648 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [December, 1907. 



4 



and stopped to listen. He heard the man say to the woman, "I 

 shall wait for thee at such and such a place.*' Now this place was 

 a lonely one. The woman said, *' Very well I Listen, I will bring 

 thee some sapper there." The listener caught their words and 

 went away. At sunset, lie took two lamp-wicks and lighted them. 

 After a while the woman's lover arrived. Putting the lighted 

 wicks in. liis ears, he advanced towards the lover. The latter took 

 him for a devil and fled. A short while after, the woman Qame 

 with her lover's supper. She arrived at the spot and said to him, 

 **Take thy supper ; by the time thou fiuishest thy supper I will be 

 back again." He took the supper and supped. After some time 

 the woman came and sat down. He caught hold of her, and 

 while possessing her, he brayed like an ass. The woman cried, 

 " Ho ! who is this ?^' He said, *' The ass riding the mare." The 

 woman departed greatly grieved, but the man went off in high 

 glee. 



V, 



w 



There was once a man of Shibarn^ who had a son. One day he 

 called his son and said to him, ''You see these coins; go, buy us 

 meat but bring back the money." The boy went away, and 

 entered the market. He came to a butcher and bought some meat. 

 The butcher asked for the price, but the boy said, *' My father 

 told me to buy meat but to return the money to him." The 

 butcher said, '^ But who will give you meat without money?" 

 The boy went round the market in this wise, till he was tired. 

 Then he went to his father and said, " Father, no one would give 

 me meat without money." The father then called his nephew, 

 a very clever* boy, who could catch a bird as it flew. He took 

 the money from his uncle and went to the market. He went 



1 till he came to a piece of meat not to be excelled. He took 

 a piece of this and gave the butcher the money. He came back to 

 his uncle and gave him the meat, saying, *' This is the meat and 

 the money too.'* His uncle said, " Where is the money ? " Point- 

 ing to the fat he said, '' This is the money" ; and to the lean, "This 

 is the meat." ^ The uncle said, '*I Jcneta thou wert a man and a 

 help in need," 



There is an Arab proverb, "Take the meat and return the 

 money," meaning that if you buy a good article you will not regret 

 its price, 



VI. 



The Bedouin akd the Tiger.* 



There w^as a Bedouin who once lost a camel and went search- 

 mg for it from valley to valley. When night overtook him, he 



roun 



it 



1 The name of a valley and of a town in Yanian. 



2 ^aqar^ " tlie Saker falcon/' and in Taraan colloquially " clever. 



3 The point ia that the meat was a fine piece and worth the money. 

 ♦ In modem colloquial Arabic Namir is "tiger," bat classi 



leopard. 



classically 



