The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 3

R >> Richard F. Burton >> The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 3

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[FN#304] Arab. "Siwak"=a tooth-stick; "Siwa-ka"=lit. other than
thou.

[FN#305] Arab. "Arak"=tooth stick of the wild caper-tree;
"Ara-ka" lit.=I see thee. The capparis spinosa is a common
desert-growth and the sticks about a span long (usually called
Miswak), are sold in quantities at Meccah after being dipped in
Zemzem water. In India many other woods are used, date-tree,
Salvadora, Achyrantes, phyllanthus, etc. Amongst Arabs peculiar
efficacy accompanies the tooth-stick of olive, "the tree
springing from Mount Sinai" (Koran xxiii. 20); and Mohammed would
use no other, because it prevents decay and scents the mouth.
Hence Koran, chaps. xcv. 1. The "Miswak" is held with the unused
end between the ring-finger and minimus, the two others grasp the
middle and the thumb is pressed against the back close to the
lips. These articles have long been sold at the Medical Hall near
the "Egyptian Hall," Piccadilly. They are better than our unclean
tooth-brushes because each tooth gets its own especial rubbing'
not a general sweep; at the same time the operation is longer and
more troublesome. In parts of Africa as well as Asia many men
walk about with the tooth-stick hanging by a string from the
neck.

[FN#306] The "Mehari," of which the Algerine-French speak, are
the dromedaries bred by the Mahrah tribe of Al-Yaman, the
descendants of Mahrat ibn Haydan. They are covered by small wild
camels (?) called Al-Hush, found between Oman and Al-Shihr:
others explain the word to mean "stallions of the Jinns " and
term those savage and supernatural animals, "Najaib
al-Mahriyah" nobles of the Mahrah.

[FN#307] Arab. "Khaznah"=a thousand purses; now about œ5000. It
denotes a large sum of money, like the "Badrah," a purse
containing 10,000 dirhams of silver (Al-Hariri), or 80,000
(Burckhardt Prov. 380); whereas the "Nisab" is a moderate sum of
money, gen. 20 gold dinars=200 silver dirhams.

[FN#308] As The Nights show, Arabs admire slender forms; but the
hips and hinder cheeks must be highly developed and the stomach
fleshy rather than lean. The reasons are obvious. The Persians
who exaggerate everything say e.g. (Husayn Vaiz in the
Anvar-i-Suhayli):--

How paint her hips and waist ? Who saw
A mountain (Koh) dangling to a straw (kah)?

In Antar his beloved Abla is a tamarisk (T. Orientalis). Others
compare with the palm-tree (Solomon), the Cypress (Persian, esp.
Hafiz and Firdausi) and the Arak or wild Capparis (Arab.).

[FN#309] Ubi aves ibi angel). All African travellers know that a
few birds flying about the bush, and a few palm-trees waving in
the wind, denote the neighbourhood of a village or a camp (where
angels are scarce). The reason is not any friendship for man but
because food, animal and vegetable, is more plentiful Hence
Albatrosses, Mother Carey's (Mater Cara, the Virgin) chickens,
and Cape pigeons follow ships.

[FN#310] The stanza is called Al-Mukhammas=cinquains; the
quatrains and the "bob," or "burden" always preserve the same
consonance. It ends with a Koranic lieu commun of Moslem
morality.

[FN#311] Moslem port towns usually have (or had) only two gates.
Such was the case with Bayrut, Tyre, Sidon and a host of others;
the faubourg-growth of modern days has made these obsolete. The
portals much resemble the entrances of old Norman castles--Arques
for instance. (Pilgrimage i. 185.)

[FN#312] Arab. "Lisam"; before explained.

[FN#313] i.e. Life of Souls (persons, etc.).

[FN#314] Arab. "Insanu-ha"=her (i.e. their) man: i.e. the babes
of the eyes: the Assyrian Ishon, dim. of Ish=Man; which the
Hebrews call "Babat" or "Bit" (the daughter) the Arabs "Bubu (or
Hadakat) al-Aye"; the Persians "Mardumak-i-chashm" (mannikin of
the eye); the Greeks and the Latins pupa, pupula, pupilla. I
have noted this in the Lyricks of Camoens (p. 449).

[FN#315] Ma'an bin Za'idah, a soldier and statesman of the eighth
century.

