Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson

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Shat-Chai-Mernis

 

41 The Bokharian Dervish Hadji-Asvatz-Troov

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“One day we started talking about what is called there the ‘ancient-Chinese-science’ named ‘Shat-Chai-Mernis.’

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“And so, my boy, once when I was talking with this dervish Hadji-Zephir-Bogga-Eddin about the ancient Chinese science Shat-Chai-Mernis, he, in the course of conversation, proposed that I should go with him to another dervish, a friend of his, a great authority on this ancient Chinese science, to talk about it with him.

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“While we were eating, my first dervish acquaintance told him by the way that I was also very interested in the science Shat-Chai-Mernis and explained briefly which questions were already well known to me and what in general we had talked about before.

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“When during our conversation which dealt exclusively with the knowledge now called there Shat-Chai-Mernis, we came to speak of the nature and the significance of vibrations in general, and when we happened to talk about the octave of sound, Hadji-Asvatz-Troov then said that not only had the octave of sound seven aspects of relatively independent whole manifestations, but that the vibrations of any one of these relatively independent manifestations follow, in their arising as well as in their manifestation, the same conformity to law.

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“‘I myself became interested in the knowledge Shat-Chai-Mernis through the laws of vibrations of sound; and they were the cause of my devoting the whole of my life subsequently to this knowledge.’

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“‘As my investigations of long years have convinced me and as the science of Shat-Chai-Mernis states, there do indeed exist in the world two kinds of vibrations: namely, so to say, “creative vibrations” and “momentum vibrations.”

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“‘When we had placed this grand piano here, we tuned its strings exactly according to those laws of vibrations indicated in the ancient Chinese science Shat-Chai-Mernis.

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“Then, as if nothing had happened, he turned to the dervish Bogga-Eddin and began again to speak about the science Shat-Chai-Mernis.