guided thee to a better faith than it,” Mohammed gladly answered. Two dispatches were probably sent to Heraclius, Emperor of Byzantium, who had just completed a victorious struggle with Persia. The first one, which requested him to cease the idolatrous worship of Jesus and His Mother, to reverence the one true God, and to recognize the mission of Mohammed, was apparently disregarded; a second message, couched in like terms, prompted a vassal of Heraclius to request permission to punish the insolent pretender who sent it, but Heraclius forbade any needless expedition against the contemptible person who had audaciously signed himself “Mohammed the Apostle of God.” The King of Persia, on receiving a similar note, merely tore it up; and the Prophet, on hearing of this outrage, prayed aloud: “Even thus, O Lord! rend thou his kingdom from him!” It may be presumed that neither Heraclius nor the Persian King even suspected that, within a decade or two, their mighty empires would be paying tribute to Islam. A letter that Mohammed sent to Ruayyah, of Suhaim, was treated more respectfully than the one that had been dispatched to the Persian monarch; for Ruayyah used it to mend a hole in his water-skin. Another powerful chief, having listened to Mohammed’s delegate, instructed him to carry back this message: “How excellent is that Revelation to which thou invitest me, and how beautiful! Know that I am the Poet of my tribe, and an Orator. The Arabs revere my dignity. Grant unto me, therefore, a share in the rule, and I will follow thee.” The Prophet, on being informed of this, snarled: “Had this man asked of me but an unripe date, as his share in the land, I would not have given it. Let him perish, and his vainglory with him!”--and it is confidently stated that the presumptuous snob did, in fact, die within a year. The Roman Governor of Egypt, too, refused to endorse Mohammed’s claims--“I am aware,” he said, “that a prophet is yet to arise; but I am of opinion that he will appear in Syria”--yet he atoned for his stubbornness of heart by sending Mohammed a double present in the form of a white mule and a black concubine. Mohammed, meanwhile, was showing his interest in his recent converts by altering their Pagan names to titles that better suited his almost feminine fondness for daintily euphemistic words. For example, “Zeid of the Stud” right gladly abandoned his plebeian appellation when he was rechristened “Zeid of the Good”; “the Wolf, son of the Cub,” was similarly glorified by becoming “Allah’s Servant”; and an “Oppressor” suffered a welcome sea-change into a “Well-doer.” But when a tribe called the “Sons of Bastardy” were politely accosted as the “Sons of Chastity,” they announced their steadfast desire to remain true to their ancient heritage.