which a man tests the fidelity of his friend by pretending to be a murderer. The sources of Alfonsi are, in every case, Oriental, yet the same anecdote is told by Polyænus, a writer of the second century, as occurring to Alcibiades. While, however, the central idea of this story is the same as that of the Barlaam, its details are different, and so, according to M. Bédier's principle, we cannot count them as connected by transmission. But in a Jewish work, Pirke R. Eleazar, c. xliii., the parable occurs in nearly the same form as the Barlaam.[1] The opening words of the story are sufficient to indicate this: "Man has, during life, three friends. These are—his children, his money, and his good works." It is generally thought that this work was composed in the sixth century A.D., just before the Barlaam commenced its long travels from Persia. And if so, it might be thought possible that the Jewish form of the Legend was the original one, especially as its moral is pointed by appropriate Biblical verses. Yet in the Barlaam it occurs in the Arabic,
- ↑ There seem to be a reference to this in the sixth or supplementary chapter of the Pirke Aboth. But this chapter is, according to Dr. Taylor, its latest and best editor, quite a recent addendum.