[FN#316] The mildness of the Caliph Mu'awiyah, the founder of the
Ommiades, proverbial among the Arabs, much resembles the
"meekness" of Moses the Law-giver, which commentators seem to
think has been foisted into Numbers xii. 3.

[FN#317] Showing that there had been no consummation of the
marriage which would have demanded "Ghusl," or total ablution, at
home or in the Hammam.

[FN#318] I have noticed this notable desert-growth.

[FN#319] 'The "situation" is admirable, solution appearing so
difficult and catastrophe imminent.

[FN#320] This quatrain occurs in Night ix.: I have borrowed from
Torrens (p. 79) by way of variety.

[FN#321] The belief that young pigeon's blood resembles the
virginal discharge is universal; but the blood most resembling
man's is that of the pig which in other points is so very human.
In our day Arabs and Hindus rarely submit to inspection the
nuptial sheet as practiced by the Israelites and Persians. The
bride takes to bed a white kerchief with which she staunches the
blood and next morning the stains are displayed in the Harem. In
Darfour this is done by the bridegroom. "Prima Venus debet esse
cruenta," say the Easterns with much truth, and they have no
faith in our complaisant creed which allows the hymen-membrane to
disappear by any but one accident.

[FN#322] Not meaning the two central divisions commanded by the
King and his Wazir.

[FN#323] Ironice.

[FN#324] Arab. "Rasy"=praising in a funeral sermon.

[FN#325] Arab. "Manaya," plur. of "Maniyat" = death. Mr. R. S.
Poole (the Academy, April 26, 1879) reproaches Mr. Payne for
confounding "Muniyat" (desire) with "Maniyat" (death) but both
are written the same except when vowel-points are used.

[FN#326] Arab. "Iddat," alluding to the months of celibacy which,
according to Moslem law, must be passed by a divorced woman
before she can re-marry.

[FN#327] Arab. "Talak bi'l-Salasah"=a triple divorce which cannot
be revoked; nor can the divorcer re-marry the same woman till
after consummation with another husband. This subject will
continually recur.

[FN#328] An allusion to a custom of the pagan Arabs in the days
of ignorant Heathenism The blood or brain, soul or personality of
the murdered man formed a bird called Sady or Hamah (not the Huma
or Humai, usually translated "phoenix") which sprang from the
head, where four of the five senses have their seat, and haunted
his tomb, crying continually, "Uskuni!"=Give me drink (of the
slayer's blood) ! and which disappeared only when the vendetta
was accomplished. Mohammed forbade the belief. Amongst the
Southern Slavs the cuckoo is supposed to be the sister of a
murdered man ever calling or vengeance.

[FN#329] To obtain a blessing and show how he valued it.

[FN#330] Well-known tribes of proto-historic Arabs who flourished
before the time of Abraham: see Koran (chaps. xxvi. et passim).
They will be repeatedly mentioned in The Nights and notes.

[FN#331] Arab. "Amtar"; plur. of "Matr," a large vessel of
leather or wood for water, etc.

[FN#332] Arab. "Asafiri," so called because they attract sparrows
(asafir) a bird very fond of the ripe oily fruit. In the Romance
of "Antar" Asafir camels are beasts that fly like birds in
fleetness. The reader must not confound the olives of the text
with the hard unripe berries ("little plums pickled in stale")
which appear at English tables, nor wonder that bread and olives
are the beef-steak and potatoes of many Mediterranean peoples It
is an excellent diet, the highly oleaginous fruit supplying the
necessary carbon,

[FN#333] Arab. "Tamer al-Hindi"=the "Indian-date," whence our
word "Tamarind." A sherbet of the pods, being slightly laxative,
is much drunk during the great heats; and the dried fruit, made
into small round cakes, is sold in the bazars. The traveller is
advised not to sleep under the tamarind's shade, which is
infamous for causing ague and fever. In Sind I derided the
"native nonsense," passed the night under an "Indian date-tree"
and awoke with a fine specimen of ague which lasted me a week.

[FN#334] Moslems are not agreed upon the length of the Day of
Doom when all created things, marshalled by the angels, await
final judgment; the different periods named are 40 years, 70, 300
and 50,000. Yet the trial itself will last no longer than while
one may milk an ewe, or than "the space between two milkings of a
she-camel." This is bringing down Heaven to Earth with a witness;
but, after all, the Heaven of all faiths, including
"Spiritualism," the latest development, is only an earth more or
less glorified even as the Deity is humanity more or less
perfected.

