Beelzebub’s Tales About His Second Descent on to the Planet Earth

“Although this terrestrial being, who afterwards became for me like one of my kinsmen, was not a priest of the highest rank, yet he was well versed in all the details of the teaching of the religion then dominant in the whole country Tikliamish; and he also knew the psyche of the followers of that religion, particularly, of course, the psyche of the beings belonging to his what is called ‘congregation’ for whom he was ‘priest.’

“Soon after we were on ‘good terms’ with each other, I discovered that in the Being of this priest Abdil—owing to very many external circumstances, among which were also heredity and the conditions under which he had been prepared for a responsible being—the function called ‘conscience’ which ought to be present in every three-centered being, had not yet been quite atrophied in him, so that after he had cognized with his Reason certain cosmic truths I had explained to him, he immediately acquired in his presence towards the beings around him, similar to him, almost that attitude which should be in all normal three-brained beings of the whole Universe, that is to say, he became, as it is also said there, ‘compassionate,’ and ‘sensitive’ towards the beings surrounding him.

“Before telling you more about this priest Abdil, I must make clear to your Reason that there on the continent of Ashhark the mentioned terrible custom of Sacrificial-Offerings was at that time, as it is said, at its ‘height,’ and the destruction of various weak one-brained and two-brained beings proceeded everywhere in incalculable numbers.

“At that period, if anybody had occasion in any house to appeal to one or another of their imaginary gods or fantastic ‘saints,’ they invariably promised that in the event of good fortune, they would destroy in honor of their gods and saints the existence of some being or other, or of several at once; and if by chance good fortune befell them, then they carried out their promise with the utmost veneration, while, if it were otherwise, they increased their slaughter in order eventually to win the favor of their said imaginary patron.

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