One was a dancing Dervise, a Mohammedan,
The other was a Hindoo, a gymnosophist;
  One kept his whatd’yecallit and his Ramadan,
Laughing to scorn the sacred rites and laws of his
  Transfluvial rival, who, in turn, called Ahmed an
Old top, and, as a clincher, shook across a fist
  With nails six inches long, yet lifted not
  His eyes from off his navel’s mystic knot. 40

  ’Who whirls not round six thousand times an hour
Will go,’ screamed Ahmed, ’to the evil place;
  May he eat dirt, and may the dog and Giaour
Defile the graves of him and all his race;
  Allah loves faithful souls and gives them power
To spin till they are purple in the face;
  Some folks get you know what, but he that pure is
  Earns Paradise and ninety thousand houris.’

  ’Upon the silver mountain, South by East,
Sits Brahma fed upon the sacred bean; 30
  He loves those men whose nails are still increased,
Who all their lives keep ugly, foul, and lean;
  ’Tis of his grace that not a bird or beast
Adorned with claws like mine was ever seen;
  The suns and stars are Brahma’s thoughts divine,
  Even as these trees I seem to see are mine.’

  ‘Thou seem’st to see, indeed!’ roared Ahmed back;
’Were I but once across this plaguy stream,
  With a stout sapling in my hand, one whack
On those lank ribs would rid thee of that dream! 60
  Thy Brahma-blasphemy is ipecac
To my soul’s stomach; couldst thou grasp the scheme
  Of true redemption, thou wouldst know that Deity
  Whirls by a kind of blessed spontaneity.

  ’And this it is which keeps our earth here going
With all the stars.’—­’Oh, vile! but there’s a place
  Prepared for such; to think of Brahma throwing
Worlds like a juggler’s balls up into Space! 
  Why, not so much as a smooth lotos blowing
Is e’er allowed that silence to efface 70
  Which broods round Brahma, and our earth, ’tis known,
  Rests on a tortoise, moveless as this stone.’

  So they kept up their banning amoebaean,
When suddenly came floating down the stream
  A youth whose face like an incarnate paean
Glowed, ’twas so full of grandeur and of gleam;
  ‘If there be gods, then, doubtless, this must be one,’
Thought both at once, and then began to scream,
  ’Surely, whate’er immortals know, thou knowest,
  Decide between us twain before thou goest!’ 80

  The youth was drifting in a slim canoe
Most like a huge white water-lily’s petal,
  But neither of our theologians knew
Whereof ’twas made; whether of heavenly metal
  Seldseen, or of a vast pearl split in two
And hollowed, was a point they could not settle;
  ’Twas good debate-seed, though, and bore large fruit
  In after years of many a tart dispute.