238. Three worst smiles: the smile of a wave, the smile of a lewd woman, the grin of a dog ready to leap.[120]
239. What are the three wealths of fortunate people? Not hard to tell. A ready conveyance(?), ale without a habitation(?), a safeguard upon the road.
240. Three sons whom chastity bears to wisdom: valour, generosity, laughter (filial piety?).
241. Three entertainers of a gathering: a jester, a juggler, a lap-dog.
242. Three things that are best for a chief: justice, peace, an army.
243. Three things that are worst for a chief: sloth, treachery, evil counsel.
244. The four deaths of judgment: to give it in falsehood, to give it without forfeiture, to give it without precedent, to give it without knowledge.
245. Three things that ruin wisdom: ignorance, inaccurate knowledge, forgetfulness.
246. Three nurses of dignity: a fine figure, a good memory, piety.
247. Three nurses of high spirits: pride, wooing, drunkenness.
248. Four hatreds of a chief: a silly flighty man, a slavish useless man, a lying dishonourable man, a talkative man who has no story to tell.[121] For a chief does not grant speech save to four: a poet for satire and praise, a chronicler of good memory for narration and story-telling, a judge for giving judgments, an historian for ancient lore.[122]
[121] _i.e._, who has nothing worth hearing to say.
[122] See a similar passage in Ancient Laws i., p. 18, and in the tale called, 'The Conversion of Loegaire to the Faith' (Rev. Celt. iv., p. 165).
249. Three dark[123] things of the world: giving a thing into keeping, guaranteeing, fostering.
[123] _i.e._, uncertain what will come of them.
250. Trí urgarta bíd: a chaithem cen altugud, a chaithem d'éis óiged, a chaithem réna thrath cóir.
[Note 250: haurgartho N^1 hurgairt HM hurghairrthe H^2 d'aithli aidead H cóir om. NH^2 iarna coir M]
251. Cetheora aipgitre gáise: ainmne, sonmathe, sobraid[e], sothnges; ar is gáeth cach ainmnetach [et] sái cach somnath, fairsing cach sobraid, sochoisc cach sothengtha.
[Note 251: somna sobraicch H^2 sobés N soingthes H^2 somnoigh H^2 farsigh [_leg._ farsing] .i. sgaoiltech H^2]
252. Cetheora aipgitre báise: báithe, condailbe, imresan, doingthe.
253. Teora sírechta flatha: cuirmthech cen aisnéis, buiden cen erdonail, dírim cen chona.