B900 <=> B902 [BTG XLI The bokharian dervish, p. 901]

“Having said these last words, this perhaps last great sage of the Earth looked into my eyes with an expression full of anticipation.

“Can you picture to yourself, my dear boy, my situation then? What could I reply to him?

“For the second time that day, I could not on account of this terrestrial being, see any way out of the situation that had arisen.

“This time there was mixed in this state, so unusual for me, my ‘being-Hikhdjnapar,’ or, as your favorites say there, ‘pity,’ for that terrestrial three-brained being, chiefly because he was suffering through me.

“And this was because I was then clearly aware that if I spoke a few words to him, not only would he be calmed, but thanks to them, he would even understand that the fact that no boil was formed on my left leg proved the truth and precision of his adored science still more.

“I had full moral right to tell him the truth about myself, because by his attainments he was already ‘Kalmanuior,’ that is, a three-brained being of that planet with whom it is not forbidden us from Above to be frank.

“But at that moment I could in no way do this, because there was also present there the dervish Hadji-Bogga-Eddin who was still an ordinary terrestrial three-brained being, concerning whom, already long before, it was forbidden under oath from Above to the beings of our tribe to communicate true information to any one of them on any occasion whatsoever.

“This interdiction upon the beings of our tribe was made it seems on the initiative of the Very Saintly Ashiata Shiemash.

“This interdiction on the beings of our tribe was made chiefly because it is necessary for the three-brained beings of your planet to have ‘knowledge-of-being.’