"
[28] What may be an older form of this jest is found in the
_Katha Manjari_, a Canarese collection, where a wretched
singer dwelling next door to a poor woman causes her to
weep and wail bitterly whenever he begins to sing, and
on his asking her why she wept, she explains that his
"golden voice" recalled to her mind her donkey that died
a month ago.--The story had found its way to our own
country more than three centuries since. In _Mery Tales
and Quicke Answeres_ (1535), under the title "Of the
Friar that brayde in his Sermon," the preacher reminds a
"poure wydowe" of her ass--all that her husband had left
her--which had been devoured by wolves, for so the ass
was wont to bray day and night.
_Apropos_ of misers, our English facetiae books furnish many examples of
their ingenuity in excusing themselves from granting favours asked of
them by their acquaintances; and, human nature being much the same
everywhere, the misers in the East are represented as being equally
adroit, as well as witty, in parrying such objectionable requests. A
Persian who had a very miserly friend went to him one day, and said: "I
am going on a journey; give me your ring, which I will constantly wear,
and whenever I look on it, I shall remember you.
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