Untitled

THE MISSING LINK , *'Q
'
i
i ,
called the deaf adder ? no ears but none is more defective than
;
the maggot, which is a red worm found in the mud of streams 1
,
called" therefore gil-khwdra ("mud-eater"), but in'Transoxiana
ghdk-kirma*. This is the lowest animal, while the highest is the
satyr (iiasnas)*, a creature inhabiting the plains of Turkistan, of
erect carriage and vertical stature, with wide flat nails. It cherishes,
a great affection for men Wherever it sees ; men, 'it halts on their
and when it finds a solitary
path and examines them attentively ;
man, it carries him off, and it is even said that it will conceive
from him. This, after (*) mankind, is Jhe highest of animals,
inasmuch as in several respects it resembles man first in its
;
er,gct stature ; secondly in the breadth of its nails ; and thirdly
in the hair 'of its head. ,
>
ANECDOTE I.
I heard as follows from Abu Rida ittn 'Abdu's-Salam of
Nishapur in the Great Mosque at Nishapur, in the year 5io/
4
1116-1117: "We were travelling towards Tamghaj and in
,
our caravan were sevaral thousand camels. One day, when we
were marching in the mid-day heat, we saw on a sand-hill a
woman, bare-headed and quite naked, extremely beautiful in
form, with a figure like a cypress, a face like the moon, and long
hair, standing and looking at us. Although we spoke to her^she
made no reply and when we ;
approached her, she fled, running so
swiftly in her flight that probably no horse could have overtaken
her. 1
,Our muleteers, who were Turks, said that this was a wild
man, such as they call nasnds" And you must know that this
is the noblest of animals in these* three respects which have been
mentioned. >
So when, in the course of long ages and by lapse of time,
equilibrium became more delicately adjusted, and the turn came
of the interspace which* is between the elements and*the heavens 5
,
man came into* being, bringing with him all that existed in
the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms, and adding thereunto
the capacity for abstract concepts. So by reason of in-
1 *
Cf. Dteterici's Mikrokosmos, p. 43.
2 The correct reading of this word, which appears in a different form in each MS.,
is doubtful, and it is probably a local term only. Mirza Muhammad \a3uesgk4t-tinna
as equivalent to kirm-i-khdk, "earthworm."
3 The term nasnds either denotes a real animal or a fabulous monster. In the
'first sense it is used of various kinds of monkeys, e.g.lhe orang-outang and marmoset ;
in the>latter it is equivalent to the Shiqq or Half-man (which resembles a man cut in
two vertically) ?)f the Arabs, and the Dlv-manhim of the Persians. See Qazwini's
*Aj