“For though in form and body like children outwardly,” said the king, “they do nothing and seem unable to move; are they in an enchanted slumber?” Then the old man came near to the edge of the ravine and, speaking solemnly and low, said: “O king, thou dost not yet know the nature of the place wherein thou art. For these children are like the children thou hast known always both in form and body. I have worked on them as far as is within my power. But here in this valley a law reigns which binds them in sleepfulness and powerlessness. For here in everything that is done there is as much pain as pleasure. If it is pleasant to tread a downward slope there is as much pain in ascending the upward slope. And in every action there is a pleasant part and a painful part, and in the tasting of every herb the beings feel a bitter taste and a sweet taste, so indistinguishably united that the pleasure and the pain of eating it are equally balanced. And as hunger increases the sense of the bitterness in the taste increases, so it is never more pleasant to eat than not to eat. Everything that can be done here affords no more pleasure than it does pain, from the greatest action down to the least movement. And the beings as I can make them, they follow pleasure and avoid pain. And if the pleasure and the pain are equal they do not move one way or the other.” “This is impossible,” said the king. “Nay,” said the old man, “that it is as I have said I will prove to thee.” And he explained to the king how it would be possible to stimulate the children to activity, for he showed him how he could divest anything that was done of part of its pain and render it more pleasurable than painful. “In this way thou canst lead the beings I have given thee to do anything,” said the old man, “but the condition is that thou must take the painful part that thou sparest them thyself.” And he bade the king cut himself of the reeds that grew by the side of the ravine, and told him that putting them between himself and any being would enable him to take a part of the pain and leave in their feeling the whole of the pleasure and the pain diminished by that part which he bore himself. Then the king cut of the reeds that grew by the side of the ravine. He went to the hut where these beings lay, and, taking the reeds in his hand, he placed one between the child’s frame and himself. And the child rose up and walked, while he himself felt a pain in his limbs. And he found that by taking a pain in each part of him the child would exercise that part; if he wished the child to look at anything he, by bearing a pain in his eyes, made looking at it pleasurable to the child, and accordingly the child did look at the object he wished him to regard. And again, by bearing a bitter taste in his mouth he made the child feel eating as pleasant, and the child gathered fruits and ate them.