THE KASÎDAH
VIII
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Rejoins the Moslem: “Allah’s one tho’ with four Moslemahs I wive, “One-wife-men ye and (damnèd race!) you split your God to Three and Five.”

The Buddhist to Confucians thus: “Like dogs ye live, like dogs ye die; “Content ye rest with wretched earth; God, Judgment, Hell ye fain defy.”

Retorts the Tartar: “Shall I lend mine only ready-money ‘now,’ “For vain usurious ‘Then’ like thine, avaunt, a triple idiot Thou!”

“With this poor life, with this mean world I fain complete what in me lies; “I strive to perfect this my me; my sole ambition’s to be wise.”

When doctors differ who decides amid the milliard-headed throng? Who save the madman dares to cry: “’Tis I am right, you all are wrong?”