2. [In regard to food: abstinence.]
"If thou sittest [at meat] with a company, hate the bread that thou desirest—it is a little moment. Restrain appetite; gluttony is base.... A cup of water, it quencheth the thirst; a mouthful of melon, it stayeth the appetite. It is a good thing to make substitute for a luxury [or, that which is good can replace a luxury]; a little of a small matter can replace a great thing. It is a base fellow who is mastered by his belly, who passeth time that he wotteth not, free ranging of his belly in their houses."
3. [When with a great eater or drinker, offend not by over-abstinence.]
"If thou sittest at meat with a gormandizer and eatest [?], his desire departeth; if thou drinkest with a toper and takest wine, his heart is satisfied. Be not afraid of meat in company with the greedy; take what he giveth thee; refuse it not, for it will humor him."
4. [Against surliness.]
"If there be a man devoid of sociability [lit., making himself known], on whom no word hath power, sulky of countenance to him who would soften the heart by being gracious to him; he is rude to his mother and to his people, every one [crieth]: 'Let thy name come forth! thou art silent with the mouth when spoken to.'"[262]
5. [Against over-confidence in view of the uncertainties of life.]
"Let not thy heart be proud for valor in the midst of thy troops. Beware of overbearingness [?]: one knoweth not what shall happen; what a god will do when he striketh."
[These proverbs were evidently set in a short story, calculated to point the moral that obedience to wise teaching leads to preferment. The introductory part has gone with the beginning of the document; but here at the end of the book there is a passage showing that they were composed by a wazîr, i. e., by the chief administrative official of the kingdom. He read them to his children; one of whom, it seems, named Kagemni, afterwards succeeded to the wazîrship. The following is the translation of this concluding text.]
The wazîr caused his children to be summoned when he had finished the conduct of men;[263] they rejoiced greatly at coming; therefore when he said to them:—"Verily, all things that are in writing on this roll, obey them as I say [them];[264] do not pass beyond what is commanded," they [the children] cast themselves upon their bellies and read them even as they were written; they were good within them[265] more than anything that is in the whole land; their uprising and their downsitting was according thereto.