Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies - DUBOIS, Abbé Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, Dubois | Page 519

SAYINGS ABOUT
XL. Knowledge
WOMEN
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the health of the body, poverty is its
support, sadness makes it grow old.
XLI. A shameless man fears the maladies engendered by
luxury, a man of honour fears contempt, a rich person fears
the rapacity of kings, gentleness fears violence, beauty
fears old age, the penitent fears the influence of the senses,
but the miser and
the body fears Yama, the god of death
the envious fear nothing.
XLII. Just as milk nourishes the body and intemperance
causes it to sicken, so does meditation nourish the spirit,
while dissipation enervates it.
XLIII. It is prudent to live on good terms with one's
cook, with ballad-mongers, with doctors, with magicians,
with the rulers of one's country, with rich people, and with
obstinate folk.
XLIV. Birds do not perch on trees where there is no fruit
wild beasts leave the forests when the leaves of the trees
have fallen and there is no more shade for them insects
leeches leave
leave plants where there are no longer flowers
springs which no longer flow
women leave men who have
become old or poverty-stricken a minister leaves the
servants leave a master who
service of an obstinate king
has been reduced to poverty. Thus it is that self-interest
is the motive of everything in this world.
XLV. Only the sea knows the depth of the sea, only the
firmament knows the expanse of the firmament th