hor: how it had been sent
leaf by leaf, in twenty-four thousand nocturnal apparitions of the angel
Gabriel: how the angel announced himself by a gentle knocking, which
threw the prophet into a cold sweat: how in the vision of one night
he had travelled over ninety heavens, riding on the beast Borack, half
horse and half woman: how, endowed with the gift of miracles, he walked
in the sunshine without a shadow, turned dry trees to green, filled
wells and cisterns with water, and split in two the body of the moon:
how, by divine command, Mahomet had propagated, sword in hand, the
religion the most worthy of God by its sublimity, and the most proper
for men by the simplicity of its practice; since it consisted in only
eight or ten points:--To profess the unity of God; to acknowledge
Mahomet as his only prophet; to pray five times a day; to fast one month
in the year; to go to Mecca once in our life; to pay the tenth of all
we possess; to drink no wine; to eat no pork; and to make war upon
the infidels.* He taught that by these means every Mussulman becoming
himself an apostle and martyr, should enjoy in this world many
blessings; and at his death, his soul, weighed in the balance of works,
and absolved by the two black angels, should pass the infernal pit on
the bridge as narrow as a hair and as sharp as the edge of a sword, and
should finally be received to a region of delight, which is watered with
rivers of milk and honey, and embalmed in all the perfumes of India
and Arabia; and where the celestial Houris--virgins always chaste--are
eternally crowning with repeated favors the elect of God, who preserve
an eternal youth.

* Whatever the advocates for the philosophy and civilization
of the Turks may assert, to make war upon infidels is
considered by them as an obligatory precept and an act of
religion. See Reland de Relig. Mahom.

At these words an involuntary smile was seen on all their lips; and the
various groups, reasoning on these articles of faith, exclaimed with one
voice:

"Is it possible that reasonable beings can admit such reveries? Would
you not think it a chapter from The Thousand and One Nights?"

A Samoyede advanced into the circle: "The paradise of Mahomet," said
he, "appears to me very good; but one of the means of gaining it is
embarrassing: for if we must neither eat nor drink between the rising
and setting sun, as he has ordered, how are we to practise that fast in
my country,