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The Manners of Kings

heard that a royal prince of short stature and mean presence, whose brothers were tall and good-looking, once saw his father glancing on him with aversion and contempt; but he had the shrewdness and penetration to guess the meaning, and said : “O father, a puny, intelligent fellow is better than a tall, ignorant man, neither is everything [which is] bigger in stature higher in price. A sheep is nice to eat, and an elephant is carrion. The smallest mountain on earth is Jûr, nevertheless it is great with Allah in dignity and Station. Hast thou not heard that a lean scholar one day said to a fat fool, ‘Although an Arab horse may be weak, it is thus worth more than a stable full of asses.

The father laughed at this sally, the pillars of the State approved of it; but the brothers felt much aggrieved.

While a man says not a word His fault and virtue are concealed; Think not that every desert is empty: Possibly it may contain a sleeping tiger.

I heard that on the said occasion the King was menaced by a powerful enemy, and that when the two armies were about to encounter each other, the first who entered the battlefield was the little fellow, who said: “I am not he whose back thou wilt see on the day of battle, but he whom thou shalt behold in dust and blood. Who himself fights. Stakes his own life in battle; but he who flees, the blood of his army.”

After uttering these words he rushed among the troops of