rapine could scarcely fail to confound with their own
the peculiar tenets of an ill-understood mode of thought; and
that the critical and discriminating faculties of the champions
of the Cross were not of the highest order, is illustrated by
their difficulty in distinguishing the eminently unitarian
religion of Mohammed from paganism. By a strange perversion the
Anglo-Norman and French chroniclers term the Moslems _Pagans_,
while the Saxon heathen are dignified by the title of _Saracens_;
and the names of Mahmoud, Termagaunt, Apollo, could be confounded
without any sense of impropriety. However, or in whatever degree,
Saracenic or rabbinical superstition tended to influence
Christian demonology, from about the end of the thirteenth
century a considerable development in the mythology of witchcraft
is perceptible.[55]

[53] Chymistry and Algebra still attest our obligation by
their Arabic etymology.

[54] A common tradition is that Soliman, king of the Jews,
having finally subdued--a success which he owed chiefly to
his vast magical resources--the rebellious spirits, punished
their disobedience by incarcerating them in various kinds of
prisons, for longer or shorter periods of time, in proportion
to their demerits. For the belief of the followers of
Mohammed in the magic excellence of Solomon, see Sale's
_Koran_, xxi. and xxvii. According to the prophet, the devil
taught men magic and sorcery. The magic of the Moslems, or,
at least, of the Egyptians, is of two kinds--high and
low--which are termed respectively _rahmanee_ (divine) and
_sheytanee_ (Satanic). By a perfect knowledge of the former
it is possible to the adept to 'raise the dead to life, kill
the living, transport himself instantly wherever he pleases,
and perform any other miracle. The _low_ magic (_sooflee_ or
_sheytanee_) is believed to depend on the agency of the devil
and evil spirits, and unbelieving genii, and to be used for
bad purposes and by bad men.' The _divine_ is 'founded on the
agency of God and of His angels, &c., and employed always for
good purposes, and only to be practised by men of probity,
who, by tradition or from books, learn the names of those
superhuman agents, &c.'--Lane's _Modern Egyptians_, chap.
xii.

[55] Its effect was probably to enlarge more than to modify
appreciably the current ideas. A large proportion of the
importations from the East may have been indebted to th