B998 <=> B1000 [BTG XLII Beelzebub in America, p. 999]
“’This custom is that every adherent of the Shiite sect, male as well as female, must, after every “toilet” unfailingly wash his sex organs. For this purpose, every family has the necessary appurtenances considered among us even as the most important, consisting of a special vessel, a particular kind of bowl called “Ibrkh.” And the richer the family the more of these bowls they must have, since such a bowl must at once and without fail be put at the disposal of every newly arrived guest.
“’I myself was from early childhood also personally accustomed to this habit, and it gradually so entered into my daily life that even when I came here to Europe, where this custom does not exist, I could not live a single day without making this ablution.
“’For instance, it is much easier for me to go without washing my face even after a debauch, than not to wash certain parts of my body with cold water after the toilet.
“’At present, living here in Europe, I not only have to put up with a great many inconveniences owing to this habit of mine, but I even have to forego some of the modern comfort which I could easily afford.
“’For instance, I now live in Paris, where owing to my means I could well afford to live at the very best hotel with every modern comfort, but, thanks to this habit of mine, I cannot do this but am obliged to live in some dirty hotel situated far from the “center” and from all those places where I have to be almost every day.
“’In the hotel where I now live, there are no comforts beyond this single comfort which is very important for me; and this is due to fact that being of old construction, this hotel has “water closets” of the old type and not of the new contemporary American invention, and it is just that old system which is the most convenient and suitable for this habit of mine.
“’It is quite likely that I even half consciously chose France as my chief dwelling place because it is still possible to find everywhere here especially in the provinces, water closets of the old system as among us in Persia.