probably by the kisses of the pilgrims. Upon the ground on the north-side of the Kaaba there is a stone called the sepulchre of Ishmael; there is also another stone called the station of Abraham, which they say being used by him for a scaffold rose higher with him as the walls of the building rose; and that, after he had done building, he stood upon it and prayed, and left on it the prints of his feet. Round three sides of the Kaaba, and at no great distance from it, stands à row of pillars, which are joined at the bottom by a low balustrade, and at the top by bars of silver. Without this enclosure, are buildings used for oratories, by the different sects of Mohammedans; there also is the treasury, and a small edifice raised over the sacred well Zemzem.† All these buildings are en

"Being in want of a stone to fix into the corner of the building as a mark from whence the Towaf, or holy walk round it, was to commence, Ismael went in search of one. On his way he met the angel Gabriel, holding in his hand the famous black stone. It was then of a refulgent bright colour, but became black, says El Azraky, in consequence of its having suffered repeatedly by fire, before and after the introduction of Islamism. Others say its colour was changed by the sins of those who touched it. At the day of judgment, it is to bear witness in favour of all those who have touched it with sincere hearts, and will be endowed with sight and speech."-Burckhardt's Arabia, p. 163.

"The Mohammedans are persuaded that the well Zemzem is the very spring which gushed out for the relief of Ismael, when Hagar his mother wandered with him in the desert; and some pretend it was so named from her calling to him, when she spied it, in the Egyptian tongue, 'Zem, zem, that is, stay, stay;' though it seems rather to have had the name from the murmuring of its waters. The water of this well is holy, and is highly reverenced; being not only drunk with particular devotion by the pilgrims, but also sent in bottles, as a great rarity, to most parts of the Mohammedan dominions. Abdallah, surnamed Al Hâfedh, from his great memory, particularly as to the traditions of Mohammed, gave out that he acquired that faculty by drinking large draughts of Zemzem water, to which I believe it is about as efficacious as that of Helicon to the inspiring of a poet."Sale. Mr. Lane, in his notes to the Arabian Nights, tells us, that "The water of this well is believed to possess miraculous virtues, and is therefore brought away in bottles or flasks by many of the pilgrims, to be used, when occasion may require, as medicine, or to be sprinkled on grave-linen. A bottle of it is a common and acceptable present from a pilgrim, and a guest is sometimes treated with a sip of this holy water." Pitts, an old English traveller, found the water brackish, and says, the pilgrims drink it so inordinately that "they are not only much purged, but their flesh breaks out all in pimples; and this they called the purging of their spirit ual corruption."

closed at a considerable distance by a magnificent colonnade surmounted with small cupolas, and at the four corners there are as many steeples adorned like cupolas, with gilded spires and crescents; between the pillars of both enclosures hang a number of lamps, which are constantly lighted up at night.*

The Kaaba is supported by pillars of aloe-wood, between which hang silver lamps, and a spout of gold carries off the rain-water from the roof. The walls on the outside are hung with a rich covering of black damask, adorned with a band of gold, which is changed every year at the expense of the Turkish emperor. The Kaaba is properly the temple, but the whole territory of Mecca is held sacred, and distinguished by small turrets, some at seven and others at ten miles' distance from the city. Within these precincts it is not lawful to attack an enemy, or even to hunt or fowl.

Mohammed was born at Mecca, an ancient city of Arabia, about the year of our Lord 571, for historians do not agree about the precise year. He was of the tribe of Koreish, the noblest of that part of the country. Arab writers make him to be descended in a right line from Ishmael, the son of Abraham; but do not pretend to any certainty in the remote part of his genealogy; for our purpose it will be enough to commence much later, but with a well authenticated fact. The great grandfather of Mohammed was Hashem, whose descendants were

"The

Burckhardt, in describing the Kaaba at the present day, says, effect of the whole scene, the mysterious drapery, the profusion of gold and silver, the blaze of lamps, and the kneeling multitude, surpasses anything the imagination could have pictured."

+ "A new covering for the Kaaba is sent from Cairo every year with the great caravan of pilgrims: it is carried in procession through that city, and is believed to be one of the chief means of procuring safety to the attendants through their arduous and dangerous journey."-Lane's Arab. Nights.

"The date of the birth of Mohammed is not fixed with precision. It is only known from Oriental authors that he was born on a Monday, the 10th Reby 1st, the third month of the Mohammedan year; the 40th or 42nd of Cosroes Nushirvam, king of Persia; the year 881 of the Seleucidan æra; the year 1316 of the era of Nabonnassar. This leaves the point undecided between the years 569, 570, 571, of Jesus Christ. See the Memoir of M. Silv. de Sacy, on divers events in the History of the Arabs before Mohammed, Mem. Acad. des Inscripts. vol. xlvii, pp. 527, 531. St. Martin, vol. ix. p. 59. Dr. Weil decides on A.D. 571. Mohammed died in 632, aged 63; but the Arabs reckoned his life by lunar years, which reduces his life nearly to 61."-Milman's Gibbon.

