Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 18, 1907.djvu/460

418 coincided with the Harranian fast-month. In its Muhammedan form the fast extending over a whole month is looked upon as a means of expiation. It is said that by the observance of it a person will be pardoned all his past venial sins, and that only those who keep it will be allowed to enter through the gate of heaven called Rayyân. But this is only another instance of the common fact that customs often for an incalculable period survive the motives from which they sprang.

In various religions we meet with fasting as a form of penance, as a means of appeasing an angry or indignant God, as an expiation for sin. The voluntary suffering involved in it is regarded as an expression of sorrow and repentance pleasing to God, as a substitute for the punishment which He otherwise would inflict upon the sinner; and at the same time it may be thought to excite His compassion, an idea noticeable in many Jewish fasts. Among the Jews individuals fasted in cases of private distress or danger: Ahab, for instance, when Elijah predicted his downfall, Ezra and his companions before their journey to Palestine, the pious Israelite when his friends were sick. Moreover, fasts were instituted for the whole community when it believed itself to be under divine displeasure, when danger