290 MATTHEW OF WESTMUTSTEB. A.B. 622. him, and as she was a widow, she took him for her husband. And in that way Mahomet obtained the principality of the whole of that province. But at last, the Arabs who adhered to him, began to attack the kingdom of Persia, and after that, the territories of the Eastern Empire, and invaded Alexandria, in the reign of Heractins. After this, Mahomet began frequently to fall down in epileptic fits, which Cadijah, his wife, seeing, was greatly grieved at having married an unclean and epileptic man ; and so he wishing to pacify her, said, that the angel Gabriel was conversing with him, and that he, as being a carnal man, was unable to support his brightness, and on that account, he asserted that it was that he had fallen down and fainted. And so his wife, and all the Arabs and Ishmaelites, believed that he received the laws from the mouth of the archangel, which he afterwards gave them ; because the archangel Gabriel is often sent to mankind. He used to preach that pleasures and carnal delights were not to be preferred to future happiness, though uncertain, and to five with glory was the highest good. On which account, I imagine, that if he were alive at the present day, he would find many disciples. At last, when he had entangled such a number of men, as I have described, in his heresy, one evening, when he was sitting in his palace inebriated with strong wine, which had, however, been poisoned by the touch of one of his companions, he knew that his accustomed sickness was coming upon him, and so went out in haste, saying that he was invited to a conference with an angel, and ordering that no one should follow him, lest he should be unable to support the angelic brightness, which he himself was unable to bear, and so should die. And he ascended a dunghill, that he might not hurt himself in falling, and immediately fell down on the heap, and rolled about up and down, gnashing his teeth and foaming. And a multitude of pigs which were near, seeing this, ran up, and tearing him to pieces, choked him. But his wife and family, hearing the noise of the pigs, ran out.in astonishment, and found the body of their master for the most part devoured by the pigs. But because he had predicted his resurrection within three days, they carefully preserved his body ; but when thirty days had passed, and he did not rise again, then his accomplices, that they might not be convicted of falsehood, as they had often in preaching borne testimony to him, buried his body, tut