Being
entertained at Khaibar, a young Jewess, to try, as she afterward said,
whether he were a prophet or not, poisoned a shoulder of mutton, a joint
Mahomet was particularly fond of. One of those who partook of it at the
table, named Basher, died upon the spot; but Mahomet, finding it taste
disagreeable, spat it out, saying, "This mutton tells me it is
poisoned." The miracle-mongers improve this story, by making the
shoulder of mutton speak to him; but if it did, it spoke too late, for
he had already swallowed some of it; and of the effects of that morsel
he complained in his last illness, of which he died three years after.
In this year, Jannabi mentions Mahomet's being bewitched by the Jews.
Having made a waxen image of him, they hid it in a well, together with a
comb and a tuft of hair tied in eleven knots. The prophet fell into a
very wasting condition, till he had a dream that informed him where
these implements of witchcraft were, and accordingly had them taken
away. In order to untie the knots Gabriel read to him the two last
chapters of the _Koran_, consisting of eleven verses; each verse untied
a knot, and, when all were untied, he recovered.
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