Go G E: The Scholar S Guide

THE SCHOLAR~S
GUIDE
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THE PONTIFICALINSTITUTE OF MEDIAEVALSTUDIES
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I
THE SCHOLAR S GUIDE
A Translation of the Twelfth-Century

DisciplinaClericalisof Pedro Alfonso
by
Joseph Ramon JONES and John Esten KELLER
University of Kentucky
Lexington, Kentucky
THE PONTIFICAL INSTITUTE OF MEDIAEVAL STUDIES

TORONTO,CANADA
1969
Digitized by Go ogle Original from

Col
2~-,~~
P~\,·to
1(- ~--€,3
To Paul C. Nagel

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword 9
INTRODUCTION 13
I. Pedro Alfonso, the Man and the Scholar . . . 13
II. Pedro Alfonso and Literature . . . . . IG
III. The Title of the Collection of Talcs and the Aim . 17
IV. The Form and the Content . . . . . . 21
V. Literary Quality . . . . . . . . . . . 25
THE . SCHOLAR'S GUIDE 31
INDEX 115

FOREWORD
Perhaps no age beforc our own ever carried literary inter-

pretation farther, setting apart, of course, the sempiternal
ecclesiastical expositions of the Middle Ages and the Re-
naissance. Today literary interpretation by acholan in univer-
sities f 0C1Dcs primarily upon two genres - drama and novel -
with a much smaller amount of attention devoted to poetry,
due no doubt, to poetry' ·s more modest role in twcntieth-cen-
tury culture. And the short story or brief narrative, to use a
more all-inclusive term, is seldom dealt with by literary critics
whose principal interest is interpretation, even though we
know that from brief narrative of very ancient vintage came
some of the most important and longlived plots in dramatic
and novelistic production. Shakespeare, although he probably
thought he was drawing primarily upon an original Italian
brief narrative for parts of the Merchan~ of Venice, none-
theless was using a reworking of an excmplum in the frame
story of the medieval Barlaam and ]9set,hat which can be
traced back to a very ancient Indian original; Calderon owed
Yitai aspects of the over-all plot of Life is a Dream to an orien-
tal tale; Prince Don Juan Manuel's corpus of talcs entitled El
Conde Lucan.or stems almost entirely from eastern narrative;
and the searcher docs not have to look far in medieval or re-
naissance brief fiction to find the origins of many plot-elements
of modem literature. Death Takes a Holiday, On Borrowed
Time, Undine and Kiss Me Kate (from Shakespeare's Shrew,
of course, but traceable beyond the bard and his Italian sources
to the tales of the Ancient East) and the various handlings of the
Faust theme all go back ultimately to age-old narratives.
One might ask why brief narrative is more neglected than
novel and drama in today's literary criticism and interpretation.
The question may be answered in several ways,. and yet it is
quite likely that the explanation is very simple. Brief narra-

10 FOREWORD
tivcs, whether fables, novelle, exempla, or other types, were and

are composed to entertain, teach a simple lesson, or to create a
mood, indeed, in some cases, to carry out a combination of these
functions. Therefore reason seldom exists for making interpre-
tations, whether we are considering old brief narratives or mod-
em short stories. Meaning - and we are speaking now of the
brief narratives of the past - though often purportedly obscure,
hidden, or allegorical as to interpretation, was actually not
difficult to find. A parable, fable, or exemplum whose meaning
was too far from the grasp of the reader or hearer failed in its
purpose. The audience of ancient talcs and of folk talcs today,
even of modem fiction, can be regarded by us as generally a not
very sophisticated audience, and the talc that is unf athomablc
did not and does not serve the usual purpose of tales. If a
story is purely recreational in purpose, it needs no interpretation.
If it is didactic or moralistic, its lesson must be understandable
enough to be clear to its audience, obviating any need for inter-
pretation. So the talc has not encouraged the kind of literary
interpretation stimulated by novel and drama. Exceptions, natu-
rally, exist, but by-and-large, literary interpretation today is not
as actively pursued in brief narrative as it is in other branches
of writing.
This discussion, we assure our readers, has been gradually
leading up to something more than an attack upon our col-
leagues who may possibly be more gifted and perceptive than we
in mining great masterpieces for hidden gold. It has been in-
tended to explain why we feel that important masterpieces in the
field of brief fiction have dropped out of fashion among· scholars
and literary critics and why certain veritable classics of the past,
works which have directly influenced the very course of fiction's
development, have not been translated into the English language
or have been bypassed and often completely f orgottcn. We hope,
therefore, to focus attention again upon an important literary col-
lection of brief talcs and to make it available to the scholar who
needs it in his research as well as to the general reader who en-
joys the flavor of these ancient stories, many thousands of times
told in the past but now relegated to depths of Lethe. Hence this

FOREWORD 11
new translation of the Disciplina Clencalis, which we have e-

lected to call in English The Scholar's Guide. We believe that
today it can be read for the same reasons it was when it was
written some eight centuries ago - for recreation primarily,
and, if the reader insists, also for moralistic guidance in a
practical way of life, though this latter reason now, as in the
past, may often be regarded as suspect and may lead the reader
to feel that his literary leg is being pulled deliberately, but not
admittedly.

INTRODUCTION
I. PEDRO ALFONSO, THE MAN AND TI1E SCHOLAR
On June 29, 1106, when he was forty-four years of age, an

Aragonese Jew named Moses Sefardi or Moshe Sefaradi received
Christian baptism and became Petrus Alphons111or Alphonsi -
in Spanish, Pedro Alfonso. The event took place in the old
episcopal sec of Hucsca. The importance and esteem in which
this Jew was held is attested to in his baptismal records: no less
a pcnonage than Huesca's Archbishop Stephen officiated at the
ceremony, and the King of Aragon himself was sponsor and
godfather. Pedro Alfonso, as we shall hereafter call him, was
pcnonal physician to the monarch and was a man recognized by
both Jews and Christians as a person of high erudition in the
areas of literature, the sciences, and theology. His apostasy from
Judaism to Christianity was considered by those of the Hebrew
faith as a great loss, and they were quick to level against him
bitter accusations, even going so far as to state that he had
accepted convenion to gain fame and glory among Christians
and the support of a powerful king. Whatever his reasons, he
did indeed gain f amc and glory from king and laity and clergy.
His works were copied and recopied countless times, and his
repute in Christendom far outshone his former repute in Jewry.
His very name - Pedro, because he received baptism on the
Feast Day of Peter and Paul, Apostles, and Alf 01110, in honor
of his godf athcr, the king - was a source of pride to him, and
he worked hard to make himself worthy of his rewards. So
famous did he become in medicine that he was sent to England
to become the personal physician of Henry I (circa 1100).
There, in addition to his duties in the palace, he taught astro-
nomy to one Walchcr, Prior of Malvern, who had come some
years earlier to Britain from Lorraine. In a manuscript still
extant, written by the said Walcher and found today in the

14 INrRODUCrION
Bodlcian Library at Oxford, 1 one reads that the Prior's teacher

was "Magister nostcr Petrus Anfulsus". The title of the book
carrying this passage is Sententia Petri Ebrei, cognomento An-
J,hw de Dracone, quam Dominw Walcenu prior Malvernensis
ecclesie in latinam transtulit linguam, as cited by Professor
Millas of the University of Barcelona whose research and
publication in the area of medieval science - especially Arabic
science -has been outstanding. 2 From Pedro Alfonso, Walcher
seems to have learned the Arabic system of astronomical grada-
tion, although according to the manuscript the converted Jew was
unable to satisfy all of the prior's queries, giving as an excuse,
perfectly understandable today to scholars, just as it must have
been then, that he had left most of his books at home.
According to Millas, Pedro Alfonso discoursed in England
on the demarkation of the true East and West, the point from 1
which longitudes are to be calculated, the variation of the hour

according to the longitude of the place where the hour is noted,
the correspondence between the appearance of the zodiacal signs
and the observation of eclipses, and on how, contrary to the
beliefs of the age, the equatorial regions were habitable. 8
To ertum to Malvern, one reads in Walcher's tract that the
prior no longer calculated the nodes, which were so indispensable
for understanding solar eclipses, according to the Graeco-Roman
method, but used the sexagesimal division of the zodiac, which
was of Arabic transmission. W alcher also employed the Spanish
Jew's system for locating the vernal point of the entrance of the
sun into Aries, "making note of the divergency of chronological
1
Bodleian Library Manuscript .Auct. F. 1, 9. Professor Jose Maria MillAs
published the entire text of this manuscript together with a study of the text,
in an article, "La aportaci6n astron6mica de Pedro Alfonso," S,jtlt"ad3 ( 1943)
65-105. In addition to this manuscript folios 96r-99r, he based the edition upon
the Bibliotheca Amploniana of Erfurt, MS Amplon. Q351 folios 18r-23v.b.
2 "Nuevas aportaciones para el cstuclio de la transmision de la ciencia a.
traves de Espana," Discursosth la .Academiath Bumas utras th Barcelona,1943, 26.

8 11,id., 40.

INTRODUCTION 15.
systems among various peoples, since for the Egyptians Septem-

ber is the f.int month of the year, for the Jews it is the seventh,
and for the Romans the ninth." 4 "It is enough for us to empha-
size," Professor Millas continues - and we translate - "the
direct teaching of Pedro Alfonso upon Walcher, especially the
Arabic sources of the astronomical doctrine which he professed
concerning the movement of the sun and of the moon, just as
the theories then adopted for explaining the duration of the
tropic year and the movement of the equinoxes ; it is interesting
to call attention to the reaction which this new astronomical
science, taught by Pedro Alfonso, provoked in his disciple,
Walcher, as well as the difficulties which arose in the mind of
the disciple, upon seeing the discrepancy between the above-
mentioned eastern science and the old system of chronology and
cosmography of the Latino-ecclesiastical traditions which until
then had been employed in the European W est."1
Millas reveals that other English scholars, besides Walcher,
paid heed to the Spaniard's teachings, and that Pedro Alfonso
seems to have written a book for such people. To Millas this
lost book marks a high point of importance in the laying aside
of the old traditional Latino-ecclesiastical scientific approach in
favor of the "new" Arabic science which flourished abroad.
Unfortunately, only the Prologue and four chapters have sur-
vived. It can be stated that Pedro Alfonso had based the work
on his own translation of the astronomical tables of al-Khwariz-
mi, according to the rescension by Maslama al-Makhriti of Cor-
dova. Later Pedro Alfonso's rendition of the tables was employed
by the famous Adelard of Bath in 1126, revealing that the
Spanish Jew's treatise was the bridge between Arabic science and
Adelard and his followers. The importance of Pedro Alfonso
in the history of science in the West is great.
Among theologians his repute was possibly even higher.
Scarcely had he accepted Christianity, when he produced his
4 Ibid., 30.
c, Ibid., 31-2.

16 INTRODUCDON
best-knowntreatise, the Dialogi contra ]IIIIMos,• which com-

pares and contrasta Judaism and Christianity greatly to the
diladvantage of the former. One is even led to wonder if that
attack upon the faith of his foref athen and one-time co-
religionists in Aragon might not have had something to do
with his voyage to England, for it would have enabled him to
eacape poasible retaliation from powerful Jewsat home. In
any case the Dialogi were much copied and widely diueminatcd
bothon the Continent and in Great Britain.
II. PEDRO ALFONSO AND LITERATIJRE
Literature, the history of brief fiction in Europe, that is, was

little affected by Pedro Alfonso's scientific and theological works,
although medieval ecclesiastics often placed his Disciplina Cleri-
calis among the latter. The Disciplina,a quite small collection of
talcs, moralizations, maxims, and proverbs, had an astonishing
vogue. Pedro Alfonso possessed a definite talent for choosing
enjoyable tales and a flair for telling them in an eff ecti"YD
fashion. He had within his reach, because he could read
Arabic, Latin, Spanish and very probably Hebrew, French,
Greek, Provencal, English, and Catalan, a very wide repertory
of fiction upon which to draw. Even so, his own words would
seem to indicate a strong preference for Arabic sources. In his
Prologue he writes: • ... I have compiled this small volume taking
it in part from the parables and counsels of the philosophers
[for the most part eastern philosophers, apparently], in part from
the parables and counsels of the Arabs, in part from tales and
poems and finally, from animal and bird fables.• More will be
said in subsequent paragraphs about his sources.
impuu iuda«man opinious

• The full tide is Dialogi lmu dignissimi, in (JUUIUS
~ eum naturalis,tum co,/estispkilosopkitu argumenliseo,ifutanlu,,qua«lam-
loca aplieantur (PL 157, 535-671).
lJll6p,op/llla,um o/Jstrusiora

INTRODUCl'ION 17
III. THE TITLE OF THE COLLECTION OF TALES

AND THE AIM
Disciplina Clericalis means, of course, Clerical Discipline or

Instruction. Much, we believe, depends upon the possible meanings
or connotations of these two words. But before examining fur-
ther this matter of meaning, let us look carefully at what Pedro
Alfonso wrote a,s to his purpose in the Prologue to his book.
"Nevertheless," he wrote, "I have taken pains to sec that my
writing may offer the readers and listeners a stimulus and 1n
occasion to learn, knowing that if I should write more than is
necessary, it might be a burden rather than an aid. The know-
ledgeable will remember what they have for gotten by means
of the things which are contained here." The title of the book.
drawn from the subject itself, might be translated as The Cleric's
Guide, because it makes the cleric disciplined. But clericus might
have also the meaning of "scholar" or "educated man," that is,
a lay clerk. In much of Europe, but particularly in Spain, where
so many educated men, so many scribes and scholars could be
Moors or Jews, clerk often had the connotation of "scholar" or
"man of learning." 7 And, of course, disciplina could mean
"discipline," or "rule of life," or even simply "guide." Therefore,
in the interest of euphony, and because we believe that Pedro
Alfonso aimed his tales rather at the educated layman than at
the educated ecclesiastic, for the purpose of entertainment
rather than of moralization, we have given his work the English
title The Scholar's Guide.
We believe that there is reason in this title. It had long been
a custom among eastern literati, and for that matter among those
7 The meaning of clericushas long interested scholars. Leona C. Gabel, "Benefit

of Clergy in England ... " in Smith College Studies in History, vol. 14 (1929)
chap. S, pp. 62-91, carries the heading 'The Term clericus.'See also R. Genestal,
Le Privik,ium Fori en France,published in two volumes (Paris, 1921-24).

18 INTRODUCTION
of classical antiquity, to claim for a wide variety of works, even

for facetious and jocose works, a serious, doctrinal, or moralistic
raison d'etre. Some of Pedro Alfonso's best stories come from
books written in Arabic which purported to have a didactic pur-
pose, yet which, if one examines them closely, peeling away the
shell of moralization, turn out to be primarily tales meant to
amuse. One instinctively senses a pseudo-didactic overtone in
these tales, a kind of tongue-in-cheek seriousness, especiaUy
when he reflects upon their hilariously lewd content. T :tke.
for example, No. XIII, the tale known as Exemplum de Canicula
Lacrimante (Tale of the Weeping Bitch), or No. IX known as
Exemplum de Vindemiatore (Parable of the Grape Harvester),
or perhaps especially No. XIV called Exemplum de Puleo (The
Tale of the Well). The serious or pseudo-serious words of the
Prologue already cited can hardly conceal the intent of enter-
tainment. Stories which relate the delightfully scandalous
methods used by immoral wives to deceive their gullible hus-
bands, no matter to what degree moralization may be stressed,
cannot really be taken seriously. Chlistian ecclesiastics or clerics
could have gained little discipline from them, and surely gui-
dance was not a goal. The tales had served in the East, and
among Pedro Alfonso's Moorish and Jewish contemporaries in
Spain, as pleasant or merry tales, and most of them would live
on to serve later ages in the same way. Of all the thirty-odd
little stories, scarcely more than three (numbers I, II, and XXIX)
deal with ethics which one can truly consider Christian in tone,
and hardly more than four of the brief moral tracts interspersed
among the tales spring from Christian ideology. And even these
three tales and these four moral tracts harmonize equally well
with the tenets of Jewry, Islam, and the religious faiths of
Persia and India.
The Scholar's Guide, we feel certain, was meant to be what it
appears to be today, that is, a group of pleasant fictions and
philosophical ideas cleverly wrapped in a mock-serious diclact-
icism. Nearly all the tales have moralizations that st·ress a purely
practical wisdom or morality which purportedly teaches ways and
means of living successfully and of escaping the dangers of the
world. Nearly all belong to the age-old genre found in such

INTRODUCTION 19
books as the Panchatantra, 8 Barlaam and ]osephat, and the

countless medieval compilations of exempla. The lessons in the
stories are there for those who wish to find them, but the stories
themselves are obviously what really count in the mind of the
teller.
Pedro Alfonso, once a Sefardic Jew, was always, even though
a convert to western Christianity, a quasi-Semitic personality,
and he certainly brought more of the East into his book than mere
plots of the stories and oriental proverbial phrases. He lived at a
time when adab was an important element of eastern culture
and letters, and the Disciplina Clericalis certainly contains adab.
This most difficult to explain element or literary philosophy of
adab, contained, among other elements, the Arabic concept of
belles lettres, which was not in general accord with the more
primitive ideas of the Arabs of the desert. Adab, and all it
meant in Islam perhaps developed in India first during the third
and fourth centuries of our era, when civilization and letters
there had attained a very high level, when ideas were of the
most tolerant kind, when refinement in literary tastes had begun
to deny the didactic aims of tales in favor of the recreational.
Later these concepts were adopted in Persia. From there some
two centuries later, at almost precisely the time when the Persian
rendition of the Hindu Panchatantra was translated into Arabic
under the title of Kalilah wa-Dimna (ca. 750),9 adab blossomed
8 The most scholarly edition of this third-century Sanskrit classic is that of

Theodor Benfey, Pantschatantra: Funf Bucher indischerFabeln, Marchen, und
Erzah/,ungen(Leipzig, 1859). The only complete translation into English is
that of Walter W. Ryder, The Panchatantra(University of Chicago Press, 1956).
The ninth printing is identical to its predecessors, save that it is a paper back
book.
9 Kalila wa-Dimna was the Arabic version of the Panchatantra,derived not
from the original Sanskrit, but from a lost Pehlevi rendition of the Sanskrit.
A well-known erudite, best known in Islam under the name of 'Ab-dallah ben
al-Muqaffa, prepared the Arabic text, a version of which was utilized by Pedro
Alfonso in his DisciplinaClericalis. In 1251Kalila wa-Dimna was translated into
Spanish as Calilae Digna at the behest of Prince Alfonso, in 1252 crowned Al-
fonso X of Castile.

