Birmingham.
_Crescent_ (Vol. vii., p. 235.).--In Judges, ch. viii. ver. 21., Gideon
is recorded to have taken away from Zeba and Zalmunna, kings of Midian,
"the ornaments that were on their camels' necks." The marginal
translation has "ornaments like the moon;" and in verse 24. it is stated
that the Midianites were _Ishmaelites_. If, therefore, it be borne in
mind that Mohammed was an Arabian, and that the Arabians were
Ishmaelites, we may perhaps be allowed to infer that the origin of the
use of the crescent was not as a symbol of Mohammed's religion, but that
it was adopted by his countrymen and followers from their ancestors, and
may be referred to at least as far back as 1249 B.C., when Zeba and
Zalmunna were slain, and when it seems to have been the customary
ornament of the Ishmaelites.