The prince puts the bark in the river, and makes
the ants pass over--one, two, three; and they are still
doing it. Here the story-teller pauses and says: "We
will finish the story when the ants have finished
crossing the river."--Crane's _Italian Popular Tales_,
p. 156.
A story bearing some resemblance to this is related of a khalif who was
wont to cheat poets of their expected reward when they recited their
compositions to him, until he was at length outwitted by the famous
Arabian poet Al-Asma'i: It is said that a khalif, who was very
penurious, contrived by a trick to send from his presence without any
reward those poets who came and recited their compositions to him. He
had himself the faculty of retaining in his memory a poem after hearing
it only once; he had a mamluk (white slave) who could repeat one that he
had heard twice; and a slave-girl who could repeat one that she had
heard thrice. Whenever a poet came to compliment him with a panegyrical
poem, the king used to promise him that if he found his verses to be of
his own composition he would give him a sum of money equal in weight to
what they were written on. The poet, consenting, would recite his ode,
and the king would say: "It is not new, for I have known it some years";
and he would repeat it as he had heard it; after which he would add:
"And this mamluk also retains it in his memory," and order the mamluk to
repeat it, which, having heard it twice, from the poet and the king, he
would do.
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