Connected with the history of the ginn are many fables not acknowledged by the Kur-án, and therefore not credited by the more sober Muslims, but only by the less instructed. All agree that the ginn were created before mankind; but some distinguish another class of preadamite beings of a similar nature. It is commonly believed that the earth was inhabited, before the time of Adam, by a race of beings differing from ourselves in form, and much more powerful; and that forty (or, according to some, seventy-two) preadamite kings, each of whom bore the name of Suleymán (or Solomon), successively governed this people. The last of these Suleymáns was named Gánn Ibn-Gánn; and from him, some think, the ginn (who are also called “gánn”)[347] derive their name. Hence, some believe the ginn to be the same with the preadamite race here mentioned: but others assert that they (the ginn) were a distinct class of beings, and brought into subjection by the other race. Ginnees are believed often to assume, or perpetually to wear, the shapes of cats, dogs, and other brute animals. The sheykh Khaleel El-Medábighee, one of the most celebrated of the ′ulama of Egypt, and author of several works on various sciences, who died, at a very advanced age, during the period of my former visit to this country, used to relate the following anecdote.—He had, he said, a favourite black cat, which always slept at the foot of his musquito-curtain. Once, at midnight, he heard a knocking at the door of his house; and his cat went, and opened the hanging shutter of his window, and called, “Who is there?” A voice replied, “I am such a one” (mentioning a strange name) “the ginnee: open the door.” “The lock,” said the sheykh′s cat, “has had the name [of God] pronounced upon it.”[348] “Then throw me down,” said the other, “two cakes of bread.” “The bread-basket,” answered the cat at the window, “has had the name pronounced upon it” “Well,” said the stranger, “at least give me a draught of water.” But he was answered that the water-jar had been secured in the same manner; and asked what he was to do, seeing that he was likely to die of hunger and thirst: the sheykh′s cat told him to go to the door of the next house; and went there also himself, and opened the door, and soon after returned. Next morning the sheykh deviated from a habit which he had constantly observed: he gave, to the cat, half of the fateereh upon which he breakfasted, instead of a little morsel, which he was wont to give; and afterwards said, “O my cat, thou knowest that I am a poor man: bring me, then, a little gold:” upon which words, the cat immediately disappeared, and he saw it no more.—Ridiculous as stories of this kind really are, it is impossible, without relating one or more, to convey a just notion of the opinions of the people whom I am attempting to describe.