"'O Abdallah,' I exclaimed, 'wherefore this atrocity?'

"'This man,' he replied, 'is a blasphemer, who hath said that the Book of
Ad is written on the bones of a cow.'

"'But it is written on the bones of a cow! 'I cried.

"'Even so,' said he, 'and therefore is his heresy the more damnable, and
his punishment the more exemplary. Had it been indeed written on the bones
of a camel, he might have affirmed what pleased him.'

"And I shook off the dust from my feet, and hastened to my dwelling. The
rest of Abdallah's acts thou knowest, and how he fell warring with the
Carmathians. And now I ask thee, art thou yet minded to go forth as a
missionary of the truth?"

"O Sergius," said the young man, "I perceive that the temptations are
greater, and the difficulties far surpassing what I had thought. Yet will I
go, and I trust by Heaven's grace not to fail utterly."

"Then go," said Sergius, "and Heaven's blessing go with thee! Come back in
ten years, should I be living, and if thou canst declare that thou hast
forged no scriptures, and worked no miracles, and persecuted no
unbelievers, and flattered no potentate, and bribed no one with the promise
of aught in heaven or earth, I will give thee the philosopher's stone."




ANANDA THE MIRACLE WORKER