quod he, "I weep because thou wast not hanged when that
thy brother was hanged."

* * * * *

Many of the Muslim jests, like some our of own, are at the expense of
poor preachers. Thus: there was in Baghdad a preacher whom no one
attended after hearing him but once. One Friday when he came down from
the pulpit he discovered that the only one who remained in the mosque
was the muezzin--all his hearers had left him to finish his discourse
as, and when, he pleased--and, still worse, his slippers had also
disappeared. Accusing the muezzin of having stolen them, "I am rightly
served by your suspicion," retorted he, "for being the only one that
remained to hear you."--In Gladwin's _Persian Moonshee_ we read that
whenever a certain learned man preached in the mosque, one of the
congregation wept constantly, and the preacher, observing this,
concluded that his words made a great impression on the man's heart. One
day some of the people said to the man: "That learned man makes no
impression on our minds;--what kind of a heart have you, to be thus
always in tears?" He answered: "I do not weep at his discourse, O
Muslims. But I had a goat of which I was very fond, and when he grew old
he died. Now, whenever the learned man speaks and wags his beard I am
reminded of my goat, for he had just such a voice and beard."[28] But
they are not always represented as mere dullards; for example: A miserly
old fellow once sent a Muslim preacher a gold ring without a stone,
requesting him to put up a prayer for him from the pulpit. The holy man
prayed that he should have in Paradise a golden palace without a roof.
When he descended from the pulpit, the man went to him, and, taking him
by the hand, said: "O preacher, what manner of prayer is that thou hast
made for me?" "If thy ring had had a stone," replied the preacher, "thy
palace should also have had a roof."

[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), u