orientalcairocit00sladuoft

240 Oriental Cairo
spectacle was wonderfully picturesque ; for it had for its background
a sea of stolid Arabs, dressed in every colour under
the sun, with the light green of the trees and that marvellous
sk}'-line of mosques behind them rising in three tiers.
The procession was headed by the MaJunal itself, nodding
gravely on its camel, a sort of square tent twelve feet high, of
crimson and cloth-of-gold, with gold balls and green tassels.
From the nature of the camel's walk it was very seldom
upright, but it jogged solemnly along, surrounded by religious
banners gorgeous with Arabic texts. I never saw anything that
looked more Oriental. It was followed by a standard-bearer
and five drum-beaters mounted on fine camels with very
gorgeous trappings, the same band probably that had played
into Cairo every important pilgrim who had lately returned
from Mecca. I daresay I should have recognised the faces if
I had studied them. I was more occupied with their gorgeous
trappings, especially reserved for the occasion perhaps ; they
looked cleaner than usual. The camels were led by people in
picturesque dresses, who did not at all look as if they had
been to Mecca ; they did not even look respectable ; they
looked as if they were men who did odd jobs about the bazars,
hired for the occasion. Their business was to lead the band
camels, not to have been to Mecca. There was even a sort of
jester, who seems to go to Mecca every year, and therefore
must be a very holy person. The incongruousness of this
man, and of the riff-raff camel attendants, did not strike the
Arab spectators at all ; their eyes were all on the Ma/uiial,
the emblem which meant so much to them.
My eyes were for everything, not least for the escort, black
with the suns of the Arabian desert, the famous screw-gun
battery which Lord Kitchener wanted to buy for the Boer
War, followed by one-half the Fourth Battalion, dressed in
British khaki, a troop of cavalry, and a couple of machine
guns.
That escort meant something, for they had had almost to
fight their way from Mecca to the sea, so persistent was the
skirmishing with which the Desert tribes had harassed the
pilgrimage this year. They marched with splendid precision.