20 INTRODUCTION
among the Arabs. Similarities, of course, are to be found in

Hebrew books of the same period and later. Adah's philosophy
permitted the erudite to enjoy the most unerudite and unmoral-
istic talcs and subject-matter under the guise of learned and
didactic interest. Humor in these talcs lay even in the very
claim to didacticism; the humor was definitely intentional and
was, some believe, the particular genius of this particular inver-
sion of the most venerated aims of art. This is often overlooked
by scholars in the West when they examine oriental fiction.
Moralizations were deliberately attached to some stories to give
an excuse for the said stories' presence in books. In other words,
erudite people, even kings, priests, and philosophers, can read
books of wisdom without criticism, whereas the reading of light
fiction, such as the tales found in Kalilah wa-Dimna might cause
brows to rise. But if these scholarly minds read books that
affected to be the wisdom of the ages, that offered profound
views of Iife and purported to be serious and learned writings,
.no blame could accrue. The same phenomenon can, of course,
be seen in western writing, but it is more prevalent among
orientals.
Af tcr a while a kind of subtle casuistry developed as one of
the underlying philosophies of f abulistic writing. It has been
noted in Arabic tales as early as the translation of Kalilah wa-
Dimna from the Persian. Hence learned Moslem and also
Jewish writers found very attractive the idea of the sophisticated
philosophy of belles-lettres known as adab, of which the best
description and definition can be found in the Encyclopedia of
lslam. 10 Not only, then, did certain tales in the Disciplina Cleri-
calis stem from the Arabic Kalilah wa-Dimna, but also from
the philosophy of adab and what it involved. Pedro Alfonso
was indeed adept at adab and therefore would have been regar-
ded by his Moslem contemporaries as adib, that is, well-versed
in the tenets of adab.
IO Edition (Leiden-London, 1960) vol. I, 175-76.

INTRODUCTION 21
IV. THE FORM AND THE CONTENT
The structure of the Disciplina Clericalis closely resembles that

of many other books written in the Middle Ages and earlier,
especially in the East. I ts framework is basically very simple.
A father who is an Arab speaks to his son, who is his pupil and
disciple, telling him of life's pecularities and admonishing him
against the dangers and evils of the world. The son replies,
often commenting upon his father's wisdom, and then asks a
question which leads to another story. The entire body of the
book is presented in this way.
The short Prologue, in the tradition of prologues preceding
didactic books and later pseudo-didactic works, states that the
author is a good Christian and that he writes his book because
he is filled with zeal to teach others what he knows "so that the
light entrusted to me may not remain hidden under a bushel."
He goes on to say that .. the human wit was intended, by order
of its Creator, to occupy itself while it is in the world, in the
study of holy philosophy, by means of which it acquires better
and greater knowledge of its Creator; that man should strive
to live virtuously, guided by continence; learn to guard himself
against the ever-present adversities; and walk in the path, in
this world, which leads him to the Kingdom of Heaven."
Teaching, he believes, must come softly and gradually, even
sweetly, and in a manner that can be remembered. He reveals,
as stated earlier, that he wrote the book, taking it "in part from
the parables and counsels of the philosophers, in part from
the parables and counsels of the Arabs, from tales and
poems, and finally, from anima·l and bird-fables." He asserts
also that he has tried to avoid anything contrary to the Catholic
Faith and lays possible errors and defects before the scrutiny
of his superiors in religion.
Following the Prologue comes a section, entitled by modem
scholars: De Timore Dei. We describe it in detail as representa-
tive of the many similar passages scattered throughout the book
all of which are unnumbered. Enoch, the philosopher, and other

22 INTRODUCTION
philosophers make sententious statements and quote proverbs

dealing with the wisdom inherent in the fear of God. Next a
section entitled De Y pocrisi is presented in which Socrates and
certain nameless philosophers discuss hypocrisy with their dis-
ciples. A third section, De Formica - de Gayo - de Cane, ex-
horts the son not to permit the ant, the rooster, and the dog to
surpass him in forethought, early rising, governance of a num-
ber of wives, or in gratitude. The last remarks on gratitude in-
troduce the theme of the first exemplum, a tale entitled Exem-
plum de Dimidio Amico. It can be stated, therefore, that toward
the end of the section made up of maxims, a statement is made
which serves to introduce the story immediately following.
Such maxims or admonitions seem to be, at first glance, quite
in accord with the tenets of Christian doctrine. But studied
care£ully they often reveal no more than a selfish practicality
certainly not in harmony with Pedro Alfonso's newly accepted
faith. Take, for example, story number V, Exemplum de Ho-
mine et Serpente. This tale is introduced by the following
maxim: An Arab said to his son "If you see some one over-
whelmed by his evil deeds, do not interfere, for harm comes
to him who releases the trap" (actually, the wording is qui
pendulum solverit, that is, 'who frees one who is hanging,' due to
'.the fact that in the tale a snake is left hanging in a tree). The
serpent freed, tries to squeeze his liberator to death. The
wisdom taught is practical, but not Christian, for in it charity
is punished, not rewarded.
Another method of introducing stories is similar to that
mentioned above. Toward the end of one story, a thought or an
idea is presented leading the reader to seek its completion in the
story that follows. In the denouement of Exemplum V, just
treated, the father says, "Do not let happen to you what hap-
pened to a hunchback and the poet." The son then asks, "How
was that?" And the father replies with the first s·entence of the
next ta.Jc, entitled, Exemplum de Versificatore et Gibboso.
The Disciplina Clericalis contains thirty-odd tales, and it is
more fitting to give no definite number since not all extant
manuscripts contain the same number of stories nor even all

INTRODUCTION 23
of the same stories. The edition employed as the basis of c,ur
translation contains 34 numbered tales, but since two of these,
numbers XII and XVIII actually are composites of two stories,
the text we have followed is there£ore the repository of 36
brief narratives. There are, also, 26 sections, of maxims,
scattered unevenly throughout the volume and none of these
sections bears a number.
The basis of our translation of the Disciplina Clericalis was
prepared by Alfons Hilka and Werner Soderhjelm 11 who utilized
as the basis of their edition Manuscript No. 86 of Corpus Christi
College, Oxford. Since these editors studied sixty-two additional
manuscripts of the Disciplina so as to include all the materials
from these manuscripts, their edition must be regarded as a
monument of medieval Latin scholarship and definitive.
The well-known text of Migne, Patrologia Latina 157, 671-
706, was not followed because it is based upon only seven
manuscripts and omits some of the material supplied by Hilka
and Soderhjelm.
Migne utilized the combined efforts of several scholars. In
1824 the Societe des Bibliophiles Fran~ais sponsored the Disci-
plina Clericalis which was printed with a translation into
French by the house of Fermin Didot. 12 Abbot J. Labouderie
edited the work and M. Meon collated Labouderie's text with
seven additional manuscripts, and Migne followed the text
of Meon.
An edition was prepared by Fr. Wilhelm Val. Schmidt, but
this is by no means as satisfactory.
Hilka and Soderhjelm divided the Disciplina Clericalis into
11 Alfons Hilka and Werner Soderhjelm, Petri Alfonsi Disciplina Ckricalis.

I. LateiniscM Text in A.etaSocietatisScimtiarumFennicae,XXVIII, No. 4 (Helsin-
fors, 1911). Published also in Sammlung mittellateiniscMrTexte 1 (Heidelberg,
1911).
1t Disciplina Clericalisa,u;torePetro pars prima (Paris, 1914). A statement
is given in the front matter as follows. Discipline de clergie. Traductionfran-
faise. Part II is entitled Le Chastoiementd'un pire a sts fus. Traductionen vers
franfais de l'ouvrage de Pierre Alphonse.

24 INTRODUCTION
a greater number of sections than did any of the copyists of the

manuscript and, indeed, into a greater nu,mber than had Migne
in his text prepared for the Patrologia, for Migne divided it only
according to the fables themselves. The division according to
Hilka and Soderhjelm is felicitous and has been followed in
translatione into vernacular languages, notably by Angel
Gonzalez Palencia, who published the full Latin text of Hilka
and Soderhjclm together with the Spanish translation of the
Disciplina made up of tales incorporated into the early fifteenth-
century Libra de los exenplos por a.b.c. of Archdeacon Clemente
Sanchez de Vercial and into the Ysopete Historiado printed in
1489, which was the first printed collection of fables in the
Spanish language.
We, too, have followed the divisions of Hilka and Sodcrhjelm,
translated, of course into English as our Table of Contents in-
dicates quite clearly.
We have taken as little liberty with the Latin as possible,
but have in the interest of euphony and to avoid monotony
translated 'philosophus' by 'philosopher,' 'wise man,' or 'sage.'
We have dropped the word exemplum and have used 'parable'
and occasionally 'fable' since these words hold greater meaning
for modem readers.
Insofar as seemed feasible, and at the same time reasonably
correct, we have used modem English parlance, have broken
down the long passages of the original, as well as of the
edited text of Hilka and Soderhjelm, into shorter divisions,
presenting the content in more or less dialo~ form.
It has been our design as translators to make an important
book of the past live in the present, keeping the historical per-
spective, but presented in words and in style meaningful and
attractive to twentieth century readers. We have tried, therefore,
to make Petrus Alfonsus speak as clearly and as naturally in our
own times as he spoke in the twelfth century, presenting
nothing in English that was not said in essence in Latin. '

INTRODUCTION 25
V. LITERARY QUALITY
Little has ever been said about the style and presentation of
the Disciplina Clericalis. Latinists, who often use the work of
Pedro Alfonso in their classes in medieval Latin, consider its
LaHnity of good quality for a twelfth-century work. The style.
indeed, is generally clear and straight{ orward, and although far
from Ciceronian, it reads well. Dialogue abounds, and the book's
conciseness and ingenuous tum of phrase have a definite
attraction. Occasional peculiarities of syntax may possibly
be explained by the fact that Pedro Alfonso was translating
from Arabic, a language he knew better than Latin. Even so,
we can hardly agree with Menendez y Pelayo, Spain's greatest
scholar in the area of medieval exempla, 18 when he writes that
the syntax is "more Semitic than Latin." Nor do we opine
that Pedro Alfonso "narrates naughty stories with little grace
in his barbarous Latin ... nor docs he ever depart from his
habitual insipid and laborious style."
One permits himself to wonder how Menendez y Pelayo
could also have regarded the Di,sciplina Clericalis as a work of
inferior presentation. It is true, of course, that Boccaccio, when
he drew a story from Pedro Alfonso's book and rewrote it with
all his flair and excellence, gave us a far, far better story.
But fcw writers have ever matched Boccaccio as a spinner of
tales, and it should hardly surprise anyone that Pedro Alfonso's
Exemplum de Puteo (number XIV) is greatly inferior to Boc-
caccio's handling of the theme in his T a/,e Four of the Seventh
Day.
And yet, the version of the eastern original of this talc, as
told by the Aragonese Jewish convert, is a narrative of smooth
and rapid unfolding; it is well-plotted and well developed; and
it holds the reader's attention. Empathy, suspense, humor, and
lively dialogue are all represented in it. Its lesson, as might be
expected, is utterly facetious, for it merely shows that wives can
1a Marcelino Menendez y Pelayo, Orlgenesde la Novela, vol. I (Buenos

Aires, 1946) 70.

26 INTRODUCTION
be ingenious in deceiving their spouses. Moreover, the com-

ments of the father and son, who discuss the tale at its close, need
not be considered as anticlimatic remarks. Instead they are rich
in unmistakable humor, for the exclamations of shocked amaze-
ment at the wicked machinations of the feminine mind are
extremely amusing. This special kind of humor, produced by
coupling definitely funny talcs with mock-horror on the part
of the narrator and his hearer can be eff ectivc, indeed, and
certainly is effective in Pedro Alfonso's handling of it.
Most of the stories in the Disciplina Clericalis are skilfully
presented. A few, it is true, are almost too brief to be considered
stories and are little more than protracted proverbial phrases or
statements. An example would be number XVIII, Exemplum
de Semita, which simply tells that travelers, who were tempted
to take a dangerous shortcut to avoid the longer but safer high-
way, lost their way and suffered greatly.
Stories of serious tone rank as high in quality as some of the
more scurrilous tales. Two, numbers I and II, dealing with the
virtues of f ricndship and the great and noble sacrifices made by
friends, match tales of similar tone in other literatures. No
wonder they survived the ages and passed from language to
language and culture to culture almost unchanged.
The noted orientalist and Hispanist, Angel Gonzalez Palencia,
states in the Introduction to his translation into Spanish of the
Disciplina Clericalis that all the maxims and all the stories fall
into three categories. "Three principal divisions," he writes
"can be noted in the maxims, and therefore in the exempla
which illustrate them: one treats of the fear of God, of
hypocrisy, of wisdom, of silence, and of nobility, in short, of
the moral qualities of the human being; another refers to
dealings with women and their menace; and the third with
social and political relations among men with kings and of
inevitable death." 14
To us this seems to be an over-simplification, but we offer no
14Angel Gonzalez Palencia, Pedro Alfonso. Disciplina Clericalis (Madrid-

Granada, 1948) p. xxiii.

INTRODUCTION 27
substitute for it, because in our opinion almost all of the stories
belong to separate categories. Instead of a classification, we
refer the reader to a list of motifs of the tales in the Disciplina
Clericalis entitled Motif-Index of Medieval Spanish Exempla and
made in accordance with the Motif-Index of Folk Literature
of Stith Thompson and now incorporated into Thompson's
lndex. 11
Pedro Alfonso, was a lover of good stories. Collecting, edit-
ing, and translating them from Arabic into Latin seems to have
been regarded by him and his contemporaries as a worthy activi-
ty. In fact, in more sophisticated circles - and surely a king's
personal physician, indeed the personal physicial to two diff c-
rent kings in two different kingdoms, moved in sophisticated
circles - his book must have been considered as a delightful
manifestation of adab, the highly esteemed literary philosophy
already alluded to earlier in this Introduction.
The influence of the Disciplina Clericalis is incalculable. Its
stories appeared in collections of tales destined for use in the
pulpit as well as in doctrinal tracts. Among these can be men-
tioned, as pertinent examples, the Fabulae of Odo of Cheriton,
Jacque de Vitry's Exempla, the Scala Coeli of Johannes Gobius
and Archdeacon Clemente Sanchez de Vcrcial's Libro de los
exenplos por a.b.c. Troubadours and professional story tellers
spread the tales far and wide, if their presence in the Fablim,x,
generally considered to stem from popular origins, and in the
Lais of Marie de France can support folkloristic disscmination. 11·
16 Stith Thompson, Motif-Inda of Folk Literatun,N1UJEnlarg,dand &oiud

Edition (Indiana U Diversity Press, 1955-58) in six volumes. The classification
containing the motifs of tales in the DisciplinaCleritalisis that of John E. Keller,
Motif-Index of MetlialoalSpanish&empla (UnivcrsityofTcnncacc Press, 1949).
11 The only edition of the Fabuuu, sometimes referred toaa the Narraliones,
of Odo of Cheriton is that of Leopold Hcrvieux in vol. IV, 171-255 of Les

f abulisteslatins (Paris, 1896). Volume IV bean the title Eudu d, Chnilon II
su dlriols ; the moralized talcs of Jacques de Vi try can best be studied in Thomas
F. Crane, TM &nnj,la of Jacqws de Vit,y (London, 1890); for the Seala Co,li
aecthecditionofLubeck, 1476; the collections of annJ,la compiled in the early

28 INTRODUCTION
Adaptations of the tales into vernacular languages appeared:

Prince Don Juan Manuel in the fourteenth century reworked
tales from the Disciplina and inserted them in his El Conde
Lucanor or Libro de Patronio, as did King Sancho of Castile in
his Castigos y DocumenlJos.11 So did Queen Marguerite of
Navarra in her Heptameron and John Gower in his Confessio
Amantis. And the many composers of Italian novelle - Boccac-
cio, Bandello, Massucio, to name only three -, helped to disse-
minate Pedro Alfonso's tales.18 Raconteurs of later times also
continued and still continue to perpetuate stories found in the
Disciplina - Cervantes in Don Quixote, Rabelais, in his two
great works, and in the realm of folklorc some live on to this
day, a few having been collected in areas as far removed from
medieval Spain as Texas and Missouri.19
The Disciplina Clericalis bas been called the first collection
of oriental tales in a western tongue, in this case, of course,
medieval Latin. Though this assertion is not completely true,
it can be said that Pedro Alfonso, in this little anthology of
stories, was the first to give sudden vogue to age-old talcs from
the East and to make these quickly available in Latin, a language
fifteenth century by Archdeacon Clemente Sanchez de Vercial contains most

of the tales of the DisciplinaClericalis. The only edition which includes all
the 500-odd exemplaof Sanchez is that of John Esten Keller, El libro de los
exenplospo, a.b.c. (Madrid, 1961) which presents the text of both the extant
manuscripts; Joseph Bedier, Les fabliaux (Paris, 1925), fourth edition is the
best; sec the editions of K. Warnke, Marie de France, DuLais (Halle, 1925).
17 The best edition still of El CondeLucanoris that of Hermann Knust and
A. Birch-Hirschfeld (Leipzig, 1900) ; Agapito Rey, Castigos, docummlospara
el bienvivir (Indiana University Press, 1952) is the most scholarly and com-
plete text.
18 For a listing of novell, with their motifs sec D. P. Rotunda, Motif-Inda
of the Italian Novella (Indiana Univcnity Press, 1942). Rotunda often lists
sourcea and many of these indicate the Disciplina Clericalisas source material
for the novell,.
11 An article by John E. Keller, "Source of the 'Hard Luck Stories,'" North
CarolinaFolkloreIII, No. 1 {1955) 11-12reveals modern vcnions of a talc from

the DiseiplinaClm&alis.

INTRODUCTION 29
all western scholars could read. His contribution to the corpus

of brief fiction in the West, to Europe's storehouse of plot,
theme and motif, and even to the folklore of the East and the
West, as his stories filtered down from literary strata into oral
tradition, is a contribution of very great importance. Had he
not written the Disciplina Clericalis, the writings of great
authors, both past and even present, would have been poorer.
We feel that a complete translation into modem English is long
overdue.

