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OHAMMED, the Arabian prophet, lost his father and mother in
infancy, and being left an orphan his uncle became his guardian.
This uncle, whose name was Abu Taleb, treated him with great
kindness, carefully bringing him up to his own business, which
was that of amerchant trading to Syria; and when the boy was
thirteen he took him with him on his j journeys, and Mohammed
afterward conducted acaravan for his uncle to Damascus. Abu
Taleb thought so highly of his nephew’s abilities that he recommended him to
a noble and wealthy widow, as her factor, and the young man managed busi-
ness so well that she rewarded his services by marrying him.

By this marriage, Mohammed, who had been left by his parents in very
poor circumstances, was at once raised from poverty to an equality with the
richest inhabitants of his native town of Mecca. He was only in his twenty-
fifth year, and his wife was many years his senior. He had the greatest
respect for her judgment, and to her he confided his belief that he was to teach
the faith in the one living God, and to destroy the pagan idolatry of the Arabs.
She was his first convert, and they long conducted their devotions in secret;
and it was not till he was in his fortieth year that he announced his mission in
public.

When his wife died, Mohammed sincerely mourned her loss, and it was
some time before he took another wife, Ayesha, the daughter of Abu Bekr.

When Mohammed was sixty-three years old he was attacked by a fever
that some attributed to poison. When he recovered a little, feeling a convic-
tion that his end was near, he ascended the pulpit, and addressed the assem-
bled people, He asked if there was any one whom he had wronged, as if there
were, he would willingly bare his own back to the scourge. ‘Have I aspersed
the reputation of a Mussulman?” said the prophet. ‘Let him proclaim my faults
in the face of the congregation. Has any one been despoiled of his goods?
The little that I possess shall compensate the principal and interest of the
debt.”

When he paused a voice was heard from the crowd, ‘‘Yes, I am entitled to
three drachms of silver.” Mohammed satisfied the man’s demand, and thanked
him for accusing him in this world, rather than at the day of judgment. He
then freed his slaves, and gave directions for the conduct of his funeral, and
till the third day before his death he regularly performed public prayer.

At the last, surrounded by his mourning friends and relatives, the Prophet