The Scented Garden

The Origin of Evil. 79 Ask also, an thou wilt, why in the beginning I chose not a youth of vasty podex, having hips like a buffalo. Because the perfections of thy podex are perfect by reason of the imperfections of thy po- dex.7 It is he who is lost in the darkness who re- joiceth at the rising of the moon. There are two laws, joy and sorrow, and they are twin babes feeding at the breast of Allah. Could El Qahar not rejoice in his sorrow, he would needs sorrow in his joy.8 1. This simile seems well-nigh universal ; but in Persia it probably comes from Egypt rather than from India. Here the sense is of course altered. 2. Yusuf — possibly represents that class of persons who ridicule and slander the Mystic. The epithets seem to uphold such a conclusion. 3. Ill-conditioned — The readings here are very various. We find ill-favoured, ill-mannered, infam- ous, ill-starred, ill-doing and so on. So I chose a word wide enough to include them all. 4. The Q’uran. Many Moslems know it by heart throughout. The interior riming of so many of the chapters makes this task curiously easy, even to a stranger. I found that I could readily master any of the shorter chapters in an hour or so, while the acquirement of a dozen stray words would last me the whole day. 5. This attempt to reconcile all-Power and all- Benevolence is formally identical with that of the veriest Evangelical, and is none the less shameless casuistry for its Oriental phraseology. 6. This is a common practical joke among friends. The recalcitrant pathic is treated more severely by sharp taps on the coccyx with the knuckle, dagger-hilt, or tent-peg. Genuine obsti- nacy would lead to the slitting of the muscle, and