And the Nose said, "There is no mountain, I cannot smell it."

Then the Eye turned the other way, and they all began to talk together
about the Eye's strange delusion. And they said, "Something must
be the matter with the Eye."





The Two Learned Men




Once there lived in the ancient city of Afkar two learned men who
hated and belittled each other's learning. For one of them denied
the existence of the gods and the other was a believer.

One day the two met in the marketplace, and amidst their followers
they began to dispute and to argue about the existence or the
non-existence of the gods. And after hours of contention they
parted.

That evening the unbeliever went to the temple and prostrated himself
before the altar and prayed the gods to forgive his wayward past.

And the same hour the other learned man, he who had upheld the
gods, burned his sacred books. For he had become an unbeliever.