the office of _The Atheist_. He did not see the word "atheist",
or if he did, it is quite possible that he did not know the
meaning of the word. Even as it was, the document would not have
shocked even the innocent Highlander, but for the troublesome and
quite unforeseen fact that the innocent Highlander read it
stolidly to the end; a thing unknown among the most enthusiastic
subscribers to the paper, and calculated in any case to create a
new situation.

With a smart journalistic instinct characteristic of all his
school, the editor of _The Atheist_ had put first in his paper
and most prominently in his window an article called "The
Mesopotamian Mythology and its Effects on Syriac Folk Lore." Mr.
Evan MacIan began to read this quite idly, as he would have read
a public statement beginning with a young girl dying in Brighton
and ending with Bile Beans. He received the very considerable
amount of information accumulated by the author with that tired
clearness of the mind which children have on heavy summer
afternoons--that tired clearness which leads them to go on asking
questions long after they have lost interest in the subject and
are as bored as their nurse. The streets were full of people and
empty of adventures. He might as well know about the gods of
Mesopotamia as not; so he flattened his long, lean face against
the dim bleak pane of the window and read all there was to read
about Mesopotamian gods. He read how the Mesopotamians had a god
named Sho (sometimes pronounced Ji), and that he was described as
being very powerful, a striking similarity to some expressions
about Jahveh, who is also described as having power. Evan had
never heard of Jahveh in his life, and imagining him to be some
other Mesopotamian idol, read on with a dull curiosity. He learnt