6
As soon as Bias had said these words, Neiloxenus, for very joy, hastened to embrace and kiss him. The rest of the company also commended the answer, and expressed their satisfaction with it, and then Chilon said with a laugh, My friend, before the ocean disappears entirely in consequence of being drunk up, I beg that you sail back to your home in Naucratis and take word to Amasis not to be trying to find out how to make way with so much bitter brine, but rather how to render his government potable and sweet to his subjects; for in these matters Bias is most adept and a most competent instructor, and if Amasis will only learn them from him, he will have no further need of his golden foot-tub to impress the Egyptians,The story of Amasis’s low birth and his rise to power is told by Herodotus, ii. 172. but they will all show regard and affection for him if he is good, even though he be shown to be in his birth ten thousand times more lowly than at present.
6
Yes, indeed, said Periander, it surely is right and proper that we all contribute an offering of this sort to the king, each man in his turn, as Homer Odyssey, xiii. 14. has said. For to him these extra items would be more valuable than the burden of his mission, and as profitable for ourselves as anything could be.