THE SCHOLAR'S GUIDE
Prologue
On the Fear of God
On Hypocrisy
The Ant, the Cock and the Dog
I The Parable of the Half Friend
II The Parable of the Whole Friend
On Advice
On Buffoons
On Wisdom
On Silence
III The Parable of the Three Poets
IV The Fable of the Mule and the Fox
On True Nobility
The Seven Arts
On Lies
V The Fable of the Man and the Snake
VI The Parable of the Poet and the Hunchback
VII The Parable of the Clergyman who entered the
Drinkers' House
VIII The Parable of the Owl's Voice
On Evil Women
IX The Parable of the Grape Harvester
X The Parable of the Linen Sheet
XI The Parable of the Sword
XII The Parable of the King and His Story Teller
XIII The Parable of the Weeping Bitch
XIV The Parable of the Well
On the Good Woman
XV The Parable of the Ten Chests
XVI The Parable of the Barrels of Oil
XVII The Parable of the Golden Serpent
On the Company of Strangers
XVIII (a) The Parable of the Path
(b) The Parable of the Ford
Original from
Digitized by Go ogle UNIVERSITYOF MICHIGAN
32 THE SCHOLAR'S GUIDE
XIX The Parable of the Two City Dwellers and the

Country Man
XX The Parable of Nedui, the King's Tailor's Apprentice
XXI The Parable of the Two Jesters
Concerning the Generous Man, the Miser, :1nd
the Spendthrift
On Riches
XXII The Fable of the Farmer and the Little Bird
On Believing What You Read
XXIII The Fable of the Oxen Promised to the Wolf by
the Villager, and of the Fox's Judgment
On Receiving and Testing Advice
XXIV The Parable of the Thief and the Moonbeam
On Favors Received
On the Good King and the Bad King
XXV The Parable of Marianus
XXVI The Parable of the Two Brothers and the King's 1
Expenditures
On Familiarity
On Table Manners
XXVII Anecdotes of Maimundus the Slave
On the Instability of Worldly Things
XXVIII The Parable of Socrates (Diogenes) and the King
On the End of Life
XXIX The Parable of the Royal Adviser's Prudent Son
On the World to Come
XXX The Parable of the Thief Who Wanted to Take
Too Many Things
XXXI The Parable of the Shepherd and the Sly Merchant
On Death
XXXII The Parable of the Philosopher Who Passed Through
a Cemetery
The Words of the Dead Man
XXXIII The Parable of Alexander's Golden Tomb
XXXIV The Parable of the Hermit Who Admonished His Soul
The Sayings of Other Hermits
On the Fear of God
Epilogue

PROLOGUE
Petrus Alfunsus, a servant of Jesus Christ and the

author of th.is book, said: I give thanks to God, who is
the first without beginning, the source of all good, the end
without end, the fulfillment of all good, the all-knowing,
who gives man knowledge and reason, who has favored
us with His wisdom, enlightened us with the admirable
clarity of His reason, and enriched us with the manifold
grace of His Holy Spirit. And, because God has deigned
to endow me, although a sinner, with wide learning, and
so that the light entrusted to me may not remain hidden
under a bushel, inspired by the same Spirit, I have been
impelled to compose this book for the benefit of many,
begging Him to give a good end to this beginning of my
little book and to guard me, lest anything be said in it
which may displease His will. Amen. May God, there-
fore, who inspired me to compose this book and trans-
late it into Latin, assist me in this modest work.
As I strove to know thoroughly the causes of the
creation of man, frequently pondering them in my mind,
I discovered that the human wit was intended, by order of
its creator, to occupy itself, while it is in the world, in the
study of holy philosophy, by means of which it acquires
better and greater knowledge of its creator; that man
should strive to live virtuously, guided by continence;
learn to guard himself against the ever-present adversities;
andwalk in the path, in this world, which leads him to
the Kingdom of Heaven. For, if he lives according to the
aforementioned rule of holy discipline, he has fuliilled the

end for which he was created and ought therefore to be

called perfect.
I have also observed that the temperament of man is
delicate; it ·must be instructed by being led, as it were, little
by little, so that it will not become bored. I am mindful
also of its hardness, which must to some extent be soft-
ened and sweetened, so that it may retain what it learns
with greater facility, remembering that, as it is forgetful,
it needs many things to help it remember what it tends to
forget. For this reason I have compiled this small volume,
takmng irt in part from the parables and counse1sof the
philosophers, in part from the parables and counsels of the
Arabs, from tales and poems, and finally, from animal-
and bird-fables. Nevertheless, I have taken pains to see
that my writing may offer the readers and listeners a
stimulus and an occasion to learn, knowing that if I should
write more than is necessary, it might be a burden rather
than an aid. The lmowledgeahle will remember what they
have forgotten by means of the things whkh are con-
tained here.
The title given to the book, taken from the subject it-
self, is THE SCHOLAR'S GUIDE, because it makes the
scholar disciplined. And I have decided to avoid, as far as
I am able, that anything should creep into my treatise whi:h
is contrary to our belief or repugnant to our faith. May
God omnipotent, in whom I trust, help me in this task.
Amen. If anyone examines this work with human and
exterior eyes and finds in it something which human
nature insufficiently guarded against, I advise him to read
it again with sharper eye. And finally, I submit it for
correction to him and to all those perfect in the Catholic
faith. The philosopher believes that, in human writings,
nothing is perfect.

THE SCHOLAR'S GUIDE 35
ON THE FEAR OF GOD
The philosopher Enoch (who in Arabic is called Edric),

said to his son, "Let your concern be the fear of God, and
wealth will come to you without toil."
Another wise man said, "All things fear him who fears
God; he who does not fear God fears all things. He who
fears God loves Hilm; he who loves Him, obeys Him."
An Arabic poet said, "You disobey God; you pretend,
nevertheless, to love Him, which is incredible; for if you
truly loved Him, you would obey Him; for he who loves,
o beys."
ON HYPOCRISY
Socrates said to his pupils, "Try not to be obedient and

disobedient to God in the same matter."
They replied, "Explain your words."
And he answered them: "Avoid hypocrisy, which is
pretending obedience to God in the sight of men and yet
being disobedient in secret."
One of his disciples asked him, "Is there some other
kind of hypocrisy which one should avoid?"
Socrates answered, "There is the man who makes a
show of obeying God in public as well as in private, in
order to be taken for a saint by others and to be more
honored by them. There is another cleverer than this one,
who abandons this kind of hypocrisy in order to cultivate
another greater kind: when he fasts or gives alms and
someone asks whether he has done so, he will answer,
'God knows!' or, 'No,' in order to be held in greater
reverence and so that people wm say that he is not a
hypocrite, since he does not want his good works known

among men. I believe that there are very few who are not
affected by some kind of hypocrisy. See to it that you are
not seduced by it and deprived of the reward of your
good works. To avoid this, do everything with pure
intention, without seeking to acquire glory from your
. "
act1ons.
Another wise man says, "If you lean firmly on Goel,
all things will prosper for you wherever you go."
THE ANT, THE COCK AND THE DOG
Balaam, who is called Lucaman in Arabic, said to his

son, "Son, do not let the ant, who gadiers in the summer-
time in order to have something to live on in winter, be
wiser than you; do not let the cock, who wakes early in
the morning whille you sleep, be more vtigmlant than you;
do not let the cock, who satisfies his ten wives, whereas
you cannot control one, be stronger than you; do not let
the dog, who does not forget his benefactors, though you
forget yours, have a nobler heart than you; do not think
that to have one enemy is a small number or a thousand
friends too many. I will tell you a story:"
I. THE PARABLE OF THE HALF FRIEND
An Arab, on his deathbed, called his son and asked

him, "How many friends have you acquired in your life-
time?"
The son answered, "I believe that I have a hundred
friends."
The father said, "The wise man says, 'Do not praise

your friend until you have tested him.' I was born be-
fore you, and I have scarcely acquired half a friend.
How have you got a hundred? Go now and test them all,
so ,that you may know whether any of them will turn out
to be a whole friend."
The son asked, "How do you advise me to do it?"
The father said, "KiH a calf, cut it in pieces, and put it
in a sack in such a way that the outside of the sack is
bloodstained; and when you go to your friend, say, 'My
good friend, I have killed a man by accident; I beg you to
bury him secretly; no one wOOll suspect you, and thus you
will be able to save me.'"
The son did as his father commanded. The first friend
to whom he went said to him. "Carry the dead man away
on your own back. Since you did wrong, take your
punishment. You will not enter my house."
And when he did this to all his other friends, one by
one, all gave him that same answer. He went back to his
father and told him what he had dbne, and his father
said, "It has happened to you as 1:hewise man said: 'There
are many who are called friends, but in time of necessity
they are few.' And now go to my half friend and see
what he says to you."
The son went to him and told him what he had told
the others. The half friend said, "Come inside! This
secret should be kept from the neighbors."
And then he sent his wife, wiirh al[ his household, away,
and he dug a grave. When the boy saw everything made
ready, he revealed the truth of the matter to the half
friend and thanked him earnestly. Then he recounted to
his father what he had done. ,
The father said to him, "Regarding such a friend, the

philosopher says, 'He who hel~ you when the world

fails you is a true friend.'''
The son asked his father, "Have you ever seen a man
who had a whole friend?"
The father: "I have not seen such a thing, but I have
heard of it."
The son: "Tell me about it, in case I should acquite
such a friend."
II. THE PARABLE OF THE WHOLE FRIEND
The father: Once there were two merchants, one in

Egypt and another in Baldach. They knew each other
only by reputation, and they sent to each other by messen-
ger for the things that they needed. It happened that the
merchant from Baldach had to go to Egypt on business,
and when the Egyptian merchant heard of his arrival, he
ran out to meet him and received him into his house with
great joy and served him in all things, as friends do, for
eight days and entertained him with all sorts of music,
which he maintained in his house.
At the end of the eight days, the merchant from
Baldach fell sick. Themaster of the house, gravely worried
about his friend, admitted all the doctors of Egypt to
examine his guest. The doctruistook his pulse and examined
his urine again and again, but they could recognize no
illness in him. And since they could find no bcxlily sick-
ness in him, they knew that his suffering was due to love.
When the Egyptian merchant learned this, he went to his
friend and asked him if he were in love with some woman
in the household.
The sick man said, "Show me all the women in your

hOUJSe,and if by chance I see her among them, I will

point her out to you." When the Egyptian heard this, he
brought out all the singers and serving women, but none
pleased the friend. Then the Egyptian showed him all his
daughters, but the friend rejected and ignored them com-
pletely, as he had the other women. The master, however,
had in his house a young noblewoman whom he had been
educating for some time, because he was planning to marry
her. And he showed her to his sick friend.
The ,,sick man, seeing her, said, "My death or life depends
on her .
When he heard this, the Egyptian gave the young noble-
woman to his friend for a wife, together with all the
property which he himself would have received with her
and witth aJllthe things which he would have girvento the
young woman if he had married her.
When all these things had been accomplished, when the
friend had married the girl and received all the things
which came with her, and when he had finished his
business, he returned to his own country.
Later, it happened that the Egyptian lost all that he
had, and in great poverty, he decided to go to Baldach,
so that his friend might have pity on him. Therefore
naked and hungry, he made the journey to Baldach and
arrived very late at night. Shame prevented his going to
his friend's house, becaU1Se he was afraid that if he were not
recognized, he might perchance be driven out of the house.
He therefore entered an ancient temple in order to pass the
night there. A.nd while he was there, unhappy and think-
ing many things to himself, near the temple in the city
two men met •and one killed the other and stealthily fled.
Many citizens, hearing the .noise, came running and

found the dead man. Seeking the person who had com-
mitted the murder, they entered the temple, expecting to
find the murderer. There they found the Egyptian, and
when they asked him who had ikH)edthe man, ,they heard
from his own lips, "I killed him." (For he longed desper-
ately to end his poverty at once by death.) They seized
him and took him to jail.
When morning came, he was taken before the judges,
and after he was condemmed to death, he was led away
ito the cross. Many, as usual, had come to see the execution,
and among them was 'cl1eEgyptian's friend, the merchant
on whose account he had come to Baldach. The merchant,
ilbolciingat the condenmed man closely, disc~vered that he
was the friend whom he had left in Egypt. Realiang that if
the Egyptian were to die, he woula not be able to repay
him, the merchant of Baldach determined to die in his
place. He therefore exclaimed in a loud voice:
"Why do you condemn this innocent man? Where are
you taking him? He does not deserve to die. I killed
that man!"
And they seized him and led -him,bound, rto the cross
·and. absolved the other from death.
But the murderer was in the crowd, observing these
things ,and thinking to himself, "I killed that man and a
guiltless man is condemned to death. This innocent man
is sentenced to be punished, and I, a wicked man, enjoy
freedom. What is the cause of this injustice? I do not
know, unless it is God's patience. For God, tthe just judge,
leaves no crime without punishment. I shall reveal myself
as the perpetrator of this crime so that God will not punish
me more severely at some later time. And thus, by freeing

them from dea;th, I shall atone for the sin which I com-
mitted." I
He therefore exposed himself to danger, saying, "I did

it, I did it! Free this innocent man!"
The judges, not a little amazed, bound the one and
released the other. In doubt concerning the sentence, they
brought .the mw-derer an<lthe other ,two who had already
been freed, before the king. When they had told him every-
thing, as it had happened, they caused even him to hesitate
in judgment. On the advice of all, the king pardoned all
three the crimes which they had committed, on the
condition that they tell him the reason for their confessions.
And they told the king the truth.
When all three had been released by common consent,
the citizen of Baldachwho had determined to die for his
friend brought the Egyptian home and with every honor,
according to custom, said to him: "If you agree to stay
here wtiithme, I will share all of .my propetty with you, as
is just. But if you should want to return to your country,
we will divide equally all that I have."
And the Egyptian, who longed for his native land,
accepted part of all the substance which his friend had
1
offered him and then went back to his native land.

When the story had thus been told, the son said to the
father, "Such a friend must be hard indeed to find!"
Another wise man said, concerning friends who have
not been tested, "Guard yourself well from your enemies
but a thousand times more carefully from your friends.
For perhaps some day the friend may become an enemy, and
then he will more easily be able to do you harm."

ON ADVICE
Another sage also said, "Be careful of advice if he from
whom you ask it has not been proven to be faithful to you."
And another sage said, "Give your friend the best
advice you can, even if he refuses to heed you. It is
right that you should give him good counsel even though
he, like a fool, may not follow your advice."
Another one: "Do not reveal your plans to every man.
He who keeps his plans to himse.1£is free to choose the
better course."
Another: "The plan kept secret is, as it were, locked
in your own prison; but once revealed, it holds you bound
. its
1n . ''
. prison.
Another: "Do not associate with your enemies if you
can find other companions. They will criticize what you
do ill and ignore what you do well."
A certain poet said, "One of the greatest misfortunes
in this world iJsfor a free man to he forced by need to go
to his enemy for help."
Someone asked a certain Arab, "What is the worst thing
that has happened to you in this world?" The Arab ans-
wered, "Necessity compelled me to go to my enemy and
,askhim to grant me what I wanted."
ON BUFFOONS
Another wise man said, "Do not associate with buffoons;
their company dishonors you."
Another: "Do not be proud of the praises of the buffoon.
His praise is an insult to you and his insults, praise."
A certain philosopher, going along the street, met an-
other philosopher who was joking with a buffoon, and he

THE SCHOLAR.'S GUIDE 43
said to him, "It is the property of the magnet to attract

similar substances to itself." The second philosopher
answered, "I never associated with him." To which the
one who was passing by replied, "Why then were you
applauding him?" To which the second one answered,
"At times even a decent man is obliged to go to the
. "
Iatnne.
ON WISDOM
Another wise ·man said, "My son, it is difficult to ascend

to high stations and easy to descend from them."
Another philosopher: "'The enmity of a wise man is
better than the friendship of a fool, whrohis not constant."
Another philosopher: "The company of a simpleton
brought up among wise men is better than that of a prudent
man educated among fools."
Another philosopher: "A hard life among wise men is
sweeter to the wise man than an easy life among the
.
ignorant. "
A•nother -philosopher: "There are two kinds of wisdom,
one natural, the other artificial; and one of them cannot
subsist without the other."
Another: "Do not entrust knowledge to fools, for it is
harmful to them; do not deny it to wise men, for you
deprive them ·of what is theirs."
Another: "The gifts of this world are diverse. To some
is given the possession of things, to others, wisdom."
A certain m,an, speaking to his son, said, "Which would
you prefer, riches or wisdom?" And the son answered
him, "Each of these things needs the other." There was a
certain notable poet who was a poor man and .a beggar and
who conciinually complained of his poverty to his friends.

THE SCHOLAR'S GUIDE
He composed some verses on the subject with this import:

"Oh You who distribute the goods, show me why my share
ri5missing. You are not to blame; but teHme: whom shall I
blame? For if my stars are unlucky, it is certainly Your
doing. Between me and my stars, You are lawyer and
judge. You gave me wisdom without wealth. Tell me:
what can talent do without money? Tialceback ,part of the
wisdom, and give me some of the wealth. Do not permit
me to lack for something whose lack will cause me shame!"
A certain philosopher said, "There are three ways that a
man has need of others: when you do good ito someone,
you are to that extent greater than he; if you have no
need of him, you are his equal; if you need him, you will
be his inferior."
Another: "The glory of the mind is wisdom, as the
glory of the body is wealth."
Another: "Wisdom revives dead bodies with its brilliance
as the,, moisture of rain causes the dry Lmd to become
green.
ON SILENCE
A pupil to his teacher: "What must I do .to be counted

among the discrete pupils?"
The teacher: "Keep silent until it is necessary fur you
to speak. For the philosopher ,says 'Silence is a sign of
wisdom and loquacity is a sign of stupidity.'"
Another says, "Do not hurry to answer until you have
heard the end of the question; do not try to settle an issue
raised in a meeting, when you see that there is another
wiser than you present; do not try to answer a question
asked of ianother or seek to win praises in a matter about
which you know nothing. Because the philosopher says, 'He

who seeks to win praise in matters about which he knows

nothing is shown, upon examination, to be a liar.'"
Another: "Acknowledge ,the truth, whether it has been
proposed by you or offered as evidence against you."
Another: "Do not be vain because you have said
something wise, for as the sage says, 'He who is vain
because of his own words of wisdom shows that he is a
fool.' By practicing all these precepts, you wfil be counted
among the wise and prudent pupils."
The wise man says, "Whoever Jinquiresprudently will
discern the .solution prudently."
Another: "Those who are ashamed to seek wisdom from
others will be even niore ashamed when it is sought from
th em. "
Another: "He who is ashamed to endure discipline for a
short time will for all time be ,ashamed of his ignorance."
Another: "Not everyone who is called wise is wise, but
he who learns and retains wisdom."
Another: "He who is deficient in learning will profit
little by his noble blood; nobility needs learning as wisdom
.
ne eds expenence. "
Another: "The nobility of a lineage ends in the man who
does not properly conserve the nobility of his ancestors."
Another: "The nobility which procedes from me is
dearer to my heart than that which procedes from my
ancestors."
III. THE PARABLE OF THE THREE POETS
A certain Arab poet, who was clever and witty, though

1
lowborn, offered his verses to a king. The king, noting

the man's prudence, received him honorably. The other

poets, proud of their noble blood, were jealous of him, and

they went to the king and asked him, "Sire, why do you
thus honor a man of such low birth?"
The king replied, "You have praised the man whom
you intended to insult."
And .the poet who was being insulted added, "The rose
1
is never reviled, though it is born of thorns."

