266 LIFE OF MOHAMMED. 



or dress. Dates and water, or a sparing allowance 

 of barley-bread, the abstemious diet of his country, 

 were his usual fare. Milk and honey to him were 

 luxuries : when he ate, he sat cross-legged on the 

 ground ; and when he travelled he divided his scanty- 

 morsel with the valet, who generally rode behind 

 him on the same animal. On solemn occasions he 

 feasted his companions with rustic and hospitable 

 plenty ; but months sometimes elapsed without the 

 comforts of fire or cookery being seen on his hearth. 

 To finish this portrait of his humility, we learn that 

 he was in the habit of performing the most humble 

 and menial offices of the family. The lord of Ara- 

 bia disdained not to mend his own shoes and his 

 coarse woollen garment; he milked the sheep, 

 kindled his fire, swept the floor, and served his 

 guests at his own table. His liberality in bestow- 

 ing alms bordered on extravagance, and often left 

 him without money or provisions for the mainte- 

 nance of his household. The sincerity of his 

 ghostly injunctions to charity and benevolence was 

 attested at his death by the exhausted state of his 

 colfers. 



His attention to the cares of the toilette was ex- 

 traordinary in a person so immersed in devotion and 

 conquest. Whenever he went to the niosqne, or on 

 a military expedition, he carried with him a vessel 

 of odoriferous ointment, antimony for eye-paint, a 

 comb, and a mirror ; and in default of the latter, he 

 would adjust his headdress by the reflection of water. 

 The two things on earth in which he most delighted 

 were women and perfumes ; the fervour of his piety, 

 he affirmed, was increased by these sensual plea- 

 sures; and he took care that his religion should 

 make ample provision for their enjoyment. No- 

 thing scandalized his Christian adversaries more 

 than the freedom with which he indulged his con- 

 jugal propensities. From the laws which he im- 

 posed on others he claimed special exemption for 



