Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 11, 1900.djvu/414

 394 Cairene Folklore.

heavy to be pushed down the sHp in the usual fashion by the hundred and odd men who had been hired for the purpose. So the engineer who was superintending the work ordered machinery to be brought, adding : " It is too heavy to be pushed." Whereupon I overheard one of the men who had been hired to push it saying to his neighbour : " That is not the reason ; there is an afrit underneath."

I had procured a painter from Alexandria, who was there- fore rather a " superior person," and as soon as the boat w^as in the water I told him he might begin to paint it the following day. That, he replied, was impossible. When I asked why, he said that the next day was W^ednesday, when it was unlucky to begin anything. Thursday, how- ever, was the luckiest day in the week, and if the painting were begun that day all would go w^ell. On the Thursday, accordingly, the w'ork was commenced.

Since the above was written I have heard many other stories, including one (that of a man who understood the language of animals, and thereby learnt how to manage a too inquisitive wife), which occurs in the Introduction to the Arabian Nights. This is an interesting point, as all knowledge of the Nights is ignored by orthodox Moham- medanism, and neither Spitta Bey nor Artin Pasha came across any clear traces of acquaintance with the book. Three others I wall add to my paper by way of postscript. The first of them is as follows : —

" Once upon a time the donkey and the camel grew tired of their servitude and ran away from their master. They hid themselves in the desert, and the camel said to the donkey : ' We had better separate, since if you make a noise our hiding-place will be discovered.' But the donkey replied : ' Don't be afraid, I shall be quite silent.' The villagers w^ent to look for them, and while they were search- ing for them the donkey said : ' I shall split if I don't open my mouth a little.' Thereupon he gave such a loud bray that the people were attracted to their hiding-place and