On the Great Festival, after the prayers of the congregation, every one who can afford it performs, with his own hand or by that of a deputy, a sacrifice of a ram, he-goat, cow or buffalo, or she-camel; part of the meat of which he eats, and part he gives to the poor, or to his friends or dependants. The ram or goat should be at least one year old; the cow or buffalo, two years; and the camel, five years; and none should have any considerable mutilation or infirmity. A cow or buffalo, or a camel, is a sufficient sacrifice for seven persons. The clothes which were put on new at the former festival are generally worn on this occasion; and the presents which are given to servants and others are usually somewhat less. On each of the two festivals it is also customary, especially with the women, to visit the tombs of relations. The party generally take with them a palm-branch, and place it, broken in several pieces, or merely its leaves, upon the tomb or monument; or some, instead of this, place sweet basil or other flowers. They also usually provide themselves with sweet cakes, bread, dates, or some other kind of food, to distribute to the poor. But their first duty on arriving at the tomb is to recite the Fátiḥah (the opening chapter of the Ḳur-án), or to employ a person to recite previously a longer chapter, generally the thirty-sixth (Soorat Yá-Seen), or even the whole of the book: sometimes the visitors recite the Fátiḥah, and, after having hired a person to perform a longer recitation, go away before he commences. The women often stay all the days of the festivals in the cemeteries, either in tents or in houses of their own erected there for their reception on these and other occasions. The tent of each party surrounds the tomb which is the object of their visit. In the outskirts of the cemeteries, swings and whirligigs are set up, and story-tellers, jugglers, and dancers amuse the populace. FOOTNOTES: [1] See below, 25 ff. [2] An Apostle is distinguished from a mere Prophet by his having a _book_ revealed to him. [3] I use two words (perhaps the best that our language affords) to express corresponding Arabic terms, which some persons regard as synonymous, but others distinguish by different shades of meaning. On what I consider the best authority, the word which I render "fate" respects the decrees of God in a general sense; while that which I translate "destiny" relates to the particular applications of those decrees. In such senses these terms are here to be understood when separately employed. [4] Ḳur-án, xiii. 39. [5] El-Insán el-Kámil, by ´Abd-El-Kereem El-Jeelee, quoted by El-Isḥáḳee in his account of Ibráheem Pásha el-Maḳtool. [6] Mishkát el-Maṣábeeḥ, i. 26-34, 373. [Cp. S. Lane-Poole, "The Speeches and Tabletalk of the Prophet Moḥammad" (1882), 180-182.] [7] Nuzhet el-Mutaämmil wa-Murshid el-Mutaähhil, section 7. [8] Mishkát el-Maṣábeeḥ, ii. 381.