εἰ from Moss - First Greek Reader

[daivid]

This has be stumped.
εἰ οὕτως ποιεῖ ἀνάγκη ἐστὶν αὐτῷ πολλοὺς ἵππους λαμβάνειν, εἰ καὶ ὀλίγον χρυσίον ἔχει.
My best guess is:

if does thus it will be necessary for him to take hold of many horses should he have little money.

The context is someone who is feeding his horse with stones and wood presumably because it is cheaper than fodder.

[mwh]

Looks like it means “If he does (it) in this way (If he behaves like this?), it’s an absolute necessity for him [there’s no getting round it, he has no choice in the matter] to get lots of horses, even though (ει και) he has only a little gelt.”

[daivid]

Looks like it means “If he does (it) in this way (If he behaves like this?), it’s an absolute necessity for him [there’s no getting round it, he has no choice in the matter] to get lots of horses, even though (ει και) he has only a little gelt.”

Ahhh! I see, now that I know what I'm looking for, that Diogenes has that idiom under καί. I shall memorize and attempt to use it. Many thanks.

[mwh]

Roughly speaking:
ει και “even though”
και ει “even if”