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6
4893-4916

  • The zephyr that comes from a garden is distinct from the simoom (pestilential wind) of the ash-heap.
  • The scents of truth and fool-catching (plausible) falsehood are apparent in the breath, like musk and garlic.
  • If you cannot distinguish a (sincere) friend from a double-hearted person, complain of your own rotten sense of smell. 4895
  • The voices of poltroons and brave courageous men are as distinct as the characteristics of the fox and the lion.
  • Or, (again), the tongue is just like the lid of a cooking-pot: when it is moved you know what sort of food is inside;
  • (But) one whose sense (of smell) is keen can tell by the vapour (issuing from the closed pot) whether it is a pot of sweetmeat or sour sikbáj (stew flavoured with vinegar).
  • When a man taps a new pot with his hand at the time when he is buying it, he detects the cracked one (by its sound).
  • He (one of the three brothers) said (to the cadi), “I know a man at once by his mouth (speech); and if he do not speak, I know him within three days.” 4900
  • The second said, “I know him if he speak, and if he do not speak, I engage him in conversation.”
  • He (the cadi) said, “(But) if he has (already) heard of this device (of yours), he will close his lips and take refuge in silence.”
  • Parable.
  • The case is like that of the mother who said to her child, “If a ghost come to you in the night,
  • Or if in a graveyard and frightful place you behold a black bogle full of rage,
  • Keep a stout heart and rush at it, and immediately it will turn its face away from you.” 4905
  • “(But),” said the child, “suppose the devilish bogle's mother has said this (same thing) to it;
  • (If) I rush at it, by its mother's orders it will fall on my neck: what shall I do then?
  • You are teaching me to stand firm, (but) the ugly bogle has a mother too.”
  • The instructor of (the race of) devils and of mankind is the One (God): through Him the enemy prevails (even) if he is in small force.
  • On whichever side that Gracious One may be, go and for God's sake, for God's sake, be thou also on that side! 4910
  • He (the cadi) said, “Suppose the worthy man is not induced to speak by your device and has (already) perceived the trick,
  • Tell me truly, how can you know his hidden nature?” He replied, “I sit before him in silence
  • And make patience a ladder to climb upwards: patience is the key to success.
  • And if in his presence there should gush from my heart a speech beyond this (realm of) joy and sorrow,
  • I know that he has sent it to me from the depths of a soul (illumined) like Canopus (rising) in Yemen. 4915
  • The speech in my heart comes from that auspicious quarter, for there is a window between heart and heart.”