'When you observe that a man loathes to listen to intelligent conversation, and hates meetings of learned men, but is fond of gossip, all kinds of nonsense, and scandals of society, compare him to the May-bug, which delights in impure exhalations, and loves dunghills, but hates the perfumes of musk or of roses, which actually kill it when sprinkled upon it. 'If you meet an individual displaying a great deal of piety outwardly, but always intriguing to acquire property, to enrich himself by unrighteous means, and to cheat widows and orphans, consider him to be a wolf: "The wolf is so devout; You see him on his knees, He nicely prays and sighs. But when his game is near, He falls upon it speedily And tears it all to pieces." 'When you discover a liar consider him to be like a dead man, who can give no information, and with whom no one can associate. A liar may also be compared to an ostrich which buries all its eggs in the sand, but leaves one upon the surface, and one close under it, whilst all the others are deeply concealed. When an inexperienced man perceives that egg he takes it, and perhaps also the one close below it, and after scraping up the sand a little, and finding nothing more goes away; whilst a person who knows this habit of the ostrich does not stop searching until he has got possession of all the eggs. You must deal in the same manner with a liar, and not believe him till you get to the bottom of his story, i.e. until you elicit the actual truth. 'When you observe that a man's whole attention is absorbed in endeavours to make a good appearance by keeping his clothes nice, and apprehensive lest they should be dirtied in any way, always picking any little straws that might adhere to them, and constantly adjusting his turban, consider him to be a peacock, whose nature is always to admire his own person, to stalk about majestically, to display the plumage of his tail, and to solicit praise of his beauty. 'If you become acquainted with a rancorous person who never forgets the slightest insult, but avenges himself for it even after a considerable lapse of time, compare him to a camel, for the Arabs truly say of such a man that "he is more rancorous than a camel." Avoid such a man as you would an ill-natured camel. 'When you meet a hypocrite, who is different from what he appears to be, compare him to the Yarbu, _i.e._ the mouse of the desert, which has two apertures to its lair, the one for an entrance, and the other for an exit, so that it always cheats the hunter who digs for it.'