296 THE KORAN. 



or drink, to smell perfumes, or swallow spittle, to 

 vomit, bathe, or even breathe the air too freely from 

 daybreak till sunset, would render this sacred ordi- 

 nance null and void. But from evening- till day- 

 break, the faithful are allowed to refresh nature, 

 though the more scrupulous renew their fast at 

 midnight. When the Ramadan falls in summer, this 

 self-denial is extremely rigorous and mortifying ; for 

 the patient martyr must wait the close of a tedious 

 and sultry day, without assuaging his thirst with a 

 drop of water, or tasting a particle of nourishment 

 that can recruit his strength or gratify his senses. 

 During this consecrated season other duties acquire 

 an additional merit ; charity becomes doubly vir- 

 tuous, and the retaliation of injuries is forbidden.- 

 But, like other external ceremonies, this law is 

 accounted a dead letter unless the performance is 

 accompanied with a suitable disposition of heart and 

 spirit. The only amends for these statutory morti- 

 fications, are the tw;o bairams or principal annual 

 festivals. The former {Id al Feh-, or feast of break- 

 ing the fast) begins on the first of the month imme- 

 diately succeeding Ramadan, and is kept from three 

 to five or six days. The other {Id al Korban, or 

 feast of the sacrifice) commences on the 10th of 

 Dulhajja, during the time of the pilgrimage. 



The nature of oriental climates has rendered par- 

 ticular kinds of food detrimental to health, and led 

 to a division of animals into clean and unclean. 

 The filthiness of the hog, and its tendency to en- 

 gender cutaneous diseases, have caused it to be pro- 

 scribed in most warm countries. The interdict 

 laid down in the Koran, in which the Mussulman 

 doctors comprehend beasts and birds of prey, does 

 not extend so far as the Mosaic catalogue. AH 

 amphibious animals are unclean ; so are the ass and 

 mule : but lawyers differ about the horse. Camels 

 are lawful, hares neuter ; but it is a mistake of 

 ignorant writers to accuse the Arabs of feeding on. 



