Page:Folk-lore of the Holy Land.djvu/270

246 FOLK-LORE OF THE HOLY LAND you; but they have sent me to tell you why you need their forgiveness. It is not for our burdens nor for the blows we daily receive at your servants’ hands. Those are from Allah, and belong to our lot in life. But, after loading us heavily and stringing us together by the score like beads on a rosary, to oblige us to follow the lead of a wretched little donkey—this it is we find insufferable.”

IX ABOUT WOMAN A CERTAIN man was living with his wife and her bed-ridden mother in a two-storeyed house when the house caught fire. The man, having thrown all the furniture of the upper storey out of the windows, was looking round for anything else worth saving. He espied his wife’s mother. Seizing her in his arms, he carried her to a window and threw her down into the street. Then, rolling up her bed with care, he carried it downstairs. When he emerged, his neighbours asked him what he was hugging so tenderly. “ My mother-in-law’s bed,” he replied. ‘“‘ And where is your mother-in-law ? ” “Oh,” said the bewildered man, “I dropped her from the window” It was agreed that he had done wisely.

There is nothing craftier and more to be feared than an old woman. A person of this description,