bject in intensest light. The rival poets assembled to discover who
could turn the deftest phrases in satire of the opposing tribe, or extol
most eloquently the bravery and skill of his own people, the beauty and
modesty of their women, and from these wild outpourings Mahomet learnt to
clothe his thoughts in that splendid garment whose jewels illumine the
earlier part of the Kuran.

Perhaps more important than the poetical contests was the religious
aspect of the fair at Ocatz. Here were gathered Jew, Christian, and
Arabian worshipper of many gods, in a vast hostile confusion. Mahomet was
familiar with Jewish cosmogony from his knowledge of their faith within
his own land, and he had heard dimly of the Christian principles during
his Syrian journey. But here, though both Jews and Christians claimed to
be worshippers of a single God, and although the Jews took for their
protector Abraham, the mighty founder of Mahomet's own city, yet there
was nothing between all the sects but fruitless strife. He saw the Jews
looking disdainfully upon the Christian dogs, and the Christians firmly
convinced that an irrevocable doom would shortly descend upon every Jew.
Both united in condemning to eternal wrath the idol-worshippers of the
Kaaba. It was a fiercely outspoken, remorseless enmity that he saw around
him, and the impotence born of distrust he saw also.

It is not possible that any hint of his future mission enlightened him as
to the part he was to play in eliminating this conflict, but may it not
be that there was sown in his mind a seed of thought concerning the
uselessness of all this strife of religions, and the limitless power that
might accrue to his nation if it could but be persuaded to become united
in allegiance to the one true God? For even at that early stage Mahomet,
with the examples of Judaism and Christianity before him, must have
rejected, even if unthinkingly, the polytheistic idea.

The poetic and warlike contests partook of the fiery earnestness
characteristic of the combatants, and it was seldom that the fair at
Ocatz passed by without some hostile demonstration. The greatest rivals
were the Kureisch and the Hawazin, a tribe dwelling between Mecca and
Taif.

The Hawazin were tumultuous and unruly, and the Kureisch ever ready to
rouse their hostility by numerous small slights and taunts. We read
traditionally of an insult by some Kureisch youths towards a girl of the
Hawazin; this incident was closed peac