earth has so consumed it that not one bone is left. Though many ages are
gone since Nushirowan was in being, yet in the remembrance of his
munificence is his fair renown left. Be generous, O my friend! and avail
thyself of life, before they proclaim it as an event that such a person
is not left."


III

I have heard of a king's son who was short and mean, and his other
brothers were lofty in stature and handsome. On one occasion the king,
his father, looked at him with disparagement and scorn. The son, in his
sagacity, understood him and said, "O father! a short wise man is
preferable to a tall blockhead; it is not everything that is mightier in
stature that is superior in value:--_a sheep's flesh is wholesome, that
of an elephant carrion_.--_Of the mountains of this earth Sinai is one
of the least, yet is it most mighty before God in state and
dignity_.--Heardst thou not what an intelligent lean man said one day to
a sleek fat dolt? An Arab horse, notwithstanding his slim make, is more
prized thus than a herd of asses."

The father smiled; the pillars of the state, or courtiers, nodded their
assent, and the other brothers were mortified to the quick. Till a man
has declared his mind, his virtue and vice may have lain hidden; do not
conclude that the thicket is unoccupied, peradventure the tiger is gone
asleep!

I have heard that about that time a formidable antagonist appeared
against the king. Now that an army was levied in each side, the first
person that mounted his horse and sallied upon the plain was that son,