214 THE MOHAMMEDAN PILGRIMAGE. 



two rikats are pronounced opposite the black stone ; 

 at the conchision of which it is touched with the 

 right hand, or kissed, if the pressure of the crowd 

 will admit. The devotee then performs the towaf, 

 keeping the Kaaba on his left-hand ; this ceremony, 

 which was done by the Pagan Arabs in a state of 

 nudity, is repeated seven times, the three first in a 

 quick pace, in imitation of the Prophet ; each circuit 

 is accompanied with prescribed prayers and a salu- 

 tation of the black stone. This done, after a few 

 more rikats, he proceeds to the Zemzen Well, in 

 honour of which he addresses some pious ejacula- 

 tions, and then drinks as much water as he wishes 

 or can get. Some have it poured over them in 

 bucketfuls, " and then," says Barthema, "the fools 

 tliink their sins are washed into the well." Others 

 swallow it so unreasonably, that they lie for hours 

 extended on the pavement, while their flesh breaks 

 out into pimples : and this, as Pitts wittily re- 

 marks, they call " the purging of their spiritual cor- 

 ruptions." These are the different ceremonies ob- 

 served wuthin the Temple, which the pilgrims repeat 

 after their guides. 



The next ceremony that the hajji has to perform 

 is the sai, or holy walk between Safa and Meroua ; 

 which is done along a level street about six hundred 

 paces in length, and terminated at each end by a stone 

 platform covered with open arches, and ascended by 

 a flight of steps. This perambulation, which for a 

 short space must be run, is to be repeated seven 

 times ; prayers are incessantly recited in a loud 

 voice ; and on the tw^o platforms the face must be 

 turned to the mosque. A third ceremony is that of 

 shaving the head ; and the barbers, whose shops 

 abound in the vicinity of Meroua, during the opera- 

 tion utter a particular prayer, which the hajjis repeat 

 after them. This religious tonsure is followed by 

 the walk to Omra, a place about an hour and a half 's 

 distance from Mecca, where the pilgrim prays two 



