Page:Peregrinaggio di tre giovani figliuoli del re di Serendippo.djvu/24

 He first apologized to them for having them imprisoned because of the unfair accusation by the camel driver. He then wanted to hear how they could have guessed so much detailed information about the lost animal, and insisted they tell him. Because the young men wanted to satisfy the Emperor anyway, the eldest one said to him, "When I realized, Sire, that the lost camel was blind in one eye, since as we walked down the road where it had passed by, I saw on one side where it had been walking that the grass was all yellowed and eaten and on the other side the grass was intact and healthy. So, I believed that it was blind in one eye with which it could not see the area with the good grass; because it would never have left the good grass for the bad grass.

The second brother followed by saying, "Sire, that the camel was missing a tooth was clear to me, because on the road I found with almost every step when I looked down so much chewed grass that it must have come out of the empty space of a missing tooth from a passing animal.”

“And, Sire,” said the third brother, “I figured that the lost camel was lame because I clearly saw the tracks of three feet of the animal; while I noticed that the fourth foot, as far as I could tell from the indications, was dragging behind.”

The emperor was very amazed about the intelligence and foresight of the young men and wanted to understand how they could have guessed the other three signs.