The laughable stories collected by Mâr Gregory John Bar Hebræ

1 48 THE LAUGHABLE STORIES OF BAR-HEBR^US.
upon his grain crop, "O Lord, dost Thou know how
"much wages are due unto Thee that Thou waterest
"this my crop?"
DLXXXI. Stulto cuidam meienti, stultus alius, "Quam
"ingentem penem habes!" ait, "quo modo, quaeso, istum
"portare vales?" Regisset alter, "I istud domi meae
"dictum: ibi enim assidue maledicor quia tam parvus sit."
DLXXXII. Another silly man buried some zuze
coins in the plain, and made a fragment of a cloud a
mark of the place where it was. And some days after
he came to carry away the money, but could not find
the place to do so, and he said, "Consider now; the
''zuze were in the ground, and they must have been
"carried away by some people. For who can steal the
"cloud which is in the sky? And what arm could reach
"thereunto? This matter is one worthy to be wonder-
"ed at."
DLXXXIII. Another simpleton looked into a vessel
of water, and he went and said to his mother, "There
"is a thief in the vessel." And when his mother came
and had looked in also she saw her own face in the
water by the side of that of her son. And she said
to her son, "Verily it is a thief, and there is, besides,
"a whore with this cursed fellow; stand thou here
"that they may not come out and escape until I can
"call the neighbours."
DLXXXIV. Another silly
man remarked concerning
a certain lascivious man who was a Sodomite, that
even more than Lot he was the prince of Sodomites.
DLXXXV. Another simpleton was asked, "How
"many days' journey is it between Aleppo and Damas-
"cus?" and he replied, "Twelve; six to go and six to
"come back."