Page:The Descent of Bolshevism.djvu/50

 jasmine covered kiosks where black-eyed huris languished in voluptuous bliss.

Marco Polo gives us a first hand account of this terrestrial paradise, which was designed for the fadais to spur them to their bloody task. Hasan's invention was a great success. A fadai, we are told, was first given hasheesh—hence the name assassins—was drugged into a trance and taken to the garden, where he awoke to find himself surrounded with all kinds of sensual and voluptuous pleasures. He imagined himself in a dream of paradisal bliss. But it lasted only a few days, when he would be drugged again with hasheesh and carried out in the same manner as he was carried in.

This foretaste of Paradise, which he was to enjoy in full and forever by executing the will of his Master Hasan, steeled his heart to the boldest and bloodiest deeds. These young fadais made no secret of their calling. They were conspicuous for the red caps and girdles they wore and the terror-spreading daggers they carried.