(260)

BLINDNESS, MORAL

There came a day when, in her solemn assembly, France voted to cast off the recognition of Almighty God. She lifted up instead the Goddess of Reason, and in her delirium the multitude placed a daughter of pleasure in a chariot, crowned her with flowers, and determined to worship the body, instead of the Angel of Duty. But smashing the telescope does not put out the stars. Voting not to have any sun does not annihilate the summer. The microscope may show the germs of death in the reservoir, but breaking the microscope will not cleanse the springs.—N. D. Hillis.

(261)

BLOOD, CRY FOR

The Arabs have a belief that over the grave of a murdered man his spirit hovers in the form of a bird that cries, “Give me drink! Give me drink!” and only ceases to cry when the murder is avenged by the death of the murderer. (Text.)

(262)

BLOOD, THE AVENGER OF

A Bedouin horseman riding along a desert track, seeing the sign of blood on the side of the road, will instantly dismount and cover it with earth “to lay the mâred” (the avenger of blood). The idea is that the spirit of him who died by an act of violence, the victim of man’s hate, the mâred, calls for vengeance on him who has taken the life of his fellow man.—“The Witness of the Wilderness.”

(263)