You must not think that the pilgrims were idle all this while--not even Seyyid ’Alí and myself. A party of us met about nine o’clock to visit the holy places on the plain, Seyyid ’Alí acting as guide. My companions were Sheykh Eissa, Mullá Ahmad, Mirza Yusúf, and Seyyid Muhsin. The demeanour of these men is worth describing as a touch of character. The tour being a religious duty, their mien was designed to give expression to the earnestness of their devotion. The talkative charm-monger, Sheykh Eissa, strode forward as in a trance; though he rarely said a word, his lips moved constantly, as if he were whispering in the ear of a jinn: he was spellbound. His companion, Mullá Ahmad, looking neither to the right nor the left, tripped along with mincing steps, reciting prayer after prayer in Arabic (classical style). The man who walked at my side was Mirza Yusúf, than whom a deaf-mute of ordinary intelligence had made himself better understood; for the Mirza, having taken a vow to remain silent till he had repeated the Verse of the Throne seven thousand times, replied to all my questions by signs and nods and awkward contortions of the body. As for the two Seyyids--Muhsin, a friend of mine from Central Persia, and ’Alí, a man you already know--even they, though drawn together by the law of affinity, yet felt constrained to conceal their innate lightheartedness from each other, wearing in its place an expression of sanctimoniousness more comical than insincere. Well, the usual course is to proceed at once to a place called Jammé-Sakhra, where the Prophet used to stand and say his Talbiyah; but my friends, allowing themselves to be persuaded by me, had set out instead in the direction of the Mountain of Mercy. There, with even greater difficulty than on the previous night, I shoved my way up the first flight of steps, using Seyyid ’Alí sometimes as a buffer and sometimes as a wedge. The others had remained below, being afraid to risk the dangers of the ascent; for even on the lowest skirts of the Mountain the swarms of pilgrims were subjected to pretty rough handling; while on a somewhat higher ridge the Wahhabis of Nijd were quarrelling with the Bedouins of Al-Hejaz as to who should have the best places for listening to the Kazi’s eloquence in the afternoon. We had skirted the angry disputants and reached the steps not much the worse for wear; but despite all our efforts we found it quite impossible to mount higher than the first enclosure whence the sermon is preached. There we might have stayed till sunset, a prey to the rapacity of paupers, had not the pilgrims on the plain learned wisdom from our plight, and stayed where they were. This lessened the pressure round the platform: and the number of pilgrims coming up being now less than the number going down, we took advantage of this opportunity without a moment’s hesitation, and allowed ourselves to be carried away by the downgoing stream to the foot of the Hill.