CHAPTER LXI
COUNSELS AND ADMONITIONS[771]
My son, I will now give thee sage counsel: do thou give ear to my advice and store it up in thy mind; for so shalt thou find future salvation and present success.
Monition the First. Be not a liar. Although it is said, and commonly believed, that all sportsmen are liars, still do thou employ no falsehood. Shayk͟h Saʿdī says:—
“Truth-speaking God hath high in favour set
Nor will he e’er the truthful man forget.”[772]
Second. Act not perfidiously with thy friends and companions. Should the hawk of a rival “put in” its partridge and “fall at mark,” and none see it but thee, conceal not the fact from the enquiring owner; nay, more, go thyself and point out to him the lost hawk, for perhaps some day he may be able to return the favour.
Third. Steal not the hawk or hound of an acquaintance, for theft is one of the vilest qualities in a man. Moreover thou wilt live in dread lest the owner should come along and proclaim thee dog-stealer and hawk-stealer. If thou findest a lost hawk, proclaim it or return it to the owner,[773] so shalt thou lay up great merit for thyself in the world to come, and also prove thy nobility of mind in this. Just think of the enormity of ensnaring a lost hawk and bearing it home, while the anxious and distressed owner wanders in the snow, from peak to peak, calling her and searching for her—you in your snug home the while.
As noble deeds are recompensed in kind
So evil acts an ill requital find.
Certainly the Almighty will not be pleased, and before many days elapse, some retaliation[774] will overtake thee. My boy, copulating with the penis of others is poor sport: refrain or you’ll fall into evil repute.