ors which
thou bestowedst on this servant of mine, and tell me what events they
are which the visions of my dreams foreshow; and I desire thee to
suppress nothing out of fear, nor to flatter me with lying words, or
with what may please me, although the truth should be of a melancholy
nature. For it seemed to me that, as I walked by the river, I saw
kine fat and very large, seven in number, going from the river to the
marshes; and other kine of the same number like them, met them out of
the marshes, exceeding lean and ill-favored, which ate up the fat
and the large kine, and yet were no better than before, and not less
miserably pinched with famine. After I had seen this vision, I awaked
out of my sleep; and being in disorder, and considering with myself what
this appearance should be, I fell asleep again, and saw another dream,
much more wonderful than the foregoing, which still did more affright
and disturb me:--I saw seven ears of corn growing out of one root,
having their heads borne down by the weight of the grains, and bending
down with the fruit, which was now ripe and fit for reaping; and near
these I saw seven other ears of corn, meager and weak, for want of rain,
which fell to eating and consuming those that were fit for reaping, and
put me into great astonishment."

6. To which Joseph replied:--"This dream," said he, "O king, although
seen under two forms, signifies one and the same event of things; for
when thou sawest the fat kine, which is an animal made for the plough
and for labor, devoured by the worser kine, and the ears of corn eaten
up by the smaller ears, they foretell a famine, and want of the fruits
of the earth for the same number of years, and equal with those when
Egypt was in a happy state; and this so far, that the plenty of these
years will be spent in the same number of years of scarcity, and that
scarcity of necessary provisions will be very difficult to be corrected;
as a sign whereof, the ill-favored kine, when they had devoured the
better sort, could not be satisfied. But still God foreshows what is
to come upon men, not to grieve them, but that, when they know it
beforehand, they may by prudence make the actual experience of what is
foretold the more tolerable. If thou, therefore, carefully dispose
of the plentiful crops which will come in the former years, thou wilt
procure that the future calamity will not be felt by the Egyptians."

7. Hereupon the king wondered at the discretion an