Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 11, 1900.djvu/393

 Cairene Folklore. 373

IX.

"There was a ferry, and the boat was full of people, as well as a buffalo. And then came a Christian with his donkey, and when the boat is in the middle of the river it sinks and all the people cry : * The Christian's donkey makes the boat sink ! ' " 1

X.

" There was a sultan who was very stout, so that he was too stout to walk. Every doctor gives him medicine to make him thinner, but the medicine is of no use, so he cuts off their heads until (this had happened to) forty doctors. There is a poor peasant ; he saw all the heads at the gate of the palace, and said to the porter : ' Why are all the heads hanging up in this way ? ' He answered : ' Because the sultan is ill ; no doctor is of any good, so he cuts off his head.' The peasant said : ' Show me the sultan, and I will give him medicine.' The porter replied : ' Are you going, my good sir ? he will cut off your head also.' The peasant answered : ' That doesn't matter ; if I am of no good, he will cut off my head.' He was brought to the sultan, who asked him : 'Are you a doctor?' He answered: ' Yes, I am a doctor.' The sultan said : ' I want medicine which will make me grow thin ; I can't stand or get up.' The peasant said : ' As for you, you will die in forty days' time.' The sultan said : ' Is it a fact that I shall die in forty days' time ? ' He answered : ' Yes.' Then the sultan ordered him to be thrown into prison. But every day the sultan grows a little thinner from excess of anxiety,

mush 'auz yiddahani." Qallo : " ishteretha bekam ? " Qallo : " bekhamsa ukhamsin afarim." Qallo : "ya khanzir ! iddi '1-baqara beta' 'r-ragil, wenta emsik el-baqara beta'k min guwa."

' Kan fi wahid ma'diya ukan melyan min en-nas, ukan fi wahid gamusa; uba'den ga wahid Nosrani bil-homara beta'o, uba'den lamm' em-merkeb rah fi wust el-bahr yighra', kul en-nas yekallimu : "el-homara beta' 'n-Nosrani yirherra' em-merkeb ! "