Then in a moment Hashnu found that he was no longer the stonecutter,
sitting beside the highway with a heavy mallet in his hand, but the
King, dressed in armor, riding in the midst of soldiers and courtiers,
and all about him doing homage.
He rode very proudly for a while, and his subjects bowed low before him.
But the armor was heavy, and the helmet pressed hard upon his brow, and
his head throbbed with the weight of it. He was indeed weary and faint
with the heat, because, though a King, the sun beat hot upon him!
And he said to himself: "Lo, I am the King, and yet the sun can make me
faint and weary. I had thought that to be a King was to be stronger than
anything else, but the sun is stronger than the King!"
And as they rode further, and the sun still beat hard upon him, he said:
"Ah me, ah me,
If Hashnu only the sun could be!"