The Equinox (Volume I, Number III)

THE THIEF-TAKER Saip JELLAL UD DIN BIN MESsAouD Trusted to Allah for his daily food; And so with favour was the Saint anointed That never yet had he been disappointed. One day this pious person wished to shave His head; a sly and sacrilegious knave Passed; when the good man would resume his prayer, Alas! his turban was no longer there. In rushed Mohammed, Hassan, and Husein: “See! there he goes, the bastard of a swine. Hasten, and catch him!” But the good man went With melancholy pace and sad intent Unto the burying-ground without the wall; And there he sat, stern and funereal, Wrapped in deep thought from any outward sense, A monument of earnest patience! “Sire!” (a disciple dared at length to say) “That wicked person took another way.” “Wide is the desert,” said the saintly seer: “ But this is certain, that he must come here.” ALEISTER CROWLEY. 291