flag in advance against the Beni Koreiza, and the people gathered around him in haste.'

The quarter of the Jews was now closely invested; but they bravely defended themselves, for twenty-five days, from their towers and barricaded houses. When it had become evident that Mohammed would not raise the siege, before he had obtained his object, one of their number proposed to them, either to acknowledge the Arab Prophet, or, by a desperate effort, to break through the circle of besiegers. But his proposal was rejected, and he then indignantly upbraided them with never having formed any serious resolution since their birth. They preferred to treat with Mohammed; and, at their request, he sent to them as delegate one of the Awsites, their former confederates. On their asking him whether he would advise them to surrender to Mohammed, he told them they had better do so; but, at the same time, he put his hand to his throat, signifying that they must be prepared to have their throats cut. He was touched by the women and children pressing round him, weeping and trembling; but he had no authority to offer them better terms than unconditional surrender. They longed to escape from the privations of the siege, and with the example of the Beni Keinoka and Nadhir fresh in their minds, whose lives, though likewise threatened, had yet been spared, they capitulated, trusting in the Prophet's clemency.

But he had now his hands freer than formerly and could afford to disappoint their hope. In the night of the surrender, four Jews embraced Islam and thus saved their life and liberty; and in the morning, the Awsites approached Mohammed to intercede for the lives of the rest, saying, 'These Jews are our confederates; and thou knowest how thou didst formerly deal with those who were confederates of the Beni Khazraj.' This placed him in a dilemma: he wished to kill the Jews and yet not to offend the Awsites. His cunning was equal to the occasion: he discovered a way of extricating himself from his dilemma. A prominent man of the Awsites, Saad Ibn Moadz by name, had been wounded during the siege and lay in the mosque, without hope of recovery. With him Mohammed had a conversation and then addressed the Awsites thus, 'Are you content, if I appoint one of

your own tribe as arbiter in the matter?' and as soon as they had replied in the affirmative, he added, 'Saad Ibn Moadz is the man I appoint.' Saad being too ill to walk, a leathern bolster was laid on a donkey for him, and he was thus conveyed before Mohammed and the assembled people. On the way he was exhorted by humane persons to be lenient to his former confederates whose destiny had now been placed in his hands; but he answered, 'It is now time that I should do nothing blameworthy in the sight of God.' He was received with an unusual demonstration of respect, by Mohammed's special order; and having first taken the formal promise that his decision should be accepted as final, he said, 'My judgment is, that the men should be killed, their goods divided, and their wives and children treated as captives.' The Prophet, relieved by this utterance, indorsed it on the spot, by saying, 'Thy judgment agrees with that of God above the seven heavens.'

He was now free to indulge his feelings of revenge against the Jews. They were to pay dearly for persevering in the denial of his pretensions to a prophetic mission. The women and children were torn from their husbands, brothers, and fathers; the men, all manacled, were penned up for the night in a large shed, and Mohammed ordered long ditches to be dug in the market-place. On the following morning the butchery began under the Prophet's own eyes and lasted till night. The manacled Jews were led forth in small batches, made to sit down on the brink of the ditch, and after being cruelly put to death, hurled into it as their common grave. According to the Mohammedan historians, 600 to 700 or 800 to 900 Jews were thus massacred in cold blood. Their lands, houses, and chattels were distributed among the conquerors, and the women and children appropriated as slaves. In dividing the booty, Mohammed assigned three portions to each horseman, one for himself and two for his horse, in order thus to encourage his followers to possess themselves of horses, which proved so invaluable to them in their future campaigns, especially when they undertook to invade the Roman empire and Persia. The spoil was so great that the Prophet's fifth alone included two hundred women and children. He selected the beautiful widow