begin their procession at the black stone, which is touched and kissed with the highest veneration. A pavement of granite, polished like glass by the feet of the faithful, surrounds the Caaba. Outside of this pavement, which forms an irregular oval, is a line of iron posts supporting cross rods from which hang white or green glass globe lamps. The interior of the Caaba is plain, and there are no windows or any other opening except the entrance and a small door leading to a stair- case to the roof. The floor and walls are cov- ered with marble of various colors, but mostly white; and the roof and upper part of the walls are covered with red damask embroidered with gold. The interior is lighted by many lamps, but there is no other furniture except a small press in one corner in which the key of the building is sometimes placed. Near the door, outside, is a small hollow, where Abra- ham and Ishmael are said to have mixed the cement for building the Caaba. On the N. W. side are the supposed graves of Ishmael and Hagar, enclosed by a semicircular wall covered with white marble. Opposite the E. corner is the zem-zem or sacred well, believed to be that of Hagar. Its water is unpleasant in taste, and has a cathartic eff ect ; the Mohammedans ascribe to it great and peculiar virtues. None but Mohammedans are admitted to the Caaba or its enclosure, but a few travellers from Christendom have ventured to enter in dis- guise at the risk of their lives. It was thus visited by Burckhardt in 1814, by Burton in 1852, and by Maltzan in 1862. Arafat hill, 12 m. E. of Mecca, is visited by all pilgrims, who must perform there certain devotions and list- en to an annual sermon before they can justly claim to have performed the pilgrimage. It is about 200 ft. high, and rises from a gravelly plain on which the pilgrims pitch their tents. (See AEAFAT.) The trade of Mecca is chiefly derived from the pilgrims, who come from all parts of the Mohammedan world, and generally bring merchandise with them. The people are lively and polished in their manners, and have a remarkable knowledge of languages. There are a few artisans, and some small potteries and dye works. The climate of Mecca is sul- try and unwholesome, especially in August, September, and October. It was the birth- place of Mohammed. It is ruled by a sherif, who at present is nominally dependent on the Turkish sultan. The Wahabees took possession of Mecca in 1803 and held it till 1818, when they were expelled by the forces of Mehemet Ali, pasha of Egypt. The number of pilgrims to Mecca in 1873 was larger than for many previous years, and was estimated at 200,000. Of these, more than one half came by cara- vans ; about 46,000 arrived by way of Jiddah and other ports on the Red sea, and for their transportation 12 ships, 87 steamboats, and a large number of small vessels were employed. Nearly 15,000 Malays and Hindoos came from India, embarking at Calcutta and Bombay. Turks, Egyptians, Mogrebins, and Caucasians, to the number of 20,000, came by way of the Suez canal; and there were 3,000 pilgrims from ports in the Persian gulf. JUECHAIN, Pierre Francois Andre, a French mathematician and astronomer, born in Laon, Aug. 16, 1744, died in Castellon, Spain, Sept. 20, 1805. After receiving a limited education, he became a mathematical tutor, devoting his leisure hours to the study of astronomy. Try- ing to sell his telescope in order to assist his father, he attracted the notice of the astrono- mer Lalande, who procured him a situation as hydrographer under the government. In this capacity he assisted M. Bretonniere in sur- veying the French coast between Nieuport and St. Malo ; but his attention was chiefly di- rected to the theory of eclipses and comets, 11 of the latter having been discovered and the orbits of 24 computed by him. In 1782 the academy of sciences admitted him to mem- bership and awarded a prize to his "Memoir on Comets." Under the republic he was em- ployed, together with Delambre, to measure the arc of the meridian comprised between Dun- kirk and Barcelona. On returning to Paris, he refused to deliver his papers to the acad- emy, because he had detected a difference of 3" in his calculations respecting the latitude of Barcelona. After being appointed director of the observatory of Paris, he solicited the board of longitude to permit him to prolong the measurement of the arc from Barcelona to the Balearic islands, that he might have an op- portunity of correcting his error. The board consented, and Mechain set out for Spain to conduct the operation, but fell a victim to an epidemic disorder on the way. The most im- portant of his scientific papers are to be found in the Memoires des savants etrangers, in the Transactions of the French academy, and in the Connaissance des Temps from 1786 to 1794, of which he was for some time editor. MECHANICS, that branch of natural philoso- phy which treats of the action of forces on bodies. It is divided into statics, which treats of the action of forces in equilibrium, and dy- namics, which treats of the action of forces on bodies in motion. Newton divided it into practical and rational mechanics, the former re- lating to the mechanical powers, and the latter to the theory of motion. In a restricted sense