nts; he was skilled in dancing, music, and singing; quick
at repartee; a good story-teller; full of fun and jokes; but devoid of
honour and honesty; false, slanderous, a receiver of bribes, a bad man
in every way; yet, from his wit and humour, very acceptable to the
king, whom he now thus addressed: 'Wherever there is a person of
exalted position, there are always clever rogues ready to prey upon
him, and, while degrading him, to accomplish their own base purposes.
Some, under the guise of religion, will tell him: "The happiness of
this world is shortlived and fleeting; eternal happiness can only be
obtained by prayer and penance;" and so they persuade him to shave
his head, wear a dress of skins, gird himself with a rope of sacred
grass, and, renouncing all pleasures and luxuries, to betake himself
to fasting and penance, and give away his riches to the poor, meaning,
of course, themselves; some of these religious impostors will even
persuade their dupes to renounce children, wife--nay, even life
itself.

"'But suppose a man to have too much sense to be deluded in this way,
they will try a different plan; to one they will say: "We can make
gold; only furnish us with the means, and your riches shall be
increased a thousandfold;" to another: "We can show you how to destroy
all your enemies without a weapon;" to another: "Follow our advice,
and, though you are nobody now, you shall soon become a great man."

"'If their victim is a sovereign, they will say to him: "Four
branches of study are said to be proper for kings--the vedas, the
puranas, metaphysics, and political science;--but the first three are
of very little advantage; they may safely be neglected, and he should
give up his mind to the last only. Are there not the six thousand
verses composed for the use of kings, and containing the whole
science? Learn these by heart, and you will be prepared for all
emergencies." So then he must set to work to learn all these crabbed
rules. He must; according to them, distrust every one, even wife or
son. He must rise early, take a very scanty meal, and immediately
proceed to business.

"'First he must go over accounts, and balance income and expenditure;
and while his rascally ministers pretend to have everything very
exact, they have forty thousand ways of cheating him, and take good
care of themselves.

"'Then he must sit in public, and be tired to death with receiving
frivolous complaints and petitions, and will not ev