a mahomedan’s story. 
115 
strict requisitions of the religion of which I had 
hitherto been a zealous advocate began to give way 
before my desire to become possessed of this lovely 
idolatress. She was known to have had two or three 
children ; but, as they invariably disappeared as soon 
as they were born, it was reported that they had 
been received into the bosom of Siva, among the 
suras * of the supreme paradise, as the offspring of his 
vicegerent upon earth; for so great was the reputed 
sanctity of this wily devotee, that he was looked 
upon as the accredited minister of the Godhead him- 
self. 
“ I had heard much of this extraordinary man, but 
held in supreme contempt the marvels that were re- 
lated of him, as the mere fabrications of superstition ; 
when, however, I saw the subject of these marvels, I 
felt satisfied that, instead of being accredited in this 
world by the source of all good, as he would fain re- 
present, he was, on the contrary, a most consummate 
agent of the source of all evil. His countenance was 
an index of every thing that was vicious and repulsive, 
and I could not help pitying the unhappy creature who 
was doomed to share the dreary home of a being so 
externally hideous, and whom I suspected to be no less 
deformed in mind than in body. Having one day 
caught a sight of the lovely victim of superstition, for 
such she indeed proved to be, I determined to try if I 
could not ascertain from her something concerning the 
supernatural communications of the Ab’dhoot to whom 
she appeared to have so unaccountably devoted her- 
self. I accordingly one morning watched him from 
* Suras are good angels. 
