spirit of man to enjoy, and are in accordance with his truest and inmost requirements of heart and spirit. For man's spirit cannot be satisfied with carnal and unreal pleasures, or with ease and comfort, but needs for its satisfaction and support true, spiritual food.

The teaching of the Qur'an and the Traditions of both Sunnis and Shi'ites presents a complete contrast to all that we have learnt from the New Testament regarding the happiness of the next world. It is with great regret that we refer at all to this matter, but to pass over it would be to conceal the truth. According to Muslim Traditions, in the next world the Muslim who belongs to the number of those who enter paradise will there, in the immediate presence of God most holy, indulge in sensual pleasure and in carnal delights as much as he can. To deal first with very unimportant matters, we are told that in paradise they will remain in chambers made of pearl and jacinth and emerald, upon the golden ceilings of which will be drawings traced in silver. They will be clad in seventy robes each, of various colours, made of silver, gold, pearl, jacinth and silk, and will be seated upon sofas made of gold wire, studded with pearls and precious stones. But, besides all this luxury, there is another kind of pleasure promised to Muslims. Every Muslim will have seventy Huris and 800 virgins and 4,000 other young women (ثيّبات): and some thousands of youths and Ghilmin

(غلمان),with ear-rings in their ears, bearing cups of silver, gold, and jewels, filled with a special kind of wine, will stand around the Muslims. By the rivers of paradise there will grow up from the ground slave-girls, so that, if one of them please a Muslim, he may pluck her out of the ground, when another will grow up in her stead. There Muslims will have very fine long wide parks, in which will flow rivers of wine such that it will not cause headache, intoxication, vomiting or bitterness, and streams of such purified honey and milk that they never change their flavour. Muslims will there eat various kinds of fruit and a variety of other food. In every Muslim's house there will be a branch of the tree Tuba (طوبىا), and whatever he desires that branch will bear for him. Boughs laden with fruit will hang near him, so that as he sits he may eat the fruit, plucking it with his mouth. In paradise there will be a tree, from beneath which will come forth winged steeds bridled and saddled, and when the Muslims mount them they will fly like birds. There will be in paradise various kinds of birds. When a Muslim wishes to eat any one of them, that bird will alight and its feathers will fall off before the Muslim, and it will become cooked in such a style that it will be roasted on one side and fried on the other. And when the Muslim, having eaten as much as his appetite requires, says, 'Praise be to God,¹ Lord of