Imitating
Mohammed, He Spends The First Night Of Pilgrimage At Muna, Stands Upon
The Hill Arafat, And, Returning To Muna,
Passes three whole days there.
He derides other Moslems, abridges and simplifies the Ka’abah ceremonies,
and, if possible, is
Guided in his devotions by one of his own sect.
[FN#6] This cry is repeated till the pilgrim reaches Muna; not
afterwards.
[FN#7] Another phrase is “Antum min al-aidin”—“May you be of the keepers of
festival!”
[FN#8] Hanafis usually follow the Prophet’s example in nighting at
Muzdalifah; in the evening after prayers they attend at the Mosque,
listen to the discourse, and shed plentiful tears. Most Shafe’is spend
only a few hours at Muzdalifah.
[FN#9] We failed to buy meat at Arafat, after noon, although the bazar
was large and well stocked; it is usual to eat flesh there,
consequently it is greedily bought up at an exorbitant price.
[FN#10] Some sects consider the prayer at Muzdalifah a matter of vital
importance.
[FN#11] Jamrah is a “small pebble;” it is also called “Hasa,” in the plural,
“Hasayat.”
[p.202] CHAPTER XXX.
THE CEREMONIES OF THE YAUM NAHR,
OR THE THIRD DAY.
AT dawn on the id al-Kurban (10th Zu’l Hijjah, Wednesday, 14th September)
a gun warned us to lose no time; we arose hurriedly, and started up the
Batn Muhassir to Muna. By this means we lost at Muzdalifah the “Salat
al-id,” or “Festival Prayers,” the great solemnity of the Moslem year,
performed by all the community at daybreak. My companion was so anxious
to reach Meccah, that he would not hear of devotions. About eight A.M.
we entered the village, and looked for the boy Mohammed in vain. Old
Ali was dreadfully perplexed; a host of high-born Turkish pilgrims
were, he said, expecting him; his mule was missing—could never appear—he
must be late—should probably never reach Meccah—what would become of him? I
began by administering admonition to the mind diseased; but signally
failing in a cure, I amused myself with contemplating the world from my
Shugduf, leaving the office of directing it to the old Zemzemi. Now he
stopped, then he pressed forward; here he thought he saw Mohammed,
there he discovered our tent; at one time he would “nakh” the camel to
await, in patience, his supreme hour; at another, half mad with
nervousness, he would urge the excellent Mas’ud to hopeless inquiries.
Finally, by good fortune, we found one of the boy Mohammed’s cousins, who
led us to an enclosure
[p.203] called Hosh al-Uzam, in the Southern portion of the Muna Basin,
at the base of Mount Sabir.[FN#1] There we pitched the tent, refreshed
ourselves, and awaited the truant’s return. Old Ali, failing to disturb
my equanimity, attempted, as those who consort with philosophers often
will do, to quarrel with me. But, finding no material wherewith to
build a dispute in such fragments as “Ah!”—“Hem!”—“Wallah!” he hinted desperate
intentions against the boy Mohammed. When, however, the youth appeared,
with even more jauntiness of mien than usual, Ali bin Ya Sin lost
heart, brushed by him, mounted his mule, and, doubtless cursing us “under
the tongue,” rode away, frowning viciously, with his heels playing upon
the beast’s ribs.
Mohammed had been delayed, he said, by the difficulty of finding asses.
We were now to mount for “the Throwing,[FN#2]” as a preliminary to which we
washed “with seven waters” the seven pebbles brought from Muzdalifah, and
bound them in our Ihrams. Our first destination was the entrance to the
western end of the long line which composes the Muna village. We found
a swarming crowd in the narrow road opposite the “Jamrat al-Akabah,[FN#3]”
or, as it is vulgarly called, the Shaytan al-Kabir—the “Great Devil.” These
names distinguish it from another pillar, the “Wusta,” or “Central Place,” (of
stoning,) built in the middle of Muna, and a third at the eastern end,
“Al-Aula,” or the “First Place.[FN#4]” The “Shaytan al-Kabir” is a dwarf buttress
of rude
[p.204] masonry, about eight feet high by two and a half broad, placed
against a rough wall of stones at the Meccan entrance to Muna. As the
ceremony of “Ramy,” or Lapidation, must be performed on the first day by
all pilgrims between sunrise and sunset, and as the fiend was malicious
enough to appear in a rugged Pass,[FN#5] the crowd makes the place
dangerous. On one side of the road, which is not forty feet broad,
stood a row of shops belonging principally to barbers. On the other
side is the rugged wall against which the pillar stands, with a chevaux
de frise of Badawin and naked boys. The narrow space was crowded with
pilgrims, all struggling like drowning men to approach as near as
possible to the Devil; it would have been easy to run over the heads of
the mass. Amongst them were horsemen with rearing chargers. Badawin on
wild camels, and grandees on mules and asses, with outrunners, were
breaking a way by assault and battery. I had read Ali Bey’s
self-felicitations upon escaping this place with “only two wounds in the
left leg,” and I had duly provided myself with a hidden dagger. The
precaution was not useless. Scarcely had my donkey entered the crowd
than he was overthrown by a dromedary, and I found myself under the
stamping and roaring beast’s stomach. Avoiding being trampled upon by a
judicious use of the knife, I lost no time in escaping from a place so
ignobly dangerous. Some Moslem travellers assert, in proof of the
sanctity of the spot, that no Moslem is ever killed here: Meccans
assured me that accidents are by no means rare.
Presently the boy Mohammed fought his way out of the crowd with a
bleeding nose. We both sat down upon a bench before a barber’s booth,
and, schooled by adversity,
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