Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Second Book of Benjamin: A Record of Things Past, Present, and to Come
Now it came to pass, while Benjamin rested in his house, and bethought him of all the great things he had done, that his heart was lifted up within him, and he said: Behold, now, who is there that can stand against me? Verily there is not one of all the nobles and great ones of the land that is equal unto me.
And while he yet spake there came unto him one bringing letters from Owen the Poet, the Governor of the great pro vince of India. Now, this man Owen had in other days made verses and songs for the people 3 but now had he left making verses that he might make laws for the people of India. And his verses, inasmuch as they were not well understanded by the people, were better than his laws, for they were hard and grievous to be borne. And among other things he made a decree that no one should write anything on scrolls of paper in the language of the people of India, except the words written were pleasing unto him 5 and if any one broke this law, and did sell such scrolls of paper unto the people, he should be punished. And many such like things he did, and his name stank in the nostrils of the people. Of India.
And the letters that he sent unto Benjamin were on this wise: Behold now thine enemy, the Emperor of Russia, hath sent an Ambassador to the Ameer of Afghanistan, and the Ameer hath received him and given him bread and salt. See to it, therefore, whether this quarrel be thine or mine: if it be thine, well; but if it be mine, shall I not make war Upon the Ameer, for the thing that he hath done is evil unto the great province of India?
And when Benjamin had read the letters, he tore his beard, and girt about his loins with sackcloth, and put ashes on his head. And he cursed the Emperor of Russia.
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