en they heard: "It appears, it sets!" they feared
that the officers of justice were coming, so they ran away and left the
meat. When Giufa saw the thieves running away, he went to see what it
was and found the calf skinned. He took his knife and cut off flesh
enough to fill his sack and went home. When he arrived there his mother
asked him why he came so late. He said it was because he was bringing
some meat which she was to sell the next day, and the money was to be
kept for him. The next day his mother sent him into the country and sold
the meat.

In the evening Giufa returned and asked his mother: "Did you sell the
meat?" "Yes, I sold it to the flies on credit." "When will they give you
the money?" "When they get it." A week passed and the flies brought no
money, so Giufa went to the judge and said to him: "Sir, I want justice.
I sold the flies meat on credit and they have not come to pay me." The
judge said: "I pronounce this sentence on them: wherever you see them
you may kill them." Just then a fly lighted on the judge's nose, and
Giufa dealt it such a blow that he broke the judge's head.

* * * * *

The anecdote of the fly in the latter part of the story is found
independently in a version from Palermo. "The flies plagued Giufa and
stung him. He went to the judge and complained of them. The judge
laughed and said: 'Wherever you see a fly you can strike it.' While the
judge was speaking a fly rested on his face and Giufa dealt it such a
blow that he broke the judge's nose."

This story, which, as we shall see, has variants in different parts of
Italy, is of Oriental origin and is found in the _Pantschatantra_. A
king asked his pet monkey to watch over him while he slept. A bee
settled on the king's head; the monkey could not drive it away, so he
took the king's sword and killed the bee--and the king, too. A similar
parable is put into the mouth of Buddha. A bald carpenter was attacked
by a mosquito. He called his son to drive it away; the son took the axe,
aimed a blow at the insect, but split his father's head in two, in
killing the mosquito. In the _Anvar-i-Suhaili_, the Persian translation
of the _Pantschatantra_, it is a tame bear who keeps the flies from the
sleeping gardener by throwing a stone at his head.[13]

The only popular European versions of this story, as far as we know, are
found in Italy. Besides those from Sicily, there are versions from
Florence, Leghorn, and