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revolve round the earth. According to Muhammadan tradition the earth with its seven 1 storys rests between the horns of a Bull named Kajutah, who has 4,000 horns, each of which is 500 years journey from every other. He has as many eyes, noses, ears, mouths and tongues as he has horns. His feet stand upon a fish, which swims in water forty years' journey deep. Another authority holds that the earth in the first place rests upon the head of an angel and that the feet of this angel are placed upon an immense rock of ruby, which is supported by the Bull. This idea of the connexion between the Earth and a Bull is probably of Aryan origin 2. The legend which represents the Earth as consisting of seven storys is possibly due to the desire to represent it as resembling the sky in this respect. It may, however, have originated from a misunderstanding of the Persian statement, found in the Avesta, that the Earth consists of seven Karshvares, or great regions now spoken of as the "seven climes." Thus in Yesht, xix. § 31, Yima Khshaeta or Jamshid is said to have reigned "over the seven-regioned earth." These again correspond with the dvipas of Hindu geography. It was a mistake, however, to fancy that these were
1 Vide 'Araisu'l Majalis, pp. 5-9.
2 In Sanskrit go (ox, cow) is used of the Earth in the Mahabharata, Ramayana, &c. The same word in the Avesta (gao, also gao-speñta, "the holy cow") is used similarly. Cf. βους and γαια, γη: Goth. gavi (Kuh, cow), and Germ. Gau, in all of which the same connexion of ideas may be traced.
IDEAS AND PRACTICES. 123

situated one below another, except in so far as the first of the seven Karshvares was a high mountain plateau and the others stood at lower levels.

In Surah XI., Hud, 9, in reference to God's throne it is said that, before the creation of the heavens and the earth 1, "His Throne was above the water," in the air 1. So also, in commenting on Gen. i. 2, the Jewish commentator Rashi, embodying a well-known Jewish tradition, writes thus: "The Throne of Glory stood in the air and brooded over the waters."

Muhammadan writers tell us that the Angel Malik, who is named in Surah XLIII., Az Zukhruf, 77, is the chief of the nineteen (Surah LXXIV., 30) angels appointed to preside over hell. So also the Jews often write of a "Prince of Hell." But the Muslims have borrowed Malik's name from Molech (Molek), one of the deities mentioned in the Bible as formerly worshipped by the Canaanites, who burnt human beings alive in his honour. The word in Hebrew as in Arabic is a present participle and means "ruler."

In Surah VII., Al A'raf, 44, we are told that between heaven and hell there is a partition called by the same name as this Surah, which in fact received its title from the mention of Al A'raf in it. "And between them both there is a veil, and
1 Jalalain, 'Abbasi, &c.