The assertion generally passes current that the idea of an Omnipotent
Being is familiar to all people, even the most barbarous. My limited
experience argues the contrary. Savages begin with fetisism and demon-
worship, they proceed to physiolatry (the religion of the Vedas) and
Sabaeism: the deity is the last and highest pinnacle of the spiritual
temple, not placed there except by a comparatively civilised race of high
development, which leads them to study and speculate upon cosmical and
psychical themes. This progression is admirably wrought out in Professor
Max Muller's "Rig Veda Sanhita."

[22] The Moslem corpse is partly sentient in the tomb, reminding the
reader of Tennyson:

"I thought the dead had peace, but it is not so;
To have no peace in the grave, is that not sad?"

[23] The prayers for the dead have no Rukaat or bow as in other orisons.

[24] The general Moslem name for the African coast from the Somali
seaboard southwards to the Mozambique, inhabited by negrotic races.

[25] The Moslem rosary consists of ninety-nine beads divided into sets of
thirty-three each by some peculiar sign, as a bit of red coral.
[Illustration] The consulter, beginning at a chance place, counts up to
the mark: if the number of beads be odd, he sets down a single dot, if
even, two. This is done four times, when a figure is produced as in the
margin. Of these there are sixteen, each having its peculiar name and
properties. The art is merely Geomancy in its rudest shape; a mode of
vaticination which, from its wide diffusion, must be of high antiquity.
The Arabs call it El Baml, and ascribe its present form to the Imam Jaafar