mities of age to bow down, took a handful of earth and worshipped, pressing it to his forehead.
"Thus all the people were pleased at that which Mahomet had spoken, and they began to say: 'Now we know that it is the Lord alone that giveth life and taketh it away, that createth and supporteth. And as for these our goddesses, they make intercession with Him for us; wherefore, as thou hast conceded unto them a portion, we are content to follow thee.' But their words disquieted Mahomet, and he retired to his house. In the evening Gabriel visited him; and the. Prophet (as was his wont) recited the Sura unto him. And Gabriel. said: 'What is this that thou hast done? thou hast repeated before the people words that I never gave unto thee. So Mahomet grieved sore, and feared the Lord greatly; and he said, I have spoken of God that which He hath not said. But the Lord comforted his Prophet, and restored his confidence, and cancelled the verse and revealed the true reading thereof (as it now stands), namely:
"And see ye not Lat and Ozza,
And Manat the third beside ?
What ! shall there be male progeny unto you, and female unto Him?
That were indeed an unjust partition!
They are naught but names, which ye and your fathers have invented,' etc.
"Now when the Coreish heard this, they spoke among themselves, saying: 'Mahomet hath repented his favourable mention of the rank of our goddesses with the Lord. He hath changed the same, and brought other words intstead.' So the two Satanic verses were in the mouth of every one of the unbelievers, and they increased their malice, and stirred them up to persecute the faithful with still greater severity.
"Pious Mussulmans of after days, scandalized at the lapse of their Prophet into so flagrant a concession, would reject the whole story. But the authorities are too strong to be impugned. It is hardly possible to conceive how the tale, if not in some shape or other founded in truth, could ever have been invented. The stubborn fact remains, and is by all admitted, that the first refugees did return about this time from Abyssinia; and that they returned in consequence of a rumour that Mecca was converted. To this
