Page:Folk-lore of the Holy Land.djvu/167

The trial took place next day, when, at a signal from the Christian wazìr, a beautiful cat came on its hind legs into the Imperial presence, bearing a small, gold tray of refreshments. But the Jew had got a mouse in a little box up his sleeve and, just as the cat was offering the tray to the sultan, he released that mouse. The cat, at once becoming conscious of the presence of its natural prey, hesitated for a moment, then let go the tray, and dashed off in pursuit.

The Jew then asked that a well-educated gipsy from the Sultan’s harìm might be called into the presence. The girl was brought, and he put a question to her: “Suppose that, after midnight but before daybreak, you awoke from sleep, how would you be able to tell when the dawn drew near?” She said, “I should listen for a donkey’s braying, because at the approach of dawn they bray like this”; and she gave an imitation of the sound.

“Your Majesty will please observe,” said the Jew, when she was gone, “that she answered from her ancestry and not her education. Now let us ask some girl of good descent, but poor and uneducated, the same question.” A girl answering these requirements was brought into the presence. She had but newly joined the harìm, and her manner was of graceful shyness. When the Sultan asked how she would perceive the approach of dawn, she faltered: “May it please your Majesty, my mother has told me that the light of a diamond grows dull when dawn approaches.” The sultan and all present