‘Amr, who was the governor of Egypt appointed by him, wrote and laid the facts before ’Omar. The answer came back that they should write on a potsherd as follows: “‘From the servant of God ’Omar son of Al-Khattāb, to the Nile of Egypt: and after this, verily if thou dost run thy course by thine own will, then refrain from running; but if it be so that God Almighty, and He only, caused thee to flow, then hereby we do pray to God that He, the Almighty, will cause thee again to run thy course.’ This script therefore they threw into the Nile, which forthwith began to rise in inundation and never again failed.” He tells of many wonders in the Eastern seas. In one island “every ant is the size of a dog, and every gnat like a sparrow, and they sting, hurting abominably; so that in this island no other living thing exists.” “There are several isles where there are many tribes of the Dog-headed men, who wage war continuously with the men of the other islands.” At Bustām, near the tomb of the Saint, stands a withered tree. “Now when any one of the descendants of the Shaykh comes to be on the point of death, a branch of this tree breaks off. In certain documents it is stated that this tree was originally the Staff of our Prophet—upon whom be peace!”
In Persia “there is a mill which the water continually turns, and there is never any need to stop it for repairs. Whenever a charge has to be put into the mill, or the same removed, he who does this has but to say: ‘By the truth of Jonah the Prophet, stop!’ and it will immediately cease to turn, and the water runs off till the charging is effected. Then that person says: ‘By the truth of Jonah: Back to thy former state!’ and forthwith the mill resumes its work.”
A new, complete history of India, from the earliest times to the present day, was badly needed. The older works of Marshman, Meadows Taylor, and others were necessarily useless for the Hindu period, which was, for the first time, treated consecutively and critically, in the author’s Early History of India. Excellent as it was, for the time in which it was written, Elphinstone’s work is now out of date, in view of the large collection of materials which is the result of modern research. Dr. Vincent
