people "some days of prosperity and tranquillity, so that they may
sleep and know repose"; it concludes:

"If thou answerest my petition it will be only of thy liberality and
magnificence, for no one is worthy to receive thy bounty for any
merit of his, but only through thy grace. _Search below the
dung-hills_ and in the mountains for thy servants, friends, and
acquaintance, and raise them to riches and dignities." . . .

"Where am I? Lo, I speak with thee, O King; well do I know that I
stand in an eminent place, and that I talk with one of great majesty,
before whose presence flows a river through a chasm, a gulf sheer
down of awful depth; this, also, is a slippery place, whence many
precipitate themselves, for there shall not be found one without
error before thy majesty. I myself, a man of little understanding and
lacking speech, dare to address

[1. Bancroft's "Native Races," vol. iii, p. 204.]

{p. 231}

my words to thee; I put myself in peril of falling into the gorge and
cavern of this river. I, Lord, have come to take with my hands,
_blindness to mine eyes_, rottenness and shriveling to my members,
poverty and affliction to my body; for my meanness and rudeness this
it is that I merit to receive. Live and rule for ever in all
quietness and tranquillity, O thou that art our lord, our shelter,
our protector, most compassionate, most pitiful, invisible,
impalpable."