The laughable stories collected by Mâr Gregory John Bar Hebræ

I 62
THE LAUGHABLE STORIES OF BAR-HEBR^US.
"not identify them." And when they had brought the
food to him and he had eaten and was satisfied, he
stood up in the breach and said, "So ye do not know
"whose deed this is? Then ye have all become little
"children. This is, indeed, the work of thieves and of
"no one else." So he left [them] and went away.
DCXLV. Another lunatic, when the boys were throwing
stones at him, ran away from them, and there met him
a woman who was carrying- a little child, and he went
and smote the little child so that he nearly died. And
the woman said to him, "The wrath of God be upon
"thee! In what way did the child offend thee?" The
lunatic said, "O harlot, to-morrow when he hath grown
"a little more he will be worse than these."
DCXLVI. Two lunatics were engaged in a severe
fight with each other when the guards captured them
and hauled them before the governor. The governor
said to one of them, "Why didst thou strike this man?"
and he replied, "Manu testes meas exporrecta captabat
"ut prehensum alterutrum resecaret." Judex ergo quaesivit,
"Quare manu testes illius captabas?" Respondit,
"Crede mihi tot habet uxores et pellices ut tale facinus
"patrare nunquam ausus essem."
DCXLVII. Another lunatic was eating dates together
with their stones, and when he was asked why he
did so, he said, "The shopman weighed them out to
me thus."
DCXLVIII. Whenever an ordinary man died people
were in the habit of giving a zftza to a certain lunatic,
and once when a rich man died, his relatives gave
him two. And having taken the zilzc and gone out
the lunatic said to the relatives of the dead man, "Do