R J Astruc's "The Perfume Eater": Weird mythological creatures

This is a very ordinary story about life in a low-income neighborhood in some unnamed country. Prose is generally ok, but I didn't quite get the point of the story.

Full text of this story is available online.

Story summary.
sf component of story is provided by two almost-human-but-not-entirely mythological creatures from medieval Iran: Zeem, the narrator, & Deev - some kind of a demon. Both are long lived, & were soldiers in some was centuries back. Deev got stuck somewhere, & Zeem was leading an ordinary life in our neighborhood. That is when Deev appeared.

Apparantly, Zeem loves perfume, & Deev can be killed with it. In fact, that is how he is killed in the end, when he wanted to kill Zeem with a sword because of some ancient unspecified reason.

Fact sheet.
The Perfume Eater, short story, review
Rating: C
First published: Strange Horizons, 16 July 2007