tagious diseases are more sought
after than any other class, for in waiting on these there is the
chance of gaining the blessing of death; indeed, in these cases much
trouble is usually experienced from the rush of those who insist on
offering their services.

For it must never be forgotten that the Kosekin love death as we love
life; and this accounts for all those ceremonies which to me were so
abhorrent, especially the scenes of the Mista Kosek. To them a dead
human body is no more than the dead body of a bird: there is no awe
felt, no sense of sanctity, of superstitious horror; and so I learned,
with a shudder, that the hate of life is a far worse thing than the
fear of death. This desire for death is, then, a master-passion, and
is the key to all their words and acts. They rejoice over the death of
friends, since those friends have gained the greatest of blessings;
they rejoice also at the birth of children, since those who are born
will one day gain the bliss of death.

For a couple to fall in love is the signal for mutual self-surrender.
Each insists on giving up the loved one; and the more passionate the
love is, the more eager is the desire to have the loved one married to
someone else. Lovers have died broken-hearted from being compelled to
marry one another. Poets here among the Kosekin celebrate unhappy love
which has met with this end. These poets also celebrate defeats
instead of victories, since it is considered glorious for one nation
to sacrifice itself to another; but to this there are important
limitations, as we shall see. Poets also celebrate street-sweepers,
scavengers, lamp-lighters, laborers, and above all, paupers, and pass
by as unworthy of notice the authors, Meleks, and Kohens of the land.

The paupers here form the most honorable class. Next to these are the
laborers. These have strikes as with us; but it is always for harder
work, longer hours, or smaller pay. The contest between capital and
labor rages, but the conditions are reversed; for the grumbling
capitalist complains that the laborer will not take as much pay as he
ought to while the laborer thinks the capitalist too persistent in his
efforts to force money upon him.

Here among the Kosekin the wealthy class forms the mass of the people,
while the aristocratic few consist of the paupers. These are greatly
envied by the others, and have many advantages. The cares and burdens
of wealth, as well as wealth itself, are here considere