Brewer's: Ceca to Mecca

(From). From one end of the world to the other; from pillar to post. It is a Spanish phrase meaning to roam about purposelessly. Ceca and Mecca are two places visited by Mohammedan pilgrims. (Compare: From Dan to Beersheba; and From Land's End to John o' Groat's.)

“ `Let us return home,' said Sancho, `no longer ramble about from Ceca to Mecca.' ” —Cervantes; Don Quixote, I. iii. 4.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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