The king honored him, gave him rich presents, and sent
him away.
It happened that a poet of noble lineage, but insuf-
ficiently disciplined, offered his verses to a king. The
king accepted them, but when he saw that they were
badly composed, he scorned them and gave the poet
nothing,,
The poet therefore said to the king, "If you do not
give ime anything for the verses, at least send me some-
thing out of regard for my lineage."
The king: "Who is your father?"
And the poet told him.
The king said: "The seed has degenerated in you."
Jihe poet: "The finest flour often comes from ordinary
wheat."
To which the king replied, "You have proved that you
are less than your father." The king sent him away un-
rewarded.
Another poet, a disorderly fellow, presented his badly
composed verses to the king. His father was lowborn,
but his mother was noble, and she had a brother who was
renowned for his writing and his wit. The king did not
receive him well and asked him whose son he was. The
poet said that he was the nephew of the famous author, at
which the king burst out laughing. His servants asked him

what he was laughing at, and the king said, "I once read
a book containing a fable, which I now see before my
eyes. "
They asked him what it was, and the king isaid:
IV. THE FABLE OF THE MULE AND THE FOX
A fox found a new-born mule in a field .and, surprised,

said to him, "Who are you?"
The mule said that he was ,a creature of God.
The fox asked him, "Have you a father or mother?"
The mule said, "My uncle is a noble horse."
"And just as this mule did not claim the ass as his
father because it is a lazy, ugly animal, so this poet is
ashamed to confess his father, who is obscure because of
his slothfulness."
And he turned to the poet and said, "I want you to
tell me who your father is."
And the poet told him. The king knew that his father
was lowborn and ignorant, and he said to his servants, "Let
us give him something, because he is true to his family
tradition."
ON TRUE NOBILITY
An Arab said to his father, "I am surprised to learn

that in times past, noble, clever, and wise men were
honored; but today, only fools are esteemed."
To which the father replied, "Do not be surprised, my
son; since the clergy honor the clergy, the noble honor
the noble, the clever honor the clever, and, of course, the
foolishhonor the foolish."

The son: "I also observed something else, that the

clergy are not respected for their learning, and because of
this, they become fools and have won great honors.·•
Then the father amwered him, "This is due to the
decadence of the times."
The son then asked, "Tell me, dear father, the true
definition of nobility."
And the father said, "Aristotle, in the letter which he
wrote to King Alexander, who had asked him whom he
should cho~e for an adviser, answered him thus: 'Choose'
he said, 'one who is instructed in 1the seven liberal arts,
learned in the seven principles, and master of the seven
gentlemanly skills.' I consider this true nobility."
The son: "This kind of nobility does not exist in these
times, but I see that the only nobility is the nobility of
gold and silver. As the poet says:
Riches glorify the low-born with nobility; poverty
oppresses the house once exalted for its nobility."
"A poet, speaking for the nobility, •wrote these verses
on the adversities of this age which have befallen the
nobility: 'Tell those who despise us because of the mis-
£ortunes which have befallen us that this age bas done
harm to none but the nobles. Do you not see how the sea
tosses up filth and chaff while precious stones remain on
the 'bottom? Do you not see that there are stars in the
sky whose number we do not know? And yet none of them
suffers eclipse except the sun and the moon.'"
The father added: "Because of the decadence of this
age, men believe that there is glory only in riches."

THE SEVEN ARTS
One of his pupils spoke to a teacher and said to him,

"I would like for you to enumerate the seven arts, seven
principles and seven gentlemanly pursuits in order."
The teacher answered, "I will enumerate them for you.
These are the arts: dialectics, arithmetic, geometry, physics,
music, and astronomy. Concerning the seventh, many
diverse opiniom exist. The philosophers who do not
believe in prognostication say that necromancy is the
seventh; others among them, namely those who believe
in prognostication and in philosophy, think that it should
J>ea science which encompasses all natural matters and
mundane elements. Those who do not devote themselves
to philosophy say that it is gram.mar. These are the
gentlemanly pursuits: riding, swimming, archery, boxing,
fowling, chess, and poetry. The principles are the s-
voidance of gluttony, drunkenness, lust, violence, lying,
avariciousness, and evil conversation."
The pupil said, "I believe that in these times no one
with these qualities exists."
ON LIES
A certain philosopher admonished his son, saying to him,

"Avoid lying, for it is more savory than the flesh of birds."
And another: "Since it is easy to lie, why does it
seem so ·difficult to tell the truth?"
Another philosopher: "If you fear that you will say
something for,, which you will be sorry, it is better to say
no than yes.
Another: "See that the embarassment of irefusing some-
one's request does not force you to lie, for it is more
honorable to refuse a thing than to put it off indefinitely."

50 THE SCHOLAR.'S GUIDE
Another: "These days a shrewd way of saying "no" is to

keep telling the petitioner to come back later."
Another philosopher: "If someone is saved by lies,
how much more surely is he saved by truth. A certain
accused man was led before the king to be judged, and
he was convicted, though he denied the crime of which he
was aroused. The king said to him, 'You will be punished
twice, once for the crime you have committed and the
second time for having denied it.' SiroUarly, another ac-
cused man did not deny what he had done, and those who
attended the king said, 'He will suffer the punishment of
the crime he has committed.' 'Not so,' said the king,
'because the philosopher says, 'It is reasonable to lighten
the punishment of the man who confesses his crime.'' Thus
the man, set at liberty by the king, went away."
Socrates said, "Just as the liar does not belong in the
retinue of a prince, so he wili be excluded from the king-
dom of heaven."
A certain philosopher said to his son, "Call him a liar
who affirms that evil mll.9tbe conquered with evil, for as
fire does not put out fire, so evil does not yield to evil;
in the same way as water puts out fire, any evil is
destroyed by •good."
Another: "Do not return evil for evil, so that you will
not resemble the evil-doer; return good for bad in order
to be better than the wicked man."
Another philosopher: "If you have escaped from danger
do not trust in dishonesty for you may fall into danger
again, because dishonesty will not help you escape again."
An Arab said to his son, "If you see someone over-
whelmed by his evil deeds, do not interfere; for harm
comes to the manwhoreleasesthe trap."

V. THE FABLE OF THE MAN AND THE SNAKE
Going through the forest a man found a snake which

some sheparclshad stretched and tied to some trees, and
he untied it and tried to warm it. When it was warm,
it began to wrap itself around the man who was warming
it, and finally it began to choke him.
And the man said, "What are you doing? Why do you
return evil for good?"
The snake: "I am following my nature."
The man said, "I did you a good turn. Are you going to
repay me with evil?" ·
While they were thus arguing, the fox was called to
judge between them, and they told him everything as it
had happened. The fox said, "I am unable to decide this
case ,,unless I see with my own eyes how it started between
you.
The snake was tied up again as at first.
"Now," said the fox to the snake, "escape if you can.
And you, oh man, do not try to free the snake. Have you
not read
,, that harm will come to the man who releases the
trap.
A wise man said to his son, "If you are ever in trouble,
and you can get out of it easily, do not wait; for while
you are waiting to get out of it more easily, another
greater misfortune will befall you. Do not let happen
to you what happened to the hunchback and the poet."
"How is that?" asked the son.
And the father related:

VI. THE PARABLE OF THE POET AND THE

HUNCHBACK
A poet presented some verses to a king, and the king
praised his talent and ordered him to ask for some gift
in exchange for what he had done. The poet asked the
king to make him gatekeeper of his city for a month and
to let him have one denarius from every hunchback, every
man with the itch, every one-eyed man, every man covered
with impetigo sores, and every man with a hernia. The
king granted it and confirmed it with his seal.
The poet, in his new capacity, sat down at the gate of
the city to do his job. One day a hunchback wrapped in
a cloak, carrying a staff, entered the gate. The poet
stopped him and demanded a denarius of him. The hunch-
back refused. The poet seized him, and when he pulled
the hunchback's hood back he discovered that the hunch-
back was one-eyed. He then demanded two denarii, in-
stead of one, as before.
The hunchback refused to give him the money, and the
poet helld him fast. When the hunchback saw that there
was no help, he tried to flee; but when his cloak was.
pulled farther bade and his head bared, it appeared that
he had the itch. The poet immediately demanded three
denarii of him. When the hunchbaok saw that he could not
defend hims·elf by fleeing or with the help of another, he
began to struggle: and when he e:-q,osed his arms to defend
himself, it bees.me apparent that they were covered with
impetigo sores. The poet demanded four denarii of him and
pulled off his cloak. The hunchback fell to the ground and
displayed a hernia. The poet thereupon e~tracted £ive 1
denarii from him. Thus it happened that the one who

would not willingly give one denarius gave five un-

willingly.
A sage isaid to his son, "·My son, see that you do not go
near the house of wicked men, because passing by leads to
stopping, stopping leads to sitting down, and sitting down
leads to deeds."
VII. THE PARABLE OF THE CLERGYMAN

WHO ENTERED THE DRINKERS' HOUSE
They say that two clergymen left a certain city one

evening ,to amuse themselves, and they came to a place
where drinkers met.
One said to his companion, "Let us go along another
road, because the philosopher says, 'Do not pass by the
house of wicked men.'"
The other said, "Passing by will do no harm, if nothing
else happens."
As they were passing, they heard singing coming fro111
the house, and one of them stopped, attracted by the
sweetness of the singing. His companion urged him to
come away, but he refused. When the companion had
departed, he ·was left alone and, lured by the singing,
he entered the house. Everyone greeted the clergyman,
and he sat down and had a drink with them.
Suddenly, an officer, pursuing a fleeing spy, entered
the house where the drinkers were; when he found the
spy there, the spy and ali the others were captured.
"This house was the headquarters of this spy," said
the officer, "he left from here and returned here; all of
you were accomplices and companions of this man."
They were all led to the gallows, and among them the 1

clergyman, who proclaimed to everyone in a loud voice,

"Whoever keeps company with wicked men is unknowingly
earning the penalty of death."
VIII. THE PARABLE OF THE OWL'S VOICE
The story is told of two students who, after leaving a

certain city, came to a place where they heard the extremely
melodious voice of a woman. The words of her song were
well composed and the song itseH ,sounded musical, very
delightful, and amorous. One of them stopped, charmed
by the song.
His companion said to him, "Let us get away from
here" - and they turned aside- "because sometimes a
man is tricked by a bird's song and is lured •to his death."
Then one of them said, "This voice is certainly sweeter
than ithe one that my master and I heard some time ago."
"What was it like?" asked the other, "and how did
you hear it?"
His companion answered, "It happened that we were
leaving the city and we heard a very h~rsh voice singing
a badly composed song with poorly ordered words. The
one who was singing repeated the same thing continuously,
and although his song was dissonant, he lingered over it as
if it were delightfuJ. Then the master said to me, 'If what
people say is true, that the owl's voice announces the death
of a man, undoubtedly this owl's voice is announcing some-
one's death.' I replied, 'I am amazed that since his singing
is so horrible, this person enjoys it so much.' He answered:
'Do you not remember the famous philosopher who says,
'Man takes pleasure in three things, even though they
may not be .good: in his voice, in his poetry, and in his

son.'" When he had told this about his master and him-
self, the two students went away.
ON EVIL WOMF.N
A certain wise man said to his son, "Follow a scorpion,

a lion, or a dragon, but do not follow a wicked woman."
Another wise man: "Pray to God to free you &om the
wiles of wicked women; be careful not to be deceived.
'Ibey tell of a certain philosopher who, wallcing near the
spot where a fowler had spread nets to catch birds, saw
a common woman making love with the fowler. The
philosopher said to the fowler, 'You who tty to trick
birds, watch out that you are not tumed into a bird and
caught in this woman's bird-lime.'"
A certain disciple said to his master, "I have read in
the books of the philosophers that a man must guard
himself from the wiles of a perverse woman. Solomon
warns of this very thing in Proverbs. If you remember
anything from fables or prover,bs about the nature of such
a woman, I wish that you would i'nstruct me by telling
them to me."
The master answered, "I will gladly do it for you.
But I am afraid that unsophisticated people who read the
poems that I have composed on the wiles of women, for
their correction and for the instruction of you and of
others (when they see for ex.ample, how some women,
without their husbands' knowledge, invite their lovers in,
and embrace them, cover them with kisses, and satisfy
with them the demands of their lascivious natures), may
believe that the wickedness of women reflects on me."
His pupil replied, "Do not be afraid of that, master,
because Solomon - in the book of Proverbs - and many

learned men wrote such things to conect women's depraved

a.tams; and for this they deserve praise and not blame.
Similarly, if you write about women, for our instruction,
you will not· deserve criticism hut a crown. Tell us with-
out delay what we ask." Then the master said:
IX. THE PARABLE OF THE GRAPE HARVESTER
A certain man went to harvest grapes in his vineyard,

and his wife, when she saw this, thinking that he would
be in the vineyard for a long time, sent for her lover, and
prepared a banquet. It happened that the husband stuck
a branch in his eye, and he returned home in a hurry,
blind in the injured eye. When he came to the entrance
of his house, he knocked at the door.
His wife, when she heard him, was very disturbed, and
she hid her lover and ran to open the door for her hus-
band. He came in, depressed and pained because of his
eye and ordered his room and bed to be gotten ready so
that he could lie down. The woman was afmid that
when he entered the room he would see the lover who
was hiding and she said to him, "Why do you want to go
to bed in such a hurry? First tell me what happened to
,,
you.
And he told her all that had happened to him.
She said to him, "My lord, let me protect your good eye
with medication and a magic charm so that what happened
to our injured eye will not happen to our good eye -
for your pain is mine."
And she .applied her mouth to the good eye and bathed
it until her lover had slipped away from the hidi'ngplace
without the husband's knowing it.

The wife then stood up and said to him, "Dear hus-

band, I am sure that what happened to the other eye
will not happen to this eye. Now, if you wish, you can go
to bed." ~
The pupil then said to the teacher, "You have in-
structed me well and I have commended to my thirsting
,and eager mind aH that you have told me about feminine
tricks; I would not exchange what I have learned for all
the riches of the Arabs. But _ifyou please, contiooe, and
tell to uS something we may apply later in public ad-
. . . ''
m1rustrat1on.
"I will do so," replied the teacher.
X. THE PARABLE OF THE LINEN SHEET
It is told that a man setting out on a long journey

entrusted his wife to his mother-in-law. His wife was
in love with another man, and she told her mother. The
mother, indulging her daughter, encouraged the affair
and invited the suitor. She sat down to ea-t with him
and her daughter. While they were eating, the husband
returned and knocked at the door. The wife got up, hid
her suitor and went to open the door for her husband.
As soon as he had entered, he demanded that they
get the bed ready, for he was tired and wanted to rest.
The woman, disturbed, did not know what to do, and
her mother, seeing this, said, "Wait, do not hurry to get
the bed ready until we show your husband the linen
sheet we have made."
Andthe olcl'woman took out a linen sheet and held one
end of it up as high as she could and gave the other end
to the daughter to hold up. Thus, with the outspread

sheet, they distracted the husband until the lover who was
hidden escaped.
Then the woman said to her daughter, "Spread this
sheet that you and I made with our hands on your hus-
band's bed."
And he said to the mother-in-.law, "And you, madam,
know how to make such linen?"
She answered, "My son, I have made many like this."
Whereupon, the pupil said, "What I have heard is
astounding, but I would like for you to in!truct me
further, because the more I learn about their tricks, the
sharper I become at protecting myseH."
The teacher said, "I am going to tell you a third
story on this subject, and cllese examples will be sufficient
for your instruction."
To which the pupil said, "If you please."
XI. THE PARABLE OF THE SWORD
It is told that a certain man, leaving on a jomney,

left his mother-in-law to guard his wife. The wife, how-
ever, was secredy in love with a young man and at once
told her mother about it. The mother approved of the love
affair and invited the young man to dinner. While they
were eating, the husband .returned and knocked at the
door. The wife got up and went to open the door for 1
her husband. The mother-in-law, remaining with her

daughter's lover·, did not know what to do, since there
was no place to hide him. But while her daughter was
opening the door for her husband, the old lady took an
unsheathed sword, gave it to the young man, and ordered
him to stand before the door where the husband would

1
THE SCHOLAR S GUIDE 59
enter and not to answer if the husband said anything to

him. He did as die old woman had ordered.
When the door had been opened and the husband saw
the young man standing there, he stopped and asked,
"Who are you?"
The young man did not answer, and the husband, who
at first was surprised, began to be afraid.
The old lady said in a low voice, "Hush, dear son-in-law,
so no one can hear you!" "What is it, dear lady?" he asked,
even more amazed. The old lady: "My son, three men came
here after this man, and we opened the door and let him
come in with his sword until the men who wanted to kill
him had left. He is afraid that you might be one of them,
and he does not answer you for fright."
The husband replied to her, "You did well to save this
man from death in that way."
And entering the house, he invited his wife's lover to
sit down with him, and, reassuring him with pleasant
conversation, he sent him on his way at night.
The pupil said, "You have told me surprising things
about women, but what amazes me most is thei'l' pre-
sumptuous audaciousness. Nevertheless, if it is not too
,much trouble, I want you to tell me about their tricks.
The more you tell me, the greater the reward you deserve."
To whom the teacher said, "Are these not enough for
you? I have already told you three parables, and you still
insist?"
The pupH !9eplied, "When you say three parables, you
exaggerate the nmnber, for they were short ones. Now tell
me a long story which will fill my ears and will thus
satisfy me."
The teacher answered, "Be careful, so that what happen-

ed between a king and his story-teller does not happen

between us."
"What happened, dear teacher?"
"The following:"
XII. THE PARABLE OF THE KING

AND HIS STORY TELLER
A king had a story teller who usuaHy told him five tales
each night. It happened finally that the king, troubled
with cares, could not sleep, .and he ordered the story-
teller to tell him more tales. The story teller told him
three more, but they were short, and the king asked for
more. The story teller demurred because, as it seemed to
him, he had .already told a good many.
The king replied, "You have already told many, but they
were very short. I want you to tell me a long one, and
then I will let you go to bed."
The story teller agreed and began thus:
A peasant who had a thousand silver coins went to
market and bought two thousand sheep, at six denarii
each. And when he was returning, it happened that the
river was swollen with floodwaters, and he was not able
to cross by the bridge or the ford. Worried, he began look-
ing for a place where he could cross with his sheep. He
finally found a small boat which would only hold two sheep
.and the shepherd at the same time. But driven by necessity,
he put two sheep in the boat and crossed ...
When :the story teller had told this, he fell asleep.
The king woke him up so that he could finish the
story that he had begun, ·and he said, "The river is very
wide, the boat is very small, and the sheep are very

numerous. Let the peasant ferry his sheep across first,

and then I will finish the story."
And thus the story teller silenced the king who was
eager to hear long tales.
"If you force me to invent more than the ones already
told, I shall try to free myself by means of the stratagen1
of the ,talejust told."
Then the pupil said, "It is told in the ancient proverbs
that he who weeps for pay does not feel the same grief
as the man in bodily pain. And ,thestory teller did not
love the king as you love me. He wanted only to amuse
him for a while with his stories, whereas you db not wish
merely to amuse me, your pupil. Therefore I beg you not
to stop the story-telling already begun but, on the contrary,
to reveal women ',s tricks in detail."
XIII. THE PARABLE OF THE WEEPING BITCH
It is related that a nobleman had a very chaste and

beautiful wife. He wanted to go to Rome to pray in the
holy places, and he did not want to leave any other
guardian for his wife but herself, trusting in her chaste
habits and the honor of her uprightness. When the retinue
was ready, he departed and the wife remained, living
chastely and acting prudently in all things.
It happened that she needed something, and she left her
own house and went to a neighboring house. As she came
home after transacting her business, a young man saw her
and fell madly in love with her. He, desiring to be loved
by her for whom he burned so ardently, sent many messa-
ges to her. But she refused his messages and rejected him
completely.

