nine in number, he took with him, having them comfortably seated in litters, on the backs of camels. Starting from Medina five days before the beginning of the month of pilgrimage, the caravan reached the Sacred territory in very good time; and Mohammed made his entrance into Mecca from the same gate by which he had entered it, as its conqueror, little more than two years before.

During the following days he went through the accustomed ceremonies, as they had to be performed in the sundry traditional spots of the sacred locality, only making slight alterations here and there, and omitting throughout whatever had been a direct homage to idols. On the tenth day of the month, the high day and climax of the entire festival, the offering of animal sacrifices took place at Mina. Whoever had brought animals for that purpose, slew them, and divided amongst the people the flesh he did not require for his own use. So abundant was the flesh, that it could not be consumed at once, but had to be cut in slices and dried in the sun, for future use. Mohammed alone had brought with him 100 camels, intended for sacrifice. Of them he slaughtered 63 himself, by cutting their throat with his own hand. This number, as the historian observes, corresponded to that of the years of his age. The remaining 37 camels he assigned to the hand of his son-in-law, Ali, to be sacrificed by him. The three days spent at Mina, when the Sacrificing was over, were a time of feasting, merriment, and barter; and Mohammed is reported to have proceeded every evening to a certain spot in the valley, for the purpose of casting a number of little stones at the devil, in compliance with a superstitious custom of ancient date.

All the festival observances being finished, Mohammed and the rest of the pilgrims had their heads shaved; and it is mentioned that he distributed his hair amongst his friends for mementoes. His famous cavalry general, Khalid, received, at his special request, some hairs from his forehead, which he fixed to his skull-cap, as a talisman; and we are told that, in consequence, he was always victorious in his attacks on the enemy. After being shaved, Mohammed had himself anointed by his favourite wife, the youthful Aisha, with an ointment largely consisting of musk. The time for

observing the pilgrimage festival was now changed, and fixed, for the future, to be always the last month of the lunar year. Thus it happened ever since that, in the course of thirty-three years, it makes a complete circle through all the solar months. Ibn Ishak concludes his account of this celebrated festival in the following words, 'By thus performing the pilgrimage, Mohammed showed its usages to the people and instructed them in the Divine precepts respecting it, as also concerning the halting-places, the stone-casting, the circumambulation of the temple, and the things allowed and forbidden during the pilgrimage. Hence this is called the "Pilgrimage of Instruction," and also, on account of its being the last performed by Mohammed, the "Farewell Pilgrimage."'

This ostentatious visit to the sanctuary of his native city, which was now entirely under his control, and from which every one who rejected his pretensions to sovereign authority in civil and religious matters, was rigidly excluded, shows Mohammed at the height of his success and in the plenitude of his power. Surrounded by a vast army of followers, from all parts of Arabia, he reformed the national sanctuary at his will, and reconstituted it as the local centre of his new religion and the annual rendezvous of its votaries. This reformed, that is, purely Mussulman, pilgrimage, whose first celebration by its author proved also his last and his final farewell, was in fact the initiation of a lasting institution of welcome to all future Moslem generations, from every quarter of the globe. Hither they were to direct their steps, once a year, as obedient, humble pilgrims, and hence they were to carry back to their homes a deeper sense of mutual brotherhood, a livelier appreciation of the common faith and the common interests, and a more fanatical zeal to make their cause triumphant throughout the world, by every means in their power. Mohammed's farewell pilgrimage was the crowning of his successes, the zenith of his power. He had triumphed over every obstacle and rendered his cause undeniably victorious. But he had achieved his triumph by force, by fear, and by fraud. Therefore the proud edifice he left behind him to the world, was lacking in solidity, and contained within itself the germs of inevitable decay. These, however, could not fully develop till after his death.