In Muudaa, the expedition is made to a sacred place where there is a pontiff who takes offerings and in turn blesses those who made a long and arduous journey. The representative of the waaqeffannaa spiritual society from all over the land traveled to the muudaa center to take part in mass pilgrimages and Spiritual celebration. The pilgrims made expedition on foot seeking the assistance of friendly communities as they traveled. As a rule, all waaqeffannaa spiritual society through whose land the pilgrims pass would receive them with great enthusiasm and give them generous help. And so the trip can took one to six months and was apparently an extremely arduous undertaking. On their way to the Muudaa sacred place, the pilgrims, especially those who are highly devoted to spiritual life held a special type of sacred stick called ‘Horooroo’, a sacred ritual stick as the sign of blessing (, or jilaayyuu). So long as they exhibited the pilgrims regalia (, or Insignia), of which the most important as Horooroo, most communities gave them food and shelter. The pilgrims do so to seek Abbaa Muudaa’s intercession to enable them to obtain their desires. Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from different parts of the country gather together evenly at the praying center, hereafter Abbaa Muudaa (, or patriarchal Qaalluu) to receive Waaqaa’s blessings both for themselves and for the Waaqeffannaa Spiritual Society.
The pilgrim departed in small groups, or else, at the agreed signal, hosts of men slowly converge on diverse points, streaking pell-mell, in a trail of ants, the crests and the valleys, bringing forwards interminable rows of troops. Like the streams that flow, running in opposite directions, to a single river in the plain, these groups come together, are formed into a single body, arranged by sections of families, veritable camp of Waaqaa, with peaceful intentions, emblemed with the smell of sacrifices and the incense of prayer, reverberating bucolic rhapsodies. They went slowly and in short steps, in order to allow the less robust and the multitude of animals to arrive at the encampment each evening it was rigorous to camp and light the fire sat the same place where the ancestors were accustomed to camp. The pilgrims must preserve the chastity, not cut the nails or the hair (wear their hair cut short) and bear no weapons, to show their peaceful intentions, they tied their dress in the fashion of women, hold their horooroo ( laid down their spears, at least they pull out from the end of the staff of wood the iron spiral, which, making counterweight to the blade and serving as iron hoop, and holds it in balance in its aerial trajectary, when they hurl it on the enemy). The skin stripped from the sacrificed animals, whose talismans in hide, hung from the wrist and from the neck in the shapes that signify them as name of Waaqaa, Nama Waaqaa. to show that they were men of waaqaa, pilgrims distinguished themselves by three sings: 1) they took along with them sheep, animals of peace, which are the ideal sacrifice to Waaqaa, 2) they wore trophies not associated with war on their wrists and necks which marked them for the occasion as nama waaqaa (, or men of waaqaa), and they did not carry spears or other arms, 3) they carried other insignia such as a horooroo, which had a knob at the top and flat with an opening at the bottom, standing for the peace, unity and divine knowledge. The jilaas should be married and circumcised, and hence celebrate their buttaa. The jilas are the liege men of Waaqaa. As much, they trample with impunity on enemy territories and, when needed receive assistance. The same security guaranteed the person of an isolated pilgrim, all attempts against a jila taking the proportions of an enormous sacrilege.
Once on route, pilgrims should not look back for to do so was regarded as a break the pilgrimage. Along the route, they modulate strings of couplets, in varying forms according to the tribe or the clan, but revolving around a common basis: call to the pilgrims to be on the march, importance of the unction, exclusion of profane persons, length of the route, joys of the arrival and the return. As an offering to His Holiness Abbaa Muudaa they bring a bull, and as a sign of their peaceful intentions they drive a sheep.
Chant:
O my perfume
(Urgoo tiyyaa),
O fragrant pontiff
(Qaallicha urgoo tiyyaa)!
The warbler babbles its ballad;
Birds of heights and the coulik
Whistle their twittering.
O my perfume,
O fragrant pontiff!
We no longer wait, we speak;
We brave the cold and the drizzle;
We got away from our thatches;
May the wife live under her shelter!
(Haatii warraa nagaa);
The wife is not a pilgrim
(Haatii warraa jila hin deemtuu)
O my perfume
(Urgoo tiyyaa),
O fragrant pontiff
(Qaallicha urgoo tiyyaa)!
Veritable sons of men
(Ilma nama dhugaa),
Advance
(Gudhadhu)!
