Belgrade took the Cogia along with them into the
bath. They had secretly brought in their pouches a number of eggs. One
and all going into the bathing-house, took off their clothes and went in,
and then, sitting down on the bench, they all said to one another, 'Come,
let us lay eggs: whosoever does not lay an egg shall pay the expenses of
the bath'; after which they began to make a great noise, cackling like
hens, and flinging the eggs which they had brought on the stone bench.
Cogia Efendi, seeing what they were about, suddenly began to make a great
noise and crow like a cock. 'What are you about, Cogia Efendi?' said the
boys. 'Why,' said he, 'is not a cock necessary where there are so many
hens?'
One day the Cogia, putting on black clothes, went out. The people,
looking at him, said, 'Cogia Efendi, for whose death are you in
mourning?' The Cogia answered, 'My son's father is dead, and I wear
mourning for him.'
One day Cogia, returning from the harvest field, felt very thirsty.
Looking around, he saw that they watered a tree by means of a pipe from a
fountain. The Cogia exclaimed, 'I must drink,' and pulled at the spout,
and as he did so the water, spouting forth with violence, wetted the
mouth and head of the Cogia, who, in a great rage, said, 'They watered
this wretched tree in order that one fool might wet another.'
One day the Cogia, taking some water melons with him, went to the
mountain in order to cut wood. Feeling thirsty, he cut one of the
melons, and, putting it to his mouth, cast it away, saying that it was
tasteless. He then cut up another, and, to be short, he cut them all up,
and, having eaten a little of each, made water over what remained. He
then fell to work at cutting wood. After some time the Cogia again
became thirsty, and finding no water, he went to the bits of the melons
which he had cut up, and saying, 'This is sprinkled, and this is
sprinkled,' ate them all.
Cogia Nasr Eddin Efendi had a lamb which he had fattened to a high
degree. One day some of his friends having assembled, said, 'Let us get
the lamb from the Cogia and feast upon it.' So coming to the Cogia as
quick as possible, they said, 'O Cogia, to-morrow is the Day of Judgment;
what would you do with this lamb? Come, take it, and let us eat it.' The
Cogia, however, would not believe them. Coming again, however, they said
the same thing, and the Cogia, at last believing their words were true,
slaughtered the lamb
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