Swine's flesh, indeed, the old Arabs seem not to have eaten; and their prophet, in 1 Ebn al Athîr, al Zamakh. and al Beid. in Kor. c. 5. Al Mostatraf, &c. Vide poc. Spec. p. 327, &c., and D'Herbel. Bibl. Orient. Art Acdâh. 2 Vide Potter, Antiq. of Greece, vol. i. p. 334. 3 Ezek. xxi. 21. 4 Vide Poc. Spec. p. 329, &c. 5 Cap. 2, p. 18; c. 5, p. 73; c. 6; and c. 16. 6 Lev. xi. 4. 7 See Kor. c. 3, p. 37 and 42, and c. 6. 8 Kor. c. 5, p. 74, and in the other passages last quoted. 9 Vide Maimon. in Halachoth Melachim. c. 8, § i., &c. 1 Nothr al dorr, al Firauz., al Zamakh., and al Beid. 2 Poc. Spec. p. 320. 3 Compare Acts xv. 29 with I Cor. viii. 4, &c. 4 See the fifth chapter of the Kor. p. 73, and the notes there. prohibiting the same, appears to have only confirmed the common aversion of the nation. Foreign writers tell us that the Arabs wholly abstained from swine's flesh,5 thinking it unlawful to feed thereon,6 and that very few, if any, of those animals are found in their country, because it produces not proper food for them;7 which has made one writer imagine that if a hog were carried thither, it would immediately die.8 In the prohibition of usury9 I presume Mohammed also followed the Jews, who are strictly forbidden by their law to exercise it among one another, though they are so infamously guilty of it in their dealing with those of a different religion: but I do not find the prophet of the Arabs has made any distinction in this matter. Several superstitious customs relating to cattle, which seem to have been peculiar to the pagan Arabs, were also abolished by Mohammed. The Korân10 mentions four names by them given to certain camels or sheep, which for some particular reasons were left at free liberty, and were not made use of as other cattle of the same kind. These names are Bahîra, Sâïba, Wasîla, and Hâmi: of each whereof in their order. As to the first, it is said that when a she-camel, or a sheep, had borne young ten times, they used to slit her ear, and turn her loose to feed at full liberty; and when she died, her flesh was eaten by the men only, the women being forbidden to eat thereof: and such a camel or sheep, from the slitting of her ear, they called Bahîra. Or the Bahîra was a she-camel, which was turned loose to feed, and whose fifth young one, if it proved a male, was killed and eaten by men and women promiscuously; but if it proved a female, had its ear slit, and was dismissed to free pasture, none being permitted to make use of its flesh or milk, or to ride on it; though the women were allowed to eat the flesh of it when it died: or it was the female young of the Sâïba, which was used in the same manner as its dam; or else an ewe, which had yeaned five times.1 These, however, are not all the opinions concerning the Bahîra: for some suppose that name was given to a she-camel, which, after having brought forth young five times, if the last was a male, had her ear slit, as a