de Gobineau in his _Religions of Asia_, is a case in
point, and similar occurrences are by no means rare in Persia.
I met at Jeddah a highly educated Persian gentleman, who informed me
that he had himself been witness when a boy to a religious prodigy,
notorious, if I remember rightly, at Tabriz. On that occasion, one of
these prophets being condemned to death by the supreme government, was
bound to a cross with two of his companions, and after remaining
suspended thus for several hours, was fired at by the royal troops. It
then happened that, while the companions were dispatched at the first
volley, the prophet himself remained unhurt, and, incredible to relate,
the cords which bound him were cut by the bullets, and he fell to the
ground on his feet. "You Christians," said another Persian gentleman
once to me, "talk of your Christ as the Son of God and think it
strange, but with us the occurrence is a common one. Believe me we have
'sons of God' in nearly all our villages."
Thus, with the Shiites, extremes meet. No Moslems more readily adapt
themselves to the superficial atheisms of Europe than do the Persians,
and none are more ardently devout, as all who have witnessed the miracle
play of the two Imams will be obliged to admit.
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