Page:Konx Om Pax.pdf/114

An outward wart upon the nose spells inward malice in the gizzard.
The path is easy, I suppose, for such an one to play the wizard.

In any case he took the risk, and left off things like soap and eating,
Till he could give the world a bisque, ten spells in thirty, and a beating.

Well, at the age of eighty-eight he found himself the One-horse Wire
For the Jehannum Maiden Plate—by Satan, out of Lake o' Fire.

So, calling Iblis of the Jinn (a god among the damnéd Ghebers!)
He offered up a final sin to play a last joke on the neighbours.

The deed was signed in fire and blood; and ere the morn was dewy wet
An hog for the Muezzin upstood, and chanted from the Minaret.

"There is no God! no God! (he sware) Mohammed was a charlatan
Sleep is more excellent than prayer! and pork is pleasant in the pan!"

The elders knew that only one could crack such execrable quips.
They hurried off to have the fun of slicing him in little strips.

But Iblis met him with a grin worth ninety-nine per cent. per annum.
"You've missed the fun—but pray walk in!—we're off this minute to Jehannum!"

In sooth, the fiend's unseemly mirth mocked all their wagging beards alike,
As from the bowels of the earth quacked an ironical "Labbaik!"

The moral is—if all your folk are sure you are a black magician,
You may as well enjoy the joke; you cannot damage your position.

The moral is—when mothers crossed perform the usual Christian revel
And tell their children they are "lost," they simply drive them to the devil.