Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 29, 1918.djvu/215

Rh Alexander's hand, all except the two corners, which remained between his fingers.

However, the king does not grieve long over his loss, but orders a new Bible to be made to fit the remaining corners. It was soon ready, but it was not the same Bible. It leads Alexander round and round but not a step nearer.

When Alexander sees that he cannot reach Paradise he says to his army: "Why should we go and look for Paradise when we can make one of our own?" And so he started to plant trees, and everybody followed his example. And this was the origin of all our fruit trees.

Are we to see in this tale a far-off reminiscence of the Jewish Romance or of the Iter ad Paradisum? That is what Professor Wesselofsky does not tell us, and what we may well be content to leave undecided.