"Is it a sin that your country has committed that it is thus condemned," he went on, "or is the jinn an evil spirit under whose curse it lies?"
"We do not know," I said. "There are some of the younger men who are trying to discover; they do not do as the jinn says, and so they do not live happily amongst others; many of them live apart, and we call them cranks and are afraid of them."
"Are they wicked men, then?"
"No, they are good men as a rule, but in our country we do not understand the people who do not do what others do."
"But if you all do the same," said Hassan, "how can you progress? We in the East have not changed our customs, so we do not progress. Do you never change then either, you in the West?"
"We change very slowly," I answered, "because we tend to the thought that if a thing has always been, then it is good."
"Amān, amān," said Hassan.
APPENDIX
ITINERARY OF JOURNEY