The Laughable Stories Collected by Mar Gregory John

138 THE LAUGHABLE STORIES OF BAR-HEBR.EUS.
actor said, **Nay, but keep an account of my stripes
"by thee, so that when I in very deed do commit some
"offence, thou mayest reckon them as my punishment
"and not inflict chastisement upon me afresh."
DXXIII. Unto another actor it was said, "What
"sayest thou to some cakes fried in butter and honey?''
The actor said, "What am I able to say? But indeed
"this I know of a certainty. If Moses the prophet had
"gone into Pharaoh's presence with cakes fried in butter
"and honey, the king would have believed his words
"straightway; but since he went in with a rod, Pharaoh
"is not to be blamed overmuch because he did not be-
"lieve, for he was a king and was angry."
DXXIV. Another actor who hated the egg plant, hav-
ing been invited by a certain nobleman, found that all
hi^ meats were made therewith; and he said to the
servant, "Give me some water that I may drink, that
"is, if there be no egg plant in it."
DXXV. Another actor was invited to a feast by a
certain nobleman who began to eat the yelks of hard-
boiled eggs and to set the white of the eggs before
the actor to eat. And the actor said, "May God have
"mercy on the sphere wherein all exactitude is
"found," that is to say wherein the yelk and the
white are bound closely together.
DXXVI. Another actor went to the house of a cer-
tain rich man who was sick, and enquired concerning
his illness, and the sick man said to him, "Boils have
"broken out upon me in a loathsome place." The actor
said, "I do not see any in thy face," meaning "thy face
"is a loathsome place."
DXXVII. Another actor, who was sitting at meat
with a certain miserly nobleman, let fall some of his