The Light of Truth — Page 175
PARABLE OF THE CHRISTIANS AND THE ATONEMENT the entire incident to them, and then smilingly congratulated them. The household in turn accepted their word-being sim- ilar to them in their ignorance and error—and sang with great happiness. So they stripped all the jewellery from the limbs of their wives, from the ears of their handmaids, from the noses of their daughters, from the hands of their sisters, and from the feet of their mothers. The female relatives of their friends and the spouses of their loved ones all partook of this trade, as did the womenfolk among their neighbours and the young maidens among their companions. They left these women resembling a tree picked clean of its fruit. Each and every one left their home completely emptied of valuables-hoping for increases in their wealth and com- fort-and returned with optimism and cheerfully placed the jewellery in the hands of the swindler. When he saw his sack fill up and his own misfortune fade, and observed their fool- ishness and ignorance, he became exceedingly jubilant and now perceived himself to be a noble chief with great riches. He said: 'I know that you are very fortunate and among those who achieve their ambitions. Soon you shall reap the fruits of your labour and mount your camel, and you will remember me for all eternity. He then announced: ‘O you who are the best of people and the beating heart of this land, know that this work is mysterious, and it is necessary to hide it from others. One of the conditions of this incantation is that it must be recited in a secluded place along the edge of a desert valley that has a river running through it. This is how I learned it from my masters. So do you grant me permission to do the same? I will return to you with heaps of gold, so that you may go back to your partners [in this endeav- our] with such wealth as no eye has ever seen. Soon you shall see stored up heaps of pure gold and pleasing wealth. As a means of 175