Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 11, 1900.djvu/415

 Cairene Folklore. 395

drove them back to the village. On the way the donkey- pretended to be lame and unable to walk. So they put him on the back of the camel. Soon afterwards they came to a place where the path was very narrow and a ledge of rock overhung the road, and the camel not liking his load, passed under it, so that the donkey was pushed off his back and fell with all his bones broken into the path. While he lay dying the camel said to him : ' Why did you not keep quiet ? ' "

Here is another story — of a somewhat sceptical tendency, it is to be feared — in which the donkey figures : —

" Once upon a time, a fellah found that his donkey was eating all the food of his ox, and that the ox therefore was being starved to death. So he said : ' Would to God the donkey would die!' Next morning he found the ox dead. A Beddwi passed by ; he asked him : ' W^hat will you give for this dead donkey ! ^ ' It is not a donkey,' said the Beddwi, ' but an ox.' ' No,' said the fellah, ' this is a donkey.' ' Don't laugh at me,' said the Beddwi, ' it is an ox.' ' Wallah ! ' said the fellah, ' to think that a Beddwi can distinguish between an ox and a donkey, while Rabbuna (God) can't ! ' "

My third story has evidently been concocted by the Cairenes at the expense of the fellahin : —

" Three lads were walking, walking, when they fell across a horseshoe in the road. One kicked it with his foot, and said : ' What is this ? ' The other said : ' W^hat is this ? ' The third said : ' We will go to the village and ask Abu Mohammed.' So they went to Abu Mohammed's house, and knocked at the door. ' Who is there?' said he. ' We are come to ask you what this is,' said they. ' You don't know?' ' No, we don't know.' ' Poor fellows, poor fellows ! This is the old new moon {el-hildl el-qadim) which has been cast off.' "