B897 <=> B899 (BTG XLI The bokharian dervish, p. 898)

“’When I finished, the wandering dervish became intensely thoughtful and only after some time, looking at me steadily, he said as he rose from his place:

“’”There is only one way out for you – devote yourself to religion.”

“’Having said this, he walked away uttering some prayer and left my house forever.

“’After his departure, I again became thoughtful.

“’This time the result of my thinking was that I decided the same day irrevocably to enter some “brotherhood of dervishes,” but only not in my native country but somewhere further away.

“’The next day I began to divide and distribute all my wealth among my relatives and the poor, and in two weeks I left my native country forever and came here to Bokhara.

“’Once here in Bokhara, I chose one of the numerous brotherhoods of dervishes and entered it, selecting just that brotherhood whose dervishes were known among the people for the severity of their mode of life.

“’But unfortunately, the dervishes of this brotherhood soon produced a disillusioning effect on me, and I therefore transferred to another brotherhood; but there again the same thing happened, until finally I was enrolled as a dervish of the brotherhood of the monastery, the Sheikh of which set me the task of devising that mechanical stringed musical instrument of which I have already spoken to you.

“’And after that, as I have also already told you, I became very much absorbed in the science of the laws of vibrations and have been occupied with it up to the present day.

“’But today this science has compelled me to experience the same inner state as I experienced for the first time on the eve of the death of my mother, whose love had been my sole hearth of warmth which for so many years had sustained my empty and wearisome life.