Such was our situation when two Hindus darted from behind a rock and prepared to cut us off, one of them holding a bludgeon in his hand, and the other having a mallet under his arm. I called to the young man, "Why do you stop?--Display whatever strength and courage thou hast, for the foe came on his own feet up to his grave":--I perceived that the youth's bow and arrows had dropped from his hands, and that a tremor had fallen upon his limbs:--It is not he that can split a hair with a coat-of-mail cleaving arrow that is able to withstand an assault from the formidable:--No alternative was left us but that of surrendering our arms, accoutrements, and clothes, and escaping with our lives. On an affair of importance employ a man experienced in business who can bring the fierce lion within the noose of his halter; though the youth be strong of arm and has the body of an elephant, in his encounter with a foe every limb will quake with fear. A man of experience is best qualified to explore a field of battle, as one of the learned is to expound a point of law. XIX I saw a rich man's son seated by his father's tomb, and in a disputation with that of a dervish holding forth and saying: "My father's mausoleum is built of granite, the epitaph inscribed with letters of gold, the pavement and lining marble, and tessellated with slabs of turquoise; and what is there left of your father's tomb but two or three bricks cemented together with a few handfuls of mortar?" The poor man's son heard this, and answered: "I pray you peace! for before your father can stir himself under this heavy load of stone mine shall have risen up to heaven!" And there is a tradition of the prophet, that _death to the poor is a state of rest_. That ass proceeds all the lighter on his journey on whom they load the lightest burden:--the poor dervish, who suffers under a load of indigence, will in like sort enter the gates of death with an easy burden; but with him who luxuriates in peace, plenty, and affluence, it must be a real hardship to die amidst all these comforts. At all events consider the prisoner, who is released from his thraldom, as better off than the prince who is just fallen a captive. * * * * * XXI I saw a certain person in the garb of dervishes, but not with their meekness, seated in a company, and full of his abuse. Having opened the volume of reproach, and begun to calumniate the rich, his discourse had reached this place, stating: "The hand of the poor man's ability is tied up, and the foot of the rich man's inclination crippled:--Men of liberality have no command of money, nor have the opulent and worldly-minded a spirit of liberality."