Storia do Mogor 24.4

24.4

When he was at the point of death, the father sent for the best-beloved of his children, and made over to him the true stone, enjoining him to preserve secrecy, so that neither his brothers nor the governor of the town should trouble him. He acted in the same way with the other two sons, telling them to keep it a secret, and delivering to each an imitation stone, which he declared to be the true and only one. By this means all three were contented, each being persuaded that he had the true stone which he coveted. In the same manner, said the Hebrew to the Bassa (pasha), the Lord our God has sent forth three laws : one to the Jews, one to the Christians, and another to the Turks. Of these one is true, and the others false; but as to which is the true one we know nothing, each believing that it is the one he holds. God alone, who gave them, knows which it is, just as the father, who bestowed the stones, knew which was the true one. The Bassa (pasha), seeing the ingenuity with which the Jew had answered, thereby breaking the net in which he had resolved to catch him, praised him for his answer, and abandoned his designs against the goods of that sharp-witted merchant. We remained seven days at Smyrna; after that we started with a caravan for the town of Burca (Brusa). On the road we suffered much from cold, owing to the large amount of snow, and we arrived in eight days in good health.