The Mahometans have a book of stops or pauses in reading the Koran, which divides it into _seventeen_ sections, and allows of no more.--D’HERBELOT, p. 915. PAGE 230. _... the bells of a cafila_ A cafila, or caravan, according to Pitts, is divided into distinct companies, at the head of which an officer, or person of distinction, is carried in a kind of horse-litter, and followed by a sumpter camel, loaded with his treasure. This camel hath a bell fastened to either side, the sound of which may be heard at a considerable distance. Others have bells on their necks and their legs, to solace them when drooping with heat and fatigue. Inatulla also, in his tales, hath a similar reference: “The bells of the cafila may be rung in the thirsty desert.” Vol. ii, p. 15. These small bells were known at Rome from the earliest times, and called from their sounds _tintinnabulum_. Phædrus gives us a lively description of the mule carrying the fiscal moneys: _clarumque collo jactans tintinnabulum_.--Bk. ii, fabl. vii. PAGE 230. _Deggial_ This word signifies properly a liar and impostor, but is applied by Mahometan writers to their _Antichrist_. He is described as having but one eye and eyebrow, and on his forehead the radicals of _cafer_ or _infidel_ are said to be impressed. According to the traditions of the faithful, his first appearance will be between Irak and Syria, mounted on an ass. Seventy thousand Jews from Ispahan are expected to follow him. His continuance on earth is to be forty days. All places are to be destroyed by him and his emissaries, except _Mecca_ or _Medina_, which will be protected by angels from the general overthrow. At last, however, he will be slain by Jesus, who is to encounter him at the gate of Lud.--D’HERBELOT, p. 282. SALE’S _Preliminary Discourse_, p. 106. PAGE 230. _... dictated by the blessed Intelligence_ That is, the angel _Gabriel_. The Mahometans deny that the Koran was composed by their prophet; it being their general and orthodox belief, that it is of divine original; nay, even eternal and uncreated, remaining in the very essence of God; that the first transcript has been from everlasting by his throne, written on a table of immense size, called the _preserved table_; on which are also recorded the divine decrees, past and future: that a copy was by the ministry of the angel _Gabriel_ sent down to the lowest heaven, in the month of _Ramadan_, on the night of _power_: from whence _Gabriel_ revealed it to Mahomet by parcels, some at Mecca, and some at Medina.--_Al Koran_, ch. ii, etc. SALE’S _Preliminary Discourse_, p. 85. PAGE 231. _... to kiss the fringe of your consecrated robe_ This observance was an act of the most profound reverence.--_Arabian Nights_, vol. iv, p. 236, etc. PAGE 231. _... and implore you to enter his humble habitation_ It has long been customary for the Arabs to change their habitations with the seasons. Thus Antara: