THE MOHAMMEDAN PILGRIMAGE. 253 



crowds, though it forms no part of the religious duty 

 of the hajjis. On opening the door, which takes 

 place an hour after sunrise, a rush is made up the 

 steps, and sometimes over the heads of the people, 

 in spite of the eunuchs, who endeavour to keep or- 

 der with their sticks, which fall particularly heavy 

 on such as omit to drop a fee into their hands ; 

 for all the officers, from the sheriff who holds the 

 silver key to be kissed at the entrance, to the lowest 

 menial, expect to be paid. The hall is immediately 

 filled, when every visiter must pray eight rikats, and 

 perform sixteen prostrations. Nothing but sighing 

 and moaning is heard, the effect of pressure, perhaps 

 of sincere repentance ; but it is easy to imagine how 

 these devotions are performed, for while one is bowing 

 down another walks over his back ; some are unmer- 

 cifully crushed, and many are carried out with dif- 

 ficulty quite senseless from heat and suffocation. 



On the first and second days the men and women 

 enter alternately; on the third, the sheriff, the 

 sheiks, and illustrious hajjis, perform the holy cere- 

 mony of sweeping and washing the floor. All the 

 water-carriers in Mecca advance with pitchers and 

 besoms, which are passed from hand to hand till 

 they reach the guards at the entrance. The negroes 

 then throw the water on the pavement, while the 

 devotees sweep and scrub with both hands, until the 

 floor appears polished like glass. The water flows 

 out by a hole under the door ; and foul as it is, it is 

 eagerly drunk by the Faithful ; while those who are 

 at a distance have quantities of it thrown over them 

 by the eunuchs. It must require no common pitch 

 of fanaticism to reconcile the stomach of the wor- 

 shipper to this practice ; but the Moslem excuse it 



VOL. II. Q 



