rents. It was clear that the man whom they had been
beating on the shore had nothing to pay with. The children who were
crying bitterly in the boat were sold at a drachma per head for a
twelvemonth, and that woman who was wading in the water to her waist
and weeping was their mother.

"Women are very unquiet," said the prince to himself. "Sarah is the
quietest woman; but others love to talk much, to cry and raise an
uproar."

He remembered the man who was pacifying his wife's excitement. They had
been plunging him into the water and he was not angry; they did nothing
to her, and still she made an uproar.

"Women are very unquiet!" repeated be. "Yes, even my mother, who is
worthy of honor. What a difference between her and my father! His
holiness does not wish to know at all that I left the army for a girl,
but the queen likes to occupy herself even with this, that I took into
my house a Jewess. Sarah is the quietest of women whom I know; but
Tafet cries and makes an uproar for four persons."

Then the prince recalled the words of the man's wife, that for a month
they had not eaten wheat, only seeds and roots of lotus. Lotus and
poppy seeds are similar; the roots are poor. He could not eat them for
three days in succession. Moreover, the priests who were occupied in
medicine advised change of diet. While in school they told him that a
man ought to eat flesh with fish, dates with wheat bread, figs with
barley. But for a whole month to live on lotus seeds! Well, cows and
horses? Cows and horses like hay, but barley straw must be shoved into
their throats by force. Surely then earth-workers prefer lotus seeds as
food, while wheat or barley cakes, fish and flesh they do not relish.
For that matter, the most pious priests, wonderworkers, never touch
flesh or fish. Evidently magnates and king's sons need flesh, just as
lions and eagles do; but earth-tillers grass, like an ox.

"Only that plunging into the water to pay rent. Ei! but didn't he once
in bathing with his comrades put them under water, and even dive
himself? What laughing they had in those days! Diving was fun. And as
to beating with a cane, how many times had they beaten him in school?
It is painful, but evidently not for every creature. A beaten dog howls
and bites; a beaten ox does not even look around. So beating may pain a
great lord, but a common man cries only so as to cry when the chance
comes. Not all cry; soldiers and officers sing while belabored."