much diversity of opinion as to its
precise disposal before the Judgment Day: some think that it hovers
near the grave; some, that it sinks into the well Zemzem; some, that
it retires into the trumpet of the angel of the resurrection; the
difficulty apparently being that any final disposal before the Day of
Judgment would be anticipatory of that great event, if indeed it would
not render it needless. As to the resurrection, some believe it to be
merely spiritual, others corporeal; the latter asserting that the _os
coccygis_, or last bone of the spinal column, will serve as it were as
a germ; and that, vivified by a rain of forty days, the body will
sprout from it. Among the signs of the approaching resurrection will
be the rising of the sun in the west. It will be ushered in by three
blasts of a trumpet: the first, known as the blast of consternation,
will shake the earth to its centre, and extinguish the sun and stars;
the second, the blast of extermination, will annihilate all material
things except Paradise, hell, and the throne of God. Forty years
subsequently, the angel Israfil will sound the blast of resurrection.
From his trumpet there will be blown forth the countless myriads of
souls who have taken refuge therein, or lain concealed. The Day of
Judgment has now come. The Koran contradicts itself as to the length
of this day; in one place making it a thousand, in another fifty
thousand years. Most Mohammedans incline to adopt the longer period,
since angels, genii, men, and animals have to be tried.

As to men, they will rise in their natural state, but naked;
white-winged camels, with saddles of gold, awaiting the saved. When
the partition is made, the wicked will be oppressed with an
intolerable heat, caused by the sun, which, having been called into
existence again, will approach within a mile, provoking a sweat to
issue from them; and this, according to their demerits, will immerse
them from the ankles to the mouth; but the righteous will be screened
by the shadow of the throne of God. The Judge will be seated in the
clouds, the books open before him, and everything in its turn called
on to account for its deeds. For greater dispatch, the angel Gabriel
will hold forth his balance, one scale of which hangs over Paradise
and one over hell. In these all works are weighed. As soon as the
sentence is delivered, the assembly, in a long file, will pass over
the bridge Al-Sirat. It is as sharp as the edge of a sword,