The Mahometans regard Friday above othe⟨r⟩ days of the ⟨we⟩ek and regularly attend their places of public worship at noon, and some of them will do no business all that day, because they believe it was on Friday th⟨at⟩ Mahomet, being persecuted by the idolatrous inhabitants of Mecca ⟨was⟩ forced to fly for safety from that city to Medina.
Tho’ the Mahometans be prohibited the use o⟨f⟩ wine, yet many of them do not look upon it as absolutely forbidden; and even those who do, cannot help confessing it is an excellent liquour, and that the temptation is so inviting, that the sin o⟨f⟩ drinking it is very excusable. When a Mahometan has tasted the least drop of wine, he thinks th⟨e⟩ crime will be no greater if he drinks a gallon, and therefore if they once begin, they swallow it down so plentifully, that they are usually intoxicated before they desist; and tho’ some of them abstain from wine all their lifetime, yet the generality of them make no great scruple of drinking it in private.
With respect to swines flesh, and things stra⟨ng⟩led, here is a great number of the Mahom⟨etans⟩ have them in abhorrence, insomuch that they imagine themselves polluted even by an ac(illegible text) touch of them, and are forced to have recourse (illegible text) their oblations to wash away the defilement; (illegible text) there are others of them, that look upon the (illegible text)ing or touching of swines flesh or things strangled as not absolutely prohibited; but there are such a variety of sects among them, and some of them differing so very widely one from another, to give any particular account of them, would be almost impossible, so we shall here put an end to the history of that grand Impostor and his followers.
FINIS
