Carl Friedrich Gauss, 1777-1855
IV. ¿Cuál de las siguientes afirmaciones es cierta sobre el sistema dado?
1 Kings and ministers of state
do not enter into other men's homes, for the whole populace sees what they do and imitates it.
2 The three worlds* watch the sun rise and so they too rise;
then they watch the sun moving and they too start to act.
5 · 5 · 1 - 1 2
3 Therefore, because it is impossible and because they would be blamed, such men do nothing frivolous. 4But when they cannot help doing it, they employ stratagems. 5 A young village headman, or a king's officer, or the son of the superintendent of farming, can win village women just with a word, and then libertines call these women adulteresses. 6 Sex with these women takes place when they are engaged in such activities as doing chores, filling granaries, bringing things in and out of houses, cleaning house, working in the field, purchasing cotton, wool, flax, linen, and bark, spinning thread, and buying, selling, and exchanging goods.
7 And in the same manner, the man in charge of the cow-herds may take the women of the cow-herds; 8 the man in charge of threads* may take widows, women who have no man to protect them, and wandering women ascetics; 9 the city police-chief may take the women who roam about begging, for he knows where they are vulnerable, because of his own night-roamings; 10 and the man in charge of the market may take the women who buy and sell.
1 1 On occasions such as the eighth day of the waning half of the
month in autumn, the full-moon night in winter, and the spring festival, the women of market-towns, cities, and mountain villages generally attend the parties of the women of the harem in the home of the man in power. 12 There, when the drinking party is over, the women of the city go individually, each according to her intimacy with the women of the harem, to the houses devoted to enjoyments, where they sit and tell stories and are honoured and given drinks;
and they go home by evening.
13 On such an occasion, a royal servant girl, who has already become acquainted with the woman whom the man wants, is sent there and talks with her. 14 She enlists her by showing her lovely things. 15 Even before this, when the woman was still in her own home, the royal servant had said to her, 'While we are all at the party there, I will show you the lovely things that are in the king's mansion.' And then, at that time, she enlists the woman, saying, 'I will show you, outside, a floor inlaid with coral.' 16 And there is a floor made of jewels, and a grove of trees, a vineyard, bath-houses and a rooftop porch, secret passages in the palace walls, paintings, tame deer, mechanical contrivances, cages of birds, tigers, and lions, all the things that she had described before. 17 And when they are alone together, she tells the woman that the man in power is in love with her, 18 and she describes his expertise in making love. 19 She gets the woman to agree and not to tell anyone about their plan.
20 If she does not agree, the man in power comes to her himself, conciliates her with courtesies, makes love with her, reunites her with the servant girl, and then dismisses her lovingly. 21 And he accustoms the woman's husband to receiving favours and after that has that man's wives brought into the harem all the time, to get him accustomed to it. Then, on this occasion, a royal servant girl is sent, and so forth, just as before.
22 Or, a woman of the harem becomes friendly with the woman the man wants by sending her own servant woman to her. And when the friendship has progressed, she invites the woman to come and see her, under some pretext. When the woman has entered, and has been honoured and given drinks, a royal servant girl is sent, and so forth, just as before.
23 Or, if the woman the man wants is famous for a particular skill, a woman of the harem should treat her with courtesies and invite her to demonstrate that skill. When the woman has entered, a royal servant girl is sent, and so forth, just as before.
24 Or, a beggar woman says to the wife of a man who has lost all his money or is frightened, 'This woman of the harem, who has won
13 The king sends her to a woman to whom he wishes to make love.
20 The man makes love to her with the sexual act that suits her.
24 The man may be frightened of the king's court.
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Book Five·
Other Men 's Wives5·5·25-3 1
over the king so that he does what she says, listens to my words.Because I am compassionate by nature, I will approach her and get her to let you enter. And she will reverse your husband's great loss of fortune.' When the woman agrees, the woman of the harem lets her enter two or three times and dispels the woman's fears. And when the woman hears that she has nothing to be afraid of, she is over
joyed. Then a royal servant girl is sent, and so forth, just as before.
25 This last stratagem is also prescribed for the wives of men who are seeking employment, oppressed by ministers of state, seized by force, weak in practical skills, dissatisfied with their own possessions, hoping to become friends with the king, striving for a rank among the royal families, harassed by their relatives, wishing to harass their relatives, informants, and others embroiled in specific enterprises.
26 0r, if the woman the man wants is already intimate with another man, he has her seized, makes her into a servant girl, and gradually introduces her into the harem. 27 Or he has her husband slandered by a spy, saying, 'He is an enemy of the king', and then seizes the woman as the man's wife, and by this means has her enter the harem.
Those are the secret methods.* They are generally used by the king's sons.
28But the man in power should not enter another man's home in this way. 29 'For when Abhira, the Kotta king, went to another man's home, a washerman employed by the king's brother killed him. And the superintendent of horses killed Jayasena the king ofVaranasi.' So it is said.
30 Open sexual affairs may be pursued according to the custom of the region. 31 1t is said of the people of Andhra that the virgins of the
26 He makes her into a servant girl because a woman who has been pub
licly ruined is a kind of courtesan. First he makes her into a common woman and then he introduces her into the harem gradually, not vio
lently or right away, so that no one will think, 'He did this by a trick.'
2 7 This pair of methods is to be used on women who have not abandoned
their families. They are used by the king's sons, but not by the king.
29 In Gurjurat there is a place named Kotta, whose king, named Abhira, went to another man's house in order to sleep with the wife of Vasu
mitra, the head warrior. There, a guard employed by his brother, who deserved the kingdom, killed him. Jayasena the king of Varanasi had gone into another man's house to make love with that man's wife.
s.s.32-s.6.2
The Life of the Women of the Haremcountryside, on the tenth day after they have been given in marriage, take some gift suited for the purpose and enter the harem. As soon as the king has enjoyed them, they are dismissed. 32lt is said of the people of Vatsagulma, that the women in the harems of men in power under state ministers go to the king at night to serve him. 33 In Vidarbha, the women of the harem invite the beautiful women of the countryside to stay with them for a month or half a month, under the pretext of friendship. H In the far West, a man will give his own wives, if they are good-looking, to kings and ministers of state as a kind of love-gift. 35 And in Surashtra, the women of the city and the women of the countryside, in groups or one by one, enter the royal court in order to serve the king in his erotic games.
36 And there are two verses about this:
These and many other devices for seducing other men's wives were put into circulation by kings, and are employed in region after region.*
37 But a king who takes pleasure in the welfare of his people*
should absolutely not use these devices.
A man who suppresses the band of six enemies within him conquers the earth too.
CH A PTER SIX