is own knowledge by asking him
perplexing questions on the Koran. Thus in initiating him into the first
degree the Dai assumed an air of profundity and explained that religious
doctrines were too abstruse for the ordinary mind, but must be
interpreted by men who, like the Dais, had a special knowledge of this
science. The initiate was bound to absolute secrecy concerning the
truths to be revealed to him and obliged to pay in advance for these
revelations. In order to pique his curiosity, the Dai would suddenly
stop short in the middle of a discourse, and should the novice finally
decline to pay the required sum, he was left in a state of bewilderment
which inspired him with the desire to know more.

In the second degree the initiate was persuaded that all his former
teachers were wrong and that he must place his confidence solely in
those Imams endowed with authority from God; in the third he learnt that
these Imams were those of the Ismailis, seven in number ending with
Mohammed, son of Ismail, in contradistinction to the twelve Imams of the
Imamias who supported the claims of Ismail's brother Musa; in the fourth
he was told that the prophets preceding the Imams descending from Ali
were also seven in number--namely Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, the
first Mohammed, and finally Mohammed son of Ismail.

So far, then, nothing was said to the initiate in contradiction to the
broad tenets of orthodox Islamism. But with the fifth degree the process
of undermining his religion began, he was now told to reject tradition
and to disregard the precepts of Mohammed; in the sixth he was taught
that all religious observances--prayer, fasting, etc.--were only
emblematic, that in fact all these things were devices to keep the
common herd of men in subordination; in the seventh the doctrines of
Dualism, of a greater and a lesser deity, were introduced and the unity
of God--fundamental doctrine of Islamism--was destroyed; in the eighth a
great vagueness was expressed on the attributes of the first and
greatest of these deities, and it was pointed out that real prophets
were those who concerned themselves with practical matters--political
institutions and good forms of government; finally, in the ninth, the
adept was shown that all religious teaching was allegorical and that
religious precepts need only be observed in so far as it is necessary to
maintain order, but the man who understands the truth may disregard all
such doctrines.