The young man seeing himself utterly scorned, grief-

stricken, fell gravely ill; but nevertheless he would often
go where he had seen his lady leave, hoping to meet her;
but he was not able to effect it at all. Weeping for sorrow,
he met an old wollMlnwearing the habit of a nun, and she
asked the cause of his unhappiness; but the young man
was not very anxious to reveal what was going on in his
mind.
The old woman said to him, "The longer a sick man
delays in -revealing his illness to the doctor, the more he
will suffer from the illness."
Hearing this, he told her what had happened to him and
his secret.
The old lady said to him, "With God's help I'll find
a remedy for what you have told me."
And she left him and returned to her own house. She
forced a little dog which ·she had at home to go without
food for two days. On the third day she gave the hungry
dog bread made with mustard, and as the dog ate the
bread, its eyes began to water with the sharpness of the
mustard. The old woman brought the little dog to the
house of the chaste woman whom the young man loved,
and the woman received her respectfully because of her very
religious appearance. The little bitch was following the
old woman. When the woman saw it weeping, she asked
what was wrong with it and why it was crying.
The old woman said to her, "Dear friend, do not ask
what is wrong, because the sorrow is so great that I can
hardly talk about it."
And the woman begged her even more earnestly to
tell her.
The old woman: "This little dog which you see was

my daughter, who was very chaste and modest and was

loved by a young man; but she was so chaste that she
spurned him and rejected his love. The young man,
pining away, became very ill. For her sin, my wretched
daughter was turned into a little bitch." And so saying,
the old lady burst into tears.
The decent woman said at this, "O dear lady, what
shall I do? I am guilty of a similar crime; for a young
man loves me, but because of my love of chastity I have
disdained him, and he has also fallen ill."
"Dear friend, I advice you to have pity on him as
quickly as possible and do what he asks, so that you
may not be turned into a dog just as my daughter was.
If I had known of the love between my daughter and the
young man, my daughter would never have been trans-
formed."
The chaste woman said to her, "I beg you to give me
good advice, so that I may not be turned into a little
bitch, deprived of my own form."
"Willingly," said the old woman, "for the love of God
and the health of my soul and because I feel sorry for
you, I will seek the young ma11:,and if he can be found, I
will bring him back to you."
"The woman thanked her, and the wily old woman
kept her word and brought back the young m.an, as she
had promised and thus brought them together."
The pupil said to the teacher, "I have never heard
anything so astounding, and I think it was done with
blackmagic."
'Inc teacher: "Have no doubt!"
The pupil: "I think that if any man is wise enough

always to fear being deceived by women's tricks, perhaps

he will he able to guard himself against them."
The teacher: "I know of a certain man who took great
precautions to guard his wife; hut he did not gain any-
thing by it."
The pupil: "Tell me what he did, teacher, so I will
be better able to guard my wife, if I ever marry."
The teacher:
XIV. THE PARABLE OF THE WELL
There was a young m-an who applied all his efforts

and thoughts and time to learning the many wiles of
women; and having done this, he decided to get married.
But first he went to seek advice from the wisest man in
that region, and he asked him how he could guard the
woman he wanted to marry.
When he heard the question, the wise man advised
him to build a house with high stone walls, to put his
wife inside, to give her enough to eat and not too many
clothes, and to build the house with only one door and
one window through which she might look; and the
window should be so high and of such a design that no one
could enter or leave by it. The young man, when he
had heard the advice, did all that the wise m-an instructed
him. When he left his house in the morning, he locked
the door; when he entered, he did the same; and when
he slept, he hid the keys under his pillow. He did this
for a long time.
But one · day, when the young man went to the
market place, his wife went up to the window as she

usually did to watch the people coming and going. While

she was at the window she saw a young man, handsome
of body and countenance, and immediately fell in love with
him. The woman, because she was burning with love
for the young man, as I have said, because she was so
closelyguarded, began to think how and by what ruse she
could talk to d1e young man she loved. Being clever and
deceitful, she decided to steal the keys from her husband
while he slept; and so she did.
And every night, she would give wine to her husband
to get him drunk so that she could safely go to her lover
and do as she wished. The husband, who had learned
from philosophers ,that all the actions of women conceal
some deceit, began to wonder why his wife gave hin1
something to drink every night; and in order to observe
her, he pretended to he drunk. The wife, unaware of this,
got up out of the bed, went to the door, opened it, and
went out to meet her lover.
The husband got up silently in the dark and went to
the door, closed it and locked it, and went up to the
window and stood until he saw his wife coming back in
her nightgown. When she returned and saw the door
closed, she was very disturbed, but she nevertheless
knockedon the door. And he, who could hear and see
her, (as if he did not know anything), asked who it
was. She begged him to forgive her and promised never
to do such a thing again, hut she got nowhere, because
the husband angrily said that he would not let her in but
would tell her parents about her behavior. But she, crying
louder and louder, said that if he did not open the door,
she would throw herself into a well that was near the
house and end her life, and he would have to give account

to her friends and relatives for her death. He, ignoring her
threats, did not let her in.
The clever, deceitful woman picked up a stone and
threw it in the well so that her husband hearing the sound
of the stone falling into the well would think that she had
thrown herself into the well. And when she had done this
she hid herself behind the well.
The husband, innocent and unwary, when he heard
the splash of the stone in the well, thought he had really
heard his wife fall in, and immediately he ran out of the
house and went to the well. The wife, when she saw the
door open, slyly entered the house, looked the door, and
went up to the window.
He seeing himself duped, said, "O deceitful woman,
full of the devil's tricks, let me in and I will forgive you
whatever you have done to me."
Insulting him and swearing, she refused to let him in,
saying, "O wicked deceiver, since every night you sneak
out and leave me so '8S to visit prostitutes, I will declare
your wickedness to your parents." And so she did. And
they believing these things greatly reproached him. And
thus she with her guile caused blame which she deserved
to fall on her husband, who gained little by carefully
guarding his wife. In fact, he lost much by it; because
a series of misfortunes happened to him: in the opinion of
many, he was believed to have deserved what he suffer-
ed; and so, deprived of wealth, stripped of dignities, his
reputation ruined by his wife's slander, he was punished
for adultery.

ON THE GOOD WOMAN
The pupil: "There is no one who can protect him-

self from ,the tricks of woman if he is not protected by
God. Such a story as this is an eloquent exhortation to
me not to get married."
The teacher: "You should not believe that all women
are like that; great chastity and goodne~ are found in
many women. A good woman is an excellent companion,
a faithful guardian, and the joy of the home. Solomon,
at the end of the book of Proverbs, composed twenty-
two verses on,, the praiseworthiness and goodness of a
good woman.
Whereupon the pupil said, "You have restored my
faith, but have you known of a woman who put the
sharpness of her mind to good use?"
The teacher: "I have heard of one."
The pupil: "Tell me about her, because this seems like
something absolutely new."
The teacher:
XV. THE PARABLE OF THE TEN CHESTS
They tell of a man from Spain who went to Mecca.

On the way he came to Egypt, and wanting to enter the
desert and cross it, he decided to leave his money i11
Egypt. He inquired, before making up his mind, whether
there was in that region some reliable man with whom
he could leave his money, and they directed him to an
old man known for his honesty, with whom he left one
thousand talents of his money, and from there he went
on his way.

When he returned, he went back to the old man and

asked him for the money he had left. The latter, full of
wideness, said he had never seen him. The Spaniard
who had been cheated went to ithe •respectable men of the
region and told them how the old man with whom he h1d
left his money had treated him. But the old man's neigh-
bors ·refusedto believe such things of him, and they said
it was not true. The poor man who had lost his money
went every day to the house of the man who had un-
justly kept his money and begged him courteously to
return it. The deceiver insulted him, telling him that if he
said another ,vord about it or came to him again, he
worud suffer the consequences.
When the pilgrim heard these threats from the one
who had deceived him, he became very sad and decided
to go home. As he was leaving, he met an old woman
dressed in the habit of an anchorite. With a staff she
supported her frail limbs, and praising God as she went
elong the street, she was removing stones so that passersby
would not inj.ure their feet. When she saw the man
weeping, she recognized that he was a stranger; moved
by pity, she called him aside into a narrow lane and asked
him what had happened to him. He told her everything,
and the woman, when she had heard his words, said to
him, "Friend, if what you have said is true, I will help
you. "
"How can you help me, sister?" he .asked.
"Bring me a man from your country whose words and
deeds you can trust." _
He found a countryman and brought him to her. She
ordered the friend of the deceived ,man to buy ten chests
painted on the outside with gorgeous colors and bound with

silver bands, with good locks, and to bring them to the

house where she lodged and to fill them with crushed
rock. This he did, and when she saw that aHshe ordered
was ready, she said to him, "Go now and hire ten men
who will accompany your friend and me to rthe house of the
old man who deceived you, carrying the chests in a long
procession, one behind the other. And as soon as the first
one reaches the old man's house and stops, come ask for
your ,money, and I trust in God that it will be returned
,,
to you.
And he did what the old woman told him to do. And
she, with her plan in mind, started out and went with the
deceived man's companion to the house of the dishonest
old man and said, "A man from Spain is staying at the inn
where I live; he wants to go to Mecca, and he is looking
for some honest man with whom to leave the money which
he has in ten chests until he returns. I beg you for my
sake to keq, it in your house. Bec.auseI have heard and
know that you are a ,good and trustworthy man, I do not
want anyone but you to keep cltls money."
While she was talking, the first bearer arrived carrying
a chest, and the others could be seen in the distance
following him. The man who had been cheated did not
forget the old woman's instructions and came after the first
chest had arrived, as he had been ordered. The old man
who had stolen the money, full of ~ckedness and deceit,
when he saw the man whose money he had taken coming
toward him, was afraid that if the pilgrim asked for his
money, the other Spaniard, who was bringing the chests,
would not entrust his wealth to him. And he went to meet
the man he had cheated, saying, "My friend, where have
you been? Why have you been gone so long? Come and

take the money which you gave me to keep for such a

long time. I am tired of keeping it."
And the cheated man took his money, happy and joyous,
expressing his thaob.
The old woman, when she saw that he had his money,
got up and s·aid, "My companion and I will go meet the
men who are bringing the chests and order them to hurry.
You wait here until we return and guard what we have
brought."
And the dishonest old man, in a good humor, put what
he had already received in a safe place, and he waited
- and is still waiting - for their return.
And thus by the old woman's clever trick, the sum of
money was returned to die man.
The pupil: "That was .a wonderful and useful trick, and
I believe that a clever philosopher could hardly invent an
easier way for the man to get his money back."
The teacher: "A philosopher with his natural talent and
trained mind, could have done what the old woman did
with her natural talent, by studying nature's secrets."
The pupil: "I believe it; but if you have something in
the recesses of your heart that the philosophers have said
about this particular subject, tell it to me and I will retain
it in my memory, which is very good, so that I can
someday pass these tidbits on to my schoolmates, who
have beeii brought up on the milk of philosophy."
The teacher: · ·
XVI. THE PARABLE OF THE TEN BARRELS OF OIL
At his death, a man le& his son nothing but a house.

The boy was scarcely able by hard work to provide himself

with what nature demands,and although he was driven by

hunger,he nevertheless refused to sell his house.
This young man hada very rich neighbor who wanted
to buy the house in order to enlarge his own. But tlie
boyrefused to se11,unmoved by pleas or offers of money.
When the rich man discovered this, he wondered how he
might get the house away from the boy by some scheme
or trickery. But the boy avoided him as much as he
could. Finally, the rich man, vexed because he could
neither buy the house nor deceive the boy, went to him
one day and said, "Young man, rent me a small part of
your courtyard, because I want to store ten barrels of oil
underground. It will not inconvenience you and will help
you make your living."
The boy, forced by necessity, agreed and gave the
neighbor the keys to his house. The youth, meanwhile,
as usual, fredy serving free men sought his living.
The rich man took the keys and dug a hole in the
couttyaro where he buried five barrels full of oil and
fiveonly half full of oil. When he had finished, he called
the boy, returned his keys, and said to him, "Young man,
I entrust my oil to you, and put it in your care."
The boy, unsuspecting, thought that all the barrels
were full and agreed to take charge of them. After a
longtime, oil became e•nsive in that country. The rich
man,seeing this, said to the hoy, "My mend, come help
me dig up tlie oil which I placed in your care some time
ago, and I will pay you for your work and for the
storage."
The boy, hearing the request, settled on a price with
the rich man .and agreed that he would help him as much
as he was able. The rich man, with his dishonest plan

in mind, brought men to buy the oil, and when the

buyers arrived, ·they dug and found five barrels full and
five half full.
When they saw these things, the rich man calied the
boy and said, "My friend, it is your fault that I have
lost some oil. You have furthermore dishonestly taken what
I entrusted to you. I want you to give me back what is
. ,,
mine.
This said, he took the boy and led him against his will
before a judge. The judge indicted him, .but the youth did
not know what to say in his defense. He ,asked for a
delay of one day, which the judge permitted because it
was just.
In that city ,there lived a philosopher, who w~ a
virruoUS, religious man and was called "the help of the
needy." When the boy heard of his goodness, he went
to him and asked his advice, saying:
"If aH the things I have heard about you are true,
help me,,, as is your custom: for I have _beenaccused of
. I
acnm.e.
When the philosopher heard this request, he asked
whether they had justly or unjustly accused him. The
youth swore that he was unjustly accused.
The philosopher felt sorry for the boy when he heard
his ,sincere pl~a and said, "I will help you, with God's
aid; but since you have received from the judge a delay
until tomorrow, do not try to delay the judgment, and I
will be there prepared ,to support your honesty and to
prove their falsity." The boy did as the philosopher ordered.
The next morning, the philosopher came before the
judge. When ,the judge saw him, he called him and made
him sit beside him, because he was learnedand wise.

THE SCHOLAR, S GUIDE 73
Next the judge called the plaintiff and the defendant

and ordered them to state their cases; and so they did.
Then, before those present, the judge asked the philos-
opher to consider their cases and to give sentence.
The ·philosopher: "Your honor, have the unclouded
oil in the five full barrels measured to see how much oil
theycontain, and likewise in the five half empty barrels.
Then have the thick oil in the bottom of the five full
barrels measured to see how much sediment they contain,
and likewise in the five half empty barrels. If you find
as muoh sediment in the half empty barrels as in the full
barrels, you will know that the oil was stolen; but if you
find in the half empty barrels the amount of sooiroent that
corresponds to the unclouded oil, as in the full barrels,
you will know that the oil was not stolen."
The judge agreed with this decision when he heard
it, and so it was done. In this way the boy was freed
because of the judgement of the philosopher. When the
trial was over, the youth thanked the philosopher, and the
philosopher said to him, "Have you never heard the wise
man's saying 'Do not buy a house until you meet the
neighbor?'"
The young man answered, "But we owned the house
before he came to live next to us."
The philosopher replied, "Sell your house rather than
live next to a bad neighbor."
The pupil: "Such a judgment is worthy of the philo-
sopher, who by the grace of God and because of his
worthiness was called, 'the help of the wretched.'"
The pupil also said, "Although the things I have
already heard remain in my mind, they make me anxious
to hearmore. "

THE SCHOLAR'S GUIDE
The master said, "I will gladly tell you." And thus he
began:
XVII. THE PARABLE OF THE GOLDEN SERPENT
They tell of a rich man who, as he went to the city,

was carrying a sack with a thousand talents .of gold and
in addition, in the same sack, a golden serpent with
jacinth eyes, and he lost them all at the same time.
A poor man, going along the road, found the sack and
gave it to his wife and _told her how he found it.
The woman, hearing his account, said, "Let us keep
what God has given ,us." The next day, the town cryer
went along the road announcing, "Let him who found the
money return it, and without penalty he will receive
one hundred talents."
When the finder of the money heard this, he said to
his wife, "Let us return the money; we will have one
hundred talents and will have done nothing sinfuJ."
But the wife said, "If God had wanted him to have
the money, he would not have lost ~t. Let us keep what
God has given us."
The finder of the money insisted on returning it and
the woman on keeping it; but whether she liked it or
not, the husband returned the property to the rich man
and asked for the one hundred talents which the cryer
had promised.
The rich JLan, full of wickedness, said, "You know
that another golden serpent is still missing." (He said
this with wicked intention so as not to ,give the poor
man the talents promised.)
The poor man ,said that he had found nothing more;

but the men of the city, favoring the rich man, reviling
the poor man and jealous of his good fortune, dragged
him before a judge. The poor man, weeping, swore that
he had found nothing more. As this story spread through
the city on the lips of the poor and the rich, it finally
reached the king, who was told by his ministers. As
soon as he heard it, he ordered the rich man, the poor
man, and the property to be brought before him. When
they had been brought, the king sent for the philosopher,
called The Help of the Needy and other wise men and
commanded them to hear the words of the plaintiff and
the defendant and to settle the matter.
When the philosopher heard the case, moved by pity,
he called the poor man to him and said to him secretly,
"Tell me, brother, if you have this man's money, because
if you do not, with God's help I will try to free you."
To which the poor man replied, "God knows that I
returned all that I found."
Then the philosopher said to the king, "If you wish to
hear the correct judgment of this matter, I wili tell you."
The king, hearing this, begged him to settle it.
Then the philosopher said to the king, "This rich
man is very good ·and trustworthy and has a great re-
putation for truth; it is not likely that he would ask
for anything that he had not lost. On the other hand,
it seems likely to me that this poor man did not find
more than he returned, for if he were dishonest, he would
not have returned what he did return, but rather he
wouldhave hidden it all."
"Well then, philosopher," said the king, "what judg-
ment do you give?"
"Take the money," he answered, "and give one hundred

76 THE SCHOLAR, S GUIDE
talents to the poor man." Keep what is left until som~-

one comes to claim it; for the owner of the property js
not here. Let this rich man go to the ayer and have him
announce a missing sack with two serpents."
This judgment pleased the king and everyone present.
When the rich man who had lost the sack heard this,
he said, "Oh good king, I tell you that this money is
indeed mine, but because I did not want to give the poor
man what the cryer had promised, I said that I was still
lacking another serpent; have mercy on me, sire, and I
will give the poor man what the cryer promised."
Then the king gave the rich man his money and the
rich man gave the one hundred talents to the poor man;
and thus the philosopher, with his decision and his
intelligence, freed the poor man."
The pupil: "It is evident that this is the genius of
philosophy, and with this example, Solomon's judgment
between the two woman is not surprising."
ON THE COMPANYOF STRANGERS

The philosopher said, "Do not travel with someone
you do not know. If some stranger joins you on the
road and asks you about your destination, say that you
are going further than you intend. If he carries a
lance, walk on his right side; if a sword, walk to the
left."
ON TRAVELINGTHE LONG ROUTE
An Arab admonished his son, telling him, "Always
go by the highways, even if they are longer than the
bypaths." Also: "Take a virgin wife, even though she
may be old." Also: "Always take your goods to the

great cities, even though you think you will sell them
forless."
And the son said, "What you 'have said about the
main roads is true:"
XVIII. THE PARABLE OF THE PATH

One day when my companions and I were going to the
city, since the sun was beginning to set and we were still
far from the city, we saw a path which appeared to lead
to the city much more directly. We met an old man a11d
askedhim about the direction the path took, and he said
that it led more directly to the city than the main high-
way, but that we would nevertheless arrive at the city
faster by the highway than by the path. We thought he
was stupid when we heard this, and we left the highway
and turned off on to the path; but following it right
and left all night long, we got lost and did not arrive ·
at the city. If we had continued along the highway, we
would have entered the walls of the dty.
THE PARABLE OF THE FORD

The father said, "Something similar happened to us
when we were travelling .to the city along the highway.
Before us was a river which we had to cross somehow
before we entered the city, and as we travelled, the high-
way divided and went in two directions; one led to the
city by way of a ford and the other by way of a bridge.
We saw an old man and asked him which of the two roads
led more quickly to the city, and the old man said that the
highway by the ford was shorter by two miles than the
way over the bridge. 'But nevertheless,' he said, 'you
can get to the city more quickly by the bridge.'