[FN#335] Arab. "Al-Kamarani," lit. "the two moons." Arab rhetoric
prefers it to "Shamsani," or {`two suns," because lighter
(akhaff), to pronounce. So, albeit Omar was less worthy than
Abu-Bakr the two are called "Al-Omarani," in vulgar parlance,
Omarayn.

[FN#336] Alluding to the angels who appeared to the Sodomites in
the shape of beautiful youths (Koran xi.).

[FN#337] Koran xxxiii. 38.

[FN#338] "Niktu-hu taklidan" i.e. not the real thing (with a
woman). It may also mean "by his incitement of me." All this
scene is written in the worst form of Persian-Egyptian
blackguardism, and forms a curious anthropological study. The
"black joke" of the true and modest wife is inimitable.

[FN#339] Arab. "Jamiz" (in Egypt "Jammayz") = the fruit of the
true sycomore (F. Sycomorus) a magnificent tree which produces a
small tasteless fig, eaten by the poorer classes in Egypt and by
monkeys. The "Tin" or real fig here is the woman's parts; the
"mulberry- fig," the anus. Martial (i. 65) makes the following
distinction:--

Dicemus ficus, quas scimus in arbore nasci,
Dicemus ficos, Caeciliane, tuos.

And Modern Italian preserves a difference between fico and fica.

[FN#340] Arab. "Ghaniyat Azara" (plur. of Azra = virgin): the
former is properly a woman who despises ornaments and relies on
"beauty unadorned" (i.e. in bed).

[FN#341] "Nihil usitatius apud monachos, cardinales,
sacrificulos," says Johannes de la Casa Beneventius Episcopus,
quoted by Burton Anat. of Mel. lib. iii. Sect. 2; and the famous
epitaph on the Jesuit,

Ci-git un Jesuite:
Passant, serre les fesses et passe vite!

[FN#342] Arab. "Kiblah"=the fronting-place of prayer, Meccah for
Moslems, Jerusalem for Jews and early Christians. See Pilgrimage
(ii. 321) for the Moslem change from Jerusalem to Meccah and
ibid. (ii. 213) for the way in which the direction was shown.

[FN#343] The Koran says (chaps. ii.): "Your wives are your
tillage: go in therefore unto your tillage in what manner so ever
ye will." Usually this is understood as meaning in any posture,
standing or sitting, lying, backwards or forwards. Yet there is a
popular saying about the man whom the woman rides (vulg. St.
George, in France, le Postillon); "Cursed be who maketh woman
Heaven and himself earth!" Some hold the Koranic passage to have
been revealed in confutation of the Jews, who pretended that if a
man lay with his wife backwards, he would beget a cleverer child.
Others again understand it of preposterous venery, which is
absurd: every ancient law-giver framed his code to increase the
true wealth of the people--population--and severely punished all
processes, like onanism, which impeded it. The Persians utilise
the hatred of women for such misuse when they would force a wive
to demand a divorce and thus forfeit her claim to Mahr (dowry);
they convert them into catamites till, after a month or so, they
lose all patience and leave the house.

[FN#344] Koran lit 9: "He will be turned aside from the Faith (or
Truth) who shall be turned aside by the Divine decree;" alluding,
in the text, to the preposterous venery her lover demands.

[FN#345] Arab. "Futuh" meaning openings, and also victories,
benefits. The lover congratulates her on her mortifying self in
order to please him.

[FN#346] "And the righteous work will be exalt": (Koran xxxv. 11)
applied ironically.

[FN#347] A prolepsis of Tommy Moore:--

Your mother says, my little Venus,
There's something not quite right between us,
And you're in fault as much as I,
Now, on my soul, my little Venus,
I swear 'twould not be right between us,
To let your mother tell a lie.

But the Arab is more moral than Mr. Little. as he purposes to
repent.

