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

'I do not dress any more cleanly than anyone else living here in Europe,I wash my hands and face every morning like everyone else, once a week Imake a point of going to a Turkish bath, also, it seems, like everyoneshort, I turned over many things in my mind, and found nothing in which Iwas exceptional in this respect And yet the fact remained that with myloathsome life I ran every risk of infection." 'From then on my thoughts were guided by two impartial convictionsalready fully rooted in me the first, that sooner or later anyone havingrelations with these women must inevitably be infected, and the second, thatonly cleanliness protects one from such infection.'I continued to reflect in this manner for a whole week, until suddenly Iremembered a certain habit of mine which I have always scrupulouslyconcealed from my European acquaintances, the habit which we in Persia call"abdast. "" 'The practice of "abdast" or, as it might be called, "ablution," is one ofthe principal customs among us in Persia." 'Strictly speaking, every follower of Islam must conform to this practice,but it is followed scrupulously only by Muslims of the Shi'ite sect, and asalmost the whole of Persia is composed of Shi'ites, the custom is nowhere sowidely spread as among us." 'The custom of abdast consists, for every adherent of the Shi'ite sect,male as well as female, in never failing to wash the sex organs after each visitto the "water closet For this purpose, each family has certain appurtenancesconsidered indispensable among us, consisting of a special vessel, a particularkind of jug, called "ibrik" And the richer the family, the more of these jugsthey must have, since one of them must be put at the disposal of every newlyarrived guest.'I myself was also accustomed to this habit from early childhood, and itgradually so entered into my daily life thatIn