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“CAN there be any combination of circumstances
that would justify a man in selling his soul to
the Evil One?” asked a hoary-headed citizen of
Abou ben Adhem.

“My venerable friend, the short story of Kodosh
of Koamud will answer your query. But let me
preface my narrative with an expression of opinion.
I never believed that the Evil One ever bought any
souls, that is, by making specific contracts for them
and promising specific things for them. Unless his
dominions are more roomy than I suppose them to
be, he gets more people than he can accommodate,
who come to him of their own accord. But this is
merely an opinion. He may have more room than
I have any idea of, and men may dodge him, finally,
better than I think.

“But this is the story of Kodosh of Koamud.

“Kodosh was a worker of burgoos, and was utterly
and entirely worthless. He would work only
when he could get nothing to eat in any other way,
and as for his family, be chesm! he paid no more

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attention to them than as if they were not. Lusta,
the wife of his bosom, supported the six ragged
children that had been born to them, by washing
for other families, and to get bread for them
she never had the time on her hands to do her
own. Consequently, dirt, rags, vermin, and disease
abounded in the hut of Kodosh perpetually. The
master of this house spent his whole time in public
places, where the dissolute meet to squander their
time in idle conversation, — the time which Allah
gives us for the improvement of ourselves and those
about us. He knew all the places, which in Persia
are known as `dives,' where the strong waters of
the Franks are dealt out and where the intoxicating
opium is smoked.

“And that was not all of it: he had a habit of
coming home full of strong waters, which craze men,
and then he made things very uncomfortable for
Lusta his wife, and the little furniture in the house.
He thought nothing of breaking a stool over her
head, which was followed invariably by smashing
all the crockery. As this happened almost every
day, life was not a rose-tinted dream to the poor
Lusta and her children. In fact, one of the children
was kept constantly on the look-out, and when he
would yell, `Dad 's a comin'!' (Dad is Persian for
father), they would all scatter and hide till after he
fell into a slumber. He was less disagreeable when
asleep than at any other time, for then only his
breath was offensive.

“One day Kodosh awoke from a drunken slumber

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in great distress, and he called vociferously for
Lusta. She came and found him blue with terror,
and his teeth chattering like the castanets of the
dancing girls who amuse the Shah when he is
weary.

“`What 's the matter with you, you beast?' asked
Lusta. `Has Allah at last taken pity on me by
smiting you with an incurable disease? Or have you
done me the only good possible by taking poison?
Don't crush my rising hopes by saying that you propose
to live.'

“`Neither, my dear, neither,' was Kodosh's reply;
`but I am in sore trouble.'

“`I have been thus, O son of the Evil One! for
twenty years, that being the exact time I have been
thy wife.'

“`But I am in dire trouble. Listen, O wife of my
bosom! While I slept, after my — labor — the Evil
One came to me in person; he had his tail on, his
hoofs, and likewise his horns, and —'

“`Miserable Satan that he is! Why did he not
whisk thee off with him?' ejaculated Lusta.

“`Listen,' said Kodosh. `The Evil One wanted
me. He offered me all that I could eat of the best,
and drink of the best, and wear of the best for
twenty years, and all the wealth I wanted and all
that you could desire, if at the end of that period I
would become his, soul and body.'

“`And what answer did you give him?' asked
Lusta, anxiously.

“`I did not give him a definite answer. I said I

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would ask you and be guided by you, at which he
smiled a sardonic smile, and saying that that would
answer, disappeared. Now Lusta, love, what shall
I do?'

“`Do!' replied Lusta, `do! O idiot! there was but
one thing to do. Why did you not close with him
at once? Oh, sudden opportunity, possibly lost forever!
Oh, blessed chance, possibly no chance at
all! How do you know, son of a she-ass, that he
will ever come to thee again? Twenty years of
good food, clothing, and plenty of money, for thy
worthless body and still more worthless soul! O
mush-brained imbecile! long before twenty years have
rolled around thy body will have been destroyed by
spontaneous combustion, and as for thy soul, that is
the Devil's already. He has a first mortgage on it
now. Had he consulted his bookkeeper and discovered
how you stood with him, he never would have
made you so preposterous an offer. Oh, why did n't
you close with him? He was swindling himself out
of whatever he proposed to give you. You could
well afford to close with him for ten dirhems, for one
dirhem, for anything. O idiot! O imbecile! This
is too much — too much!' and she wept bitterly.

“Of course the Devil never came to make the
trade, for Kodosh only saw him in an incipient fit of
delirium tremens.

“But Lusta's answer furnishes a proper answer to
your question.

“If a Devil were to come into the world to-day,
and offer wealth and honors and things of that

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nature for souls, and should take souls as they run, he
would very soon go into bankruptcy; for he would
be paying for his own property. Most people approached
by him should lose no time in closing the
trade. Then what a terrible per cent is there whose
souls are too small to be worth the offers the Devil is
credited with making!

“To me the case is clear. If the Devil ever
comes to you with an offer of anything in particular,
accept it at once. By the time you have got rich,
served two terms in the Legislature, gone through
two elections for Senator, and tried to go to Congress,
you may be tolerably sure that the Devil will get
you in the end, and if you can get any price for yourself
now, make no mistake, but take it.

“You are answered, let me rest.”

And the Sage went in and laid him down with
what he said was the Koran.

p632-233

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