Meer Hassan Ali, B.: Observations on the Mussulmauns of India: descriptive of their manners, customs, habits, and religious opinions ; made during a twelve years residence in their immediate Society (Band 1) (London, 1832)

144 DISCOURSE WITH THE

men of the country, I have heard them declare
it as their firm belief that the time was fast
approaching when there should be but one mind
amongst all men. "There is but little more
to finish;" "The time draws near;" are ex-
pressions of the Mussulmauns' belief, when dis-
coursing of the period anticipated, as prophesied
in their sacred writings;—so persuaded are they
of the nearness of that time. In relating the
substance of my last serious conversation with
the devout Meer Hadjee Shaah, I shall disclose
the real sentiments of most, if not every religious,
reflecting, true Mussulmaun of his sect in India.
Meer Hadjee Shaah delighted in religious
conversations, it was his happiest time when in
the quiet of night, the Meer, his son, translated,
as I read, the Holy Bible to him. We have often
been thus engaged until one or two, and even
to a later hour in the morning; he remem-
bered all he heard, and drew comparisons, in
his own mind, between the two authorities of
sacred writings—the Khoraun and Bible; the
one he had studied through his long life, the
other, he was now equally satisfied, contained