on the tomb, but who
durst obliterate what is inscribed on the dwellings of the dead?

There the mysterious inscription remained on the tomb for four years,
and in the fourth year its meaning was revealed.

Now this dervish was the _dzhin_ of Seleucia.

CHAPTER XVIII

THE BROKEN SWORDS

"Allah Kerim!
Allah akbar!
Great is God and mighty!"

What avails prayer if there be no longer any to hearken? What avails
the bright sword if there be none to wield it? What avails the open
book if there be none to understand what is written therein?

Ye nations of the half-moon! now is the time when the song of the
dervishes, and the scimitar, and the dirk, and the Kuran, can help no
more! From the west and from the north strange people are coming,
armed warriors in serried ranks, like a wall of steel, who are set in
motion, brought to a stand-still, expanded into an endless line,
contracted into a solid mass by a single brief word of command. Before
the charge of their bayonets the ranks of the Janissaries scatter and
disperse like chaff before the wind, and before their fire-vomiting
brazen tubes the flowers of Begtash's garden fall like grass before
the mower. Wise men are with them, who go about in simple black coats,
who know much that ye do not know; each one of whom is capable of
directing a state, and who are equally triumphant on the battle-field
and in the council-chamber.

In vain ye call upon the name of the Prophet, in vain do ye knock at
the gate of Paradise. It is closed. Muhammad slumbers, and the other
prophets no longer trouble themselves about earthly affairs. Paradise
is full already. There they look askance now at new-comers, who reach
the shadow of the tuba-tree without the rumor of victory. The
eternally young houris, from beyond the Bridge of Alsiroth, no longer
smile upon those who fall in battle, for battle has now lost its
glory. Ye must be born again, or die forever.

Look now! the more far-seeing ones among you know what to do. They
send their children far, far away, to the dominions of the Giaours,
there to learn worldly wisdom, and prepare to make great changes in
the empire.

The old dervishes, the friends of the Turks, are excluded from the
Seraglio; they do but creep stealthily up and peep through the guarded
gates, and compare notes with one another, "Behold! within there, they
are doing the work of the stranger, they are teaching the
true-believing warriors to leap