wall of rock on the other.  Thou drivest in against it.  The chariot jumps on which thou art.  Thou art troubled to hold up thy horses.  If it falls into the abyss, the pole drags thee down too.  Thy ceintures are pulled away.  They fall down.  Thou shacklest the horse, because the pole is broken on the path of the narrow pass.  Not knowing how to tie it up, thou understandest not how it is to be repaired.  The essieu is left on the spot, as the load is too heavy for the horses.  Thy courage has evaporated.  Thou beginnest to run.  The heaven is cloudless.  Thou art thirsty; the enemy is behind thee; a trembling seizes thee; a twig of thorny acacia worries thee; thou thrustest it aside; the horse is scratched, till at length thou findest rest.

Explain thou thy attraction to be a Mohar!

Thou comest into Joppa.  Thou findest the date-palm in full bloom in its time.  Thou openest wide the aperture of thy mouth in order to eat.  Thou findest that the maid who keeps the garden is fair.  She does whatever thou wantest of her....  Thou art recognised, thou art brought to trial, and owest thy preservation to being a Mohar.  Thy girdle of the finest stuff, thou payest it as the price of a bad rag.  Thou sleepest every evening with a rug of fur over thee.  Thou sleepest a deep sleep, for thou art weary.  A thief takes thy bow and thy sword from thy side; thy quiver and thy armour are broken to pieces in the darkness; thy pair of horses run away.  The groom takes his course over a slippery path that rises in front of him.  He breaks thy chariot in pieces; he follows thy foot-tracks. [He finds] thy equipments, which had fallen on the ground, and had sunk into the sand, leaving only an empty space.

Prayer does not avail thee; even when thy mouth says:  “Give food in addition to water that I may reach my goal in safety,” they are deaf and will not hear.  They say not yes to thy words.  The iron-workers enter into the smithy; they rummage in the workshops of the carpenters; the handi-craftsmen and soldiers are at hand; they do whatever thou requirest.  They put together thy chariot:  they put aside the parts of it that have been made useless; thy spokes are faconne quite new; thy wheels are put on, they put the courroies on the axles and on the hinder part; they splice thy yoke, they put on the box of thy chariot; the [workmen] in iron forge the ...; they put the ring that is wanting on thy whip, they replace the lunieres upon it.

Thou goest quickly onward to fight on the battlefield, to do the deeds of a strong hand and of firm courage.

Before I wrote I sought me out a Mohar who knows his power, who leads the jeunesse, a chief in the armee [who goes forward] even to the end of the world.

Answer me not, “That is good, this is bad;” repeat not to me thy opinion.  Come, I will tell thee all which lies before thee at the end of thy journey.