9. Mohammed el Halebi, the Sheikh-el Ulema of Damascus, assured Burton that he was permitted to pass the door leading into the tomb-chamber, and that he saw no trace of a sepulchre. 10. Moslem historians admit that an attempt was made in A.H. 412 to steal the bodies of Mohammed and the two companions by the third Fatimite Caliph of Egypt; they relate marvels connected with the failure of the attempt, and assert that a trench was dug deep all around the graves and filled with molten lead to prevent the theft of the body. 11. In A. H. 654 the mosque was destroyed by a volcanic eruption, according to the Moslem historians, but the tomb-chamber escaped all damage! Again in A. H. 887 it was struck by lightning. “On this occasion,” says El Samanhudi (quoted by Burckhardt) “the interior of the Hujrah (tomb-chamber) was cleared and three deep graves were found in the inside full of rubbish, but the author of this history, who himself entered it, saw no trace of tombs.” The same author declared that the coffin containing the dust of Mohammed was cased with silver. 12. Lastly the Shiah and Sunni accounts of the prophet’s death and burial are contradictory as to the exact place of burial. [20] Niebuhr, 1763; Seetzen, 1810; Cruttenden, 1836; Dr. Wolff, 1836; Owen, 1857; Botta, 1837; Passama, 1842; Arnaud, 1843; Van Maltzan, 1871; Halvéy, 1870; Millingen, 1874; Renzo Manzoni, 1879; Glaser, 1880; Defler, 1888; Haig, 1889; Harris, 1892; and later travellers. Defler is the authority on the flora, Glaser on the antiquities, Manzoni on the Turks and their government, Haig on the agricultural population, and Harris tells of the recent rebellions. Niebuhr’s magnificent volumes are still good authority on the geography and natural history of Yemen. [21] The Yemen plow is shaped like an English plow in many respects; although it has only one handle its coulter is broad and made of iron, a great improvement over the crooked stick of Mesopotamia. [22] It was not pleasant for an American to notice that nearly all the Turkish rifles in Yemen were “Springfield 1861.” The same weapons that were employed to break the chains of slavery in the southern states, are now used to oppress the peaceful Yemenites. [23] Of the work among the latter, and my experiences in distributing the New Testament, a report was published by the Mildmay Mission; we therefore omit reference to it here. [24] Geog. Soc. Proceedings, 1887, p. 482. [25] Defler says in his diary that this place has “une odeur atroce et des legions de puces et de punaises.” I also had an all-night’s battle. [26] Hadramaut is a very ancient name for this region. Not only does Ptolemy place here the _Adramitæ_ in his geography, but there seems little doubt that Hadramaut is identical with Hazarmaveth, mentioned in the tenth chapter of Genesis.