At this the king felt ashamed, and, seeing it was
impossible to outwit the man, he dismissed him with a handsome present.
[36] Pedro Alfonso (the Spanish form of his adopted name) was
originally a Jewish Rabbi, and was born in 1062, at
Huesca, in the kingdom of Arragon. He was reputed a man
of very great learning, and on his being baptised (at
the age of 44) was appointed by Alfonso XV, king of
Castile and Leon, physician to the royal household. His
work, above referred to, is written in Latin, and has
been translated into French, but not as yet into
English. An outline of the tales, by Douce, will be
found prefixed to Ellis' _Early English Metrical
Romances_.
[37] This is also the subject of one of the _Fabliaux_.--In
a form similar to the story in Alfonsus it is current
among the Milanese, and a Sicilian version is as
follows: Once upon a time there was a prince who studied
and racked his brains so much that he learned magic and
the art of finding hidden treasures. One day he
discovered a treasure in Daisisa. "O," he says, "now I
am going to get it out." But to get it out it was
necessary that ten million million of ants should cross
the river one by one in a bark made of the half-shell of
a nut.
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