This reason, however, seems too trifling for such a rigid fast, and the Turkish tradition, that the Koran was sent down from heaven during this month, offers a more probable explanation.

In order to practice asceticism, it is the rule to make this time of rest a period of strictest fasts, most diligent study of the holy writings, and deepest meditation.

"Most faithfully observant," says Erasmus, "of the ordinances and rites of the church, to wit, prescribed fasts, holy days, forbidden meats, masses, sermons, and, in a word, all, that tends to piety, he strongly reprobated the doctrines of Luther."

From Sussex he went often to London, where, in 1643, he preached three times before the parliament; and, returning in November to Colchester, to keep the monthly fast there, as was his custom, he obtained a convoy of sixteen soldiers, whose bravery or good fortune was such, that they faced, and put to flight, more than two hundred of the king's forces.

The city, it is true, is much more stern and serious during the day; there is none of that gay, careless life of the Orient which you see in Smyrna, Cairo, and Damascus; but when once the sunset gun has fired, and the painful fast is at an end, the picture changes as if by magic.

With its naturally ardent temperament irritated by months of bitter cold, its constitutional hunger aggravated by a prolonged fast, its appetite tempted by a novel diet in the form of British soldiery well-washed and firm-fleshed after years of Army rations, the North Russian mosquito is likely, in the opinion of experts, to take a high place among the more deadly horrors of war.

The quarterly fast was observed in Haxby for the first time: I found it good to unite with them.

Certainly it does not become us to try to search out the unsearchable mind of God, but I think it is permitted us to hope, that the remarkable fast of Kindness engendering Love, which we experience in our own hearts, is intended to lead us upwards as by a holy guiding thread, to some comprehension of the Love of that God, who in Christ Jesus actually gave Himself for us.

While thus secluded, she was called asta, that is 'interred alive' in Carrier, and she had to submit to a rigorous fast and abstinence.

In Ramadan (Dec. to January), therefore, Mahomet instituted a separate fast for the Faithful.

I now had not a half-farthing's worth of parched grain [to grind between my jaws,] and give a relish to the water I drank: I endured two or three severe fasts, but could no longer bear [the cravings of] hunger.

They make one's sit-fast strength and one's active momentum,they are the solid substance of one's self.

She kept four days each year as solemn fasts, remaining in her own room.

The Athenians likewise observed stated fasts, two of which were named "the Elusinian and Thesmoporian fasts;" the observation of these fasts was extremely rigid, especially amongst women, who, in mournful dresses, spent one whole day sitting on the ground (their sign of grief,) without taking the least food.

For this tremendous fast which you are to make believe a feast, trust in each other is the one condition that may avail.

Thus, in France it began on St. Martin's Day (11 November) and ended with Christmas, France kept Advent with tri-weekly fasts.

The way to win the restive world to God, Was to lay by the disciplining rod, Unnatural fasts, and foreign forms of prayer: Religion frights us with a mien severe.

Pythagoras fasted sometimes as long as forty days; his disciples followed the example of their master; and after his death they kept a continual fast, in which they denounced the inhabitants of the deep as well as the creatures of the meadow.

Thus, in France it began on St. Martin's Day (11 November) and ended with Christmas, France kept Advent with tri-weekly fasts.

We had no food of any kind left, but after all we did not anticipate much serious evil from a forced fast of forty-eight hours; so, after rewarding our wanderer for his very seasonable warning, we struck off to cross the Espion Pass.

This, with their reliance on the guardian spirits of whom they have dreamed at their initial fasts, throws around them a double influence, making them both invisible and invulnerable.