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from him called Hashemites.* He managed to obtain the sidency over the Kaaba, and, what went with it, the government of Mecca, which had been some time in the tribe of the Koreishites. After his death it went to his son Abda'l Motalleb, who had thirteen sons, whose names I shall here set down, because we shall meet with some of them in the following history. Abdallah, Hamza, Al Abbas, Abu Taleb, Abu Laheb, Al Gidak, Al Hareth, Jahel, Al Mokawam, Dorar, Al Zobeir, Kelham, Abdal Kaaba. The eldest of them, Abdallah, whọ, on account of the integrity of his character and the comeliness of his person, is said to have been his father's favourite, married Amina, of the tribe also of the Koreishites, by whom he had Mohammed. Upon the marriage of Abdallah, it is related that no fewer than two hundred young damsels, who were in love with him, died in despair. We should here observe, that the Mohammedan historians are often very extravagant in their accounts of persons and things that have any relation to their prophet. Thus Abulfeda, one of the gravest of them, tells us of four miraculous events that happened at the birth of Mohammed: 1. That the palace of Cosroes, king of Persia, was so shaken, that fourteen of its towers fell to the ground; 2. That the sacred fires of the Persians, which had been kept incessantly burning for 1000 years, went out all at once; 3. That the lake Sawa sank; 4. That the river Tigris overflowed its banks. By these prodigies, and by a dream of the high-priest of Persia, which seemed to forebode some impending calamity from Arabia, Cosroes being naturally alarmed, sent for a famous diviner to inform him what they portended; he received for answer, that fourteen kings and queens should

* Even to this day the chief magistrate both at Mecca and Medina, who must always be of the race of Mohammed, is invariably styled "The Prince of the Hashemites."

+ Abulfeda informs us that the custody of the Kaaba and presidency of Mecca had been formerly in the possession of the tribe of the Kozaites, till at length they fell into the hands of Abu Gabshan, a weak and silly man, whom Kosa, the grandfather of Hashem, circumvented while in a drunken humour, and bought of him the keys of the temple and the government of Mecca for a bottle of wine. A war between the Koreishites and Kozaites was the result, which, however, ended in the defeat of the latter, and the whole possession of Mecca remained to the Koreishites, and was held by Kosa and his posterity in a right line down to Mohammed.

reign in Persia, and that then what was to come to pass would happen. Some legendary writers relate a great many more wonderful things, enough to shock the belief of the most credulous. They may be seen in Maracci.* I shall give only two of them as a sample of the rest: 1. They assert that Mohammed came into the world surrounded with a light, which not only illuminated the chamber wherein he lay, but also the whole country round about. 2. That as soon as he was born he fell upon his knees, and bending all except his two fore-fingers, with uplifted hands, and his face turned towards heaven, pronounced distinctly these words," Allah acbar," &c. that is, God is great: there is no other God but one, and I am his prophet.'

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Abdallah dying while Mohammed was an infant, or, according to some, before he was born, he was by his mother put to a wet-nurse named Halima. Here again we have more miracles, even in Abulfeda. The nurse, who, while this blessed infant was with her, was in greater affluence than ever she had been before, was one day put in a great fright by her own son, who came running out of the field, and told her that two men in white had just seized Mohammed, laid him on the ground, and ripped open his belly. Upon this, she and her husband went out to him, and found him upon his legs; but when she asked him, What is the matter with you, child? he confirmed the tale of his belly being cut up. Hearing this, the husband said, I am afraid he has contracted some bad disease; and Halima herself, who had before been very desirous to keep the child, was now as eager to get rid of him, and carried him home at once to Amina. On being asked what was the reason she had thus changed her mind, the nurse said she was afraid the devil had made some attack upon him; but the mother replied, "Out upon you, why should the devil hurt my child?" Some authors tell us, that when the angels ripped up Mohammed's belly they took out his heart, and squeezed out of it the black drop, which they believe is the consequence of original sin, and the source of all sinful thoughts, being found in the heart of every person descended from Adam, except only the Virgin Mary and her son Jesus.

* Refutatio Alcorani, fol. 1698.

It is a wonder they did not except Mohammed also, whom they look upon to be the most perfect creature that God ever made; but of whom we shall find in the sequel that his heart was not entirely cleansed from the black drop.

Mohammed's mother dying when he was six years old, he was taken care of by his grandfather, Abda'l Motalleb, who at his death, which happened two years after, left him under the guardianship of his son Abu Taleb. By this uncle, whose business was merchandise, Mohammed was brought up, and at the age of thirteen went with him into Syria. At fourteen he joined his kinsmen in the impious war, where the Koreishites gained the victory. With Abu Taleb he continued till he was twenty-five, when he became a factor to Kadija, the widow of a rich merchant at Mecca, who had left her all his wealth. He managed the affairs of his mistress so well, and so ingratiated himself into her favour, that after keeping him three years in her service, she bestowed on him her hand. The legendary writers, in their account of this circumstance, tell us, Kadija fell in love with Mohammed owing to the wonderful things that befell him in his last journey from Bostra in Syria, of which some were related to her by the slaves who had accompanied him, and of some she was herself an eye-witness. But that which made the greatest impression on her heart was, that the angel Gabriel carried all the way a cloud over his head, to screen him from the scorching heat of the sun, which in that country is very intense. But surely there was little need of a miracle to induce a widow of forty-five, who had already buried two husbands, to take for a third a young man of twenty-eight, possessed, as Mohammed is said to have been, of a handsome person and agreeable manners.† From the age of thirteen or fourteen to twenty-five very

The Arabs had four months in which it was not lawful to go to war; this war was in one of those months.

"The nuptials of the prophet and his bride were celebrated with great festivity, mirth, music, and dancing; heaven is said to have been filled with unwonted joy, and the whole earth intoxicated with delight. Some Arab writers add, that a voice from the skies pronounced the union happy; that the boys and girls of Paradise were led out on the joyous occasion in their bridal robes; that the hills and valleys capered for gladness at the sounds of unearthly music; and that fragrance was breathed through all nature."