Burckhardt reached the camp about three hours after sunset. The pilgrims were still wandering about the plain, and among the tents, in search of their companions, or of their resting-place, and many did not arrive until midnight. Numberless fires glimmered upon the dark plain to the extent of several miles; and high and brilliant clusters of lamps marked the different places of encampment of Mohammed Aly, Soleyman Pasha, and the Emir el Hadj of the Egyptian caravan. Few slept: “the devotees set up praying, and their loud chants were particularly distinguished on the side of the Syrian encampment. The merry Meccawys formed themselves into parties, singing jovial songs, accompanied by clapping of hands; and the coffee-houses scattered over the plain were crowded all night with customers. The night was dark and cold. I had formed a resting-place for myself by means of a large carpet tied to the back of a Meccawy’s tent; and having walked about for the greater part of the night, I had just disposed myself to sleep, when two guns, fired by the Syrian and Egyptian Hadj, announced the approaching dawn of the day of pilgrimage, and summoned the faithful to prepare for their morning prayers.” The scene which, on the unfolding of the dawn, presented itself to the eye of the traveller, was one of the most extraordinary upon earth. “Every pilgrim issued from his tent to walk over the plains, and take a view of the busy crowds assembled there. Long streets of tents, fitted up as bazaars, furnished all kinds of provisions. The Syrian and Egyptian cavalry were exercised by their chiefs early in the morning, while thousands of camels were seen feeding upon the dry shrubs of the plain all round the camp.” Burckhardt now ascended the summit of Arafat, whence he could enjoy a distant view of the whole, the mountain being an isolated mass of granite, and reaching the height of two hundred feet above the level of the plain. From this point he counted about three thousand tents, but the far greater number were, like himself, without tents. Twenty or twenty-five thousand camels were dispersed, in separate groups, over the plain; and the number of pilgrims of both sexes, and of all classes, could not amount to less than seventy thousand. “The Syrian Hadj was encamped on the south and south-west side of the mountain; the Egyptian on the south-east. Around the house of the Sherif, Yahya himself was encamped with his Bedouin troops, and in its neighbourhood were all the Hejaz people. Mohammed Aly, and Soleyman, Pasha of Damascus, as well as several of their officers, had very handsome tents; but the most magnificent of all was that of the wife of Mohammed Aly, the mother of Tousoun Pasha and Ibrahim Pasha, who had lately arrived at Cairo for the Hadj, with a truly royal equipage, five hundred camels being necessary to transport her baggage from Jidda to Mecca. Her tent was in fact an encampment, consisting of a dozen tents of different sizes, inhabited by her