efore it. The stone was surrounded by a crowd of pilgrims,
kissing it and pressing their hearts against it. Then followed the
ceremony of circumambulation. Seven times we passed round the Kaabah,
which was draped in a huge dark curtain, to which pilgrims clung
weeping. The boy Mohammed, by physical violence, made a way to the Black
Stone. While kissing it, I narrowly observed it, and came away persuaded
that it is a big aerolite. After several other ceremonies, I left the
holy place thoroughly exhausted.

I did not enter the interior of the Kaabah until later. Nothing could be
more simple; a marble floor, red damask hangings, three columns
supporting the cross-beams of the ceiling, many lamps said to be of
gold, and a safe of aloe-wood, sometimes containing the key of the
building, were all that was to be seen. Many pilgrims refuse to enter
the Kaabah for religious reasons. Those who tread the hallowed floor are
bound, among many other things, never again to walk barefooted, to take
up fire with the fingers, or to tell lies. These stipulations,
especially the last-named, are too exacting for Orientals.

Meccah is an expensive place during the pilgrimage. The fees levied by
the guardians of the Kaabah are numerous and heavy. The citizens make
large sums out of the entertainment of pilgrims; they are, for the most
part, covetous spendthrifts, who anticipate the pilgrimage by falling
into the hands of the usurer, and then endeavour to "skin" the richer
Hajis.

On September 12 we set forth for the ceremonies at Mount Arafat, where
Adam rejoined Eve after the Fall, and where he was instructed by the
archangel Gabriel to erect a house of prayer. At least 50,000 pilgrims
were encamped at the foot of the holy mountain. On the day after our
arrival we climbed to the sacred spots, and in the afternoon a sermon
was preached on the mountain, which I did not hear--being engaged, let
me confess, in a flirtation with a fair Meccan. At length the preacher
gave the signal to depart, and everyone hurried away with might and
main. The plain bristled with tent-pegs, litters were crushed,
pedestrians trampled and camels overthrown; single combats with sticks
and other weapons took place; briefly, it was a state of chaotic
confusion.

Next day was performed, at Muna, on the way back to Meccah, the ceremony
of stoning the Shaytan el Kabir, or Great Devil, who is represented by a
dwarf buttress placed against a rough wall of stones. The bu