Some of us made fun of the old man, as you did of

the old man you met, and set out along the ford road.
But of that group some drowned, others lost their horses
and baggage, others got their clothes wet, others were
lamenting for clothing altogether lost. We - and the old
man- who crossed by the bridge proceded without hind-
rance or inconvenience, and found the others on the bank of
the river, still weeping over their loss.
The old man said to those weeping and dredging the
depths of the river with rakes and seines, 'If you had
crossed by the bridge with us, you would not have had
this difficulty.,
They replied, 'We did it because we did -not want to
delay on the way.,
The old man said, 'Now you are later than ever.'
And thus we left them; and we, happy, entered the city.
Such is the proverb which I have heard: a long road to
paradise is better than a short one to hell."
An Arab advised his son, "If you are traveling with a
companion, love him as yourselrf. Do not try to deceive
anyone, so that you will not be deceived, as happened to
the two city dwellers and the country man."
The son: "Father, tell me so my children may profit by
1·t . ,,
The father:
XIX. THE PARABLE OF THE TWO CITY DWELLERS

AND THE COUNTRY MAN
Once there were two city men and a country -man who
were going to Mecca on a pilgrimage. They ate together
until they came near Mecca, where their provisions gave

out, and they had nothing left but a little flour with
whichthey could make one small loaf.
The city men, seeing this, said to each other, "We have
little bread and our companion eats much; we should
thinkhow we can get his share of the bread and eat it by
ourselves."
They all three agreed to the following plan: that they
wouldmake the loaf and bake it; and while it was cooking,
they would go to sleep, and whoever had the most extra-
ordinary dream should have the bread for himself. The
city dwellers said this as a trick because they thought the
country man was stupid enough to believe such ruses.
They made the loaf, put it on the fire, and then lay down
to sleep.
The country man, aware of the trick, took the half-baked
loaf from the fire while his companions were sleeping, ate
it, and lay down again.
One of the city dwellers, ·as if frightened by a dream,
awoke and called to his companion. The second city
dweller said, "What is the matter?"
And the first said, ''I had a wonderful dream: it seemed
that two angels opened the gates of heaven, took me up,
and led me before God."
His companion said to him, "This dream is wonderful,
hut I dreamt that with two angels leading me and opening
the earth, I was taken to hell."
The peasant heard all this and still pretended to be
asleep; but the deceitful city men, who had already been
deceived, called the country man to wake up. And he,
slyly, as if he were frightened, answered, "Who is calling
me?"
They said, "We, your companions."

And he said, "Have you returned already?"

And they said, "Where did we go, that we should
return?"
And the rustic said, "I dreamed that two angels took
one of you and opened the gates of heaven and took him
be£ore God; then two other angels took the other and
opened the earth and took him to hell. When I saw these
things, I thought that neither of you would ever return,
and I got up and ate the bread."
The father: "So it happened, my son, that those who
wanted to,, deceive their companion were tricked by their
own ruse.
Then the son said, "It happened to them just as it
says in the proverb: He who wanted all, lost alt These
men resemble the dog, whose nature inclines him to take
the food of the other dog. If they had imitated die camel,
they would have imitated a more gentle nature. For the
nature of the camel is such that when many are given feed
at the same time, none of them eats until all eat at the
same time. And if one is so sick that he is unable to eat,
the others will not eat until it is led away. These two
city men, when they decided to behave as animals, should
have copied the nature of the gentlest animal. They
deserved to lose their food."
"But I wish that they had been whipped, as the king's
tailor was beaten through the cleverness of his pupil Nedui;
I heard about it £rom my teacher some time ago."
The father: "Tell me, my boy, what you have heard.
What happened to the pupil? Such a story should be very
amusing!"

The son:
XX. THE PARABLE OF NEDUI,

THE KING'STAILOR'S APPRENTICE
My teacher told me that a king had a tailor who cut

different clothes for him suitable for different seasons, and
the tailor had apprentices who sewed skill£ully whatever
the master tailor cut. Among the apprentices was one
called Nedui, who was better than all his companions in
the art of sewing.
Since a holiday was approaching, the king called his
tailor and ordered him to prepare for him and his family
expensive clothing for the occasion; and so that it could
be done more quickly and without delay, he placed a
eunuch, one of his chamberlains, as supervisor (for that was
his task) over the men who sewed, and asked him to
watch them closely and give them whatever was necessary.
One day the king's servants gave the tailor and his
assistants hot bread and honey, with the other food, and
those who were there began to eat.
The eunuch said to those eating, "Why do you eat when
Nedui is not here and not wait for him?"
The master tailor said, "Because he would not eat
honey even if he were here."
And they ate it all. Then Nedui came and said, "Why
did you eat without me and not keep my share for me?"
The eunuch said to him, "Your master said that even
if you were here you would not eat honey." Nedui said
nothing, but he was thinking how he could get even with
his master. He devised a plan, and later, the master
being absent, in secrecy, he said to the eunuch:

"Sir, my master sometimes has spells of madness and

loses his mind, and he beats and kills those who are near
him without distinction."
The eunuch said to him, "If I knew when he was about
to have a seizure, I would tie him up and whip him so
that he would do nothing rash."
And Nedui said, "When you see him looking all around
and feeling the floor with his hands and getting up from
his seat and picking up the chair on which he is seated,
then you will know that he is mad, and i£ you do not
protect yourself and your servants, he will beat you on
the head with a club."
"God bless you," said the eunuch, "I shall at onre
take precautions for myself and my servants."
The next day Nedui hid his master's shears, and when
the master looked for his shears and did not find them,
he began to feel around the floor with his hands and to
look here -and there and get up off his seat and to move
the chair on which he was seated.
Seeing this, the eunuch immediately called his servants
and ordered them to tie the tailor and beat him fiercely
so that he could not beat the others.
The tailor screamed, "What harm have I done, that
you torment me with this beating?"
But they, beating him more fiercely, said nothing;
and when they were tired of beating him and he of being
beaten they let him loose, half dead. When he came to
after a long time, he asked the eunuch what crime he had
commited, and the eunuch said to him:
"Nedui, your apprentice, told · me that sometimes you
went mad and that you did not stop until you were tied
and beaten; therefore I had you tied and beaten."

The tailor, when he heard this, called Nedui and

said to him, "Friend, when have you ever seen me crazy?"
The apprentice: "When have you ever seen me refuse
to eat honey?"
The eunuch and the others, hearing this, laughed and
judged that each one deserved the punishment he suffered.
To this the father answered: "The tailor deserved
his punishment because if he had kept the precept of
Moses, to love his brother as himself, this would not have
happened to him."
A wise man warned his son: "Be careful not to charge
your companions with any crime either in truth or in
jest, so that what happened to the two jesters at court
may not happen to you."
The son: "Tell me father, I beg of you."
"Very well," said the father:
XXI. THE PARABLE OF THE TWO JESTERS
A certain jester offered his services to the king, and

the king called him and ordered him to sit down and eat
with another jester. Tbe jester who had been there first
began to feel j.ealous of the ·recent arrival because the
the king and all .the courtiers already showed a preference
for him. In order that this situation should not last long,
he decided to humiliate the newcomer so that he would run
away.
While the others ate, the first jester secretely gathered
all the left-over bones and put them in front of his com-
panion, :and when the meal was finished, to the new jester'3
shame, he showed the king the pile of bones and said
bitingly:

84 THE SCHOLAR." S GUIDE
"My lord, my companion has eaten all the meat off

these bones."
And the king looked at him with a severe expression.
But the accusedreplied, "O sire, I have acted according
as my nature - my human nature - required; I ate the
meat and left the bones. My companion has done what
his nature - his canine nature - demanded: he ate the
meat and the bones."
THE GENEROVS MAN, THE MISER, AND THE SPENDTHRIFT
The philosopher said, "Honor him who is beneath you

and give him a share of your goods, just as you want him
who is above you to honor you and give you a portion of
his."
Another: "It is shameful for the rich man to be ava-
ricious, but it is admirable for the man of moderate means
,,
to be generous.
The pupil said, "Tell me the definition of the generous
man, the miser, and the spendthrift."
The father: "He who gives to those to whom he should
give and keeps from those from whom he should keep is
generous. He who denies both those whom he should deny
and those he should not deny, is a miser. He who gives
to those to whom he should and to those to whom he
should not, is a spendthrift."
ON RICHES
Another philosopher said, "Do not associate yourself

with a failing business or be slow to join one that is
prospering.
.
,,

Another: "A little happiness is worth more than a house

full of gold and silver."
Another: "Seek useful things sensibly, not hastily."
Another: "Do not stare enviously at the man who is
richer than you, for you might sin against him; but notice
the man who is poorer than you and then give thanks to
God."
Another: "Do not deny God because you are poor,
or be proud on eccount of wealth."
Another: "He who longs for many things is always
hungryfor greater things."
Another: "If you wish to have enough to satisfy nature
in this life, you should not acquire many things. And if
you desire to satisfy an ambitious spirit, even though you
may gather all the riches contained in the whole earth,
you will bum with the thlrst to possess more."
Another: "Whoever spends his money parsimoniously
will be in possession of it longer."
Another "The root of peace is not to desire another's
possessions, and iltSfruit is tranquiliitty."
Another: "Let him who wishes to abandon the world
keep no part of ~t, because it would be the same as if he
were putting out a fire with straw."
Another: "He who piles up money, works hard and
wastes away guarding it in order not to lose it, at the last,
is grieved when he loses what he had gathered."
The pupil said to the teacher: "Do you approve of
makmngmoney?"
The teacher amwered: "c:ertainly; make money; but
spend it wisely and on good things, and do not hide it in
a vault."

Another: "Do not desireanother's goods, and do not

grieve over lost things, because nothing is recovered by
grief. Hence it is told that:
XXII. THE FABLE OF THE FARMER

AND THE LITTLE BIRD
A man had an orchard where the grass was green

because of the litde brooks; and because of the attractive-
ness of the place, birds gathered there, practicing their
different songs with the modwacions of thei:r voices.
While he was relaxing in his orchard, a little bird,
singing sweetly, lit on a tree. When the farmer saw it
and heard iits song, he trapped it in a net.
The bird said to him, "Why do you go to such trouble
to catch me, and what do you expect to gain by catching
me?"
The man in reply, "I only want to listen to your sing-
.
mg.
,,
"It ,is useless," said the bird, "because I wiH never sing
for pleading or money while you hold me."
"If you do not sing," said the man, "I will eat you."
And the bkd: "How will you eat me? If you boil me.
what will such a little bird be worth? The meat wiU be
tough. And if you roast me, I wiH be e:ven smaller, but
if you let me go, I will do you a great service."
"What can you do for me?" asked the man.
The bird said, "I will show you three kinds of wisdom
that you .will esteem better than the meat of three calves."
The farmer, trusting the bird, freed it.
The bird said to him, "Fi,rst, do not believe everything

you hear; second, you will always have what you are desti-
ned to have; thiird, do not grieve for what you have lost."
And having said this, the little b1rd settled on a tree
and began to smgwith a sweet melcxly,"Blessed be God,
who blinded yom eyes and dulled your wit, for if you had
looked in my stomach you would have found a jacinth
weighing an ounce."
And when he heard thi~, the farmer began to cry and
lament and beat his breast wdrt:hhis .Pahns because he
had put fuiith in the words of the little bird.
And the bird said to him, "Hiave you so soon forgotten
the advice I gave you? 00 I not te11 you not to believe
everything you hear? How can you betieve that an ounce
of jacinth is inside me, when I do not weigh an ounce
altogether? And did I not tell you, you will always
have what is yours? How oan you get a precious stone
out of a bird? Did I not tell you not to grieve. for lost
things?"
When he had said these things and shamed the farmer,
the bird flew into the woods.
ON BELIEVING WHAT YOU READ
A philosopher advised hls son sayilllg to him, "Read

everything you £ind, but do not believe everything you
read."
To this his disciple replied, "I believe that not everything
in books is true. I have read something simila,r to this in
the proverhs of the philosophers: there are many tr.ees, but
not aH g.ive fruit; there are many fruits, but not aH are
edible."
An Arab warned his son, saying to him, "My son do
not give up present possessions for future ones, because

88 THE SCHOLAR.'S GUIDE
you may lose both, as hap_pened to a wolf with two

oxen which a villager had promised him."
XXIII. THE FABLE OF THE OXEN PROMISED TO

THE WOLF BY THE VILLAGER, AND OF
THE FOX'S JUDGEMENT
They tell about a plowman who, because his oxen

would not make a straight furrow, said to them, "Tht!
wolves can eat you!"
A wolf heard him and was delighted. When the sun
was setting and the villager had unhitched his oxen
from the plow, the wolf came to him and said, "Give me
the oxen you promised me."
The :plowman said, "Although I said it, I did not swear
."
to lt.
The wolf argued, "I should have them, because you
promised."
FinaHy they agreed to go to court, and on the way
they met a fox.
The sly fox said to them, "Where are you going?"
And they told him what had happened.
"There is no need to seek another judge," he said,
"because I will give you a fair judgment; but first let
me speak privately with eaoh of you, and if I can bring
an agreement without a law-suitt, the decision will. be
kept secret. If not, however, it will be rendered in
public."
They agreed, and the fox first spoke privately with the
plowman and said to mm;
"Give one hen to me and one
to my wife, and you shall have yow- oxen."
The plowman agreed. Having done this, the fox

spoke with the wolf saying, "Listen, my friend; on

accOWlt of your sutpas"Singmerits, my eloquence - such
as it may be - should work in your behalf. I have
spoken ~th this wllager and be agreed that if you leave
his oxen in peace, he will give you a cheese as large as a
shield."
The wolf agreed to this, and the rfox said to him, "Let
the plowman lead his oxen away. I will take you to the
place where his cheeses are made, and you can choose
whichever one you want."
The wolf, deceived by the clever words of the fox,
let the villager go. The fox led the wolf astray, by
wandering here and there as long as he could, and as
dark night approached, he led him to a deep well and
showed him, as he stood on the edge, the form of the
half-moon shining m the bottom of the well. "This is
the cheese I promised you;" he said, "go down, if you
like, and eat it."
The wolf said: "You go down first, and if you can
not bcing it up alone, call me to help you, and I will
do what you say."
As they talked, they saw a rope hanging into the
well; on each end of the rope was a bucket, and they
hung in such a way that when one was raised, the other
one was lowered. The fox, •as soon as he saw it, as if
following the wolf's instructions, got in one bucket and
went to the bottom.
The wolf, pleased because of this, said, "Why do you
not bring the cheese up to me?"
And the fox answiered, "I cannot because of its size.
Get into the other bucket and come help me, as you
promised."

The wolf got into the other bucket, and since he was
heavy, his bucket went straight to the bottom, while the
other one containing the fox, who was light, rose up.
When the fox reached tbe edge of .the well.,he jumped out
and left the wolf in the well. And thus because the wolf
relinquished what was present for what was to come, he
lost the oxen and the cheese."
ON RECEIVING AND TESTING ADVICE
An Arab warned his son, telling him, "Accept advice

from a man who you know has already tried it, instead
of exposing yourself to danger in testing it."
Another admonished his son saying, "Do not believe
any piece of advice you hear until it has been proven
useful in some situation, so that what happened to the
thief who believed the landlord's advice will not happen
to you. "
The son: "What happened to him, father?"
The father:
XXIV. THE PARABLE OF THE THIEF

AND THE MOONBEAM
A thief went to a rich man's house to rob it. Climbing

to the .roof, he came to the opening from which the
smoke escaped, and he listened to see whether oo.yone
was awake.
The master of the house heard him and said softly to
his wife, "Ask me in a loud voice how I got rich; insist
stubbornly on knowing it."
Then she, in a loud voice, said to him, "My lord,

since you never were a merchant, where did you get

such wealth?"
He answered, "Keep what Goohas given you and do
as you wish with it, but do not ask me how I got so
much money."
And she, as she had been ordered, kept insisting on
knowing, and finaNy, as if he were compelled by his
wife's pleading, the master said, "See that you never
reveal our secret to anyone: I was a thief."
"I am ama7JCd,"she said, "that you were able to get
such wealth by stealing, because we never heard any
complaint or slander against you."
He said, "A teacher of mine taught me a spell which
I would say when I climbed on the roof of the house;
then, when I came to the window, I would take hold of
a moonbeam in my hand and say my charm, Saulem, seven
times, and in that way, I descended without danger. I
would gather up everything valuable that I found in the
house, and then I would return to the moonbeam. When
I had said the same spell seven times, I would climb up
with everything I had taken, and I would take what I
had stolen to my dwelling; with such a trick, I obtained
what I have."
And the wife said, "You did well to tell me this, for
when I have a son, I will teach him this charm so that he
will never be poor."
And the master said, "Let me go to sleep now, for I am
very tired and I want to rest."
And to deceive the thief more, he began to snore as if he
were asleep. The thief was overjoyed when he heard the
magic words, and having said the spell seven times, he took
hold of a moonbeam, put his hands and feet through the

opening and fell i,nto the house. He made a great noise and
began to moan, because he broke a leg and arm in the fall.
The master, as if he did not know anything, said, "Who
are you? What are you doing here?"
"I am the unlucky thief who believed your false words,"
replied the robber.
The son said to the father, "God will bless you f~r
teaching me to avoid deceitful advice."
A philosopher said, "Beware of &eshly-squeezed advice;
wait until it has fermented."
Another: "Do not heed the advice of a man who coun-
sels you to deny a favor someone has done for you; for he
who denies a good deed accuses himself in the eyes of
Him who beholds everything."
Another: "If you .are enjoying prosperity, gua·rd against
sinning, for often the greatest good dwindles away or ts
lost."
ON FAVORS RECEIVED
A pupil said to his teacher, "The philosopher has

warned against failure to acknowledge a good deed, but he
did not distinguish between the £avors of the Creator and
the creature.''
To this the teacher said, "I say that whoever denies a
kind action, denies God, and he who does not obey the
king or the ruler disobeys God."
The pupil: "Tell me how this can be so."
The teacher: "No good deed is done by one creature
for another creature unless it comes from God; and they
who deny a good deed, deny their benefactors and thus
deny God."

ON THE GOOD KING AND THE BAD KING
··Likewise,the king who is a truthful ruler is the Lord's

rod on earth; he who obeys the rod, obeys the Lord; he
who disobeys the rod, disobeys the Lord." Another
philosopher says, "Avoid the king who is fierce as a
lion and as fickle as a boy."
Another: "He who speaks ill of the king will die before
his time."
Another: "God will allow a king who sins in his
person, but is good and kind to his subjects, to rule
longer than a king who is personally just, but evil and
cruel to his subjects."
Aristotle, in his letter to King Alexander, admonished
him, saying this: "It is better to govem your people in
peace, with few soldiers, than to have a numerous army."
Also: "Maintain true justice among men and they will
love you. Do not hurry to repay good or evil to any
man, because thus for a longer time the ~riend will await
you and the enemy will fear you."
XXV. THE PARABLE OF MARIANUS
In his book on prophesies, Plato relates that in Greece

there was an old king who was cruel to his subjects.
A terrible war rose against him &om many sides. To find
out its result, he had wise men come from all his region
and from neighboring ·regions.
When they were gathered he said to them, "See what a
terrible war threatens both me and you! I believe it h~
befallen you on account of my guilt. If you see some-

thing reprehensible in me, tell me and I will hasten to

correct it immediately according to your judgment."
The wise men answered him, "We note nothing criminal
in your person nor do we know what will happen to you
or to us. But approximately three days' journey from here
lives a certain wise man, Marianus by name, who speaks
by the holy Spirit. Send some of your wise men to him,
and he will reveal to you through them what will happen
to you in the course of your whole life."
When matters had been thus discussed, the Icing sent
seven philosophers to Marianus, and when they entered the
city where he lived, they found most of it deserted, and
when they asked for Mari.anus's house, they were told
that he and many of his feNow-citizenshad gone into the
wildem~. The philosophets, hearing this, went in search
of him, and when Marianus saw them, he said, "Com~,
come, ambassadors of a disobedient king! God put
diverse nations in your king's custody, and he has shown
himself to be not a good but a cruel ruler. Nevertheless,
God, who created him and his subjects from the same
material, and not of different stuff, has for a long time
.tolerated his unbridled wickedness and has wamed him
with many rebukes to change his ways. But at last,
because of your king's wickedness and stubborn mind,
God has roused merciless and barbarous people against
him."
When he had said this, the wise man fell silent. The
philosophers and all present were astonished when they
heard this. On the third day, when the philosophers
asked Marianus' permission to return to their country,
the venerable man said to them with prophetic spirit:
"Return, for your lord is dead, and God has already

put there a new king who will be a just ruler and kind
to his subjects."
Having heard such things, three of the seven philo-
sopherswho had come remained with the wise man in the
desert, and four returned to their country; they found
that everything that the sage had predicted was true and
hadhappened.
An Arab said to his son, "Do not tarry in the city of a
king whose expenditures are greater than his income."
XXVI. THE PARABLE OF THE TWO BROTHERS

AND THE KING'S EXPENDITURES
There w.as ·a king who, on the advice of all his nobles,

gave to one of his servants, whom he had known to he
prudent J.n worldly matters, the control of all the kingdom,
to receive all the income of the province, to deal with
legal matters, and to take care of the palace, its servants,
and the treasury. This servant had a brother who was a
rJch merchant and lived in a remote city in another king-.
dom. When the merchant heard of his brother's exalted
position, he decided to go see him, and suitably ac-
companied, he began his trip. He sent a messenger ahead·
to annouce his coming so that he would not m-rivesuddenly
or~y.
And when he was near the city, the brother went
out to meet him with a joyful countenance ood received
himwith great honor. After some days, carefully choosing
the time and place, the servant told the king - among
things which he knew were pleasant to him - that his
brotherhadarrived.
And the king said to him, "If your brother should

like to ·remain in my kingdom with you, I will make him

an administrator of all my goods along with you; and
if he should wish to refuse this position, I will give him
many possessions in this city, and I will renounce the fees
and duties which he should pay me. If by chance he
should wish to return to his home, out of love for his
native Jand, I will give him many changes of raiment and
everything he needs in great quantity."
Having heard these words of the king, the servant
returned to his brother and told him in order all the
things the king had promised.
The merchant said, "If you want me to remain with you,
tell me how much income that kinghas."
And his brother showed him everything.Next the
merchant asked him how much expense the king had,
and his brother showed him that too. Then with his
brother the merchant computed that the expeose was as
great as the income, and he said to his brother:
"Friend, I see that the expenses of the king equal his 1
income; if someone declares war on your king, where will
he get his soldiers and where will he find money?" :,
And the brother said, "We will acquire money by some
other plan." ··
But the merchant replied, "I fear that perhaps my riches ~
rmay be a part of this plan, and therefore, adieu, for I do 1
not wao.t to stay here any longer."
,,~
ON FAMILIARITY j'•
!:t
The philosopher said, "The king is like fire; if you i ·
draw too near to it you will get burned, and if you :~~
move completely away, you will get cold." :~

THE SCHOLAR;S GUIDE 91
An Arab told his father, "If I am to believe the words

of the philosopher, I will never be familiar with the king."
To which the father said, "My son, it is very prudent
to please the king."
The son answered, "Father instruct me how to plea5e
the king with discretion and prudence, if some opportunity
of serving presents itseH."
The father said, "For this type of instruction, many
things are needed which I do not call to mind now; if
they were described in detail to you, perhaps they would
become boring to a small boy like you. But I will tell
you a few things (there are many) which, if you observe
them, will be useful."
The son answered him, "I want to hear many thing~,
and I am all ears; but I am especially anxious to hear the
things you promised to tell me about being a courtier."
The father: "Everyone who wants to serve the king
should see to it that he is able to stand for long periods
when he is in the presence of the king; he is not to sit
until the king commands; not to speak unlessit is necessary;
not to remain in the king's presence if the latter .does not
:>rder him to remain; he is faithfully to keep the king's
!ettets and always to be attentive to hear what the king
says, so that the king does not have to repeat his order
twice; to do whatever he orders; to take care not to lie
to the king; to love the king and be obedient to him;
never to associate with a man whom the king hates.
When he has done all these and many other things, perhaps
then he will obtain some small favor from the king."
The son: "Nothing worse am happen to a man than to
serve the king for a long time and not to acquire any
wealth."

98 THE SCHOLAR;S GUID~
The father: "This has happened to many; and because

of it the philosopher prescribed that no one remain too
long in the service of the king.
"And another philosopher said, 'Whoever serves the king
without fortune, so to speak, is losing this world and the
,,,
nex.t
ON TABLE MANNERS
The son: "Oh father, why have you forgotten to say how
one should eat in the presence of the king?"
The father: "I have not mentioned it because there is no
difference between eating before the king and before
,,
anyone else.
,, "Tell me then how I should eat wherever I
The son:
may be.
The father: "After washing your hands to eat, do not
touch anything except the food until you eat; do not
eat the bread before some other food comes to the table,
so you will not be ca11.ed impatient; do not put such a
large piece in your mouth that the crumbs fall here and
there, so you will not be mlled a glutton; do not swallow
the mouthful until it is we11 chewed in your mouth, so
as not to choke; do not take a drink until your mouth
is empty, so you will not be called a drunkard; do not
speak while you have something in your mouth, lest
something go from your throat to your windpipe and
cause you to choke to death; and if you see a tidbit that
you like on the plate 1n front of your companion, do not
take it, so you will. not be thought ill-bred. Wash your
hands after the meal, because it is hygienic and well-man-
nered; many people's eyes become infected because they
wipe them without having washed their hands after eating."

The son: "If someone invites me to dinner, how shall
I answer him? Should I accept at once or not?"
The father: "Follow the Jewish custom which says,
'If someone offers you an invitation, consider the person
who invites you. If he is an important person, accept im-
mediately. If not, accept the second or third tin1e,
according to who he may be.'"
"They tell that one day, as Abraham stood in his
doorway, he saw three angels in the guise of hum'1!1
beings passing by. He begged them with a modest ex-
pression to enter his house, wash their feet, take some
food, and rest their tired limbs with sleep. They, because
he was an important person, complied with his request
immediately. When however, they met Lot and he begged
them again and again to enter his house, since he was not
a person of authority, they agreed as if compelled."
The young man asked the old man, "What should I do
when I am invited to eat? Should I eat very much or
very little?"
The old man said to him, "Eat very much. For if a
friend invites you, he will rejoice in it, and if an enemy,
he will be sad."
The boy laughed when he heard this; and the old man
asked, "Why are you laughing?"
The boy: "I am reminded of the answer of Maimundus,
the Negro slave: an old man asked him how much he
could eat. He answered, 'Whose food, mine or some one
else's?' The old man: 'Your own.' Maimundus: 'As
little as possible.' The old man: 'Someone else's?' Mai-
mundus: 'As much as possible.'"
The old man said to the boy, "You only remember the
words of the gluttonous, lazy, stupid, talkative, and

trifling man, and whatever is said about a person of this

type is found to an even greater extent in Maimundus."
The boy said, "I like to hear about him because every-
thing about him is funny, and if you remember anything
about him, tell me, and I will consider it a great favor."
A,ndthe old man said:
XXVII. ANECDOTES OF MAIMUNDUS THE SLAVE
His master ordered him to close the door one night.

Maimundus could not get up however because of his
laziness, so he said that it had already been shut.
When it was morning, the master said to him, "Mai•
mundus, open the door."
And the sla'VCanswered, "Master, I knew that you
would want it open today, so I did not close it last night.H
Only then did the master realize that out of laziness,
Maimundus had not closedit.
He said to him, "Get up and do your work, for it is
alreadyday, and the sun is high."
"Master," replied the slave, "If the sun is high,
give me something to eat."
The master: "O womt of slaves, do you want to eat
while it is still dark?"
The slave: "If it is still dark, let me sleep."
On another occasion, one night the master said to him:
"Maimundus, get up and see whether it is raining or not."
But Maimundus calledthe dog, who was lying outside
the door, and when the dog came, he felt its feet and
found them dry and said, "Master it is not raining." ·
Another night the master asked .the slave whether
there was a fire in the house. He called the cat and

touched it to see whether it was warm, and when he

found it was cold, he said, "No master."
The boy: "I have heard of his laziness; now I would
liketo hear about his talkativeness."
The old man: "They say that his master was coming
from the market happy over his gains because he had made
1
a good profit. Maimundus went out to meet his master,

and when his master saw him, he was afraid that the
slave would teH him some bad news, as he usually did,
and said: "Do not tell me any unpleasant news."
The servant said, "I will not teM anything bad, but
our little dog Bispellais dead."
His m~ter asked him, "How did it die?"
The slave: "Our mule got frightened and broke its bridle,
and when it fled, it trampled the dog with its hoofs."
Tihe master: "What was done about the mule?"
"He fell into the wd1and died."
Master: "What frightened the mule?"
The slave: "Your son fell from the balcony and was
killed, and the mule was frightened by it."
The master: "What is his mother doing?"
The slave: "Because of her great grief for her son,
she died."
The master: "Who is guarding the house?"
The slave: "No one, for it hurned to ashes and with
everything in it."
The master: "And how did it catch fire?"
The slave: "The same night the mistress died, the
servant-girl who was sitting with the body forgot about
a candle in the bedroom, and the whole house burned up.!l'
The master: "Where is the servant-girl?"
The slave: "She tried to put out the fire herself and
a beam fell on her head-and she died,"

The master: "How did you escape, since you are so

lazy?"
The slave: "When I saw the girl dead, I fled."
The master, deeply grieved, went to his neighbors,
begging them to let him in someone's house and to allow
him to remain.
Meanwhile, he met a friend of his who, seeing him sad,
asked him why he was so unhappy; and he told him every-
thing his slave had told him.
The friend, to console him, quoted some verses, saying,
"Friend, do not despair, because many times man must
sustain such serious floods of adversities that he desires to
end them with an ignoble death; and then such good
things happen to him that it is wholly pleasant for him to
remember past griefs. But this immense fluctuation of
human affai~s is brought about by the will of the Supreme
Ruler, according to the varying order of merits. These
things are con.firmed by the example of the prophet Job,
whose spirit was not d~troyed by the loss of all his goods.
Perhaps you have heard what the philosopher says, 'Who
in this world, since it is variable, can have anything stable?
Or who can have anything enduring :in this life, since
all things are transitory?'"
ON THE INSTABILITY OF WORLDLY THINGS
The Arab said to his son, '~My son, when something

adverse happens to you by chance, do not become too
depressed or sad, for this is a way of denying God; but
you should always plllise God for adversity as well as for
prosperity. Many bad things befall men which happen t•J
them that they may escape greater evil; and many happen
which end in good. You should therefore, praise God in

all things and trust in Him, as the poet said: 'When you
are sad, do not despair but put all in the hands of God;
take no thought for the morrow, and thus you will forget
the bad, for many misfortunes occur which end well.'"
The philosopher says, "All the good things of this world
are mixed; you do not eat honey without poison."
Another: "Everything in this world is changeable;
whatever good fortune you are destined to have, you will
have, although you are weak; and you will not be able
to avoid bad fortune with all your strength."
Another: "The sluggard is permitted to obtain his desires,
whereas the diligent man is denied what he strives for."
Another: "The world dishonors him who beautifies him-
self, and the earth swallows and devours him who idolizes
himself."
Another: "The glory of the world ends in the twinkling
of an eye, and since it is fragile, it is plainly not
desirable."
XXVIII. THE PARABLE OF SOCRATES(DIOGENES)

AND THE KING
Proverbially it is told that Socrates, avoiding the tumults

of the world ,and desiring the simple life, lived in a forest
and inhabited, instead of a hut, a broken jar, whose bottom
he turned toward the wind and the rain, and the opening
toward the pleasant sun. The king's huntsmen caine upon
him and, seeing him crushing lice, they began to make
sport of him. Since they were blocking out the wa·rmth of
the sun, he said to them, with a placid expression, "Do not
presume to deprive me of something which you do not
. me. "
give

Annoyed with this, they tried to expell him from the

abode he inhabited and to lead him away from the road so
that such a low person might not offend the eyes of their
lord as he passed. Unable to do this, they threatened him,
saying, "Go away, or something unpleasant will happen to
you because of your disrespect, because our king and master
is to pass this way with his servants and nobles."
The philosopher, looking at those who were railing at
him, said to them, "Your lord is not my master but rather
the slave of my slave."
Upon hearing this, and regarding him with a furious ex-
pression, some of them proposed to behead him. The less
wicked decided to spare him until they heard the king's
sentence. While they were arguing in this way, the king
arrived and asked the cause of the argument, and when he
learned from his servants what had happened and what had
been said, desirous to know whether the disgraceful things
lhe had heard were true or false, the king approachedthe
philosopher and asked him what he had said about him.
The philosopher, just as he had to the servants, told
the king himself, that he was the slave of his slave. The
king courteously requested him to explain carefully the
meaning of his words.
The philosopher replied affahly, without losing the
dignity of his expression, "My will is subject to me a.nd
serves me, not I it. You, on the contrary, a,re subject to
your wiH and serve l,t, not it you. You are, therefore, a
slave of what serves me."
The king, then with an expression of mild surprise,
began to say, "It is plain from your words that you are
not afraid of my power at all."
The philosopher, in profound thought, said, "You know

only too well that the ·ambition of mortal things has

dominated you and that you wanted an opportunity to
reign so that your power - as you yourse1£ confess -
might not decline in obscurity. But on account of the
craving £or obtaining glory,' you have acted as if there were
some value in what you are seeking. So consider how
insignificant and vain this glory is. The power of your
past glory, inasmuch as it is now nonexistent, is not to
be feared; but neither is that of your future glory, whose
outcome is doubtful and uncertain. It is plain that the
power of your present glory is so small. that in a moment
as in a wink of an eye it can be wiped out. Therefore,
it is not to be feared on any account."
Having heard the words of the philosopher, the king
said to his companions, "He is .a servant of God. See
that you do him no hamnor dishonor."
ON THE END OF LIFE
The pupil also asked his teacher, "Since worldly things

are so ephemeral, why do we accumulate so many, as i£ they
were lasting?"
The teacher: "Because the end of life is uncertain.
And the philosopher says, 'Work for the world to come as
if you were about to die now, .andfor the present as if
you were going to live forever. For it is better that after
your death your enemies should have what you have
acquired than that you should live in want and require
help from your friends.'"
Another: "The world is like .a journey; so provide
yourself decently with everything, for the course of life
is short."

