ag in, and
returned home. On their way back, they happened to look up on the
mountain, and exclaimed: "See there! is that not Uncle Capriano?" "Yes,
it is." "How can that be; did we not throw him into the sea, and is he
there now?" Then they went to him and said: "How is this, Uncle
Capriano, didn't we throw you in the sea?" "Oh! you threw me in near the
shore, and I found these sheep and oxen; if you had thrown me in farther
out, I would have found many more." Then they asked Uncle Capriano to
throw them all in, and they went to the sea, and he began to throw them
in, and each said: "Quick, Uncle Capriano, throw me in quickly before my
comrades get them all!" After he had thrown them all in, Uncle Capriano
took the horses and sheep and oxen, and went home and built palaces, and
became very rich, and married his daughter, and gave a splendid
banquet.[22]

* * * * *

A very interesting class of stories is found in Pitre (Nos. 246-270)
illustrating proverbial sayings. The first, on the text "The longer one
lives, the more one learns," relates that a child came to an old man and
asked for some coals to light a fire with. The old man said he would
willingly give them, but the child had nothing to carry them in. The
child, however, filled his palm with ashes, put a coal on them, and went
away. The old man gave his head a slap, and exclaimed: "With all my
years and experience, I did not know this thing. 'The longer one lives,
the more one learns.'" And from that time these words have remained for
a proverb.

Another (No. 252) recalls one of Giufa's pranks. A husband, to test his
wife and friend, who is a bailiff, throws a goat's head into the well,
and tells the wife that he has killed a person and cut off the head to
prevent the body from being recognized. The wife promises secrecy, but
soon tells the story to her friend, who denounces the supposed murderer
to the judge. The house is entered by an arbor, from which they climb
into a window, and the husband is arrested and taken to the well, which
a bailiff descends, and finds the goat's head. The husband explains his
trick, which gave rise to the saying: "Do not confide a secret to a
woman; do not make a bailiff your friend, and do not rent a house with
an arbor."[23]

Another shows how the stories of classic times survive among the people.
Nero, a wicked king, goes about in disguise to hear what the people say
of him. One day he meets an