Show RETURN OF THE PILGRIMS interesting ceremonial when the escort of the sacred carpet gets back to cairo yesterday Test erdly morning writes the cairo correspondent of the Q queen was devoted to watching he ceremonial return ot of the aid ard its attendant escort ot of soldiers and pilgrims from mecca the sacred or carpet which Is the annual t labute from cairo and which journeyed to mecca with the pilgrims has now taken its place as the covering ot of the kaaha while that which it replaced has already been divided as valuable mementos atoa among the faithful the ceremony ot of the return of the pilgrims as that of their departure Is celebrated in the great place mohamet AH ali below the ramr ramparts arts of the citadel the square being outlined with egyptian troops the khedive was present of course yesterday with all his ministers and staff and many of the european notables and a tremendous con course of less important spectators were present to view the ceremony the departure of the tooh took place so early in november that but fe tev visitors ars were in tha the place to wit ness tt it and as the 7 mohammedan oham calen dar Is nearly a fortnight shorter than ours before before long this interesting an nual event will be relegated to the days of the early autumn whereat the european Fur element vill sill be deprived of one of the few remitting remil remit ning purely egyptian festivals statistics from mecca this year state the number of pilgrims at the enormous f figure gure of 90 out of which egypt accounted for no less than 15 |