Note 361 — THE MAN OF AL-YAMAN AND HIS SIX SLAVE-GIRLS.

Alluding to the “black drop” in the heart: it was taken from Mohammed’s by the Archangel Gabriel. The fable seems to have arisen from the verse “Have we not opened thy breast?” (Koran, chapt. xciv. 1). The popular tale is that Halímah, the Badawi nurse of Mohammed, of the Banu Sa’ad tribe, once saw her son, also a child, running towards her and asked him what was the matter. He answered, “My little brother was seized by two men in white who stretched him on the ground and opened his belly!” For a full account and deductions see the Rev. Mr. Badger’s article, “Muhammed” (p. 959) in vol. iii. “Dictionary of Christian Biography.”