15

They hold the heaven u> be air, and the moon to
be the spirit of water. They agree upon transmi-
gration in the following manner : when a man dies
and is buried, the component parts of his body
manifest themselves in the shape of minerals or
vegetables, until the latter become the food of ani-
mals, or serve as aliment to mankind. These secta-
ries subjoin: in the food may reside intelligence and
action ; for the dispersed ingredients of a body are
in the food; intelligence and action collect all in

Muharamedans, it was formed from the source which God made appear
in favor of Ismail and Hagar, his mother, whom Abraham drove from his
house, and obliged to retire to Arabia. When afterwards the patriarch
came to visit his banished son Ismail, and built the square temple, called
Kabah, he bestowed upon him the possession of it and the surrounding
country, since called Mecca. This place became an object of contest be-
tween Ismail's posterity and the Arabian tribe of Jorhamides. The latter,
after having possessed themselves of it, were attacked by the former, but
before yielding it, they threw the sacred black stone, with the two gazelles
of massive gold which an Arabian king had presented to the temple, into
the well, and then completely filled it up. So it remained until the time
of an ancestor of Muharnmed, called Abdal mothleb,- he was admonished
by an heavenly voice to clear the well, the situation of which was at
the same time indicated to him. This was near the idols Assat and
Neilah, which were first to be removed, in spite of their adorers, the
Koraishites. The latter, having ceded the well, claimed to share the
treasure which Abdal mothleb had found in it. The new contest was. to
be decided by Ebn Said, a famous prophet, who lived on the confines of
Syria. Upon the way to him, through a desert, when both parties were
dying of thirst, a fountain which sprung up beneath the foot of Abdal
mothleb's camel brought about a reconciliation between them; the well
was cleared; the treasure found was consecrated to the temple, which in
after times gained so much celebrity.—(Herbelot after Khondemir.}