| PAGE | |
| The Enemies to Each Other | [1] |
| The Changelings | [19] |
| Sea Constables: A Tale of ’15 | [20] |
| The Vineyard | [41] |
| “Banquet Night” | [45] |
| “In the Interests of the Brethren” | [47] |
| To the Companions (Horace, Ode 17, Bk. V) | [69] |
| The United Idolaters | [70] |
| The Centaurs | [89] |
| “Late Came the God” | [93] |
| The Wish House | [94] |
| Rahere | [117] |
| The Survival (Horace, Ode 22, Bk. V) | [123] |
| The Janeites | [124] |
| Jane’s Marriage | [148] |
| The Portent (Horace, Ode 20, Bk. V) | [153] |
| The Prophet and the Country | [154] |
| Gow’s Watch: Act IV, Sc. 4 | [171] |
| The Bull That Thought | [177] |
| Alnaschar and the Oxen | [196] |
| Gipsy Vans | [201] |
| A Madonna of the Trenches | [203] |
| Gow’s Watch: Act V. Sc. 3 | [223] |
| The Birthright | [229] |
| The Propagation of Knowledge | [230] |
| A Legend of Truth | [257] |
| A Friend of the Family | [259] |
| We and They | [277] |
| On the Gate: A Tale of ’16 | [281] |
| The Supports | [303] |
| Untimely | [309] |
| The Eye of Allah | [310] |
| The Last Ode: Nov. 27, B.C. 8 (Horace, Ode 31, Bk. V) | [336] |
| The Gardener | [339] |
| The Burden | [353] |
THE ENEMIES TO EACH OTHER
With Apologies to the Shade of Mirza Mirkhond
THE ENEMIES TO EACH OTHER
It is narrated (and God knows best the true state of the case) by Abu Ali Jafir Bin Yakub-ulisfahani that when, in His determinate Will, The Benefactor had decided to create the Greatest Substitute (Adam), He despatched, as is known, the faithful and the excellent Archangel Jibrail to gather from Earth clays, loams, and sands endowed with various colours and attributes, necessary for the substance of our pure Forefather’s body. Receiving the Command and reaching the place, Jibrail put forth his hand to take them, but Earth shook and lamented and supplicated him. Then said Jibrail: “Lie still and rejoice, for out of thee He will create that than which (there) is no handsomer thing—to wit a Successor and a Wearer of the Diadem over thee through the ages.” Earth said: “I adjure thee to abstain from thy purpose, lest evil and condemnation of that person who is created out of me should later overtake him, and the Abiding (sorrow) be loosed upon my head. I have no power to resist the Will of the Most High, but I take refuge with Allah from thee.” So Jibrail was moved by the lamentations and helplessness of Earth, and returned to the Vestibule of the Glory with an empty hand.
After this, by the Permission, the Just and Terrible Archangel Michael next descended, and he, likewise, hearing and seeing the abjection of Earth, returned with an empty hand. Then was sent the Archangel Azrael, and when Earth had once again implored God, and once again cried out, he closed his hand upon her bosom and tore out the clays and sands necessary.
Upon his return to the Vestibule it was asked if Earth had again taken refuge with Allah or not? Azrael said: “Yes.” It was answered: “If it took refuge with Me why didst thou not spare?” Azrael answered: “Obedience (to Thee) was more obligatory than Pity (for it).” It was answered: “Depart! I have made thee the Angel of Death to separate the souls from the bodies of men.” Azrael wept, saying: “Thus shall all men hate me.” It was answered: “Thou hast said that Obedience is more obligatory than Pity. Mix thou the clays and the sands and lay them to dry between Tayif and Mecca till the time appointed.” So, then, Azrael departed and did according to the Command. But in his haste he perceived not that he had torn out from Earth clays and minerals that had lain in her at war with each other since the first; nor did he withdraw them and set them aside. And in his grief that he should have been decreed the Separator of Companions, his tears mingled with them in the mixing so that the substance of Adam’s body was made unconformable and ill-assorted, pierced with burning drops, and at issue with itself before there was (cause of) strife.
This, then, lay out to dry for forty years between Tayif and Mecca and, through all that time, the Beneficence of the Almighty leavened it and rained upon it the Mercy and the Blessing, and the properties necessary to the adornment of the Successorship. In that period, too, it is narrated that the Angels passed to and fro above it, and among them Eblis the Accursed, who smote the predestined Creation while it was drying, and it rang hollow. Eblis then looked more closely and observing that of which it was composed to be diverse and ill-assorted and impregnated with bitter tears, he said: “Doubt not I shall soon attain authority over this; and his ruin shall be easy.” (This, too, lay in the foreknowledge of The Endless.)
When time was that the chain of cause and effect should be surrendered to Man’s will, and the vessels of desire and intention entrusted to his intelligence, and the tent of his body illuminated by the lamp of vitality, the Soul was despatched, by Command of the Almighty, with the Archangel Jibrail, towards that body. But the Soul being thin and subtle refused, at first, to enter the thick and diverse clays, saying: “I have fear of that (which is) to be.” This it cried twice, till it received the Word: “Enter unwillingly, and unwillingly depart.” Then only it entered. And when that agony was accomplished, the Word came: “My Compassion exceedeth My Wrath.” It is narrated that these were the first words of which our pure Forefather had cognisance.
Afterwards, by the operation of the determinate Will, there arose in Adam a desire for a companion, and an intimate and a friend in the Garden of the Tree. It is narrated that he first took counsel of Earth (which had furnished) his body. Earth said: “Forbear. Is it not enough that one should have dominion over me?” Adam answered: “There is but one who is One in Earth or Heaven. All paired things point to the Unity, and my soul, which came not from thee, desires unutterably.” Earth said: “Be content in innocence, and let thy body, which I gave unwillingly, return thus to (me) thy mother.” Adam said: “I am motherless. What should I know?”