Having eaten a good meal, we traversed the valley in the direction of Mecca, in order to be rid, as soon as possible, of the tiresome duty of stoning the Great Devil. When we reached the entrance to the valley, it was to find our access to his Satanic Majesty blocked by a vast concourse of excited pilgrims. The road, about thirteen yards wide, was packed with horsemen, camel-riders, litters, pilgrims on foot, and women in _kejavehs_, all struggling and fighting to get within stone’s throw of the buttress which rests against a wall that is only a little higher than itself which is--say, three yards high by two yards broad. Of the Orthodox sects the Shafeis are the most privileged, for they are allowed to stand at a distance of five cubits from the Devil, whereas the Hanefis are supposed to make their attack the more formidable by fighting at close quarters--within arm’s reach of the Arch Foe. And all the while the great mountains frowned down upon us; very awe-inspiring I found them: the seven stones I had brought along with me fell at my feet only to be picked up by Seyyid ’Alí. “Come, yá-Moulai,” said he: “the devil is not so big after all. See, I will fling your stones as well as my own at little devils like myself.” After this “ceremony” was over, we returned to our camp where a barber was waiting “to bring me out of Ihrám.” When he had trimmed my hair, shaving it round the nape of the neck, and had cut my nails, I made to take off the pilgrim’s garb, saying--“In the name of God the Merciful and Compassionate, I intend to doff my Ihrám of pilgrimage, according to the usage of it by the Prophet, on whom be blessings and glory! O Allah, reward me to the number of the hairs of my head with Light, Purity, and Grace. In the name of God--God is great!” Upon this the barber helped me to undress and (after I had had a bath) to put on my gala attire which was Egyptian in make and in material. [Illustration: DISEMBARKING AT JIDDAH.] [Illustration: PILGRIMS AT JIDDAH.] By this time the servants had purchased the victims, and they now came to tell me that all preparations had been made for the sacrifice. I deputed Seyyid ’Alí to slay my harmless sheep, from a sudden invasion of squeamishness. And before the day was over the valley of Desire was turned into a reeking slaughter-house, and, it may be added, into a cemetery for the dead pilgrims. These also were victims--the victims of the misdirected religious zeal which had prompted a slaughter that served no other purpose than to spread the epidemic. The less said of it here the better. I have no wish to make the reader sick. It will be enough to add, to what has been said in a previous chapter, that the camels were sacrificed by none but grandees, who dispatched their victims with the words: “In the Name of God! God is great!” the same words being used by the other pilgrims in sacrificing the sheep!