immediately over
the earth, that he sleeps during eight months in the year, and during
the other four his time is divided between his duties of sending down
rain upon the earth, and repelling with his arrows Raja Bali, who by
his austere devotions (_tapasya_) has received from the higher gods a
promise of the reversion of his dominions? The lightning which we
see', said the learned Maulavi, 'they believe to be nothing more than
the glittering of these arrows, as they are shot from the bow of
Indra upon his foe Raja Bali '.[6]

'But, my good friend Maulavi Sahib, there are many good Muhammadans
who believe that the meteors, which we call shooting stars, are in
reality stars which the guardian angels of men snatch from the
spheres, and throw at the devil as they see him passing through the
air, or hiding himself under one or other of the constellations. Is
it not so?'

'Yes, it is; but we have the authority of the holy prophet for this,
as delivered down to us by his companions in the sacred traditions,
and we are bound to believe it. When our holy prophet came upon the
earth, he found it to be infested with a host of magicians, who, by
their abominable rites and incantations, get into their interest
certain devils, or demons, whom they used to send up to heaven to
listen to the orders which the angels received from God regarding men
and the world below. On hearing these orders, they came off and
reported them to the magicians, who were thereby enabled to foretell
the events which the angels were ordered to bring about. In this
manner they often overheard the orders which the angel Gabriel
received from God, and communicated them to the magicians as soon as
he could deliver them to our holy prophet. Exulting in the knowledge
obtained in this diabolical manner, these wretches tried to turn his
prophecies into ridicule; and, seeing the evil effects of such
practices among men, he prayed God to put a stop to them. From that
time guardian angels have been stationed in different parts of the
heavens, to keep off the devils; and as soon as one of them sees a
devil sneaking too near the heaven of heavens, he snatches the
nearest star, and flings it at him.'[7] This, he added, was what all
true Muhammadans believed regarding the shooting of stars. He had
read nothing about them in the works of Plato, Aristotle,
Hippocrates, or Galen, all of which he had carefully studied, and
should be glad to learn from me what modern philoso