I propose, sir, that you order the eight dishes of food, which have been prepared for my dinner, to be carefully weighed.

Let these be all placed in the cell of the prisoner, and there let him be left.

In the course of two or three days he will, if guilty, endeavour to assuage his hunger by eating little bits of food, from every dish except that which he knows to be poisoned, but will take such a small portion from each that he will think it will not be detected.

If he is innocent, and is really ignorant which dish is poisoned, he will not touch any of them, until driven to desperation by hunger.

Then he will seize on one or more, and devour them to the end, running the chance of death by poison, rather than endure the pangs of hunger longer." "Your plan is a wise one," the rajah said.