you?" "We do know," exclaimed they all with one voice.
"Then," said he, "what is the use of my addressing you, since you
already know?" The third day he once more went into the pulpit, and
asked the same question. The people, having consulted together as to the
answer they should make, said: "O Khoja, some of us know, and some of us
do not know." "If that be the case, let those who know tell those who do
not know," said the Khoja, coming down. A poor Arab preacher was once,
however, not quite so successful. Having "given out," as we say, for his
text, these words, from the Kuran, "I have called Noah," and being
unable to collect his thoughts, he repeated, over and over again, "I
have called Noah," and finally came to a dead stop; when one of those
present shouted, "If Noah will not come, call some one else." Akin to
this is our English jest of the deacon of a dissenting chapel in
Yorkshire, who undertook, in the vanity of his heart, to preach on the
Sunday, in place of the pastor, who was ill, or from home. He conducted
the devotional exercises fairly well, but when he came to deliver his
sermon, on the text, "I am the Light of the world," he had forgot what
he intended to say, and continued to repeat these words, until an old
man called out, "If thou be the light o' the world, I think thou needs
snuffin' badly."

[26] The Khoja was contemporary with the renowned conqueror
of nations, Timur, or Timurleng, or, as the name is
usually written in this country, Tamarlane, though there
does not appear to be any authority that he was the
official jester at the court of that monarch, as some
writers have asserted. The pleasantries ascribed to the
Khoja--the title now generally signifies Teacher, or
School-master, but formerly it was somewhat equivalent
to our "Mr," or, more familiarly, "Goodman"--have been
completely translated into French. Of course, a large
proportion of the jests have been taken from Arabian and
Persian collections, though some are doubtless genuine;
and they represent the Khoja as a curious compound of
shrewdness and simplicity. A number of the foolish
sayings and doings fathered on him are given in my _Book
of Noodles_, 1888.

To return to the Turkish jest-book. One day the Khoja borrowed a
cauldron from a brazier, and returned it with a little saucepan inside.
The owner, seeing th