The laughable stories collected by Mâr Gregory John Bar Hebræ

82 THE LAUGHABLE STORIES OF BAR-HEBR^US.
"sakest me and cleavest thereunto, I by myself shall
"not be able to overcome the two of you." That is
to say, "If thou wilt not take care, and wilt eat meats,
"and wilt act in other harmful ways which strengthen
"the disease [I cannot cure thee]."
CCCXXXVL Medicus olim quidam roganti,
"Cathar-
"tica sumenti cur corpus sollicitatur ?" respondit, "Quia
"et in conclavi verrendo crescit pulvis."
CCCXXXVII. When a certain physician went to
visit a prince who was grievously sick, he felt his
windpipe and looked at his urine, but could find in
him no sign of bodily disease. Then he began to introduce
love stories, and he saw that the beat of his
pulse was changed, and he straightway enquired if he
had been in the habit of holding converse with the
servants out of doors. And the servants said to him,
"He hath never been in the habit of going out." Then
the physician said, "Let all the handmaidens come
"forth and pass before him," and they went by one by
one, and straightway when a certain handmaiden drew
nigh to him a mighty change took place in his pulse
and breathing. Thus the physician was confirmed in
his opinion, and he told the king his story and the
handmaiden was given to him, and he was healed of
his
sickness.
CCCXXXVni. Another physician was asked, "Why
"doth a dead man become heavy?" And he replied,
"Because [in the human body] two substances are
"united; the light substance which beareth, and the
"heavy substance which is borne. When the light
"substance departeth the weight of that which is
heavy
"ihcreaseth."
CCCXXXIX. Another physician said, "The waste