"'And the soothsayers went forth to the people and expounded to them the
mystery of overproduction, and how it was that they must needs perish of
thirst because there was overmuch water, and how there could not be
enough because there was too much. And likewise spoke they unto the
people concerning the sun spots, and also wherefore it was that these
things had come upon them by reason of lack of confidence. And it was
even as the soothsayers had said, for to the people their wisdom seemed
emptiness. And the people reviled them, saying: "Go up, ye bald-heads!
Will ye mock us? Doth plenty breed famine? Doth nothing come out of
much?" And they took up stones to stone them.
"'And when the capitalists saw that the people still murmured and would
not give ear to the soothsayers, and because also they feared lest they
should come upon the tank and take of the water by force, they brought
forth to them certain holy men (but they were false priests), who spake
unto the people that they should be quiet and trouble not the capitalists
because they thirsted. And these holy men, who were false priests,
testified to the people that this affliction was sent to them of God for
the healing of their souls, and that if they should bear it in patience
and lust not after the water, neither trouble the capitalists, it would
come to pass that after they had given up the ghost they would come to a
country where there should be no capitalists but an abundance of water.
Howbeit, there were certain true prophets of God also, and these had
compassion on the people and would not prophesy for the capitalists, but
rather spake constantly against them.
"'Now, when the capitalists saw that the people still murmured and would
not be still, neither for the words of the soothsayers nor of the false
priests, they came forth themselves unto them and put the ends of their
fingers in the water that overflowed in the tank and wet the tips
thereof, and they scattered the drops from the tips of their fingers
abroad upon the people who thronged the tank, and the name of the drops
of water was charity, and they were exceeding bitter.
"'And when the capitalists saw yet again that neither for the words of
the soothsayers, nor of the holy men who were false priests, nor yet for
the drops that were called charity, would the people be still, but raged
the more, and crowded upon the tank as if they would take it by force,
then took they counsel together and sent men privily forth among the
people. And these men sought out the mightiest among the people and all
who had skill in war, and took them apart and spake craftily with them,
saying:
"'"Come, now, why cast ye not your lot in with the capitalists? If ye
will be their men and serve them against the people, that they break not
in upon the tank, then shall ye have abundance of water, that ye perish
not, ye and your children."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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