After certain legal ablutions the pilgrim enters the Mosque by the Bab-el-salam and kisses the Black-Stone making the circuit, running, around the Kaaba seven times (In idolatrous days the Arabs did this in imitation of the motions of the planets; a remnant of their Sabean worship.) Another special prayer is said and then the pilgrim proceeds to Makam Ibrahim, where Abraham is said to have stood when he rebuilt the Kaaba. There the _hajee_ goes through the regular genuflections and prayers. He drinks next from the holy well and once more kisses the Black-Stone. Then follows the running between Mounts Safa and Merwa. Proceeding outward from the Mosque by the gate of Safa he ascends the hill reciting the 153d verse of the Surah of the Cow. “Verily Safa and Merwa are the signs of God.” Having arrived at the summit of the mount he turns to the Kaaba and three times recites the words: “There is no god but God! God is great! There is no god save God alone! He hath performed His promise and hath aided His servant and put to flight the hosts of infidels by Himself alone!” He then runs from the top of Safa through the valley to the summit of Merwa seven times repeating the aforesaid prayers each time on both hills. This is the sixth day, on the evening of which the pilgrim again encompasses the Kaaba. On the next day there is a sermon from the grand pulpit. On the eighth day the pilgrim goes three miles distant to Mina, where Adam longed for his lost paradise (!) and there spends the night. The next morning he leaves for Arafat, another hill about eleven miles from Mecca, hears a second sermon, returning before nightfall to Muzdalifa, a place halfway between Mina and Arafat. The following day is the great day of the pilgrimage. It is called the day of Sacrifice and is simultaneously celebrated all over the Moslem world.[11] Early in the morning the pilgrim proceeds to Mina where there are three pillars called, the “Great Devil,” the “Middle Pillar” and the “First One.” At these dumb idols the “monotheist” flings seven pebbles and as he throws them says: “In the name of Allah and Allah is mighty, in hatred of the devil and his shame, I do this.” He then performs the sacrifice, a sheep, goat, cow or camel according to the means of the pilgrim. The victim is placed facing the Kaaba and a knife plunged into the animal’s throat with the cry, _Allahu Akbar_. This ceremony concludes the pilgrimage proper; the hair and nails are then cut and the _ihram_ or pilgrims’ garb is doffed for ordinary clothing. Three days more are sometimes counted as belonging to the pilgrimage, the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth days, called _Eyyam-u-tashrik_, or days of drying flesh, because during them the flesh of the sacrifices is cut into slices and dried in the sun to be eaten on the return journey.