Page:Charles Joseph Finger - Life of Mahomet (1923).djvu/25

after the trench victory, this time with a Jewess named Rihana, taken in a raid on the castle of Koraida, a Jewish stronghold, for Mahomet's dislike of the Jewish people increased with his success. A hint as to the cause of this antipathy is found in the last chapter of the Koran, where is to be read eleven verses supposed to be talismans against sorcery and witchcraft. Mahomet's untaught imagination and strangely susceptible nerves made him an easy victim sometimes, and the sorcerers of the day took advantage of his condition. He knew that there were daily prayers for his death and more than once he had narrowly escaped the hand of the assassin. But there came a time when he fell prey to some lingering ailment and lived oppressed by a sense of some mysterious overhanging cloud, so gradually, he came to the belief that he was the helpless victim of mysterious enchantments. At last there came news to him that certain Jewish dabblers in the black art were killing him in effigy. He heard that in some secret place in the mountains they had made a waxen image of him, wound it about with some of his hair and thrust it through with needles. About it they had also wound a bow string in which were tied eleven knots, each knot properly enchanted. The whole had then been cast into a well. But the angel Gabriel had revealed to him the secret and, at the same time, given him an amulet in the shape of the eleven verses above mentioned. The well was found, the effigy drawn up and laid out, and the eleven verses recited.