“Mnesitheus!”

“Rufus!”

“Call me Rufinianus,” corrected the latter; “for such is the appellation which I have felt it due to myself to assume, since the enhancement of my dignity by becoming Euphronius’s successor and son-in-law.”

“Son-in-law!  Am I to lose the reward of my incredible sufferings?”

“Thou forgettest,” said Rufinianus, “that Euphronia’s hand was not promised as the reward of any austerities, but as the meed of the most intelligent, that is, the most acceptable, account of the Indian philosophy, which in the opinion of the late eminent Euphronius, has been delivered by me.  But come to my chamber, and let me minister to thy necessities.”

These having been duly attended to, Rufinianus demanded Mnesitheus’s history, and then proceeded to narrate his own.

“On my journey homeward,” said he, “I reflected seriously on the probable purpose of our master in sending us forth, and saw reason to suspect that I had hitherto misapprehended it.  For I could not remember that he had ever admitted that he could have anything to learn from other philosophers, or that he had ever exhibited the least interest in philosophic dogmas, excepting his own.  The system of the Indians, I thought, must be either inferior to that of Euphronius, or superior.  If the former, he will not want it:  if the latter, he will want it much less.  I therefore concluded that our mission was partly a concession to public opinion, partly to enable him to say that his name was known, and his teaching proclaimed on the very banks of the Ganges.  I formed my plan accordingly, and disregarding certain indications that I was neither expected nor wanted, presented myself before Euphronius with a gladsome countenance, slightly overcast by sorrow on account of thee, whom I affirmed to have been devoured by a tiger.

“‘Well,’ said Euphronius in a disdainful tone, ’and what about this vaunted wisdom of the Indians?’

“‘The wisdom of the Indians,’ I replied, ’is entirely borrowed from Pythagoras.’

“’Did I not tell you so?  ’Euphronius appealed to his disciples.

“‘Invariably,’ they replied.

“‘As if a barbarian could teach a Greek!’ said he.

“‘It is much if he is able to learn from one,’ said they.

“‘Pythagoras, then,’ said Euphronius addressing me,’ did not resort to India to be instructed by the Gymnosophists?’

“‘On the contrary,’ I answered, ’he went there to teach them, and the little knowledge of divine matters they possess is entirely derived from him.  His mission is recorded in a barbarous poem called the Ramayana, wherein he is figuratively represented as allying himself with monkeys.  He is worshipped all over the country under the appellations of Siva, Kamadeva, Kali, Gautama Buddha, and others too numerous to mention.’