hat cometh from his
nose. And unless thou teachest me to do as he doth I shall assuredly
perish.'

"And I told Abdallah that it was better to perish for the truth's sake than
to prolong life by lies and deceit. But he wept and lamented exceeding
sore, and in the end he prevailed with me; and I taught him to breathe
flame and smoke out of a hollow nut filled with combustible powder. And I
took a certain substance called soap, but little known in this country, and
anointed his feet therewith. And when he and the sorcerer met, both
breathing flame, the people knew not which to follow; but when Abdallah
walked over nine hot ploughshares, and the sorcerer could not touch one of
them, they beat his brains out, and became Abdallah's disciples.

"A long time afterward Abdallah came to me again, this time with a joyful,
and yet with somewhat of a troubled look, carrying a camel-hair blanket,
which he undid, and lo! it was full of bones.

"'O father,' he said, 'I bring thee happy tidings. We have found the bones
of the camel of the prophet Ad, upon which his revelation was engraved by
him.'

"'If this be so,' said I, 'thou art acquainted with the precepts of the
prophet, and hast no need of mine.'

"'Nay, but father,' said he, 'although the revelation was without question
originally engraved by the prophet on these very bones, it hath come to
pass by the injury of time that not one letter of his writing can be
distinguished. I have therefore come to ask thee to write it over again.'

"'What!' I exclaimed, 'I forge a revelation in the name of the prophet Ad!
Get thee behind me!'

"'Thou knowest, father,' he rejoined, 'that if we had the original words of
the prophet Ad here they would profit us nought, as by reason of their
antiquity none would understand them. Seeing therefore that I myself cannot
write, it is meet that thou shouldst set down in his name those things
which he would have desired to deliver had he been now among us; but if
thou wilt not, I shall ask Brother Gregory.'

"And when I heard him speak of having recourse to that cheat and impostor
my spirit was grieved within me, and I wrote the Book of Ad myself. And I
was heedful to put in none but wholesome and profitable precepts, and more
especially did I forbid polygamy, having perceived a certain inclination
thereunto in my disciple.

"After many days he came again, and this time he was in violent terror and
agitation, and hair was wanting to the lower pa