“You just go; we will be witnesses.”
“Will ye speak with the language of men?”
“No. But this is how you must make your asseveration. You must tie us up in our stalls for seven days, and give us neither grass nor water; and on the seventh day you must let us go free to a spot where grass and water are plentiful. And you must appear before the king, and say to him, ‘If I am speaking the truth, may these oxen neither eat grass nor drink water.’ ”
The householder’s son went to the palace of the king, and said, “O king, that proprietor has promised me his daughter, but he has not yet given her to me to wife.”
The king said, “Have you any witnesses?”
“Yes, O king.”
“Are they human beings or not?”
“No, they are not human beings, but oxen.”
“Can they speak the language of men?”
“No, but my words will in this way be proved to be true. I will tie up these oxen in their stalls during seven days, and leave them without grass or water. But on the seventh day I will let them go free to a place where grass and water are plentiful. Then the oxen, in order to prove the truth of my words, will neither eat grass nor drink water so long as the king refuses to believe me.”