ythagoras.'

"'Did I not tell you so? 'Euphronius appealed to his disciples.

"'Invariably,' they replied.

"'As if a barbarian could teach a Greek!' said he.

"'It is much if he is able to learn from one,' said they.

"'Pythagoras, then,' said Euphronius addressing me,' did not resort to
India to be instructed by the Gymnosophists?'

"'On the contrary,' I answered, 'he went there to teach them, and the
little knowledge of divine matters they possess is entirely derived from
him. His mission is recorded in a barbarous poem called the Ramayana,
wherein he is figuratively represented as allying himself with monkeys. He
is worshipped all over the country under the appellations of Siva,
Kamadeva, Kali, Gautama Buddha, and others too numerous to mention.'

"When I further proceeded to explain that a temple had been erected to
Euphronius himself on the banks of the Ganges, and that a festival, called
Durga Popja, or the Feast of Reason, had been instituted in his honour, his
good humour knew no bounds, and he granted me his daughter's hand without
difficulty. He died a few years ago, bequeathing me his celebrated dilemma,
and I am now head of his school and founder of the Rufinianian philosophy.
I am also the author of some admired works, especially a life of
Pythagoras, and a manual of Indian philosophy and religion. I hope for thy
own sake thou wilt forbear to contradict me: for no one will believe thee.
I trust also that thou wilt speedily overcome thy disappointment with
respect to Euphronia. I do most honestly and truthfully assure thee that
for a one-armed man like thee to marry her would be most inexpedient,
inasmuch as the defence of one's beard from her, when she is in a state of
excitement, requires the full use of both hands, and of the feet also. But
come with me to her chamber, and I will present thee to her. She is always
taunting me with my inferiority to thee in personal attractions, and I
promise myself much innocent amusement from her discomfiture when she finds
thee as gaunt as a wolf and as black as a cinder. Only, as I have
represented thee to have been devoured by a tiger, thou wilt kindly say
that I saved thy life, but concealed the circumstance out of modesty."

"I have learned in the Indian schools," said Mnesitheus, "not to lie for
the benefit of others. I will not see Euphronia; I would not disturb her
ideal of me, nor mine of her. Farewell. May the Rufinianian sect flourish!
and may thy wor