Mulehet is a country in which the Old Man of the Mountain dwelt in former
days; and the name means "Place of the Aram." I will tell you his whole
history as related by Messer Marco Polo, who heard it from several natives
of that region.
The Old Man was called in their language ALOADIN. He had caused a certain
valley between two mountains to be enclosed, and had turned it into a
garden, the largest and most beautiful that ever was seen, filled with
every variety of fruit. In it were erected pavilions and palaces the most
elegant that can be imagined, all covered with gilding and exquisite
painting. And there were runnels too, flowing freely with wine and milk
and honey and water; and numbers of ladies and of the most beautiful
damsels in the world, who could play on all manner of instruments, and
sung most sweetly, and danced in a manner that it was charming to behold.
For the Old Man desired to make his people believe that this was actually
Paradise. So he had fashioned it after the description that Mahommet gave
of his Paradise, to wit, that it should be a beautiful garden running with
conduits of wine and milk and honey and water, and full of lovely women
for the delectation of all its inmates. And sure enough the Saracens of
those parts believed that it was Paradise!
Now no man was allowed to enter the Garden save those whom he intended to
be his ASHISHIN. There was a Fortress at the entrance to the Garden,
strong enough to resist all the world, and there was no other way to get
in. He kept at his Court a number of the youths of the country, from 12 to
20 years of age, such as had a taste for soldiering, and to these he used
to tell tales about Paradise, just as Mahommet had been wont to do, and
they believed in him just as the Saracens believe in Mahommet. Then he
would introduce them into his garden, some four, or six, or ten at a time,
having first made them drink a certain potion which cast them into a deep
sleep, and then causing them to be lifted and carried in. So when they
awoke, they found themselves in the Garden.[NOTE 1]
NOTE 1. - Says the venerable Sire de Joinville: "Le Vieil de la Montaingne
ne creoit pas en Mahommet, aincois creoit en la Loi de Haali, qui fu Oncle
Mahommet." This is a crude statement, no doubt, but it has a germ of
truth. Adherents of the family of 'Ali as the true successors of the
Prophet existed from the tragical day of the death of Husain, and among
these, probably owing to the secrecy with which they were compelled to
hold their allegiance, there was always a tendency to all manner of
strange and mystical doctrines; as in one direction to the glorification
of 'Ali as a kind of incarnation of the Divinity, a character in which his
lineal representatives were held in some manner to partake; in another
direction to the development of Pantheism, and release from all positive
creed and precepts.
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