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Nephes Ogli

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(i.e., Son of the Holy Spirit) is a title given in the East to certain persons who are supposed to be born after an extraordinary manner, e.g. of a mother that is a virgin. We are told that there are Turkish young women who live in certain retired places where they never see a man. They go but seldom to the mosques, and when they come thither they stay there from nine till twelve at night, and accompany their prayers with so many distortions of the body and cries that their strength is quite exhausted, and they often fall to the ground in a swoon. If from that time they find themselves with child they pretend it is by the favor of the Holy Spirit; and for this reason the children they bring forth are called Nephes Ogli. The Nephes Ogli thus pretended to be miraculously born are looked upon as persons who have the gift of working miracles, and it is claimed that their hair or pieces of their garments cure all sorts of diseases. See Broughton, Bibliotheca Historica Sacra, 2:162; Hottinger, Hist. Orient. page 295.