The Great King began by saying that if they wished to sacrifice to their deities, they might do so, provided no one could find them doing it; and if they wished to be drunk, they might be drunk when and where they pleased; but that if they did the two together, he would crucify every Magian in Persia.

His argument was very amusing.
He said that a man who is drunk naturally speaks the truth, whereas a man who sacrifices to false gods inevitably tells lies; wherefore a man who sacrifices to false gods when he is drunk, runs the risk of telling lies and speaking the truth at the same time, and is consequently a creature revolting to logic, and must be immediately destroyed for the good of the whole race of mankind." Nehushta had listened with varying attention to the queen's account of the religious difficulties in the kingdom, and she laughed at the Megoeric puzzle by which Darius justified the death of the Magians.

But in her heart she longed to see Zoroaster, and was weary of entertaining her royal guest.

By way of diversion she clapped her hands, and ordered the slaves who came at her summons to bring sweetmeats and sherbet of crushed fruit and snow.
"Are you fond of hunting ?" asked Atossa, delicately taking a little piece of white fig-paste.
"I have never been allowed to hunt," answered Nehushta.

"Besides, it must be very tiring." "I delight in it--the fig-paste is not so good as it used to be--there is a new confectioner.