Some of Keane's experiences in Mecca were quite extraordinary. He witnessed a great flood and the strange sight of pilgrims swimming around the Kabba. He was denounced as a suspected Christian by schoolchildren (he was actually a Muslim convert) and was stabbed during his pilgrimage to Medina. Most surprisingly of all, he discovered a supposedly British lady living alone in the middle of Mecca (in 1877!). Exactly who she was and how she got there is not entirely certain to this day.