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