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