The Scented Garden

The falsity of the Orthodox. 119 this type — as a kind of extra insult to the Mul- lah ; (2) feared stoning if he signed it. The strong- est argument for its genuineness is that the secret key-letter is right ; if we canceled the ode it would make nonsense of all the following ones. Unless indeed, this ode replaces a genuine one. For which there is not a jot or tittle of evidence. 2. This is the boldest attack on orthodoxy that we have met in Eastern literature. The paternity of Islam — its divine origin — is said to be uncer- tain ; the character of Mohammed, its mother, is vilified, the suggestion being that he received the Q’uran from all sorts of evil spirits ; while of the religion itself he asserts dullness and inutility. 3. The old humbug — lit. this Saiyid of Same- ra. A Saiyid is one of Mohammed’s own tribe ; but at Samera there is an establishment for forging pe- digrees, in all respects precisely similar to our own Herald’s College. 4. Combined with the information in 31, that the Mullah is one-eyed, this suggests that el Haji wishes to identify him with [Persian text] dajjal, An- tichrist, who is usually spoken of as a one-eyed man riding upon an ass. Thus he may mean : “ The Spirit of Orthodoxy is the spirit of Anti- christ.” It would at least be in keeping with the rest of his opinions, and the symbol is lucid and keen. 5. One M.S. has “ cornered ” (shashdar shudan), a technical term in backgammon, when the game, though not actually finished, is seen to be hopeless for one of the players.