The Belief In Predestination, However, Is So Deeply And Universally Rooted In The Minds Of The Eastern Nations, That Not The Slightest Measures Of Safety Are Any Where Adopted.

The numberless extraordinary instances of the disease sparing those who have come into closest contact with it, confirm them

In their opinion that it is not epidemic; and their prophet Mohammed has declared to them, "that the plague is caused by the demon's hostile attack upon mankind," and that "those who die of it are martyrs." The universal opinion

[p.415] prevails among Moslims, that an invisible angel of death, armed with a lance, touches the victims he destines for the plague, whom he finds out in the most hidden recesses. The trunk of a palm-tree lay in one of the streets of Yembo, and it had been observed that many people who had stepped over it, had soon after been seized with the plague; it was therefore believed that the demon had there taken his favourite stand, to wound the passer-by; and therefore the Arabs took a circuitous road, to avoid their foe, although they were persuaded that he was light-footed and could overtake them wherever they went.

That the Christians and Franks escape the disease by shutting themselves up in their houses, affords but a feeble proof to the contrary. Imprudence, and the tardy adoption of these measures, always cause a slight mortality even among them; and such cases are afterwards adduced in proof of the folly of attempting to oppose the decrees of Providence. Besides, there are many Christians in the East, who follow Turkish maxims, and, impressed with the same notions of predestination, think it superfluous to take any steps for their safety.

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