the words of Mahomet, the camel driver, were much less effective than the words of Mahomet the husband of one of the most wealthy women in the place. For a time Mahomet made himself useful in his wife's business, becoming a kind of produce dealer, but it would seem that his trading abilities were not of the best, and the family fortune showed signs of diminishing rather than increasing.
Doubtless, there was a great deal of dreaming and ruminating on Mahomet's part, and he gained much curious information from his wife's cousin, one Waraka, who had translated parts of the old and the new testament into Arabic. Waraka, born a Jew, had turned Christian, and he was deeply interested in astrology and mysticism, even dabbled a little in the occult. Between Waraka and Mahomet, there grew up the idea that as time went on, religion became corrupted, became a mere outward form, and, here and there, figures arose who set themselves to restore it to its ancient purity. Pondering thus, Mahomet came to believe that the time was ripe for a purification: that the people had fallen from the worship of the one, true God, to idolatry. Long pondering had its effect. He became a solitary, indulging in fasting and prayer, and, at last, retired to the desert quiet in the holy month of the Arabs. Then, when he was forty years of age, came what he considered the great revelation. It was in the cave of Mount Hara. The angel Gabriel appeared before him, proclaiming him as Mahomet, the prophet of God, and showing him a silken cloth on which was written the
