Note Page 221 — VATHEK: AN ARABIAN TALE BY WILLIAM BECKFORD (continued 2)
Reading edition
In the midst of these transactions, the embassy returned, which had been sent, in pious times, to Mecca. It consisted of the most reverend mullahs,* who had fulfilled their commission and brought back one of those precious besoms which are used to sweep the sacred Caaba;* a present truly worthy of the greatest potentate on earth!