When I at last reached the Hill of Arafat, it was to find that the Bedouins and the Sheykhs of the tribe of Kuraish had already taken possession of the best places around the enclosure whence the sermon would be preached on the following afternoon; for it was there, about half-way up the Hill, that Muhammud was wont to address his followers, sitting on a dromedary. This place, as well as the summit beyond, is reached by means of a broad flight of steps, which, winding up the southern slope of the Mount, gets gradually more precipitate and narrow. No attempt to keep order was made by anybody in authority, with the result that the pilgrims going up would meet the pilgrims coming down, and be locked tight in one another’s arms, each party fighting its hardest to force a passage through. On the crest the pressure of the crowd was even greater: I mean more especially in the neighbourhood of the Makam, or prayer-niche of Adam, with its white-washed platform and central obelisk, where pious wayfarers from every quarter of Islam were pouring out their thanks to God from the innermost tabernacle of the heart. Having said a two-prostration prayer--a duty that I had not neglected on passing the sermon enclosure below--I turned to the north where, in the valley separating the Hill from the surrounding mountains, a band of Bedouin shepherds had lighted huge roaring bonfires, by the light of which I could see their flocks (so soon to be slaughtered as a sacrifice to the Omnipotent) peacefully nibbling the sparse green herbage of the lowlands. From the north I went to the south, and gazed down on the plain below, to where, under the ruddy glare of the torches and the yellow light of the lanterns, the tents of the faithful stood out against the darkness beyond. The only regularly pitched camps were those of the soldiery, the Sheríf, and the other dignitaries of the Hájj; all of these occupied the space on the left-hand side of the observer; while in the fore-ground, to the right, as well as to the left, the tents of the Syrian and the Egyptian caravans were conspicuous: and most of these were either circular or elliptical in shape and of considerable size, sometimes as many as twenty pilgrims, and never less than ten, sleeping in a single tent. For the arrangement between a Syrian pilgrim and his _moghavem_ is this: The pilgrim pays the _moghavem_ a certain sum of money in return for which the latter guarantees (1) to find him a seat in a _kejaveh_ when the caravan is on the move, (2) to give him the use of a camel on which to set his provisions and belongings, and (3) to reserve for him a sleeping-compartment within one of the tents that are thus turned into portable caravanserais.