Page:The Descent of Bolshevism.djvu/24

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THE DESCENT OF BOLSHEVISM

Indeed, to kill a man who had an abundance of the things of the world, was in his eye, a virtue; but to kill even an insect was a crime. And he continued to pray and to wear coarse wool even in his last days, when his own wealth and his harim were re-distributed among the people. How true of him the Arabic couplet:

"He wore bells on his sandals to warn
the insects from his path,
While in his hand the dripping dagger
sought the victims of his wrath."

When King Kobad died, his son the Great Nushirvan took a real pious interest in the new cult. He introduced it to the higher equality, led it to the final communism—Death. On his coronation he made a speech worthy of a great monarch, in which he promised many good things to all his subjects and called upon them to help him make good his promise. Whereupon, he ordered the chiefs of the Sect, Tabari, tell us to appear before him and had their heads cut off. Others say that

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