"Whenever he saw a maiden of his own caste whose appearance he liked, either in the houses where he was admitted or elsewhere, he would say to her: 'My dear, could you make me a good dinner with this rice?' This he did many times, but though parents in general would have been willing to give him their daughters, he was always laughed at, and often treated with contempt. One day, while sitting in a public place in a town which he had lately entered, he observed a young girl whose parents had fallen into poverty, which was shown by her scanty dress and slender ornaments. She passed by him accompanied by an old woman, and stood for a time very near him. "The more he looked at her the more he was pleased, and thought to himself: 'This is just the wife to suit me; she is neither too tall nor too short, too stout or too thin; her limbs are rounded and well knit; her back is straight, with a slight hollow; her shoulders are low; her arms plump and soft; the lines of her hands indicate good fortune; her fingers are long and slender; her nails are like polished gems; her neck is smooth and rounded as a slender shell; her bosom full and well shaped; her face has a sweet expression; her lips are full and red; her chin small and compact; her cheeks plump; her eyebrows glossy black, gracefully curved, meeting in the middle; her eyes are long and languishing, very black and very white; her forehead, adorned by beautiful curls, resembles a piece of the moon; her ears are delicately formed, and well set off by the ear-rings; her hair is glossy black, brown at the ends--long, thick, and not too much curled. My heart seems to be drawn towards her; if she is what she seems to be, I will certainly marry her; but I must not act rashly; I will first try her with my test. Then approaching her with a polite salutation, he said: 'My dear, are you clever enough to make a good dinner out of this bag of rice;' Without answering a word, she looked significantly at her old nurse, and taking the rice from his hand, signed him to sit down on a terrace close by; and sat down herself near him. Then, first spreading out the rice in the, sun that it might be quite dry, she rubbed it gently between her hands, so as to get off the husk unbroken, and giving it to the nurse, she said: 'Take this to some goldsmith; they use it when prepared in this way for polishing their gold, and you will get a few pence for it--with them buy a little firewood, a few cheap dishes, and an earthen pipkin, and bring also a wooden mortar with a long pestle.' On this errand the old woman departed, and soon returned, bringing the things required. "Then the girl put the rice into the mortar, and very gracefully moving the pestle up and down, separated the rice thoroughly from the remaining particles of husk and awns; which she carefully winnowed away.