Beelzebubs-Tales-to-His-Grandson-by-G-I-Gurdjieff

" 'When we first moved here, there was a holy place not far away, calledthe "Sacred Grotto," to which pilgrims and devotees used to throng from allover Turkestan." 'The popular belief was that there had once lived in this cave the famousKhdrailav, who later was taken up alive into Heaven." 'It was further said in this popular belief that he was taken alive intoHeaven so unexpectedly that he even had no time to extinguish the fire that lithis cave." 'And this last belief was supported by the fact that in that cave there wasindeed an "undying fire." 'And so, friend of my friend!" 'As neither I nor my friend, the dervish Kerbalai Azis Nooaran, couldgive credence to this popular belief, we decided to probe into the real cause ofthat unusual phenomenon." 'Having at that time sufficient material resources at our disposal, and alsothe conditions necessary for the investigation of this phenomenon withouthindrance from anyone, we set about trying to discover its origin." 'It turned out that not far from that cave was an underground stream,which washed over a bed of minerals whose combined action on the waterresulted in the separation of an inflammable gas that found its way into thecave through chance crevices in the ground.'And this gas, somehow becoming ignited, must obviously have beenthe cause of that "undying fire. "" 'When my friend and I had made this clear to ourselves and had alsodiscovered that this source was located not far from our cave, we decided toprovide an artificial outlet for the gas into our cave.'And ever since then this gas has flowed through the clay pipes we laid,into the main part of the cave, and from there we have distributed it by meansof "bamboo canes" according to our needs.