[FN#348] Arab. "Khunsa" flexible or flaccid, from Khans=bending
inwards, i.e. the mouth of a water-skin before drinking. Like
Mukhannas, it is also used for an effeminate man, a passive
sodomite and even for a eunuch. Easterns still believe in what
Westerns know to be an impossibility, human beings with the parts
and proportions of both sexes equally developed and capable of
reproduction; and Al-Islam even provides special rules for them
(Pilgrimage iii. 237). We hold them to be Buffon's fourth class
of (duplicate) monsters belonging essentially to one or the other
sex, and related to its opposite only by some few
characteristics. The old Greeks dreamed, after their fashion, a
beautiful poetic dream of a human animal uniting the
contradictory beauties of man and woman. The duality of the
generative organs seems an old Egyptian tradition, at least we
find it in Genesis (i. 27) where the image of the Deity is
created male and female, before man was formed out of the dust of
the ground (ii. 7). The old tradition found its way to India (if
the Hindus did not borrow the idea from the Greeks); and one of
the forms of Mahadeva, the third person of their triad, is
entitled "Ardhanari"=the Half-woman, which has suggested to them
some charming pictures. Europeans, seeing the left breast
conspicuously feminine, have indulged in silly surmises about the
"Amazons."

[FN#349] This is a mere phrase for our "dying of laughter": the
queen was on her back. And as Easterns sit on carpets, their
falling back is very different from the same movement off a
chair.

[FN#350] Arab. "Ismid," the eye-powder before noticed.

[FN#351] When the Caliph (e.g. Al-Ta'i li'llah) bound a banner to
a spear and handed it to an officer, he thereby appointed him
Sultan or Viceregent.

[FN#352] Arab. "Shaib al-inghaz"=lit. a gray beard who shakes
head in disapproval.

[FN#353] Arab. "Ayat" = the Hebr. "Ototh," signs, wonders or
Koranic verses.

[FN#354] The Chapter "Al-Ikhlas" i.e. clearing (oneself from any
faith but that of Unity) is No. cxii. and runs thus:--

Say, He is the One God!
The sempiternal God,
He begetteth not, nor is He begot,
And unto Him the like is not.

It is held to be equal in value to one-third of the Koran, and is
daily used in prayer. Mr. Rodwell makes it the tenth.

[FN#355] The Lady Budur shows her noble blood by not objecting to
her friend becoming her Zarrat (sister-wife). This word is
popularly derived from "Zarar"=injury; and is vulgarly pronounced
in Egypt "Durrah" sounding like Durrah = a parrot (see
Burckhardt's mistake in Prov. 314). The native proverb says,
"Ayshat al-durrah murrah," the sister-wife hath a bitter life. We
have no English equivalent; so I translate indifferently co-wife,
co-consort, sister-wife or sister in wedlock.

[FN#356] Lane preserves the article "El-Amjad" and "El-As'ad;"
which is as necessary as to say "the John" or "the James,"
because neo-Latins have "il Giovanni" or "il Giacomo." In this
matter of the article, however, it is impossible to lay down a
universal rule: in some cases it must be preserved and only
practice in the language can teach its use. For instance, it is
always present in Al-Bahrayn and al-Yaman; but not necessarily so
with Irak and Najd.

[FN#357] It is hard to say why this ugly episode was introduced.
It is a mere false note in a tune pretty enough.

[FN#358] The significance of this action will presently appear.

[FN#359] An "Hadis."

[FN#360] Arab. "Sabb" = using the lowest language of abuse.
chiefly concerning women-relatives and their reproductive parts.

[FN#361] The reader will note in the narration concerning the two
Queens the parallelism of the Arab's style which recalls that of
the Hebrew poets. Strings of black silk are plaited into the long
locks (an "idiot-fringe" being worn over the brow) because a
woman is cursed "who joineth her own hair to the hair of another"
(especially human hair). Sending the bands is a sign of
affectionate submission; and, in extremes" cases the hair itself
is sent.

[FN#362] i.e., suffer similar pain at the spectacle, a phrase
often occurring.

[FN#363] i.e., when the eye sees not, the heart grieves not.

[FN#364] i.e., unto Him we shall return, a sentence recurring in
almost every longer chapter of the Koran.

[FN#365] Arab. "Kun," the creative Word (which, by the by, proves
the Koran to be an uncreated Logos); the full sentence being "Kun
fa kana" = Be! and it became. The origin is evidently, "And God
said, Let there be light: and there was light" (Gen. i. 3); a
line grand in its simplicity and evidently borrowed from the
Egyptians, even as Yahveh (Jehovah) from "Ankh"=He who lives
(Brugsch Hist. ii. 34).

[FN#366] i.e. but also for the life and the so-called "soul."

