[124] "And if," the lawgiver proceeds to say, "one who has been a slave of another for three generations, from fear of the threats of his master, or from a consciousness of having committed some offence, or, if he has committed no offence at all but has a savage and inhuman master, flees for refuge to some one else, in the hope to obtain assistance from him, do not reject him; for it is not consistent with holiness to abandon a suppliant, and even a slave is a suppliant, inasmuch as he has taken refuge on thy hearth, where it is fitting that he should find an asylum, especially if without any guile he has come to offer honest service. And if he cannot obtain this protection, at all events let him be sold to some one else; for it is uncertain what may be the effect of his change of masters, and an uncertain evil is easier to bear than a confessed one."