Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 7, 1896.djvu/180

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154
Folklore Firstfruits from Lesbos.

betrayed him, and told the answer. So he said to his wife: "Here, this man is your husband, not I. Keep him I will stay here no longer." And off he went.

On the way he met an old woman sitting by the roadside. "Good day, mother," says he. "Good-day to ye, my son," says the woman, "and where are you going?" "I don't know," he says, and told her what had happened. So she says, "I'll give you another riddle to ask them. Say, Does the sun rise in the east or in the west? They will all say in the east, then I'll make it rise in the west." So he returned and asked his riddle to all the people: "Does the sun rise in the east or in the west?" "In the east, of course," they said. "No," says he. "All right, we'll see to-morrow morning." Morning came; all the people stood gazing towards the east, and watching for the sun; no sun came. They saw the sky grow light, they felt their backs hot; after an hour or two, somebody thought of turning round; lo and behold! there was the sun blazing away in the west, as the old woman had said. The man went back to his wife, and they lived happily ever after.


(2.) The Three Thieves.

Once there was a good man whose fortune was in the sun.[1] He went out on the hill, and saw three thieves who had killed a goat. They told him to cook it. Well, as they say, "a thief among thieves, and a liar among liars;"[2] so he nodded without speaking, and did as he was bid. They asked him his name, and he said Ἀπατός—"Mr. Self." When he had cooked the goat, he beat the three thieves soundly with the spit, and they ran off

  1. ἡ τύχη του ἦτο ’ς τὸν ἥλιον, i.e. he had no means of subsistence.
  2. κλέφτης μὲ τοὺς κλέφταις, καὶ ψεύτης μὲ τοὺς ψεύταις, i.e. do at Rome as the Romans do.