They Likewise Repeat The Name Of
God, And That Of Mahomet, A Certain Number Of Times Every Day, Telling
Over Their Beads, Like The Misled Papists, Who Seem To Regard The Number
Of Prayers More Than Their Sincerity.
Before going into their mosques
they wash their feet, and, in entering, put off their shoes.
On
beginning their devotions, they stop their ears, and fix their eyes,
that no extraneous circumstances may divert their thoughts, and then
utter their prayers in a soft and still voice, using many words
significantly expressive of the omnipotence, goodness, eternity, and
other attributes of God. Likewise many words full of humility,
confessing their unworthiness with many submissive gestures. While
praying, they frequently prostrate themselves on their faces,
acknowledging that they are burdens upon the earth, poisonous to the
air, and the like, and therefore dare not look up to heaven, but comfort
themselves in the mercy of God, through the intercession of their false
prophet. Many among them, to the shame of us Christians, pray five tunes
a-day, whatever may happen to be their interruptions of pleasure or
profit. Their set times are at the hours of six, nine, twelve, three,
and six, respectively.
The manner in which they divide the day is quite different from us; as
they divide the day and the night each into four equal parts, which they
denominate pores, and these again are each subdivided into eight
smaller parts, called grees. [Hence each pore contains three of our
hours, and each gree is equal to 22-1/2 of our minutes.] These are
measured, according to an ancient custom, by means of water, dropping
from one small vessel into another, beside which there always stand
servants appointed for the purpose, who strike with a hammer upon a
concave plate of metal, like the inner portion of a plate, hung by a
wire, thus denoting the pores and grees successively as they
pass.[238] Like the mother and her seven sons, mentioned in the
Maccabees, such is the temperance of many, both among the Mahometans and
Gentiles, that they will rather die than eat or drink of any thing
forbidden by their law. Such meats and drinks as their law allows, they
use only in moderation, to satisfy nature, not to please their
appetites, hating gluttony, and esteeming drunkenness a sin, as it
really is, or a second madness; and indeed their language has only one
word, mest, for a drunkard and a madman.
[Footnote 238: This device for measuring time is the same with the
clepsydra, or water-clocks, of the ancients. - Purch.]
They keep yearly a solemn feast, or Lent, which they call Ram jan,
[Ramadan] about the month of August, which continues a whole moon;
during which time, those who are strict in their religious observances,
avoid the embraces of their women, and abstain from meat or drink so
long as the sun is above the horizon, but eat after it sets, at their
pleasure. Towards the close of this Lent, or ramadan, they consecrate
one day of mourning, in memory of their departed friends; on which
occasions, I have seen many of the meaner people making bitter
lamentations.
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