The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-12-15
MoHAmmEDAN PIloRlmAeEs.
The Devout Believer His Way to Ehe
holy Places of Arabia

Holy Places OF Arabia
1t is the highest religious duty and It
is the intention of every Moslem-in-
deed, il it enjoined as necessary TO his
salvation-once in his lifetime to make
the pilgrimage. either in person or by
proxy, to the holy places of Arabia. II
is not to the purpose TO visit Mecca and
Medina at any time of the year. Only
by making the pilgrimage in the right
month, and by taking part in the cere-
monies at each holy place on the days
set apart for them, is the worshiper en-
titled to the name of Hadji. Repeated
plgrimages are works of supereroga-
ton, but add to the honor and sanctity
of the pilgrim In the cities of Damas-
Gus and Cairo the traveller sees many
houses decorated on the exterior with
rude, fantastic and highly colored
pictures. These mural adornments are
the certain signal OF distinction, for
they are permitted to no one who has
not made the Hadi. The pilgrimage
usually occupies about ninety or one
hundred days These are the days fol-
lowing the great fast of Ramadan. As
the Moslems reckon by lunar months,
their seasons do not coincide with ours,
and 50 the pilgrimage makes gradually
the circuit of our year. and the high
festival days of Mecca may fall in TIE
heat of summer or in winter time A
great caravan sets out yearly from
Damascus and another from Cairo
The struggling band of worshipers
from the wide world either fall
in with these caravans en- route, or
make their way to Mecca as they
can, and await there the arrival of the
mass of pilgrims. That from Cairo sets
out on the 18th of the month Shovel,
following the fast of Ramadan. The
three days of high ceremony in and
about Mecca are the 10th, 18th and 18th
of Zul Hadj, and the caravan returns to
Cairo about the 25th of Safer.
Formerly the pilgrims assembled on
the edge of the desert outside of Cairo,
where the caravan was formed 1t took
up its line of march across the desert,
passing north of Suez, round the Gulf
of Aakaba, and turning south to Yembo-
el-Nakhel. Here it found itself near
the great Syrian caravan, which had
come from Damascus by way of Medina,
aud marched on a parallel line with
that to Mecca 1t travelled only by
night, and rested in the daytime. The
journey took thirty-one nights, and as
there was a halt of seven entire days on
the road, the distance from Cairo to
Mecca was reckoned at thirty-seven
days. These two caravans were the i'm
portant and official contributions to the
Mecca festival, but there was a smaller
Bagdad caravan, and great numbers,
singly and in groups, went by boat to
Jedda (Djedda), the port of the Red sea,
distant about forty-six miles from the
holy city; and immense crowds hocbed
in from all parts of Arabia, by which
the conventional number of 20, 900
was made up. 1t was said that if this
number were not present for the day at
Arafat. the angels would miraculously
increase it. There have been great ex-
aggerations in the estimates of the an
nual concourse at Mecca. Ludovico
Bartima. of Rome, estimated the Damas-
Gus caravan in 1908 at 40, 600 men and
35, 900 camels. Giovanni Finanti, rene
gade Italian conscript, in 1914 put the
Syrian and African caravans at 40, 600.
Ali Bey "a Spaniard), whose real name
was Domingo Badia Y Leblich, in 1907
computed so, 600 men, 1000 women and
1000 children assembled on the day of
Arafat; and Burckhardt asia estimated
the crowd at Arafat at 20, 900. Burton,
= Oh
1000 in the Damascus caravan, nor more
than $4,000 on Mount Arafat Both
Burckhardt and Burton thought the
number of annual pilgrims diminishing.
The official caravan from Damascus
carries the covering for the prophets
tomb at Medina, which is annually re-
newed. Cairo supplies, annually at the
expense of the goverslment,t the mahmel,
or canopy of dark cloth or velvet,
wrought with texts in dark thread,
which is the cover of the Kaaba, and the
kisweh, or lining for the interior Of the
Kaaba, which is OF rich silk, heavily
embroidered with Arabic sentences in
gold. The kisweh that was hung in
the temple year is brought back to
Cairo and divided in Bit and shreds
among the faithful. Formerly the
mahmel used to remain. and the Kaabs
was shrouded in layer above layer, until
the cloth decayed, but now the old can
opv is removed before the new is put on.
The conditions of pilgrimage have
greatly changed in the last few years.
The Syrian and African caravans con-
tinue, but they seem 10 be less in size.
The governments still pay tribute to
the desert sheixs for passage through
their territories, but the dangers which
required so many TO travel together
seem to have diminished Pilgrims
make their way from all parts of the
world by rail and by steamboat As
hosts undertake the pilgrimage who are
exceedingly poor, and many postpone it
till they are diseased and old, the NOR
tally must still be great, and large
numbers die on the way, or have the
felicity of passing to paradise from the
vicinity of the kaaba, their wasted,
fanatical bodies bathed for the last
time in the sacred waters Of the well
Zenzem. The annual pilgrimage from
Cairo goes by rail to Suez, and there
takes steamboats, TO Jedda In the sea-
son tramp steamers voyage about the
Mediterranean, picking mp pilgrims At
every Mohammedau port, and trans
porting them through the canal and
the Red sea To Jedda- These
steamers are usually o+ercrowded, and
the passengers suffer more. though for
a less time, than the old desert travel
ers. and from time 20 time we near that
one of these unseaworthy crafts IS con
sumed by IRE, or has gone down with
its load Of deyo.ees As Heaven is a.
near By water as by land. and the liz