The omra begins at some point outside the Haram (or holy territory), generally at Tanim, both for convenience sake and because Ayesha began the omra there in the year 10 of the Hegira. The pilgrim enters the Haram in the antique and scanty pilgrimage dress (ihram), consisting of two cloths wound round his person in a way prescribed by ritual. His devotion is expressed in shouts of "Labbeyka" (a word of obscure origin and meaning); he enters the great mosque, performs the tawaf and the sa'y[22] and then has his head shaved and resumes his common dress. This ceremony is now generally combined with the hajj, or is performed by every stranger or traveller when he enters Mecca, and the ihram (which involves the acts of abstinence already referred to) is assumed at a considerable distance from the city. But it is also proper during one's residence in the holy city to perform at least one omra from Tanim in connexion with a visit to the mosque of Ayesha there. The triviality of these rites is ill concealed by the legends of the sa'y of Hagar and of the tawaf being first performed by Adam in imitation of the circuit of the angels about the throne of God; the meaning of their ceremonies seems to have been almost a blank to the Arabs before Islam, whose religion had become a mere formal tradition. We do not even know to what deity the worship expressed in the tawaf was properly addressed. There is a tradition that the Ka'ba was a temple of Saturn (Shahrastani, p. 431); perhaps the most distinctive feature of the shrine may be sought in the sacred doves which still enjoy the protection of the sanctuary. These recall the sacred doves of Ascalon (Philo vi. 200 of Richter's ed.), and suggests Venus-worship as at least one element (cf. Herod i. 131, iii. 8; Ephr. Syr., _Op. Syr._ ii. 457).