ORIENTAL CARAVANS.

The hadj, or pilgrim-caravan, pursues its route principally by night,
and by torchlight. Moving about four o'clock in the afternoon, it
travels without stopping till an hour or two after the sun is above
the horizon. The extent and luxury of those pilgrimages, in ancient
times especially, almost exceed belief. Haroun, of _Arabian Nights'_
celebrity, performed the pilgrimage no less than nine times, and with
a grandeur becoming the commander of the faithful. The caravan of the
mother of the last of the Abassides numbered one hundred and twenty
thousand camels. Nine hundred camels were employed merely in bearing
the wardrobe of one of the caliphs, and others carried snow with them
to cool their sherbet. Nor was Bagdad alone celebrated for such pomp
and luxury in fulfilling the directions of the Koran. The Sultan of
Egypt, on one occasion, was accompanied by five hundred camels, whose
luscious burdens consisted of sweetmeats and confectionery only; while
two hundred and eighty were entirely laden with pomegranates and other
fruits. The itinerant larder of this potentate contained one thousand
geese and three thousand fowls. Even so late as sixty years since, the
pilgrim-caravan from Cairo was six hours in passing one who saw the
procession.

The departure of such an array, with its thousands of camels
glittering in every variety of trappings, some with two brass
field-pieces each,--others with bells and streamers,--others, again,
with kettle-drummers,--others, covered with purple velvet, with
men walking by their sides playing on flutes and flageolets,--some
glittering with neck ornaments and silver-studded bridles, variegated
with colored beads, and with nodding plumes of ostrich feathers on