194 THE KING'S MIRROR 



many ways. Sometimes there is dearth of grain, even 

 when the earth continues to yield grass and straw, 

 though at times it gives neither. There are times, too, 

 when the earth gives good and sufficient fruitage, and 

 yet no one is profited, for dearth is in the air, and bad 

 weather ruins the crops at harvest time. Sometimes 

 smut * causes trouble, though the crop is plentiful and 

 the weather good. It can also happen at times that all 

 vegetation flourishes at its best, and there is no dearth; 

 an d y et there may be great scarcity on some [man's 

 farm or among his cattle, or in the ocean, or in the fresh 

 waters, or in the hunting forests/jSometimes when 

 everything goes wrong, it may even come to pass that 

 all these failures occur together; and then bran will be 

 as dear among men as clean flour was earlier, when times 

 were good, or even dearer than that. All these forms of 

 dearth which I have now recounted must be regarded 

 as great calamities in every land where they occur; and 

 it would mean almost complete ruin if they should all 

 appear at the same time and continue for a period of 

 three years. 



There remains another kind of dearth which alone 

 is more distressing than all those which I have enu- 

 merated: dearth may come upon the people who in- 

 habit the land, or, what is worse, there may come failure 

 in the morals, the intelligence, or the counsels of those 

 who are to govern the land. For something can be done 

 to help a country where there is famine, if capable men 

 are in control and there is prosperity in the neighboring 

 lands. But if dearth comes upon the people or the morals 



* Skjafiak. The translation is uncertain; possibly some sort of weed is meant. 



