The man replied:—
"I am scooping because I have lost a pearl."
The Water-sprite asked:—
"Are you going to stop before long?"
The man replied:—
"When I have scooped the sea dry, then I shall stop."
Then the Water-sprite returned into the depths, and brought up the very same pearl, and gave it to the man.
XV
THE BLIND MAN AND THE MILK
One blind from birth asked a man who could see:—
"What color is milk?"
The man who could see replied:—
"The color of milk is like white paper."
The blind man asked:—
"This color, then, rustles in the hands like paper?"
The man who could see replied:—
"No; it is white, like white flour."
The blind man asked:—
"Then it is soft and friable like flour, is it?"
The man who could see replied:—
"No ; it is simply white, like a rabbit."
The blind man asked:—
"Then it is downy and soft like a rabbit, is it?"
The man who could see replied:—
"No; white is a color exactly like snow."
The blind man asked:—
"Then it is cold like snow, is it?"
And in spite of all the comparisons which the man who could see made, still the blind man was wholly unable to comprehend what the color of milk really was.
