The laughable stories collected by Mâr Gregory John Bar Hebræ

INTRODUCTION.
XXV
dius' work, and most of the "Sayings" attributed to
them are
from the Apophthegmata which usually follow
it in MSS. ; of the thirty-eight stories in the Chapter
I have traced twenty-eight to Palladius, It will be seen "^^^^"^p*^
from the full texts which accompany stories Nos. CXC VII, ^^"'""^
^"^
the Apoph-
CCII, CCIX, how very much Bar-Hebraeus has con- thegmata of
densed his authorities, but there is no doubt that he
has in most cases preserved the pith of the stories in
his own abridged versions. It is surprising, however,
that he limited himself to thirty-eight stories, for the
Syriac Palladius and the Apophthegmata form an almost
inexhaustible mine for sayings and stories quite
as remarkable as those which Bar-Hebraeus selected.
It is difficult also to understand why the names of the
chief actors in the stories are sometimes omitted. Thus
"the certain man who was righteous according to this
"world" (No. CLXXVI) was Arsenius; the brother that
"was perfect to such a degree that even wild animals
"became his friends and he used to nourish their young"
(No. CC) was Macarius of Alexandria, and so on. Whether
it be true or not the latter story has a pretty continuation
in Palladius, for we read there that, a few
days after the holy man had made the hyaena's cubs
to see by spitting on their eyes and praying over them,
the mother came into his cell dragging a goat- skin
which she deposited at his feet, evidently intending it
for his use. And the ascetic took it and wore it until f^'°^^^^°^
he was an old man. On another occasion when the^ciuses.
door of his cell was shut the hyaena jumped over the
wall, bearing a young one in her mouth Macarius saw
;
that it too was blind and he treated its eyes, as he
had those of the other cubs, successfully. The day
following the mother brought back to the cell for the