Then the king called heaven to witness, and swore by the general good, that if he ventured on any such thing hereafter he would punish him with death.

But the man thought that death was not so bad as temperance, and that it was easier to quit life than luxury; and he again boiled the grain in water, and then fermented the liquor; whereupon, despairing of any further plea to excuse his appetite, he openly indulged in drink, and turned to his cups again unabashed.

Giving up cunning for effrontery, he chose rather to await the punishment of the king than to turn sober.

Therefore, when the king asked him why he had so often made free to use the forbidden thing, he said: "O king, this craving is begotten, not so much of my thirst, as of my goodwill towards thee! For I remembered that the funeral rites of a king must be paid with a drinking-bout.

Therefore, led by good judgment more than the desire to swill, I have, by mixing the forbidden liquid, taken care that the feast whereat thy obsequies are performed should not, by reason of the scarcity of corn, lack the due and customary drinking.