Then the traveler walked on, wondering in his heart. And he met a very old man, and saluting his he said,“Sir, upon this road I have met three men who live in the neighborhood and I have asked each of them about this field, and each one denied what the other had said, and each one told me a new tale that the other had not told.”
Then the old man raised his head, and answered, “My friend, each and every one of these men told you what was indeed so, but few of us are able to add fact to different fact and make a truth thereof.”
Once upon a day two men who met on the road were walking together toward Sal***s, the City of Columns. In the mid-afternoon they came to a wide river and there was no bridge to cross it. They must needs swim, or seek another road unknown to them.