THE THIEF-TAKER

     SA‹D JAELLAL UD DIN BEN MESSAOUD
     Trusted to Allah for his daily food;
     And so with favour was the Saint anointed
     That never yet had he been disappointed.

     One day this pious person wished to shave
     His head; a sly and sacrilegious knave
     Passed; when the good man would resume his prayer,
     Alas! his turban was no longer there.

     In rushed Mohammed, Hassan, and Husein:
     "See! there he goes, the bastard of a swine.
     Hasten, and catch him!"  But the good man went
     With melancholy pace and sad intent

     Unto the burying-ground without the wall;
     And there he sat, stern and funereal,
     Wrapped in deep thought from any outward sense,
     A monument of earnest patience!

     "Sire!" (a disciple dared at length to say)
     "That wicked person took another way."
     "Wide is the desert," said the saintly seer:
     "But this is certain, that he must come here."
                                       ALEISTER CROWLEY.
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