The Wrestling Master and His Pupil

A certain man had reached the very top in the art of wrestling.A certain person in the art of wrestling had reached the very top. He knew three hundred and sixty different holds and throws—all good—and every day would show off a new move.Three hundred and sixty different grips and falls did he know—all good—and every day would show off some fresh sleight. Having a special corner of his heart for one among his pupils, a handsome youth, he taught him three hundred and fifty-nine out of his tricks, but kept the knowledge of the last one from him. The young man thus became first among all rivals in skill and strength, and none of them could match himcould at all cope with him. As a result, he became so vain thatTo such a pitch, in consequence, rose his vanity that before the Sultan himself, the ruler of the country,the Sultan himself he said: “I accept my master’s superiority because of his age, and because he has taught me. But in strength I am not his inferior, and in skill I am his equal.The superiority of my master over me is that which I allow to him on account of his age, and because he has educated me; otherwise in point of strength I am not his inferior, and in point of skill I am his equal.” The Sultan did not like this lack of respect from the young man, and ordered a wrestling match between them.this departure from reverence on the youth’s part, and commanded that there should be held a wrestling-match between them. An open spot was selected; those pillars of the countrythose columns of the country, the ministers, and those eyes of Majesty, the nobles, were all present, when the youth, like an enraged elephant,an elephant in “wust,” strode into the ring, showing a force which seemed as though it could move a mountain of iron.

The teacher, who well knew that his pupil was now physically stronger than he wasof greater bodily force than himself, seized his opponent with the clever hold he had kept out of his lessons. The young man, not knowing how to counter it,laid hold of his adversary with that cunning clinch which he had withheld in his instructions; and the youth, being ignorant how to encounter it, was lifted with both hands by the Master high above his head, and hurled to the grounddashed upon the earth. Shouts arose from the spectators: as for the Sultan, he directed that a robe of honor and gifts of moneypresents in money should be given to the teacher, while he scolded and mockedrebuked and derided the young man, saying: “You rudely dared to compete with the man who trained you, and you have shamefully failed.Thou didst rudely dare to put thyself in competition with him who made thee, and thou hast shamefully failed.”

The defeated man muttered: “Yes, my lord!Aye, Khudâwund! my master did not beat me by strength, or even by skilldid not prevail over me by strength, nor yet by science, but because there was one little secret of his art which he would not teach methere remained one little secret of his art which he would not impart, and by that slight thing he has got the upper hand over mehe hath got the upper hand of me.” “Yes,”“Aye,” said the teacher, “for a day like thison account of such a day as this I kept it back, for the wise have remarked, ‘Do not give even a friend so great an advantage that, if he becomes your enemy one day, he can hold you in his power.not even to a friend allow so much advantage, as that, some day becoming an enemy, he may hold you in his power.’ Have you never heardHeard ye never the verse about him who suffered wrong from the very one whom he had nourished and brought up?”

Either loyalty’s no more afoot,Either fidelity’s no more afoot,
Or no one shows it on the earth below:Or none doth practise it on earth below:
I never taught a young hand how to shoot,
But, in the end, at me he drew his bow.