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 part of his countenance.

"'O Abdallah,' I inquired, 'where is thy beard?'

"'In the hands of my ninth wife,' said he.

"'Apostate!' I exclaimed, 'hast thou dared to espouse more wives than one?
Rememberest thou not what is written in the Book of the prophet Ad?'

"'O father,' he said, 'the revelation of Ad being, as thou knowest, so