The laughable stories collected by Mâr Gregory John Bar Hebræ

STORIES OF LUNATICS AND OF MEN POSSESSED OF DEVILS. I 59
DCXXXIV. A certain man said unto a demoniac,
"Take four pieces of silver, and go and reap in my
"place in the royal crops." And he replied, "There are
"two things which I cannot do by myself, that is, to
"take money and to reap; but let me take the money
"and do thou go and reap, so that the labour may be
"easy both for thee and for me."
DCXXXV. Dixit alius quidam a daemone obsessus,
"Proxima nocte somnium mihi obvenit partim verum,
"partim falsum." Quaestum est de eo, "Quid vis di-
"cere?" et regessit, "Dormiens cum pulcherrima puella
"coire visus sum: experrectus autem intellexi me coiisse
"non tamen cum puella."
DCXXXVI. Another demoniac lifted his eyes to
heaven and said, "Should the understanding One do thus?
"Was this the work of a wise being.'' Thou, [O God]
"hast created a multitude of men, but, behold, Thou
"killest half of them by hunger. How much better
"would it have been if instead of every hundred souls
"Thou hadst made one, for then all men could have
"lived happily and in abundance. It is meet that a man
"should multiply those who are supported by him in
"proportion to the food which he hath."
DCXXXVII. Another demoniac was very skilful in
interpreting dreams in his madness, and one day a
certain nobleman said to him, "I saw in my dream as
"if a great number of sparrows were fastened up the
"skirts of my garments, and I made them to fly off
"one after the other, but when the last one came to
"escape I caught hold of it." And the demoniac interpreted
the dream thus:— "If thou didst in truth see
"what thou sayest thou must have made thy supper
"upon lentiles.— Cum autem dormitares pedere coepisti: