" The man jumped down, and his ankle was
dislocated, and for a whole year he was bedridden, and his ankle came
not back to its place. Next year the man again went on the roof of his
house and repaired it. Then he called to his wife, "Ho! wife, how shall
I come down?" The woman said, "Jump not; thine ankle has not yet come to
its place--come down gently." The man replied, "The other time, for that
I followed thy words, and not those of the Apostle [i.e., Muhammed], was
my ankle dislocated, and it is not yet come to its place; now shall I
follow the words of the Apostle, and do the contrary of what thou sayest
[Kuran, iii, 29.]" And he jumped down, and straightway his ankle came to
its place.
[25] "Bear in mind," says Thorkel to Bork, in the Icelandic
saga of Gisli the Outlaw, "bear in mind that a woman's
counsel is always unlucky."--On the other hand, quoth
Panurge, "Truly I have found a great deal of good in the
counsel of women, chiefly in that of the old wives among
them."
* * * * *
In the Turkish collection of jests ascribed to Khoja Nasru 'd-Din
Efendi[26] is the following, which has been reproduced amongst ourselves
within comparatively recent years, and credited to an Irish priest:
One day the Khoja went into the pulpit of a mosque to preach to the
people.
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