as for the confusion of his management in the difference between winter and summer the reason for that is that the reasons were imagined for him and the motives were presented to him according to the degree of his hunger and the movement of his desire whether it was summer or winter. for meat is cheaper in summer and heads are subject to meat and because people eat them in winter and they leave them in summer. so he would choose the cheapness over the good location. so if its motives became strong in winter he would say one winter head is like two summer heads because the fodder is not the grazing and what is earned in confinement is not tied up unlike what is eaten by grass in the desert absolutely. and he was confident that he would come to him in winter with his health and body and in doubt about keeping him in summer because peoples desires for heads decrease in summer so he feared the sin of that remainder and the crime of that excess. and he would say that if i eat it after being full i am not safe from ruin. and if i leave it for them in summer and they do not know the reason they will ask me for that in winter!
وأما اختلاط التدبير عليه في فرق ما بين الشتاء والصيف، فوجه ذلك أن العلل كانت تتصور له، وتعرض له الدواعي على قدر قرمه وحركة شهوته، صيفا وافق ذلك أم شتاء. فإن اللحم في الصيف أرخص، والرؤوس تابعة للحم، ولأن الناس في الشتاء لها آكل، وهم لها في القيظ ٢ أترك. فكان يختار الرخص على حسن الموقع. فإذا قويت دواعيها في الشتاء، قال رأس واحد شتوي كرأسين صيفيين، لأن المعلوفة غير الراعية، وما أكل الكسب في الحبس موثقا، غير ما أكل الحشيش في الصحراء مطلقا . وكان على ثقة أنه سيأتي عليه في الشتاء مع صحته وبدنه، وفي شك من استبقائه في الصيف، لنقصان شهوات الناس للرؤوس في الصيف، فكان يخاف جريرة تلك البقية وجناية تلك الفضلة. وكان يقول إن أكلتها بعد الشبع لم آمن العطب ٣ وإن تركتها لهم في الصيف، ولم يعرفوا العلة، طلبوا ذلك مني في الشتاء!.