CURRENT LITERATURE.
Six Months in Mecca. By T. F. Keane. (Tinsley Brothers.)—Mr. Keane followed the example of Burckhardt and of Captain Burton, and, by professing Mahomraedanism, found his way into Mecca. He had got himself attached to the retinae of an Indian prince, and, though once in very great danger, he contrived to escape detection. The gathering at Mecca is, indeed, so cosmopolitan that the possi- bilities of disguise are very great. Pilgrims come together from the whole of the Mahomtnedan world, and exhibit differences as great, or greater, than those which separate the Norwegian from the Greek, or the Spaniard from the Russ. Whether the desire of knowledge, which Mr. Keane describes as his motive, is a sufficient reason for his conduct, we do not pretend to decide, though it may safely be said that no man with an earnest sense of religion would, for curiosity's sake, deny his faith. It is doubtful, again, whether the result attained at all compensated the efforts made to attain it. Life in Mecca, fur one thing, was pitiably dull. Mr. Keane felt it necessary to keep himself closely shut up for many weeks at a time. His only interesting experience, indeed, seems to have been his communication with an English woman whom he found in the laity. She had been carried off, according to her account, from Delhi at the time of the Mutiny. This is a very curious story, left pro- vokingly unfinished. For this, indeed, Mr. Keane is not to blame. The woman afterwards returned to India, and was seen there by an official of the Indian Government ; but she could not be got to give a consistent account of herself.
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