e caravan varies from forty or
so up to six hundred and more; sometimes, as on the reopening of a
long-closed route, it reaches a thousand. The ordinary caravan seasons
are the months of spring, early summer and later autumn. Friday, in
accordance with a recommendation made in the Koran itself, is the
favourite day for setting out, the most auspicious hour being that
immediately following noonday prayer. The first day's march never does
more than just clear the starting-point. Subsequently each day's route
is divided into two stages,--from 3 or 4 A.M. to about 10 in the
forenoon, and from between 2 and 3 P.M. till 6 or even 8 in the evening.
Thus the time passed daily on the road averages from ten to twelve
hours, and, as the ordinary pace of a laden camel does not exceed 2 m.
an hour, that of a mule being 2-3/4, a distance varying from 23 to 28 m.
is gone over every marching day. But prolonged halts of two, three, four
and even more days often occur. The hours of halt, start and movement,
the precise lines of route, and the selection or avoidance of particular
localities are determined by common consent. But if, as sometimes
happens, the services of a professional guide, or those of a military
officer have been engaged, his decisions are final. While the caravan is
on its way, the five stated daily prayers are, within certain limits,
anticipated, deferred or curtailed, so as the better to coincide with
the regular and necessary halts,--a practice authorized by orthodox
Mahommedan custom and tradition.

Two caravans are mentioned in Genesis xxxvii.; the route on which they
were passing seems to have coincided with that nowadays travelled by
Syrian caravans on their way to Egypt. Other allusions to caravans may
be found in Job, in Isaiah and in the Psalms. Eastern literature is full
of such references.

The yearly pilgrim-bands, bound from various quarters of the Mahommedan
world to their common destination, Mecca, are sometimes, but
inaccurately, styled by European writers caravans; their proper
designation is _Hajj_, a collective word for pilgrimages and pilgrims.
The two principal pilgrim-caravans start yearly, the one from Damascus,
or, to speak more exactly, from Mozarib, a village station three days'
journey to the south of the Syrian capital, the other from Cairo in
Egypt.[2] This latter was formerly joined on its route, near Akaba of
the Red Sea, by the North African Hajj, which, however, now goes from
Egypt by