MEMOIR OF BURCKHARDT. 101 



evidence of which a granite block is still shown, 

 cleft in twain by the stroke of his knife. 



After the " stoning," which is repeated three 

 days, comes the grand sacrifice of animals, and in 

 a quarter of an hour, thousands of sheep and goats 

 are slaughtered ; the law requiring that their throats 

 be cut in the name of the most merciful God, with 

 their faces towards the Kaaba. The number of 

 these victims is sometimes very great. One of the 

 caliphs is said to have offered 50,000 sheep, beside 

 40,000 camels and cows; and an old traveller 

 (Barthema) speaks of 30,000 oxen being slain and 

 their carcasses given to the poor, " who seemed 

 more anxious to have their bellies filled than their 

 sins remitted." On the completion of the sacrifice, 

 the pilgrims throw off the ihram, and generally put 

 on their best attire, to celebrate the beiram, or day 

 of the feast. 



The long valley of Mecca is then converted into 

 a fair ; sheds, booths, and tents being fitted up as 

 shops for provisions and merchandise of all kinds. 

 Men of every variety and colour, coming from the 

 extremities of the earth, mingle here in the inter- 

 course of business. The Moor and the Indian ex- 

 change commodities; the Syrian bargains for the 

 shawls of Cashmere and the silks of Persia; the 

 Anatolian gives his rich carpets for the red bonnets 

 or woollen cloaks of Barbary and Morocco; the 

 stranger from Borneo, or Timbuctoo, exhibits his 

 wares to the natives of Georgia and Samarcand ; 

 the Turk finds a purchaser for his trinkets in the 



