The laughable stories collected by Mâr Gregory John Bar Hebræ

I02
THE LAUGHABLE STORIES OF BAR-HEBR^US.
sickened and died, and the other man took the handmaiden.
CCCCV. A certain man came to an interpreter of
dreams, carrying a sack on his shoulder, and he said,
"I saw in my dream as if I were tying up with cords
"the necks of skin-bags with great violence." And the
interpreter of dreams said to him, "Hast thou in very
"truth seen this dream?" And the man said, "Yea, in-
"deed, I have seen it." Then the interpreter of dreams
said to the people who were round about him, "This
"is the man who stealeth children and strangleth them,
"and strippeth their clothes from off them; and if ye
"search his sack ye will find the cords for strangling
"[them]." And when they had searched it, they found
that the matter was so, and they took the man and
they delivered him to the judge, and they crucified
him.
CCCCVI. Another man drew nigh to
an interpreter
of dreams and said, "I saw in my dream as if I had
"upon my knees a child, and he was uttering cries."
The interpreter of dreams saith to him, "Dost thou
"play upon the harp.'' [for if thou dost], do not occupy
"thyself therewith again."
CCCCVII. Dixit alius quidam somniorum interpreti,
"Dormienti mihi duo panes in manibus visi sunt quorum
"de utroque sumebam." Responsum est "Tu quidem
"cum duabus una matre natis coire soles."
CCCCVIII. Dixit mercator quidam somniorum interpreti,
"Dormienti mihi canis rufus commensalis epulari
"visus est." Responsum est, "Scythicum servum habes
"qui uxori tuae hand secus quam tu, inire solet." Quod,
rem percontatus, verum esse intellexit.
CCCCIX. Dixit alius quidam somniorum interpreti,