[FN#367] Arab. "Layali"=lit. nights which, I have said, is often
applied to the whole twenty-four hours. Here it is used in the
sense of "fortune" or "fate ;" like "days" and "days and nights."

[FN#368] Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr a nephew of Ayishah, who had
rebuilt the Ka'abah in A.H. 64 (A.D. 683), revolted (A.D. 680)
against Yezid and was proclaimed Caliph at Meccah. He was
afterwards killed (A.D. 692) by the famous or infamous Hajjaj
general of Abd al-Malik bin Marwan, the fifth Ommiade, surnamed
"Sweat of a stone" (skin-flint) and "Father of Flies," from his
foul breath. See my Pilgrimage, etc. (iii. 192-194), where are
explained the allusions to the Ka'abah and the holy Black Stone.

[FN#369] These lines are part of an elegy on the downfall of one
of the Moslem dynasties in Spain, composed in the twelfth century
by Ibn Abdun al-Andalusi. The allusion is to the famous
conspiracy of the Kharijites (the first sectarians in
Mohammedanism) to kill Ah, Mu'awiyah and Amru (so written but
pronounced "Amr") al-As, in order to abate intestine feuds m
Al-Islam. Ali was slain with a sword-cut by Ibn Muljam a name
ever damnable amongst the Persians; Mu'awiyah escaped with a
wound and Kharijah, the Chief of Police at Fustat or old Cairo
was murdered by mistake for Amru. After this the sectarian wars
began.

[FN#370] Arab. "Sarab"= (Koran, chaps. xxiv.) the reek of the
Desert, before explained. It is called "Lama," the shine, the
loom, in Al-Hariri. The world is compared with the mirage, the
painted eye and the sword that breaks in the sworder's hand.

[FN#371] Arab. "Dunya," with the common alliteration "daniyah"
(=Pers. "dun"), in prose as well as poetry means the things or
fortune of this life opp. to "Akhirah"=future life.

[FN#372] Arab. "Walgh," a strong expression primarily denoting
the lapping of dogs; here and elsewhere "to swill, saufen."

[FN#373] The lines are repeated from Night ccxxi. I give Lane's
version (ii. 162) by way of contrast and--warning.

[FN#374] "Sahirah" is the place where human souls will be
gathered on Doom-day: some understand by it the Hell Sa'ir (No.
iv.) intended for the Sabians or the Devils generally.

[FN#375] His eyes are faded like Jacob's which, after weeping for
Joseph, "became white with mourning" (Koran, chaps. xxi.). It is
a stock comparison.

[FN#376] The grave.

[FN#377] Arab. "Sawwan" (popularly pronounced Suwan) ="Syenite"
from Syrene; generally applied to silex, granite or any hard
stone.

[FN#378] A proceeding fit only for thieves and paupers:
"Alpinism" was then unknown. "You come from the mountain"
(al-Jabal) means, "You are a clod-hopper"; and "I will sit upon
the mountain"=turn anchorite or magician. (Pilgrimage i. 106.)

[FN#379] Corresponding with wayside chapels in Catholic
countries. The Moslem form would be either a wall with a prayer
niche (Mibrab) fronting Meccah-wards or a small domed room. These
little oratories are often found near fountains, streams or
tree-clumps where travellers would be likely to alight. I have
described one in Sind ("Scinde or the Unhappy Valley" i. 79), and
have noted that scrawling on the walls is even more common in the
East than in the West; witness the monuments of old Egypt
bescribbled by the Greeks and Romans. Even the paws of the Sphinx
are covered with such graffiti; and those of Ipsambul or Abu
Simbal have proved treasures to epigraphists.

[FN#380] In tales this characterises a Persian; and Hero Rustam
is always so pictured.

[FN#381] The Parsis, who are the representatives of the old
Guebres, turn towards the sun and the fire as their Kiblah or
point of prayer; all deny that they worship it. But, as in the
case of saints' images, while the educated would pray before them
for edification (Labia) the ignorant would adore them (Dulia);
and would make scanty difference between the "reverence of a
servant" and the "reverence of a slave." The human sacrifice was
quite contrary to Guebre, although not to Hindu, custom; although
hate and vengeance might prompt an occasional murder.

[FN#382] These oubliettes are common in old eastern houses as in
the medieval Castles of Europe, and many a stranger has met his
death in them. They are often so well concealed that even the
modern inmates are not aware of their existence.

