instance of deceit[1]. 18. A lad should not wear a jacket of fur nor the skirt[2]. He must stand straight and square, and not incline his head in hearing. 19. When an elder is holding him with the hand, he should hold the elders hand with both his hands. When the elder has shifted his sword to his back and is speaking to him with the side of his face bent down, he should cover his mouth with his hand in answering[3]. 20. When he is following his teacher[4], he should not quit the road to speak with another person. When he meets his teacher on the road, he should hasten forward to him, and stand with his hands joined across his breast. If the teacher speak to him, he will answer; if he do not, he will retire with hasty steps. 21. When, following an elder, they ascend a level height, he must keep his face towards the quarter to which the elder is looking. 22. When one has ascended the wall of a city, he should not point, nor call out[5]. 23. When he intends to go to a lodging-house, let it not be with the feeling that he must get whatever he asks for. 24. When about to go up to the hall (of a house), he must raise his voice.
When outside the door there are two (pairs
- ↑ This maxim deserves to be specially noted. It will remind the reader of Juvenal's lines:—
"Maxima debetur puero reverentia. Si quid
Turpe paras, nee tu pueri contempseris annos." - ↑ To make him handy, and leave him free to execute any service required of him.
- ↑ The second sentence here is difficult to construe, and the critics differ much in dealing with it. Zottoli's version is—"Si e dorso vel latere transverso ore (superior) eloquatur ei, tunc obducto ore respondebit."
- ↑ "Teacher" is here "the one born before him," denoting "an old man who teaches youth."
- ↑ And thus make himself an object of general observation.
