The laughable stories collected by Mâr Gregory John Bar Hebræ

STORIES OF CLOWNS AND SIMPLETONS, 1 49
DLXXXVI. Another silly man looked at the chickens
which were in his house and said, "O chickens, when
"will [any] man become sick that he may eat you and
"[thus] will ye be saved from the knock on the head
"which ye will
receive?"
DLXXXVII. Another simpleton was running along
on the heath and crying out certain words with a loud
voice, and when he was asked why he did thus, he
said, "I wish to know how far my voice will reach."
DLXXXVIII. Another silly man, when asked by his
friends to lend them a saddle, said, "Believe me, I have
"only just now alighted from it, perhaps ye will wait
"for an hour in order that it may have some rest."
DLXXXIX. When the wife of another silly man was
about to bring forth a child, he said to the midwife,
"Get me a son, and I will give thee a dinar."
DXC. Another fool when about to buy some snow
took a piece of it and tasted it, and he said to the
seller, "If ye have any that is colder than this shew it
"to me," and when the seller had shewn him another
piece, he asked, "How dost thou sell this?" and the
seller said, "This latter kind I sell by the carat; but
"the former kind I sell either in the lump or by the
"piece." Then the fool said, "In that case I will take
"a little of the latter kind for my own use, and some
"of the former kind for the people in my house."
DXCI. Another silly man when told by the physician,
"Squeeze the juice
of two pomegranates [into a vessel]
"with the pulpy parts of them and drink [it]," said,
"How much pulp am I to put with them?"
DXCII. y\nother fool having bought a handmaiden
[found that] his wife was enraged, and he said to her,
"If thou dost continue to annoy me in this way I swear