EXCURSUS TO THE PRIEST AND THE LABOURER.
The foregoing story reminds one the device employed by "The Youth who would Futter his Father's Wives," (The Thousand Nights and a Night: Supplemental Nights, vol. 6: Translated by Sir Richard F. Burton.) In the latter case the father sets out on a journey, but, having forgotten his shoes, instructs his son, who is accompanying him for a short way, to return and fetch them. The, youth goes back, informs his father's wives that they are to sleep with him in his parent's absence, and, when they are incredulous, shouts to his father in the distance:
"O my papa, one of them or the two of them?"
The father, referring, of course, to his shoes, shouts back:
"The two! The two!"
The wives are convinced by this remark, as were the virgin daughters of the priest in our story from Kruptadia. We shall reserve further extracts from this Oriental narrative for a subsequent volume of Anthologia Rarissima, the plot and details being inappropriate to our present theme.
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