the answer "yes," but received the answer "no," they used to wait a year, and then repeat the inquiry till it became possible for them to act in agreement with the oracle. Abdu-l-Mottaleb's dearest son was Abd Allah, Mohammed's father; yet when the lot fell on him, Abdu-l-Mottaleb, provided with his sword, at once took him to the idols Isaf and Naila, to sacrifice him. But his other sons and the Koreish in general interfered, saying, "By Allah, thou shalt not slay him! for if thou do, any one might bring his son for an offering, and then how could mankind continue?" Upon this they agreed to submit the case to a priestess in Khaibar who had "a spirit that followed her." After she had learned from them that in their home the atonement for a man was ten camels, she told them, "Go home, place Abd Allah on one side and ten camels on the other, and let lots be drawn between them. If the arrow for the camels comes out, then sacrifice them in his stead-he is saved, and your Lord satisfied; but if the arrow for Abd Allah comes out, then add ten camels more; and go on in this way until the arrow for the camels is drawn." Having returned to Mecca, they acted on this advice, and the arrow for the camels was not drawn till their number had been increased to one hundred.'

To show Abdu-l-Mottaleb's special affection for his grandson, Ibn Ishak further narrates: 'The Apostle of God lived with his mother and grandfather; but his mother died in Abwa, between Mecca and Medina, when returning with him from a visit to his uncles, the Beni Adi, he being only six years old. After her death, he lived entirely with his grandfather. Abdu-l-Mottaleb had his couch near the Kaaba and when his sons attended on him, they stood around the couch; but such was their reverence for him, that none of them ever ventured to sit upon it. Once the Apostle of God, when yet a little boy, came and sat down on the couch. His uncles wanted to remove him, but Abdu-l-Mottaleb forbade it, saying, "Leave my son alone: by Allah, he will one day occupy a high rank! "Then he allowed him to remain sitting by his side and to stroke him, being pleased with whatever the child did. When the Apostle of God was eight years old, eight years after the elephant year, Abdu-l-Mottaleb died.'

One of his daughters lamented him in the following dirge,

'Shed tears in abundance, O mine eye, over the bountiful, the noble, the very best that ever rode on camel; over the excellent father who diffused blessings like the Euphrates. He was a lion, when anything great had to be fought for every eye looked up to him. He was the prince of the Beni Kinana: of him they expected help, when the times brought misfortune; he was their refuge, when war threatened destruction; and he combated for them against every calamity. Oh weep for him, and weary not to mourn him, as long as there are weeping women!'

After Abdu-l-Mottaleb's death, the little boy Mohammed was taken to the house of his uncle Abu Talib, to whom Abdu-l-Mottaleb had commended him, because his father Abd Allah was Abu Talib's double brother, that is, they had not only a common father, but also one and the same mother, Fatima, the daughter of Amr Ibn Aid. 'Abu Talib now took care of the Apostle of God and always kept him near his person.'

It must, therefore, be admitted as beyond dispute, that Mohammed belonged to a family and a tribe which enjoyed a high position in their country, and were the distinguished exponents of a pure and genuine Arab nationality. The tribe of the Koreish, amongst which he was born and brought up, greatly prided itself on the purity of their descent and the services they had rendered to the fatherland and its temple. After having long felt the disadvantages and evils accruing from the disunion and disruption to which they had been a prey, in common with the whole nation, they at last wisely united, and, by valour no less than by a prudent use of circumstances, succeeded in making themselves masters of the important city of Mecca, at once the religious metropolis and an opulent emporium of the entire nation. The family in which Mohammed was born and bred, exercised a most powerful political and social influence; and, as we have seen, took the most prominent part in the negotiations with the invading Abyssinian army which had penetrated to the neighbourhood of Mecca, but was successfully kept from taking and sacking the city by Abdu-l-Mottaleb's dexterous management. The highest interests of this family centred in the national sanctuary, of which they had acquired the