The Scented Garden

Ecstasy beyond all price : but to be had by 135 him who casts away all other desires. 1. Cf. Canticles ; and Matthew, “ What shall a man give in exchange for his soul ? ” 2. Refers to the Ghazi, still a terror to our Fron- tier officials in N.W. India. The method of manu- facture is interesting. A poor and despairing man is selected and watched. One night, as he slinks through some deserted beggar’s haunt, he is se- cretly drugged and conveyed to a palatial house with gardens and fountains. He awakes to find himself robed in fine linen and purple, surrounded by rich wines and foods, and by an adoring bevy of the most luscious beauties that he can im- agine. He is however always kept to a certain ex- tent under the influence of hashish, in order to bewilder him slightly, and to cause him partially to doubt the reality of his present joy. In a week or so he is again drugged, dressed in his old rags, and abandoned in the same beggar’s haunt as be- fore. He wakes up utterly miserable, and consults the local Mullah as to his experience. “ My son ! ” replies the good man “ favoured of Heaven ! You have had a vision of the realms of Paradise.” He naturally wants to know how to get back, and the Mullah reiterates the well-known blessing on those who die, slaying infidels, and further indicates such and such a Sahib — who has probably made himself obnoxious to the faithful in some way — as a suitable person to attack. Lord Curzon however very wisely met this manoevre by ordering the cre- mation of murderers of this type. If the body of a Musselman is burnt he cannot go to Paradise ; for the os coccygis, from which God will raise his body from the dust, is destroyed. But it would probably be waste of time to explain all this to Mr. Keir Hardie.