[FN#383] Arab. "Bakk"; hence our "bug" whose derivation (like
that of "cat" "dog" and "hog") is apparently unknown to the
dictionaries, always excepting M. Littre's.

[FN#384] i.e. thy beauty is ever increasing.

[FN#385] Alluding, as usual, to the eye-lashes, e.g.

An eyelash arrow from an eyebrow bow.

[FN#386] Lane (ii. 168) reads:--"The niggardly female is
protected by her niggardness;" a change of "Nahilah" (bee-hive)
into "Bakhilah" (she skin flint).

[FN#387] Koran iv. 38. The advantages are bodily strength,
understanding and the high privilege of Holy War. Thus far, and
thus far only, woman amongst Moslems is "lesser

[FN#388] Arab. "Amir Yakhur," a corruption of "Akhor"=stable
(Persian).

[FN#389] A servile name in Persian, meaning "the brave," and a
title of honour at the Court of Delhi when following the name.
Many English officers have made themselves ridiculous (myself
amongst the number) by having it engraved on their seal-rings,
e.g. Brown Sahib Bahadur. To write the word "Behadir" or
"Bahadir" is to adopt the wretched Turkish corruption.

[FN#390] "Jerry Sneak" would be the English reader's comment; but
in the East all charges are laid upon women.

[FN#391] Here the formula means "I am sorry for it, but I
couldn't help it."

[FN#392] A noble name of the Persian Kings (meaning the planet
Mars) corrupted in Europe to Varanes.

[FN#393] Arab. "Jallab," one of the three muharramat or
forbiddens, the Harik al-hajar (burner of stone) the Kati'
al-shajar (cutter of trees, without reference to Hawarden N. B.)
and the Bayi' al-bashar (seller of men, vulg. Jallab). The two
former worked, like the Italian Carbonari, in desert places where
they had especial opportunities for crime. (Pilgrimage iii. 140.)
None of these things must be practiced during Pilgrimage on the
holy soil of Al-Hijaz--not including Jeddah.

[FN#394] The verses contain the tenets of the Murjiy sect which
attaches infinite importance to faith and little or none to
works. Sale (sect. viii.) derives his "Morgians" from the
"Jabrians" (Jabari), who are the direct opponents of the
"Kadarians" (Kadari), denying free will and free agency to man
and ascribing his actions wholly to Allah. Lane (ii. 243) gives
the orthodox answer to the heretical question:--

Water could wet him not if God please guard His own; *
Nor need man care though bound of hands in sea he's thrown:
But if His Lord decree that he in sea be drowned; *
He'll drown albeit in the wild and wold he wone.

It is the old quarrel between Predestination and Freewill which
cannot be solved except by assuming a Law without a Lawgiver.

[FN#395] Our proverb says: Give a man luck and throw him into the
sea.

[FN#396] As a rule Easterns, I repeat, cover head and face when
sleeping especially in the open air and moonlight. Europeans find
the practice difficult, and can learn it only by long habit.

[FN#397] Pers. = a flower-garden. In Galland, Bahram has two
daughters, Bostama and Cavam a. In the Bres. Edit. the daughter
is "Bostan" and the slave-girl "Kawam."

[FN#398] Arab. "Kahil"=eyes which look as if darkened with
antimony: hence the name of the noble Arab breed of horses
"Kuhaylat" (Al-Ajuz, etc.).

[FN#399] "As'ad"=more (or most) fortunate.

[FN#400] This is the vulgar belief, although Mohammed expressly
disclaimed the power in the Koran (chaps. xiii. 8), "Thou art
commissioned to be a preacher only and not a worker of miracles."
"Signs" (Arab. Ayat) may here also mean verses of the Koran,
which the Apostle of Allah held to be his standing miracles. He
despised the common miracula which in the East are of everyday
occurrence and are held to be easy for any holy man. Hume does
not believe in miracles because he never saw one. Had he
travelled in the East he would have seen (and heard of) so many
that his scepticism (more likely that testimony should be false
than miracles be true) would have been based on a firmer
foundation. It is one of the marvels of our age that whilst
two-thirds of Christendom (the Catholics and the "Orthodox"
Greeks) believe in "miracles" occurring not only in ancient but
even in our present days, the influential and intelligent third
(Protestant) absolutely "denies the fact."

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