1. Several centuries ago, a rich and powerful ("multepova") king,
named Hiero, lived in Sicily. 2. Sometimes he was suspicious about the
crown-makers who wrought ("faris") crowns for him, out of the gold which
he himself gave them. 3. He wondered whether these men were honest. 4.
He suspected that perhaps ("eble") they did not use all of the gold
which was given them, but kept some of it for themselves. 5. He could
not of himself ("per si mem") discover whether they were debasing the
gold in his crowns, so he summoned a wise man from ("el") Greece. 6. To
this well-informed man, whose name was Archimedes, he made clear his
fears. 7. Archimedes assured the king that he would find out somehow
about the matter. 8. He meditated several hours every day, and tried to
discover a satisfactory ("kontentiga") method, but for some reason he
did not succeed. 9. One day, however, when he was bathing (himself), he
noticed that there seemed to be a little more water in the bathtub when
he himself was in it, than before. 10. The rising of the water gave him
an idea. 11. He threw the crowns one after another into the water, and
noticed how much water each displaced. 12. In this manner ("tiamaniere")
he understood how much each had been alloyed by the local ("lokaj")
crown-makers, whom Hiero soon threw into prison ("la malliberejon").