The lier has no right to the unction
(Sobduun mirga muudaa hin qabdu);
But the noble children advance
(Garuu kannen kaan gudadhaa)!
The slayers have no right to the unction
(Kan lubbuu namaa baase mirga muudaa hin qabu);
But the brave gents advance
(Garuu Qacaleen gudadhaa)!
The sinners have no right to the unction
(Cubbamtootnii mirga muudaa hin qaban);
But sons of the race advance
(Garuu ilmaan gosaa gudadhaa)!
Muslims and Christian have no right to the unction
(Kanneen amantii biro hordofan mirga muudaa hin qaban);
But those who have born of pure blood advance
(Qulqullonnii waaqeffannaa gudadhaa)!
O my perfume
(Urgoo kiyyaa),
O fragrant pontiff!
We are candidate for the unction
(Nutii kadhimamtootaa muudaati),
But the distance is frightful
(Faageenyiii sodaachisa tahus);
The goers form an army
(Imaltootnii RAAYYOMANII);
The goers are a legion
(Imaltootnii tokkummaan);
We are candidates for the unction
(Nutii kadhimamtootaa muudaati),
O my perfume,
O fragrant pontiff!
The goers are a legion
(Warri imalan tuutaa);
They brandish fragrant branches;
My mother suffers on my absence;
By the order of the family,
We emigrate;
We are candidates for the unction
(Nutii kadhimamtootaa muudaati),
O my perfume,
O fragrant pontiff!
Let us go!
Family of myrrh
(Nuti maatiin qumbi),
The land of wallaal calls us;
The land of fugug responds.
O my perfume,
O fragrant pontiff!
The whole race is client of the unction:
Our ancestors were anointed
(Abboottin keenya muudamanii);
Our forefathers were anointed
(Abbaa akkaakayyuun keenya muudamanii);
Our parents were anointed
(Maatiin keenya muudamani);
Yes! Yes! The unction!
O my perfume,
O fragrant pontiff;
The pilgrims have neither a shed nor a hedge,
They sleep on a bare lawn;
They march in sections of families,
Each with two Qaalluu (sacrificers) at its head
O my perfume,
O fragrant pontiff!
We are going to the spiritual father;
We brave the frost of the night;
Morning dews inundated me;
The wet grass bathed me;
All my clothes are soaked.
O my perfume,
O fragrant pontiff!
The pilgrims arrive at the sacred land, the seat of his holiness Abbaa Muudaa, in the evening before the day of sacred Muudaa ritual. They wait until all the calves (, or bull) that they have brought have arrived, where up on they drive them into the qaalluu’s kraal. When they reach the sacred land, the spiritual hut, (or, galmaa), the pilgrims through their leaders offers their gifts to the Abbaa Muudaa. Thereafter they proceed singing to the ritual house, galmaa, where his holiness the Abbaa muudaa awaits them with his wife, her holiness Haadha Muudaa, at his side. The Abbaa Muudaa wraps his head in ruufaa with color gurraachaa or the tricolor emblem (Lion’s mane) on which he has fastened two Qallachaa holding his horooroo and dressing his emblematic stuffs. He treated with the utmost reverence and no one dares to raise his eyes to him. All takes places as though they are seeking to hide from him.
When the pilgrims arrived at the land of Abbaa Muudaa, they chant as:
Give us good reception
(Nu simadhu),
O fragrant father
(Yaa urgoo tiyya)!
The pilgrims from all parts emerge
(Imaltootni bakka hundaa areedaa jiranii);
They arrive
(Dhaqabanii jiru);
It is Waaqa that guide them
(Waaqatu isaan qajeelchee)!
They braved depths and precipices
(Qilee fi tabba hin jennee);
They overcame the marshes
(Bacaqii fi dhoqqee hin jennee);
They disregarded fatigues
(Dadhabne hin jennee);
Not a coward has turned back
(Kan duubatti deebi’ee hin jiruu)!
Give us good reception
(Simannaa gaarii nuuf godhi),
O fragrant father
(Urgoo tiyyaa)!
Our heifers and our fecund ewes are scattered on the plain;
Our animals of the tribe cover the country;
We want the unction,
The unction;
The pilgrims reclaim the Unction.
O my perfume,
O fragrant father!
The pilgrims are generously entertained with foods (meat) and drinks (honey wine, bookaa) and pass the night dancing and feasting.