It Is
Considered A Meritorious Act To Give Away The Victim Without Eating Any
Portion Of Its Flesh.
Parties of Takruri might be seen sitting
vulture-like, contemplating the sheep and goats; and no sooner was the
signal given, than they fell upon the bodies, and cut them up without
removing them.
The surface of the valley soon came to resemble the
dirtiest slaughter-house, and my prescient soul drew bad auguries for
the future.
We had spent a sultry afternoon in the basin of Muna, which is not
unlike a volcanic crater, an Aden closed up at the seaside. Towards
night the occasional puffs of Samum ceased, and through the air of
deadly stillness a mass of purple nimbus, bisected by a thin grey line
of mist-cloud, rolled down upon us from the Taif hills. When darkness
gave the signal, most of the pilgrims pressed towards the square in
front of the Muna Mosque, to enjoy the pyrotechnics and the discharge
of cannon. But during the spectacle came on a windy storm, whose
lightnings, flashing their fire from pole to pole paled the rockets;
and whose thunderings, re-echoed by the rocky hills, dumbed the puny
artillery of man. We were disappointed in our hopes of rain. A few huge
drops pattered upon the plain and sank into its thirsty entrails; all
the rest was thunder and lightning, dust-clouds and whirlwind.
[FN#1] Even pitching ground here is charged to pilgrims.
[FN#2] Some authorities advise that this rite of “Ramy” be performed on
foot.
[FN#3] The word “Jamrah” is applied to the place of stoning, as well as to
the stones.
[FN#4] These numbers mark the successive spots where the Devil, in the
shape of an old Shaykh, appeared to Adam, Abraham, and Ishmael, and was
driven back by the simple process taught by Gabriel, of throwing stones
about the size of a bean.
[FN#5] I borrow this phrase from Ali Bey, who, however, speaks more
like an ignorant Catalonian than a learned Abbaside, when he calls the
pillar “La Maison du Diable,” and facetiously asserts that “le diable a eu la
malice de placer sa maison dans un lieu fort etroit qui n’a peut-etre pas
34 pieds de large.”
[FN#6] Some hold the pebble as a schoolboy does a marble, others
between the thumb and forefinger extended, others shoot them from the
thumb knuckle, and most men consult their own convenience.
[FN#7] The barber removed all my hair.
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