of the children. The children which they have by their ſlaves are indifferently eſtemed with thoſe of their wives, and are all held as legitimate.
They have Temples, Colleges, and Hoſpitalls well revenued; they have covents of Religious, that live exemplarily; obey their Superiours without contradiction, and dance after the ſound of Flutes and other inſtruments when they make their prayers.
They have moreover another ſort of Religious Vagabonds through the world, clothed like fools of that Country; they often go naked and cut their skin in many places, are held to be holy perſons, and live by alms, which are never refuſed them; both the one and the other ſort of Religious are called Dervis, they are know by their habit, and can retire and marry when they pleaſe
They deny Jeſus Chriſt to be God, or the Son of God; neither believe they in the holy Trinity: they ſay that Jeſus Chriſt was a great Prophet, born of the Virgin Mary, a Virgin both before and after her delivery; that he was conveived by divine inſpiration, or by divine breath, without a father, as Adam was created without a mother; that he was not crucified, that God took him into heaven, and that he ſhall come again on earth at the end of the world to confirm the Law of Mahomet; they likewiſe affirm that the Jews thinking to crucifie Jeſus Chriſt, crucified a man among them that reſembled him.
They pray to God for the Dead, they invoke their Saints, of whom they have a large Legend, nevertheleſs they believe not in Purgatory; and many amongA great queſtion among Mahometans. them imagine that the ſoul and body remain toge-