d Mecca are the holy places of the Mohammedans. The principal
and enjoined pilgrimage of the sect is to the latter, though many devout
Moslems visit the other with pious intentions.

"Mecca is the birthplace of Mohammed; but, for reasons which will
presently be given, he went to Medina at the age of fifty-two, where he
lived the rest of his life, and died there. What I have to say of Medina
will come in better after we have followed the prophet through the first
portion of his life.

"I give the name according to the best English authorities at the
present time, though some call it Mahomet still, as we call it in
French. The word means 'praised' in Arabic. Mohammed the Prophet was
born at Mecca about A.D. 570; but the precise year is not known, though
the date I give is within a year of it. His father's name was Abdallah,
a poor merchant, who died about the time of the child's birth. A great
many stories have been invented in later years about the mother and the
child.

"The father was said to be the handsomest man of his time, and it is
claimed that his wife Aminah was of a noble family. She was of a nervous
temperament, and fancied she was visited by spirits. She was inclined to
epilepsy, which may explain her visions. Mohammed was her only child. As
soon as he was born, his mother is said to have raised her eyes to
heaven, exclaiming: 'There is no God but God, and I am his Prophet.' It
is also declared that the fire of the fire-worshippers, which had burned
without going out for a thousand-years, was suddenly quenched, and all
the idols in the world dropped from their pedestals."

"Goodness, gracious!" exclaimed Mrs. Blossom.

"The mother of the Prophet handed him over to a Bedouin woman to bring
up, in order that he might have the benefit of the desert air; but the
child appears to have been afflicted with his mother's malady, and the
nurse returned him because he was subject to frequent fits. When he was
six years old his mother died, and his grandfather adopted him; but the
old man lived only two years after, and then he was taken by Abu Talib,
his uncle, who, though poor himself, gave him a home, and continued to
be his best friend through life.

"At first the boy gained a precarious living by tending the flocks of
the Meccans. When he was twenty-five years old he went into the service
of a rich widow named Khadija, having the blood of the same ancestors in
their veins. Up to this time his position had been