Page:Gesta Romanorum - Swan - Wright - 1.djvu/519

Rh are not, and it is not long ago since it was destroyed.".

The latter part of this fable is the story of the Assassins, whose Iman or leader was known by the appellation of the "Old Man of the Mountains."

From Mandeville (or rather from Purchas's "Pilgrim," where similar accounts are met with,) Mr. Southey, in his splendid poem of "Thalaba the Destroyer," has borrowed the idea of Aloadin's enchanted garden. See Book VII.

Gay appears to have taken the idea of his fable from the moral of this tale. "Talis ponit scutellam," says the Latin, "et nihil ponit intus: interim fabulatur et trufat et ludificat circumstantes: posteà quærit quid est ibi: et apparent denarii. Distribuit et dat circumstantibus. Accipiunt gratanter; et cum clauserint manus, credentes se habere denarium: posteà aperientes manus nihil inveniunt."

[Such a one lays down a dish, but he puts nothing in it. In the mean time he prates, cheats, and mocks the spectators. Presently he enquires what is there? and a number of pennies appear, which he distributes to the standers-by. They receive them