price of that beautiful thing to this man.' When the Prophet asked, 'Didst thou not bring it to me as a present?' Naamiyan would reply, ' Apostle of God, the price of that present was not within my power; but I wished that thou shouldest have it and no one else: so pay for it now and the object is accomplished.' Then that Excellency laughed and paid the value of the present.

(6.) His Habits in using Ornaments and Ointments.

Amongst all the habits of the Prophet there was also this, that he combed his hair and beard, but not every day, like the rich; and that he anointed his blessed head and beard. His moustache he clipped, and commanded also his companions to do the same. Every Friday, before going to mosque, he attended to his moustache and cut his nails. He made use of his right hand for making ablutions, for eating, combing his hair and beard, for cleaning his teeth, snuffing up water and the like; but his left for removing what is unpleasant and for cleaning impurities. When he had to take anything from any one or to give something, he did so with his right hand. Every night he applied three spoons-full of collyrium to his eyes, or sometimes three to his right and two to his left eye. Whenever he went on a journey, he took with him a looking-glass, a comb, an ointment-bottle, a box of aromatic substances, a pair of scissors, and an oil-bottle; and when he was in the house, he took the said things with him to the room of whichever wife he spent the night with, so that they were at hand, in case he liked to make use of any of them. He prohibited the rounding of the face, the plucking out of the hairs from the face, or the white hairs from the beard or the head.
According to some sound traditions, that prince coloured his blessed hairs with collyrium, or, according to another account, with collyrium and indigo-leaves, or, according to still another account, with waras and saffron. Some accounts state that the Prophet was not so grey as to need dyeing, and that, according to a sound tradition, the grey hairs in his beard and head did not amount to twenty. In reconciliation of these traditions we suggest that that prince sometimes

applied collyrium to his blessed hair in order to cure headache, but that some people, who saw the colour, thought it was for dyeing the hair; or that he used so much aromatic ointment that sometimes the colour of his hair was changed thereby, so that it looked like dye. But a number of Imams regard the traditions concerning his using dyes for his hair as the stronger ones.
That prince made use of a depilatory unguent, and his pure wives also applied it to him. But there is also an account that he did not apply depilatory unguents, but used the scissors. All the traditionists and biographers agree that that prince never entered a public bath; ¹ and that he only once bathed in the place in Medina which is still renowned as the Prophet's bath, a structure having afterwards been erected over the place where he had bathed, so as to secure the blessing and luck resulting therefrom. But some Hanafi Ulemas state in their works that the Prophet did enter public baths.

(7.) His Habits in regard to Auguries.

One of all the habits of that Excellency was that of drawing auguries from fine names or beautiful words, saying, 'Auguring is a good thing.' But he condemned bad auguring. When they asked him, 'O Apostle of God, what is an augury?' he answered, 'A good word which one of you hears.' He rejoiced to hear such good words as 'correct,' 'sound,' etc., when he was going forth in a matter of importance or necessity. He liked good names, and used to say, 'The names most loved by God are, Abd Allah (= Servant of God), Abd ur Rahman (= Servant of the Merciful); and the name most disliked by God is, Shah-i-Shahin' (= King of kings). He used to change bad names into good ones, e.g. Berre (properly, a wound) into Zeinab (properly, a certain beautiful, fragrant tree). In case he wished to send an agent