irst, others of fatigue and sickness, others at the hand of
robbers on the way. In fact the principal routes are in many places
lined for miles together with the bones of camels and men.

The numbers which compose these pilgrim caravans are much exaggerated by
popular rumour; yet it is certain that the Syrian and Egyptian sometimes
amount to 5000 each, with 25,000 or 30,000 camels in train. Large
supplies of food and water have to be carried, the more so at times that
the pilgrim season, following as it does the Mahommedan calendar, which
is lunar, falls for years together in the very hottest season. Hence,
too, the journey is usually accomplished by night marches, the hours
being from 3 to 4 P.M. to 6 or 7 A.M. of the following day. Torches are
lighted on the road, the pace is slower than that of an ordinary
caravan, and does not exceed 2 m. an hour.

See MECCA and MAHOMMEDAN RELIGION.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] In Arabia proper it is rarely employed in speech and never in
writing, strictly Arabic words such as _Rikb_ ("assembled riders") or
_Qafila_ ("wayfaring band") being in ordinary use.

[2] The Syrian and Egyptian haj; have been able, since 1908, to
travel by the railway from Damascus to the Hejaz.

CARAVANSERAI, a public building, for the shelter of a caravan (q.v.) and
of wayfarers generally in Asiatic Turkey. It is commonly constructed in
the neighbourhood, but not within the walls, of a town or village. It is
quadrangular in form, with a dead wall outside; this wall has small
windows high up, but in the lower parts merely a few narrow air-holes.
Inside a cloister-like arcade, surrounded by cellular store-rooms, forms
the ground floor, and a somewhat lighter arcade, giving access to little
dwelling-rooms, runs round it above. Broad open flights of stone steps
connect the storeys. The central court is open to the sky, and generally
has in its centre a well with a fountain-basin beside it. A spacious
gateway, high and wide enough to admit the passage of a loaded camel,
forms the sole entrance, which is furnished with heavy doors, and is
further guarded within by massive iron chains, drawn across at night.
The entry is paved with flagstones, and there are stone seats on each
side. The court itself is generally paved, and large enough to admit of
three or four hundred crouching camels or tethered mules; the bales of
merchandise are piled away under the lower arcade, or stored up in the
cellar