102 HISTORICAL TALES.

Amasis accordingly wrote a warning letter to his
friend.

The great prosperity of his friend and ally, he
said, caused him foreboding instead of joy, for he
knew that the gods were envious, and he desired
for those he loved alternate good and ill fortune.
He had never heard of any one who was successful
in all his enterprises that did not meet with calamity
in the end. He therefore counselled Polycrates to
do what the gods had not yet done, and bring some
misfortune on himself. His advice was that he
should select the treasure he most valued and could
least bear to part with, and throw it away so that it
should never be seen again. By this voluntary sacri-
fice he might avert involuntary loss and suffering.

This advice seemed wise to the despot, and he
began to consider which of his possessions he could
least bear to lose. He settled at length on his signet-
ring, an emerald set in gold, which he highly valued.
This he determined to throw away where it could
never be recovered. So, having one of his fifty-
oared vessels manned, he put to sea, and when he
had gone a long distance from the coast he took the
ring from his finger and, in the presence of all the
sailors, tossed it into the waters.

This was not done without deep grief to Poly-
crates. He valued the ring more highly than ever,
now that it lay on the bottom of the sea, irretriev-
ably lost to him, as he thought; and he grieved for
days thereafter, feeling that he had endured a real
misfortune, which he hoped the gods might accept
as a compensation for his good luck.