The Manners of Kings
STORY XVI
One of my friends complained of the unpropitious times, telling me that he had a slender income, a large family, without strength to bear the load of poverty, and had often entertained the idea to emigrate to another country so that, no matter how he made a living, no one might become aware of his good or ill luck.
He was also apprehensive of the malevolence of enemies, who would laugh behind his back and would attribute the struggle he underwent for the benefit of his family to his want of manly independence, and that they would say: "Behold that dishonourable fellow who will never see the face of prosperity, [who] will choose bodily comfort for himself, abandoning his wife and children to misery."
He also told me that, as I knew he possessed some knowledge of arithmetic, I might, through my influence, get him appointed to a post, which would become the means of putting his mind at ease, and place him under obligations to me which he could not requite by gratitude during the rest of his life.
I replied: "Dear friend! employment of a Pâdshâh consists of two parts, namely, the hope for bread and the danger of life; but it is against the opinion of intelligent men to incur this danger for that hope. No one comes to the house of a Dervish to levy a tax on land and garden. Either consent to bear thy anxiety or grief, or carry thy beloved[1] children to the crows."
He replied: "Thou hast not uttered these words in conformity with my case, nor answered my question. Hast thou not heard the saying: Whoever commits treachery let his
- ↑ The expression for 'beloved' is jigarband literally, 'Tied to the liver.'
26
