THE MOHAMMEDAN PILGRIMAGE. 251 



stone pillars. The first duty of the pilgrim is to pro- 

 vide himself with twenty-one small pebbles of the 

 size of a horse-bean : these he must throw at the pro- 

 per times and places, seven at each pillar, exclaiming, 

 " Bismillah ! God is great ! this we do to secure our- 

 selves from the devil and his troops !" This ceremony, 

 as may easily be imagined, is attended occasionally 

 by accidents. Ali Bey tells us, he came off with two 

 wounds in his left leg. It appears also to be the sub- 

 ject of jocularity ; for a facetious haj ji observed to 

 Pitts, " You may save your labour at present if you 

 please, for I have hit out the devil's eyes already." 



After the ' ' stoning," which is repeated three days, 

 and without which the pilgrimage is imperfect, 

 comes the grand sacrifice of animals, a rite that 

 all Mussulmans are bound at this time (the 10th day 

 of the month) to perform. In the space of a quarter 

 of an hour thousands of sheep and goats are slaugh- 

 tered in the valley ; some of which are brought by 

 the hajjis, others purchased from the Bedouins, who 

 demand high prices for them. The law requires 

 that the throats of the animals be cut in the name 

 of the most merciful God, with their faces towards 

 the Kaaba. The number of victims has sometimes 

 been very great. The Caliph Moktader sacrificed 

 50,000 sheep, besides 40,000 camels and cows. Bar- 

 thema 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." We are apt to wonder how so many 

 myriads of animals can subsist in so desolate a re- 

 gion, or how they can be contained in so contracted 

 a space as Wady Muna ; but the Moslems explain 

 it, by pretending that the valley can expand its di- 



