With rage in their hearts, the delegate's left him. The Mausam--the time for the pilgrimage--drawing nigh, the Quraish idolaters held a meeting at the dwelling of Walid ibn Moghayrah so as to consult together with regard to the way in which they ought to behave to the Prophet. Walid was spokesman, and he said: 'O assembly of Quraish men! the Mausam will soon bring innumerable pilgrims to Makkah. Of a surety, they have heard about Mohammad, and they will question you concerning him. How will ye answer? Ye must be all of one mind, so as not to contradict each other, which would nullify the effect of your utterances.'--'It is for thee to advise us, O Walid!'--'It is for you to speak first. I will listen and discuss your opinions.'--'Well then! we shall say that Mohammad is a diviner.'--'No! We know the diviners! He hath none of their mutterings or rhyming emphasis.'--'We'll say that he is possessed.'--'No! We have seen men possessed; and unlike them, he is not subject to fits of suffocation and convulsions.'--'We'll say he is a poet.'--'No! He is no poet. We know all the styles of versification as used by the poets, and his speech does not resemble that of any one of them.'--'We'll say he is a sorcerer.'--'No! for we have fallen across sorcerers, and he performeth none of their magical operations. Of a truth, his success is due to the charm and beauty of his discourse.' Arraigned before the tribunal of their own conscience, the citizens assembled were forced to acknowledge the rigorous truth of this last remark. All of them, more or less, had felt the words springing from the ecstatic soul of Allah's Apostle go home to them. All of them had ofttimes been about to give way to the fascination caused by his accents, ringing with the inspiration of superhuman faith. The Quraish men were only restrained by the importance of their material interests and the violence of their earthly passions, thus seriously threatened by his pure doctrine. Nevertheless, they were bound to come to a decision at once, so as to prevent, at all costs, the Arabs belonging to distant tribes from undergoing the same ordeal. Therefore, they agreed to say that Mohammad possessed potent spells by which he stirred up strife in families, estranging a brother from his brother, a son from his father, and a husband from a wife. [Illustration: _Moslem praying on the Terrace-roof of her dwelling._]