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feticism still poured its thousands of devotees into this valley. They thronged especially about the Mountain of Mercy," Arafat, which is a slight elevation rising but two hundred feet above the plain on which it stands, on the sacred summit of which it was said that Adam had built a house of worship, and had been taught by the angel Gabriel how to pray.

These vast numbers brought much money to the place, and schemers saw that the control of their supplies would give power and fortune to whoever should obtain it. The so-called descendants of Ishmael asserted that it was their privilege, and for a time they actually held it; but envious neighbors. deprived them of their birthright, and held it until one Kossai arose with ambition and force enough to claim, and at last to concentrate in his person, the attributes of chief of the city. He was descended from Fihr, surnamed the Koreish, or trafficker, whose pedigree has been carefully traced, but of whom little is known except that he was powerful. Kossai brought many of his kindred into the valley about the year 440 A.D.; built a palace, and a house for the transaction of important business; directed the coming and going of the caravans; held the keys of Kaaba; monopolized the supplies of bread for the pilgrims; and controlled the refreshing waters of Zem-zem,-in short, he made a city of Mecca and firmly ruled it.*

*The business of conveying the thousands of pilgrims who still go to Mecca (from India, at least) has just been placed in the hands of the tourists, Cook and Sons, who, by contract with the British government, carry them in well-appointed steamships.

PERFORMING THE PILGRIMAGE.

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Kossai grasped at once all civil, political, and religious authority, gave circumstance to the duties. and ceremonies required of the pilgrim; and the willing and superstitious Arabs hesitated not to follow his commands. When they came in after-times to perform the pilgrimage, they put on a dress known as the ihrâm, dutifully visited the Kaaba, and kissed the sacred black stone; they performed the tawâf, by walking seven times around the building, three times impetuously and four times at an easy pace; seven times they ran up the hills Safa and Marwa and down again; of an early morning they rushed tumultuously to the summit of the mount Arafat, and hastened back again; they threw stones at three pillars, in mystic memory of Abraham, or, perhaps, of Adam, who met Iblis there, and in like manner drove him away; they sacrificed some animal and then took off the ihrâm and rested three days, after which they repeated the seven circuits of the Kaaba, and were at liberty to turn their faces homewards and return to the usual duties of life, ever afterwards honored with the title Haj, or pilgrim. The offerings made by the devotees were in memory of the sacrifice of Ishmael that Abraham intended to make, for they put their ancestor in the place of Isaac. What the duties of pilgrims were at first we cannot tell, nor do we know the names of the idols that were worshipped in the Kaaba, though there were in early. times over three hundred and sixty-five of them in the pantheon.

The honors and privileges of chief at Mecca were not enjoyed in peace by the descendants of Kossai,

In

and many struggles are recorded among them, time there arose in the regular line one Abd Menaf, who was strong enough to obtain and convey to his son Hashim the hereditary right of entertaining the pilgrims. Omia, a nephew of Hashim, proved a determined opponent, and the enmity was bequeathed to their sons, so that the struggles between the Hashimites and the Omiades became historic and bloody. Once the holy well was, strangely enough, covered up and forgotten, until Abd al Muttalib, son of Hashim, miraculously uncovered it, whereupon he immediately increased in dignity and fame and continued to be honored until his death.

In an hour of weakness Abd al Muttalib had once vowed that if he should ever be so greatly blessed as to have ten sons, one should certainly be devoted to Allah. In process of time the number was fulfilled, and the sorrowing father reluctantly gathered his offspring in the Kaaba and cast lots for the one to be sacrificed. The lot fell upon Abdalla, the beautiful son of his old age, and the sacrificial knife was solemnly prepared. Then the sisters of Abdalla rose up and besought their father to cast lots between their brother and ten camels-in those days considered the proper fine for the blood of a man. Abd al Muttalib consented, and lo! the lot a second time fell upon the beloved son. Again resort was made to the lot-the number of beasts being doubled; but still it fell upon the son. Time after time the trial was made, at the urgent appeal of the sorrowing sisters, until one hundred camels had been proffered, when to their joy the lot fell upon the beasts;

ABDALLA'S LIFE SAVED,

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Abdalla was spared, and the inhabitants of Mecca feasted upon the carcasses that had been forfeited.*

Before the days of Kossai there had been no real government in Arabia; every man did that which was right in his own eyes, acknowledging but indefinite allegiance to his own tribe; and even now government depended upon force, and was liable at any time to be overthrown. Such was the condition of affairs as the years of ignorance approached their end; at the time when the outer world was destined to interfere in the affairs of the peninsula and an Eastern miracle was to be seen.

* The price of the blood of a man after this time was one hundred camels—a number which the great prophet of the people confirmed.

IV.

THE YEAR OF THE ELEPHANT.

DURING the life of Abd al Muttalib there ruled in Yemen a powerful viceroy of the Prince of Abyssinia, whose name was Abraha. He had his capital at Sana, to which city he had brought the commerce of Persia and of his own country, and had established in it a power that has not yet faded away, for Sana is said to possess even now many attractive buildings, gardens, fountains, and palaces, and to be still the centre of a considerable trade. Representing a Christian prince, Abraha had erected a temple of some magnificence, which he hoped would draw worshippers away from the Kaaba, but in this he was disappointed, and his Christianity did not prove powerful enough to keep his angry passions from rising as he contemplated his failure. He determined to accomplish by force that which he had failed to bring to pass by persuasion. In his wrath he gathered an army with which he purposed to attack Mecca, marched towards that place with banners flying, and easily thrust aside the opposition made to his progress by the unorganized tribes that he found in the first portion of his route.

As he pushed onward his hot anger boiled in him