The Scented Garden

120 Concentration. XXXIV THE TALISMAN Upon the Shah’s third finger gleams A ruby bright as summer’s beams. It hath a magic spell, men say, To guard him from deceitful dreams. Nor while thy podex grips my tool Canst thou deceive me, boy, it seems.1 If other thoughts invade my heart, Of thee my heart but lightly deems. As he who worships Allah2 knows, His Teacher light the fool esteems Whose mind is occupied with sense — And how the crowd of senses teems !3 But El Qahar doth love ; collects Into one ocean all the streams.4 1. This is the Rabelasian jest — the story of Hans Carvels ring — in Eastern dress. 2. Again a confusion. He refers to the Sufi, not to the Zahid. (Teacher is nominative — fool accu- sative. Ed.) 3. Anyone who has practised even for a short time any of the Eastern systems of meditation will realize the force of this remark. No person who has