Page:The Perfumed Garden - Burton - 1886.djvu/133

Rh an inverse proportion to the length of his beard; that is to say, a big beard denotes a small mind. A story goes in this respect, that a man who had a long beard saw one day a book with the following sentence inscribed on its back. "He whose chin is garnished with a large beard is as foolish as his beard is long." Afraid of being taken for a fool by his acquaintances, he thought of getting rid of what there was too much of his beard, and to this end, it being night time, he grasped a handful of his beard close to the chin, and set the remainder on fire by the light of the lamp. The flame ran rapidly up the beard and reached his hand, which he had to withdraw precipitately on account of the heat. Thus his beard was burnt off entirely. Then he wrote on the back of the book under the abovementioned sentence, "These words are entirely true. I, who am now writing this, have proved their truth." Being himself convinced that the weakness of the intellect is proportioned to the length of the beard.

On the same subject it is related that Haroun er Rachid, being in a kiosk, saw a man with a long beard. He ordered the man to be brought before him, and when he was there he asked him, "What is your name?" "Abou Arouba," replied the man. "What is your profession?" "I am master in controversy.

Haroum then gave him the following case to solve. A