• 2 • I did not believe that someone would find me, given it was so hard to find anyone, and even if they did, it would require caution, otherwise all would be lost. That had happened to poor reckless Taeeah – the flower consumed by flames. We wept copiously for her, and continued to do so whenever we remembered her small head with its thick hair uncovered, as the sword wielded by a brutal masked man sent it flying through the air. Another idea occurred to me. It, too, was likely to have been condemned, since we were no longer able to differentiate between the praiseworthy and the disgraceful, the pure and the impure, good and evil, justice and oppression. All wise words came cloaked in reproof and every sickness in the guise of healing. It occurred to me that a reasonable, God-fearing

