ten to his blasphemy?" To him whom thou canst not
convince by revelation or tradition, the best answer is that thou shalt
not answer him.

* * * * *

VI

They have esteemed Sahban Wabil as unrivalled in eloquence, insomuch
that he could speak for a year before an assembly, and would not use the
same word twice; or should he chance to repeat it, he would give it a
different signification; and this is one of the special accomplishments
of a courtier:--Though a speech be captivating and sweet, worthy of
belief, and meriting applause, yet what thou hast once delivered thou
must not repeat, for if they eat a sweetmeat once they find that enough.

VII

I overheard a sage, who was remarking: "Never has anybody acknowledged
his own ignorance, excepting that person who, while another may be
talking, and has not finished what he has to say, will begin
speaking:--A speech, O wiseacre! has a beginning and an end; bring not
one speech into the middle of another. A man of judgment, discretion,
and prudence, delivers not his speech till he find an interval of
silence."

VIII

Some of the courtiers of Sultan Mahmud asked Husan Maimandi, saying:
"What did the king whisper to you to-day on a certain state affair?" He
said: "You are also acquainted with it." They replied: "You are the
prime minister; what the king tells you, he does not think proper to
communicate to such as we are." He replied: "He communicates with me in
the confidence that I will not divulge to anybody; then why do you ask
me?" A man of sense blabs not, whatever he may come to know; he should
not make his own head the forfeit of the king's secret.

IX

I was hesitating about the purchase of a dwelling-house. A Jew said: "I
am an old housekeeper in this street: ask the character of this house
from me and buy it, for it has no fault." I replied: "True! only that
you are its neighbor:--Any such house as has thee for its neighbor could
scarce be worth ten dirams of silver; yet it should behoove us to hope
that after thy death it may fetch a thousand."

X

A certain poet presented himself before the chief of a gang of robbers,
and recited a casidah, or elegy, in his praise. He ordered that they
should strip off his clothes, and thrust him from the village. The naked
wretch was going away shivering in the cold, and the village dogs were
barking at his heels. He stooped to pick up a stone, in order to shy at
the dogs, b