The glutton fasts, to eat a greater share.
The hypocrite, he fasts to seem more holy;
The righteous man, to punish sinful folly.'

The secret motive of the heart, man cannot fathom in his neighbour's deeds.
There are some actions so praiseworthy in themselves, that the charitably
disposed will pass over the probable actuating motive, when looking only
to the fair example. I have, however, reason to think that the Mussulmauns
generally, in fulfilling the commanded fast of Rumzaun, have an
unexceptionable motive. They are taught by their Lawgiver, that the due
performance of this rigid fast is an acceptable service to God the Creator,
from man the creature: they believe this, and therefore they fast?

Amongst the well-informed it is persevered in as a duty delightful to be
permitted to perform; the ignorant take some merit to themselves in having
faithfully observed the command; yet all the fasting population are
actuated more or less by the same motive,---the desire to please God by
fulfilling His commands, delivered to them by their acknowledged Prophet.

The severity of a Mussulmaun's fast can alone be understood by those who
have made the trial, as I frequently have, of the strict rules of
abstinence which they observe; and with the additional privations to be
endured at the period of the hottest months and the longest days in the
same climate, as will sometimes be the case with all their movable fasts.

The Mussulmaun fast commences when the first streak of light borders the
Eastern horizon, and continues until the stars are clearly discerned in
the heavens. During this period not the slightest particle of food, not
one single drop of water, or any other liquid, passes the lips; the hookha,
even, is disallowed during the continuance of the fast, which of itself
forms not only a luxury of great value, but an excellent antidote to
hunger.

Amongst the really religious Mussulmauns the day is passed in occasional
prayer, besides the usual Namaaz, reading the Khoraun, or the Lives of the
Prophets. I have witnessed some, in their happy employment of these
fatiguing days, who evinced even greater animation in their conversation
than at other times; towards the decline of a day, when the thermometer
has stood at eighty-nine in the shade of a closed house, they have looked
a little anxious for the stars appearing, but,--to their credit be it
told,--without the slightest symptom of impatience or fretfulness at the
t