74 ROGER OP WENDOVEX. [A.D. 622. tories of the eastern empire, which he wrested from Heraclius as far as Alexandria. After this Mahomet became subject to epileptic fits, on perceiving which, his wife, Cadisan, was exceedingly sad at having married a most unclean and epileptic man. Desiring to pacify her, he told her that the angel Gabriel was in the habit of speaking to him, and that, being a carnal man, he could not endure his glory, and so fainted and fell. The woman thereupon, and all the Arabs and Ishmaelites, believed that he received the laws which he gave them from the mouth of an archangel, inasmuch as the archangel Gabriel is often sent unto men. Moreover, he declared that pleasures and carnal delights are the chief good ; wherefore I believe that, were he living at this day, he would find many disciples. A t length, having involved the aforesaid multitude of people in his heresy, at a certain hour in the evening, when he was sitting in his palace, intoxicated with wine, perceiving that his accustomed sickness was coming on him, he hastened forth, asserting that he was summoned to converse with an angel, forbidding any one to follow him, lest he should perish at the sight of the angel. That he might not be hurt in falling, he got on a dung heap, where he fell down, and rolled about, gnashing with his teeth and foaming; on seeing which, a number of swine which were there ran and tore him in pieces, and so put an end to him. His wrife and family, on hearing the outcry of the swine, went out and found the body of their lord, for the most part, eaten by them. Collecting his remains, they deposited them with all honour in a coffer wrought with gold and silver, declaring that the angels of God, scarcely leaving his body on the earth, had carried off his soul with joy to the delights of heaven.* It was a part of his doctrine, that those who slay their enemies, "or are slain by them, enter Paradise, and that there they have the carnal enjoyment of eating and drinking, a river of wine, milk, and honey, carnal enjoyment of women, not as they are now, but a different sort of beings, and every kind of pleasure. He * This account of the death of Mahomet is found in no historians of credit, and may therefore be considered as altogether fabulous. Dr. Prideaux concludes that he died in 632, aged sixty-three years. Life of Mahomet, 1708, p. 134.