CHAPTER V.
HOW THE WISE MAMBRES CONDUCTED HIMSELF WISELY.
The sage Mambres, having said everything he could to comfort the princess, but without succeeding in so doing, ran to the old woman.
"My companion," said he to her, "ours is a charming profession, but a very dangerous one. You run the risk of being hanged, and your ox of being burned, drowned or devoured. I don't know what they will do with your other animals, for, prophet as I am, I know very little; but do you carefully conceal the serpent and the fish. Let not the one show his head above water, nor the other venture out of his hole. I will place the ox in one of my stables in the country. You shall be there with him, since you say that you are not allowed to abandon him. The good scapegoat may, upon this occasion, serve as an expiation. We will send him into the desert loaded with the sins of all the rest. He is accustomed to this ceremony, which does him no harm, and every one knows that sin is expiated by means of a he-goat, who walks about for his own amusement. I only beg of you to lend me immediately Tobit's dog, who is a very swift greyhound; Balaam's ass, who runs better than a dromedary; the raven and the pigeon of the ark, who fly with amazing swiftness. I want to send them on an em-
