t much to be wondered at
when one remembers that Arabia was the asylum of many religious
refugees, Zoroastrians, Jews, Christians. In the later pre-Islamitic
times spirits, or jinns, as they were called, of which each tribe or
family had its own, were worshipped, and there was but a vague idea of a
Supreme Being. Images of the jinns to the number of 360, one for each
day of the lunar year, were collected in the temple at Mecca, the chief
seat of their worship. That worship was of a sanguinary nature. Human
sacrifice was fairly frequent. Under the guise of religion female
infanticide was a common practice. At Mecca the great object of worship
was a plain black stone, and to it pilgrimages were made from every part
of Arabia. This stone was so sacred to the Arabs that even Mahomet dared
not dispense with it, and it remains the central object of sanctity in
the Ka'ba to-day. The temples of the Sabaeans and the Minaeans were
built east of their cities, a fact suggesting sun-worship, yet this is
not believed to have been the cult of the Minaeans. Common to both was
the worship of Attar, the male Ashtoreth.

With the appearance of Mahomet the Arabs took anew a place in the
world's history.

Physique.

Physically the Arabs are one of the strongest and noblest races of the
world. Baron de Larrey, surgeon-general to Napoleon on his expedition to
Egypt and Syria, writes: "Their physical structure is in all respects
more perfect than that of Europeans; their organs of sense exquisitely
acute, their size above the average of men in general, their figure
robust and elegant, their colour brown; their intelligence proportionate
to their physical perfection and without doubt superior, other things
being equal, to that of other nations." The typical Arab face is of an
oval form, lean-featured; the eyes a brilliant black, deep-set under
bushy eyebrows; nose aquiline, forehead straight but not high. In body
the Arab is muscular and long-limbed, but lean. Deformed individuals or
dwarfs are rare among Arabs; nor, except leprosy, which is common, does
any disease seem to be hereditary among them. They often suffer from
ophthalmia, though not in the virulent Egyptian form. They are
scrupulously clean in their persons, and take special care of their
teeth, which are generally white and even. Simple and abstemious in
their habits, they often reach an extreme yet healthy old age; nor is it
common among them for the faculties of the mind t