Guest. One in your house who is impatient to hear the dishes clatter.
Poverty. The consequence of marriage.
Hunger. Something which falls to the lot of those out of employment.
Soporific. Reading the verses of a dull poet.
Druggist. One who wishes everybody to be ill.
Learned Man. One who does not know how to earn his livelihood.
Miser’s Eye. A vessel which is never full.
DIVING FOR AN EGG—ANECDOTE
The Emperor Akbar was one day sitting with his attendants in the garden of the palace, close to a large cistern full of water. At the suggestion of a courtier, the emperor commanded some of the men present to procure an egg each, and to place it in the cistern in such a manner that it could easily be found when searched for.
Soon after the order had been obeyed, the Mollah Do-pyazah came to this spot. Akbar then turned to his attendants, saying he had dreamed the night before that there were eggs in the cistern, and that all who were his faithful servants had dived in, and brought out an egg. Whereupon the attendants one by one dived into the water, each one issuing forth with an egg in his hand. Do-pyazah, not disposed himself to enter the water, the emperor asked why he alone held aloof. The mollah, thus pressed, divested himself of his outer garments and plunged in.