Another: "The world is like a bridge; cross it, and do

not tarry. "
Another: "The world is like an unstable bridge; the
entrance of which is the mother's womb and the end of
which is death."
The poet says:
"Death is the door which opens before all earthly creature~.
But I seek to know what kind of dwelling is behind it.
It is a house of delights for those who serve God; but
it is different for those who deserve punishment."
The Arab asked his father, "How can I gain the house
of delights and its glory?"
The father answered him, "Put in it for safe-keeping
the best and most precious thing that you have, and you
will find it prepared for you when you arrive there."
The son: How can I send money ,there, when I still do
not know where its entrance is?"
The father answered: "Listen to what the son of an
adviser of the king did after the death of his father."
The son: "Tell me, father."
XXIX. THE PARABLE OF THE ROY AL ADVISER'S

PRUDENT SON
The king had a wise and trusted adviser who, at last,

yielding to the la·ws of nature, left as his heir a small son
who \Vas well-bred and courteous. The adviser willed and
ceded to his son at his death all his possessions, which
were very great, and his piles of riches. When this was
accomplished, the king called the young man into his
presence and advised him not to grieve immoderately at
the death of his father; and he also confirmed all that

the boy's father had given him to administer in his will

and promised him besides to receive him in his father's
place when he had come of age. The young man took leave
of the king and happily retumed to his house.
But the king soon forgot about the young man, who
did not hurry to retum to court. A long period of tin1e
passed, and in the same region where the boy was living,
1
people beganto be in wa·nt to such an extent that they

were in danger of dying of hunger for the laok of food.
When the young man saw this, being kindJy by nature, he
w.assad, ,and with compassion, he emptied his storehouses
and distributed to the poor; he took the wine from his
cellars and the meat he was storing and distributed them
among the needy.
As the need increased, the diminishing supplies were in-
sufficient for the needy. And though the young man had
given all his treasure in exchange for food, he did not
hesitate to help those suffering from hunger and thirst
as long as he could, hut he did not have enough for all.
He did the same with his clothing and jewelry. And
thus a year passed, in the course of which he saved
many who were akeady dying.
1
There was in the same region a certain notary of the

above-mentioned king who was an envious person and ,vho
was jealous of the young man. This notary secretly slandet-
ed the youth and kindled the anger of the king against him
with these words: "Sire, the indulgence of your majesty
toward the son of your councilor (to whom his father left
infinite wealth) appears - I shall not say foolish - too
lax; for now neither you nor he has the money that this
foolish young m:an has squandered needlessly."
The king, moved to anger by such words, sent for the

young man and said to him, ~'You are a foolish son of a

wise man, an incapable son of a capable man, a prodigal son
of a generous man! Why did you waste the carefully-
acquired riches which were entrusted to you for safe-
keeping?"
To this the young man answered with eyes fixed on the
ground - because he was afraid to look at the severe
expression of the prince, whose eyes were flashing with
anger:
"Sire, if I may speak by your leave; I have not, as it
seems to some, been left to your care by my wise father
as if I were a fool. My father amassed a treasure and
after gathering it, he put it where thieves break through
and steal, and he left it to me, from whom you could
take it, or fire bum it, or some bad accident destroy it.
I, however, put it where it will be faithfully preserved for
him and for me."
The king asked him what he had done with it, and the
young man told him what he had done and how he had
acted. When the young man's clevemess was discovered
at last the king first praised him publicly and then repaid
his father's services, and the young man, prospering,
acquired new riches greater than the previous ones. In
this way the son of the royal councilor stored up the most
precious thing he had in the house of delights.
Having beard his father's story, the son said, "T'nis
young man acted wisely and gave an indication of his
future kindness. And he did as the philosopher ordered
his son, saying, 'Son, sell this world for the world ~o
come, and thus you will gain the two.' Which happened
just as he said."

ON THE WORLD TO COME
Another, correcting his son, said, "My son, work for the
world to come before death separates you from your work."
Another, "See that the pleasures of this life do not
deceive you and that, enmeshed in worldly deceptions, you
do not forget death, which will come; in this way, what
happened to the thief who entered the rich man's house will
not happen to you."
The son: "Tell me, father, what happened."
The father:
XXX. THE PARABLE OF THE THIEF

WHO WANTED TO TAKE TOO MANY THINGS
A thief entered a rich man's house and found it full of

diverse riches. Dazzled by it, he tried to choose carefully
the most varied objects among the diversity and the most
valuable things among the precious ones; and leaving what
was worthless, he spent the time in selecting until, when
day arrived, it revealed what he was trying to do. The
guardians of the house, unexpectedly awakened, found the
thief still making his selection, caught him, and after beating
himwith straps and sticks, they threw him in the depths of
a jail.
Finally, when sentence was pronounced on the man, as
if he had already confessed,hearingbitter examples, he
suffered capital punishment. If he had realized that day
would come so soon, he would not have been beaten with
cords or sticks, and (what is worse) he would have taken
care not to be deprived of his head.
Another philosopher: "The riches of this world are as
transitory as the dreams of a sleeping man, who upon

awakening, irremissibly loses whatever he had when he

opens his eyes, as is commonly said:"
XXXI. THE PARABLE OF THE SHEPHERD

AND THE SLY MERCHANT
A shepherd dreamed that he had a thousand sheep ,vhich

a merchant wanted to buy in order to sell them for more
money. In the shepherd's dream, the merchant was willing
to give two solidi for each one. But the shepherd who was
selling asked a denarius, in addition to the two solidi, for
each sheep. While they were arguing over the price, the
dream faded. But the seller, on discovering that it was a
dream, still without opening his eyes, began to shout,
"Give me twenty denarii for each one and you can take
al1there are."
Thus, all of a sudden comes the day (that is, the end of
life) which carries off those who have foMowed the fleeting
pleasures of the world and those who long for new
pleasures, which they hope to retain, and takes away
whatever has been desired.
ON DEATH
The son also: "Can we escape the bonds of death in

some way?"
The father: "By no means, for its bite in incurable, and
not even with the arts of medicine will we be ,able to
escape from its greedy hands."
The son: "What can we do so that it will not be too
painful?"
The father: "Do as the poet says:
Bear with calm mind what you cannot avoid.
Thus dying, which was hard for you, will be easy for you."

XXXII. THE PARABLE OF THE PHILOSOPHER

WHO PASSED THROUGH A CEMETERY
It is told of a certain philosopher that, upon passing

1
through an old cemetery, he saw ,a marble slab placed

over the a6hes of a dead man; on it were inscribed verses
which expressed the words of the buried man to those
who passed, thus:
THE WORDS OF THE DEAD MAN
You who pass close by and do not even say "Farewell,"

stop and retain these my words in your hea·rt:
I am what you will he, I was what you are, a mocker of
bitter death.
While I could, I enjoyed myself in tranquillity.
But then I was taken by sudden death from my friends
and my servants; my household, deprived of its master,
coveredme
with earth and wept over my gmve
and placed on my ashes the last offerings.
The earth then ate away the splendor of my face,
and here lies the great glory of my beauty.
You could not ·tell whether I was ever a man,
if by chance I were uncovered before your eyes.
Therefore pmy God for me with pure soul
that He grant 1meto enjoy eternel peace.
May He reunite aU who pray for me
that they remain with me in the realm of heaven.
Having .read these verses again and again, the philoso-

pher, despising earthly good, becamea hermit.

XXXIII. THE PARABLE OF ALEXANDER'S

GOLDEN TOMB
It is also told of Alexander that his tomb was gold

and that it was placed in a court which was accessible to
everyone. Many philosophers came to see it, one of whom
said, "Alexander treasured gold, now conversely gold
treasures Alexander."
Another: "Yesterday the whole world was not sufficient
for him; tcxlay only a few feet suffice him."
Another: "Yesterday he ruled over the people, today
the people rule over him."
Another: "Yesterday he was able to free many from
death; today he could not avoid its darts."
Another: "Yesterday he led armies; today they lead
him to his grave."
Another: "Yesterday he oppressed the earth; today
he is oppressed by that same earth."
Another: "Yesterday people feared him; today they
scom him."
Another: "Yesterday he had friends and enemies;
today there is no distinction."
It would take too long to recall what each of the
thirty-two philosophers present said about the most
powerful king.
XXXIV. THE PARABLE OF THE HERMIT

WHO ADMONISHED HIS SOUL
Likewise, a philosopher, who was a hermit, admonished

his soul· with these verses: "My soul, know and consider
what you are doing while the power to do it is in your

hand, before you are moved from your place to the house
where justice lives and to the door of the place of judg-
ment where you will read on the scroll all that your hand
did in this world; and angelsfrom heaven on the right
and on the left will reveal ,and announce your intentions
and aH your thoughts. The hour of your judgment before
God will arrive, and on one side of the soales will be
placed aH the good and on the other side all the evil
you have done; and it will be declared in one single
weighing. And all your brothers and friends will not
be able to save you, and because of ,it they will desert
you and will abandon you completely. Therefore redeem
yourself tcxlay, that is, do good continuously; and before
the day of reckoning comes, turn to God and do not say,
'I will return tomorrow, and I will not delay;' because
procrastinating thus, worldly desires will hinder you and
perhaps death will stop you. Remember the days of the
earth and the succession of past years which have all gone
by, and learn your lesson.
Where are the kings? Where are the princes, the rich
men who gathered trea.,ures and were proud because of
their wealth? Now they are as if they had never existed;
now they are dead, as if they had not lived; now they are
like the blossom which dropped from the tree and never
returned. Do not fear, my soul. Do not be greatly afraid.
Do not be afraid of the adversities of the world. Fear
the day of your judg~nt; fear the multitude of your
sins. Remember your Creator, who is your judge and
.
your witness. "

THE SAYINGS OF OTHER HERMITS
A certain hermit asked a certain teacher, "What shall I

do in this world that will precede me into the next?"
The teacher answered, "Do what is good according to
your nature. "
Another hermit proclaimed through the villages, "Do not
forget enduring things for those which will come to an end."
Another cried, "Love your souls as much as your boches,
and you wHlprosper."
Another: "Do not forget Him who will not forget you,
and serve your ruler."
ON THE FEAR OF GOD
Another: "Fear God, because the fear of God is the key

to all good things and admission to the obtaining of glory.
Concerning it, Solomon says in Ecclesiastes, 'Let us hear
the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, andkeephis
commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For
God shall bring every work into judgment, with every
secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.'"
EPILOGUE
Therefore, we humbly pray the immense clemency of

Omnipotent God that, with our good works before us,
after the day of severe judgment, on the right hand of
His Son, we may be worthy to enjoy the etemal rest with
His faithful in the celestial chamber, through our Lord
Jesus Christ, whose is the honor and the glory, with the
Father and the Holy Ghost, world without end, Amen.

INDEX
( The Scholar's Guide is abbreviated SG and Pedro

Alfonso is abbreviated PA)
Abraham: character in section "On Calderon, Pedro, 9.

Table Mannen" in SG, 99. Castigosy documentos,28.
adab: Arabic philosophy of belles lettres, Catalan, 16.
19, 27. Catholic Faith, 21.
Adelard of Bath, 15. Cervantes, 28.
adib: versed in adab, 20. Christendom: PA's repute in, 13.
Alexander: character in section "On Christianity: PA's convenion to, 13.
True Nobility" in SG, 48; epitaph Cleric's Guide: a rendition of title of
on his tomb in Parable XXXIII of Disciplina Clericalis,17.
SG, 112. CondeLucanor, 9, 28.
al-Khwarizmi, 15. ConftssioAmantis, 28.
apostasy: Pedro Alfonso's, 13. Cordova, 15.
Arabic, Aragon, King of, 13. Corpus Christi College: Ms. No. 86, 23.
Aragonese-J ewish convert: PA himself,
25. De Formica- de Gayo- de Can~:section
Aries, 14. in SG, 22.
Aristotle: as character in section "On De Timore Dei: section in SG, 21.
True Nobility" in SG, 48. De Ypocrisi: section in SG, 22.
astronomy: PA teaches it in England, Death Takes a Holiday, 9.
13. Dialogi contra Judaeos: tract written by
PA, 16.
Balaam: called Lucaman in Arabic, 36. Disciplina Clericalis, 16, 17, 19, 20, 21,
Baldach: locale in Parable II of SG, 22, 23, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29.
38, 39, 40, 41. Don Quixote, 28.
Bandello, 28.
Barcelona, U nivenity of, 14. Eclric: Arabic for Enoch, 35.
Barlaam and Josephat, 9, 19. Egypt: locale of Parable II in SG, 38,
Boccaccio, 25, 28. 40; and of Parable XV, 67.
Bodleian Library, 14. Egyptians, 15.
England: PA teaches there, 13.

116 INDEX
English: PA probably used it, 16. Hebrew, 16.

&cyclopedia of Islam, 19. Hebrew faith: PA's apostacy loss to,
Enoch: called E<lric in Arabic, 35. 13.
equatorial regions: PA believed to be Henry I (of England): PA physician
habitable, 14. to, 13.
eunuch: character in Parable XX of Huesca: episcopal see, site of PA's bap-
SG, 83. tism, 13.
exempla, 10. Heptameron, 28.
&nnpla of Jacques de Vitry, 27. Hilka and Soclerhjelm: editors of SG,
&emplum tk CaniculaLacrimante:Parable 23, 24.
XIII in SG, 18. Hindu, 18.
&emplum de Dimidio Amigo: Parable I
in SG, 22. Jewry: PA's repute in, 13.
&emplum de Homine ti Serpmtt: Parable Jews, 15.
22 in Disciplina, 22. Jews and Christians: respected PA, 13.
&emplum de Putto: Parable XIV in SG, Judaism: PA's apostacy from, 13.
18.
&emplum d~ Puteo: Parable XIV in SG, Kali/ah wa-Dimna, 19, 20.
18, 25. Kiss Me Kate, 9.
&emplum de Semita: Parable XVIII in
SG, 2, 6. Labouderie, Abbot: edited a text of SG,
&emplum deVersifu:atore
et Giboso:Parable 23.
VI in SG, 22. Lais of Marie de France, 27.
Exemplum de Vindimiatore:Parable IX in Latin, 16.
SG, 18. Latino-ecclesiastical tradition: of cosmo-
graphy and chronology, 15.
Fabliaux: the great collection of, 2 7. Lethe: tales of SG relegated to, 9.
Faust theme, 9. Libro th los exr:mplospor a.b.c., 24, 27.
Fermin Didot: publisher of SG, 23. Libro d~ Patronio:see Manuel, Juan, 28.
Lift is a Dream, 9.
Gobius, Johannes, 27. Lorraine, 13.
GonzA.lez Palencia, Angel: Spanish Lucaman: Arabic for Balaam, 36.
translation of SG, 26.
Gower, John, 28. Maimundus: character m Parable
Graeco-Roman method of calculating XXVII in SG, 100.
solar eclipses, 14. Malvern: monastery of Walcher, PA's
Great Britain, 16. student, 13, 14.
Greece: locale of Parable 93 in SG, 93. Manuel, Juan, 9, 28.
Marguerite of Navarre, 28.

INDEX 117
Marianus: character in Parable XXV Rabelais, 28.

of SG, 94. Romans, 15.
Marie de France, 27.
Maslama al-Makhriti, 15. Sanchez de Vercial, Clemente, 24, 27.
Massucio, 28. Sancho of Castile, King, 28.
Mecca: goal of pilgrimage in Parables Saulem:magic formula in Parable XXIV
XV and XIX in SG, 67, 78. of SG, 91.
Menendez y Pelayo M., 25. &ala Coeli, 27.
Mcon, M.: collator of SG, 23. Schmidt, Fr. Wilhelm: an editor of
Merchantof Venice, 9. SG, 23.
Middle Ages, 21. Scholar's Guide: reason for this title
Migne: contains edition of DC, 23, 24. of SG, 11, 18.
Millas,JoseM.: Spanish researcher on SenlentiaPetri Ebrei..• of PA, 14
PA, 14, 15. Shakespeare, 9.
Miuouri, 28. Shrew ( ~ Taming of the Shrew), 9.
Moses Sefardi: Hebrew name of PA, 13. Societe des Bibliophiles Fran~, 23.
MosheScfaradi: Hebrew name of PA, 13. Socrates: character in section "On
Motif-Index of Folk Literature, 27 Hypocrisy" in SG, 35; and in section
Motif-Indexof MediaevalSpanishExempla: "On Lies" in SG, 50; and in Parable
contains classification of motifs in SG, XXVIII, 103.
26. Spain, 17, 67.
Spanish, 16.
Nedui: character in Parable XX of SG, Stephen, Archbishop of Huesca, PA's
81. sponsor in baptism, 13.
novelle, 10.
Tale Four of the Seventh Day: in
On Borrowed Time, 9.
Decameron,25.
Oxford, 14, 23.
Texas, 28.
Panchatantra,19. Thompson, Stith, 27.
Paul: Feast day of the Apostle: baptismal Thompson's Index, 27.
date of PA, 13.
Undw, 9.
Pedro Alfonso, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26, 27, 28.
Persian, 20. Vitry, Jacques de, 27.
Peter, Feast day of Apostle: baptismal
day of PA, 13. Walcher, Prior of Malvern: Student of
Petrus Alphonsus: Latin name of PA, 13. PA, 13, 15.
Petrus Anfulsus: variant spelling of PA,
YsopeteHisltlriado,24.
14.
Plato: cited in Parable XV of SG, 93. zodiacalsigns:discoursed upon by PA, 14.


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THE SCHOLAR~S

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A Translation of the Twelfth-Century

THE PONTIFICAL INSTITUTE OF MEDIAEVAL STUDIES

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THE . SCHOLAR'S GUIDE 31

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Perhaps no age beforc our own ever carried literary inter-

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tivcs, whether fables, novelle, exempla, or other types, were and

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new translation of the Disciplina Clencalis, which we have e-

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I. PEDRO ALFONSO, THE MAN AND TI1E SCHOLAR

On June 29, 1106, when he was forty-four years of age, an

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Bodlcian Library at Oxford, 1 one reads that the Prior's teacher

which longitudes are to be calculated, the variation of the hour

traves de Espana," Discursosth la .Academiath Bumas utras th Barcelona,1943, 26.

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systems among various peoples, since for the Egyptians Septem-

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best-knowntreatise, the Dialogi contra ]IIIIMos,• which com-

II. PEDRO ALFONSO AND LITERATIJRE

Literature, the history of brief fiction in Europe, that is, was

impuu iuda«man opinious

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III. THE TITLE OF THE COLLECTION OF TALES

Disciplina Clericalis means, of course, Clerical Discipline or

7 The meaning of clericushas long interested scholars. Leona C. Gabel, "Benefit

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of classical antiquity, to claim for a wide variety of works, even

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books as the Panchatantra, 8 Barlaam and ]osephat, and the

8 The most scholarly edition of this third-century Sanskrit classic is that of

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among the Arabs. Similarities, of course, are to be found in

IO Edition (Leiden-London, 1960) vol. I, 175-76.

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IV. THE FORM AND THE CONTENT

The structure of the Disciplina Clericalis closely resembles that

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philosophers make sententious statements and quote proverbs

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11 Alfons Hilka and Werner Soderhjelm, Petri Alfonsi Disciplina Ckricalis.

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a greater number of sections than did any of the copyists of the

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1a Marcelino Menendez y Pelayo, Orlgenesde la Novela, vol. I (Buenos

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be ingenious in deceiving their spouses. Moreover, the com-

14Angel Gonzalez Palencia, Pedro Alfonso. Disciplina Clericalis (Madrid-

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16 Stith Thompson, Motif-Inda of Folk Literatun,N1UJEnlarg,dand &oiud

of Odo of Cheriton is that of Leopold Hcrvieux in vol. IV, 171-255 of Les

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Adaptations of the tales into vernacular languages appeared:

fifteenth century by Archdeacon Clemente Sanchez de Vercial contains most

CarolinaFolkloreIII, No. 1 {1955) 11-12reveals modern vcnions of a talc from

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