| OCR Text |
Show RETURN OF THE PILGRIMS Interesting Ceremonial When the Escort Es-cort of the Sacred Carpet Gets Back to Cairo. Yesterday mornins, writes the Cairo correspondent of the Queen, was devoted de-voted to watching the ceremonial return re-turn of the Mahmal ai d its attendant escort of soldiers and pilgrims from Mecca. The sacred kiswe or carpet, which is the annual tribute from Cairo and which Journeyed to Mecca with the pilgrims, has now taken Its place as the covering of the Kaaba, while that which It replaced has already been divided as valuable mementos among the faithful. The ceremony of the return of the pilgrims as that of their departure Is celebrated In the great Place Mohamet AH, below the ramparts of the citadel, the square being outlined with Egyptian Egyp-tian troop3. The khedive was present of course yesterday with all his ministers minis-ters and staff, and many of the European Euro-pean notables and a tremendous concourse con-course of less Important spectators were present to view the ceremony. The departure of the Mahmal took place so early in November that but few visitors were In the place to witness wit-ness It and as the l.i'ofcammedan calendar calen-dar Is nearly a fortnight shorter than ours, before long this Interesting annual an-nual event will be relegated to the days of the early autumn, whereat the European element .vlll be deprived ot one of the few remaining purely Egyptian Egyp-tian festivals. Statistics from Mecca this year state the number of pilgrims at the enormous figure of 90,051, out of which Egypt accounted for no less than 15.619. |
