History of the Parsis : including their manners, customs, religion and present position : with coloured and other illustrations : in two volumes

16 AISTORYV OF THE PARSIS. [CHAP. I.

you food and raiment; we will deal liberally with your chiefs, and we will give you a king who will govern you with gentleness and wisdom.”

The deputation kept silence for a while, but one of its members soon broke it. ‘‘ My companions,” said he, “are men of distinction among Arabs. If, in consequence of a demeanour which their sense of delicacy impels them to use towards an august personage, they hesitate to reply, and frankly to express their thoughts, I shall do it for them and speak with the liberty of a Bedawi. What thou hast said about our poverty, our divisions, and our state of barbarism was quite true. Yes, we were so wretched that persons could be seen among us appeasing their hunger by feeding on insects and serpents, whilst some killed their daughters to avoid sharing their food with them. Plunged in the darkness of superstition and idolatry, without laws or restraint, always foes to each other, we were occupied only in robbing and killing where we could. This is what we have been. At present we are anew people. Allah has raised in our midst a man, the most distinguished of Arabs by the nobility of his birth, by his virtues, by his genius; and Allah has selected him to be His Apostle and His Prophet. Through the organ of this man Allah has said to us: ‘I am the only God, the eternal, the creator of the universe. My goodness sends you a euide to direct you. The way which He shows you will deliver you