that man may know." And when there was doubt among the great ones Ali
drew forth his bundle and one by one removed those many silks till the
seal stood revealed; and some of them knew it for the seal and others
knew it not.

And they looked curiously at it and listened to Ali, and Ali said:

"Having heard how evil is the case of England, how a smoke has
darkened the country, and in places (as men say) the grass is black,
and how even yet your factories multiply, and haste and noise have
become such that men have no time for song, I have therefore come at
the bidding of my good friend Shooshan, barber of London, and of Shep,
a maker of teeth, to make things well with you."

And they said: "But where is your patent and your novelty?"

And Ali said: "Have I not here the stopper and on it, as good men
know, the ineffable seal? Now I have learned in Persia how that your
trains that make the haste, and hurry men to and fro, and your
factories and the digging of your pits and all the things that are
evil are everyone of them caused and brought about by steam."

"Is it not so?" said Shooshan.

"It is even so," said Shep.

"Now it is clear," said Ali, "that the chief devil that vexes England
and has done all this harm, who herds men into cities and will not let
them rest, is even the devil Steam."