Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 1, 1890.djvu/139

Rh in the well, and bring upon him any disease I liked. I paid him the 7s.

“William Davies, a tailor at Hollywell, brother-in-law of the last witness, corroborated her testimony as to what took place at the latter interview with the prisoner.

“The prisoner in his defence said he never sent for anyone to come to the well, nor did he say there was any efficacy in the water; but if a person believed that there was, and chose to give him some money, he took all that they had a mind to give.

“The Jury returned a verdict of Guilty; and the learned Judge—after expressing his regret that any person could be found so lamentably ignorant and credulous as to believe that any man, by such ridiculous means, had the power of relieving or controlling the diseases and afflictions of another—sentenced the prisoner to six months’ imprisonment with hard labour.

Bottesford Manor, Brigg, January 10, 1890.

 Story of Solomon’s Wisdom.—In the last number of the Folk-Lore Journal (vol. vii, pp. 315-16) the origin of the soldier’s answer in “Cards Spiritualised” was asked; whether one could trace it back, or refer to a similar one.

In answer to that question I will give all the parallels known to me. The story of the Queen of Sheba’s test of Solomon’s wisdom is of a very ancient date. The Bible says (1 Kings, ch. x, v. 3), “And Solomon told her all her questions.” The nature of these questions, and the answers given, is left to the fancy of interpreters, who availed themselves fully of that opportunity.

Thus we find a series of such riddles and their solutions attributed to the Queen of Sheba and to Solomon in an Aramaic commentary to the Book of Esther, dating from the fifth century. Nothing, however, is therein mentioned of boys dressed as girls, or vice versâ.

In another Hebrew work of about the same date (fifth century), viz., Midrash to the Book of Proverbs, we already find a closer parallel to our story. In the Midrash it runs as follows:

“And another similar puzzle she (the Queen of Sheba) prepared for him (Solomon). She brought boys and girls, all having the same appearance, the same stature, and all in like attire; and she said, ‘Separate the boys from the girls.’ He ordered his attendants to bring some nuts and apples, and when these were brought, Solomon said, ‘Distribute them among the boys and girls.’ The boys, not being bashful, put them in their skirts; the girls, being bashful, put them in their kerchieft And Solomon said, ‘Those are boys, whilst these are 