Curiosidades recorrentes: Alamut

A lenda de Alamut intriga-me constantemente desde que li o livro de Vladimir Bartol, com o mesmo nome.*
Não sabia que Marco Polo tinha passado por Alamut, e por isso aqui deixo este seu texto, que tão perfeitamente faz, a sinopse do mistério daquela fortaleza.

"The Old Man kept at his court such boys of twelve years old as seemed to him destined to become courageous men. When the Old Man sent them into the garden in groups of four, ten or twenty, he gave them hashish to drink. They slept for three days, then they were carried sleeping into the garden where he had them awakened."



"When these young men woke, and found themselves in the garden with all these marvelous things, they truly believed themselves to be in paradise. And these damsels were always with them in songs and great entertainments; they; received everything they asked for, so that they would never have left that garden of their own will."

"And when the Old Man wished to kill someone, he would take him and say: 'Go and do this thing. I do this because I want to make you return to paradise'. And the assassins go and perform the deed willingly."

- Marco Polo - on his visit to Alamut in 1273
*-"Alamut" é considerada a obra prima da literatura eslovena.
Hassan-Ibn-Sabah, aqui.