Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 8, 1897.djvu/134

 110 you from his hands.' He answers: 'Thou hast spoken well.' He then raised his eyes towards heaven, and said: 'O Lord, give me strength against this demon, and deliver me from her wickedness.' As soon as she heard these words, she flung herself upon the ground and wallowed in the dust. She wanted to rise, but she was unable. The young man spurred his horse, and was rescued from the demon.

"As for thee, my sovereign lord! confide not in wicked philosophers, for they do not seek thy good. And now, if thou exact not the penalty from thy son, I shall slay myself with mine own hands."

And the king gave orders for his son to be put to death.

. VII.—Now the third philosopher arose and prostrated himself before the king, and said: "O my sovereign lord, live for ever! Know that human beings are apt to magnify an incident originally of little moment. It once happened, for example, that the inhabitants of two large towns annihilated one another on account of a drop of honey." The king exclaims: "How is this possible?" The philosopher replies as follows: "There was once a huntsman who found a beehive on the mountain; he took it and went to sell it. Now he had a dog with him. The man came to the shopkeeper, and showed him the honey; but the shopkeeper had a weasel, and as the weasel saw a bee coming out of the honey, she went to catch it. The dog saw the weasel, pounced upon it, and strangled it. The shopkeeper took a stick, thrashed the dog, and killed it. Now the owner of the dog rose and thrashed the shopkeeper, and there ensued a great row; the two towns assembled for war, and destroyed one another, so that not a man was left of them.

"And now, my sovereign lord, do not slay thy son for the sake of a trifling matter.

. VIII.— "Furthermore, hearken thou, mv lord. There was once a man who sent his wife to