"كُتيّب الحجاز" [ظ‎‎٥‎٣] (٢٠٤/١١٥)

The Hajj must be performed in the first ten days of the
last month (Dhiil Hijja) of the Moslem lunar year. Like
all other Moslem months, this moves round the solar year,
and in 1915 coincided very nearly with our November. The
pilgrim, who before entering the haram (sacred vicinity of
Mecca) must have discarded the razor and his head and foot
gear and assumed the ihrdm (a primitive dress consisting of
two towel-like cotton cloths fastened round the body without
the aid of knots or pins), spends the first seven days in
circumambulating the Kabah seven times (tawdf), walking
and running seven times between two hills, Safah and
Merwah, each side of Mecca (sai), praying, attending sermons,
visiting various traditional and holy sites near the city, etc.
On the eighth, clad again in the ihrdm, he begins the most
obligatory of all the ceremonies, the true " Pilgrimage."
It consists in the visit to 'Arafat, a hillock in a plain, on
the Ta/if road, under Jebel Qura. This trip, which used to
be by no means without danger both on the road and in
camp, despite the strong escorts provided, is obligatory not
only on all visitors, but also, year by year, on all able-bodied
citizens of Mecca, from the King downwards ; and in the
opinion of most authorities it is the duty which, rather than
any performed in Mecca itself, confers the coveted title of
hdjji. The total number of those who march to 5 Arafat and
back amounts normally to little under half a million. The
enormous crowd bivouacs in and around the village of
Munah the first night, and with daybreak on the ninth
day proceeds other nine miles to Arafat to perform the
" Stand" on the hill, praying, ejaculating labbeika, and
hearing addresses until sundown. Returning to Munah
for the night, the pilgrim performs there another Stand
on the morning of the tenth day, throws a fixed number of
selected stones at certain devil-pillars, and offers a blood-
sacrifice, usually a sheep or a goat, which he is at liberty to
eat or give away. Then he must make post-haste for Mecca
in the midst of indescribable confusion. In the city on that
afternoon he should perform tawdj and sai, and kiss again