his end Shep and Shooshan went into the town and
there spoke craftily. For they said that Ali had of his wisdom
contrived as it were a patent and a novelty which should greatly
benefit England. And when they heard how he sought nothing for his
novelty save only to benefit mankind they consented to speak with Ali
and see his novelty. And they came forth and met Ali.

And Ali spake and said unto them: "O lords of this place; in the book
that all men know it is written how that a fisherman casting his net
into the sea drew up a bottle of brass, and when he took the stopper
from the bottle a dreadful genie of horrible aspect rose from the
bottle, as it were like a smoke, even to darkening the sky, whereat
the fisherman..." And the great ones of that place said: "We have
heard the story." And Ali said: "What became of that genie after he
was safely thrown back into the sea is not properly spoken of by any
save those that pursue the study of demons and not with certainty by
any man, but that the stopper that bore the ineffable seal and bears
it to this day became separate from the bottle is among those things
that man may know." And when there was doubt among the great ones Ali
drew forth his bundle and one by one removed those many silks till the
seal stood revealed; and some of them knew it for the seal and others
knew it not.

And they looked curiously at it and listened to Ali, and Ali said:

"Having heard how evil is the case of England, how a smoke has
darkened the country, and in places (as men say) the grass is black,
and how even yet your factories multiply, and haste and noise have
become such that men have no time for song, I have therefore come at
the bidding of my good friend Shooshan, barber of London, and of Shep,
a maker of teeth, to make things well with you."

And they said: "But where is your patent and your novelty?"

And Ali said: "Have I not here the stopper and on it, as good men
know, the ineffable seal? Now I have learned in Persia how that your
trains that make the haste, and hurry men to and fro, and your
factories and the digging of your pits and all the things that are
evil are everyone of them caused and brought about by steam."

"Is it not so?" said Shooshan.

"It is even so," said Shep.

"Now it is clear," said Ali, "that the chief devil that vexes England
and has done all this harm, who herds men into cities and will not let
them rest, is even the devil Steam."

Then the great ones