who was then Mohammed's wife, visited him, he made her the offer of choosing one of the slaves for herself. Her choice falling on Zeid, she took him away with her. When Mohammed saw him, he begged him of her as a present, and having received him, he gave him his liberty and adopted him for his own son. This happened before the time of his mission. Haritha, Zeid's father, was much grieved by the loss of his son, and went in search of him, till at last he found him with Mohammed. Zeid, on being asked whether he would return with his father or remain where he was, preferred his new home, and so stayed with Mohammed till his prophetic mission, when he believed in him, became a Moslem, and prayed with him.'

Though made a free man by manumission, Zeid always belonged to Mohammed's family, and, since his adoption, was called his 'son.' This position kept him in complete dependence on Mohammed, whose wishes he dared not disregard. Zeid was a dexterous archer, and later on made himself very useful to, Mohammed, being frequently intrusted with the command of an army. But how slavishly dependent he remained on his adoptive father, even after the migration to Medina, is made glaringly manifest by the scandalous affair about his wife Zeinab.

One day Mohammed unexpectedly called at Zeid's dwelling to see him on some business. He found him absent, but surprised his wife Zeinab in a state of undress, not calculated for a visitor. The prophet was so smitten with her white delicate skin and beauty, that he could not refrain from showing his feelings. The indiscretion was a grave one. From that time her conduct to her own husband became changed, and gave him cause for complaint. He at last found it best to divorce her, so as no longer to be in the way of her new relation to his old benefactor. Mohammed married her forthwith, and in his cruel selfishness thus far presumed on Zeid's good-nature and subordinate position as to make him go in person to ask her hand for him, in order that he might appear to the world a willingly consenting party and not a most deeply injured husband.

But though Mohammed, by this heartless trick, screened himself from the wrong inflicted on the husband, the im-

morality perpetrated against the adopted son and his wife still remained. The Arabs were scandalised by such conduct of a supposed prophet towards his adopted son and his daughter-in-law. Aisha boldly charged him with serious misconduct. Mohammed, who degraded religion into a stepping-stone to worldly empire, was, of course, not too scrupulous to extricate himself from this awkward personal difficulty by a pretended revelation. Heaven inspired him to declare that all this had happened by Divine appointment, to make known to the world the benign purpose that thenceforth it should not be a sin for a man to marry the divorced wife of an adopted son! As if the world could be much benefited by having conferred upon it so questionable a liberty. At the same time, Zeid was forbidden to call himself any longer 'Ibn Mohammed,' and had to revert to the original 'Ibn Haritha.'

Now of how little value must Zeid's early testimony to Mohammed's prophetic mission appear, if we find him, at a riper age, quietly submitting to all these extravagances, without being staggered in his profession of Islam and in his allegiance to its prophet?

Abu Bekr is mentioned next in order. He is the first convert, not, strictly speaking, belonging to Mohammed's own household. But he was his best friend, and, since Mohammed lived in Khadija's house, his close neighbour. 'Abu Bekr,' the appellation by which he is invariably mentioned, means 'father of the virgin.' He was thus designated, because his daughter Aisha was the only one of Mohammed's wives whom he married as a virgin. He can therefore have borne this name only since that marriage. Ibn Hisham says of him: 'His proper name was Abd Allah (?) and he was surnamed Atik (= aged, noble), on account of his beautiful, noble face. He was a kind, amiable man, whom every one liked. He was the most learned of the Koreish, and best acquainted with their genealogy, their weaknesses, and their excellences. He was a benevolent merchant, of good manners, and the people of his tribe frequently came to him to consult with him about their own affairs, because he was experienced in commerce and other matters, and his conduct pleased every one. He invited to Islam those who trusted him and who