Vol. Ill, No. 10.] . Some Folk- Tales from Hazramaut. 647 



[N.S.-] 



III. 

 The Blind Thief. 



4 



{A true story.) 



M 



There -was once a man Avho was in the babit of stealing the 

 ripe fruit from off the date-palms. At night he used to take his 

 rope, and having bj day studied the trees and marked those that 

 bore a fine crop, he would climb them and pluck as much as he 

 wanted. Fate decreed that lie should become blind; but still he 

 did not give up his old habit. The people cried out and com- 

 plained against him, and said to one another, '' What can we do to 

 So-and-so ? " One of them said, "I will show you what to do." 

 They said, ''What can you do? God has alrendy blinded him for 

 his evil deeds.'* He replied, '' Right ; in the afternoon he is 

 always seen sitting close to the water-wheel. When he takes his 

 seat there, sit around him apd wait for my coming/' They 

 accordingly went, and they all began to converse together, and 

 turned their conversation on the date-crop. One said, ''The date 

 palm of So-and-so has very fine dates." The man who came last 

 said, " Ah, but not like the dates I have seen on the palm of So-and- 

 so 1 " The blind man was listeninor. ^ow, this tree w^as withered 

 and had no longer any leaves. Having sat there for a while, each 

 went his way, Tfie blind man waited till night; then took his 

 rope, and went to the palm tree. Having gone there, he tied his 

 rope round it and went up, feeling all the time for the foliage and 

 saying to himself, "Now I'll come to them, now I will come to 

 them," until at last his rope went up into the air over the bare 

 top of the tree, and he fell to the ground and killed himself. In 

 the mornine: he was found dead under the date tree, and was 

 taken away and buried. 



But, as the proverb has it, ' No star sets but another yet 

 brighter appears ' ; when I left these people, another thief had 

 risen who stole both by day and by night. 



lY. 



F ^ 



The Woman who had a Lover. 



A certain man met a woman in the market-place ; he was of 

 mean appearance, while she was very beautiful. He accosted her 

 and said, " So-and-so, I am in love with thee, and want thee to 

 give me a meetinfr." She said, '* What art thou saying? Hast 

 thou ever heard or known of an ass riding a mare ?'* He said, "Am 

 I an ass ? '* She said, '' To me thou art an ass ; to others, may be 

 not." He said to her, " Very well," and went his way. Two months 

 later, a marri?»ge took place in the town where the woman dwelt. 

 The man went to the marriage feast. He arrived at the town. 

 Now this woman had a lover. He enquired af^er the woman and 

 they said to him, *'She is at home, and So-and-so is with her." 

 He came to her door, and found it shut. He heard talking inside 



