Apropos of misers, our English facetiae books furnish many examples of their ingenuity in excusing themselves from granting favours asked of them by their acquaintances; and, human nature being much the same everywhere, the misers in the East are represented as being equally adroit, as well as witty, in parrying such objectionable requests.  A Persian who had a very miserly friend went to him one day, and said:  “I am going on a journey; give me your ring, which I will constantly wear, and whenever I look on it, I shall remember you.”  The other answered:  “If you wish to remember me, whenever you see your finger without my ring upon it, always think of me, that I did not give you my ring.”  And quite as good is the story of the dervish who said to the miser that he wanted something of him; to which he replied:  “If you will consent to a request of mine, I will consent to whatever else you may require”; and when the dervish desired to know what it was, he said:  “Never ask me for anything and whatever else you say I will perform.”

II

THE TWO DEAF MEN AND THE TRAVELLER—­THE DEAF PERSIAN AND THE
HORSEMAN—­LAZY SERVANTS—­CHINESE HUMOUR:  THE RICH MAN AND THE SMITHS;
HOW TO KEEP PLANTS ALIVE; CRITICISING A PORTRAIT—­THE PERSIAN COURTIER
AND HIS OLD FRIEND—­THE SCRIBE—­THE SCHOOLMASTER AND THE WIT—­THE
PERSIAN AND HIS CAT—­A LIST OF BLOCKHEADS—­THE ARAB AND HIS CAMEL—­A
WITTY BAGHDADI—­THE UNLUCKY SLIPPERS.

It is well known that deaf men generally dislike having their infirmity alluded to, and even endeavour to conceal it as much as possible.  Charles Lamb, or some other noted wit, seeing a deaf acquaintance on the other side of the street one day while walking with a friend, stopped and motioned to him; then opened his mouth as if speaking in a loud tone, but saying not a word.  “What are you bawling for?” demanded the deaf one.  “D’ye think I can’t hear?”—­Two Eastern stories I have met with are most diverting examples of this peculiarity of deaf folks.  One is related by my friend Pandit Natesa Sastri in his Folk-Lore of Southern India, of which a few copies were recently issued at Bombay.[29] A deaf man was sitting one day where three roads crossed, when a neatherd happened to pass that way.  He had lately lost a good cow and a calf, and had been seeking them some days.  When he saw the deaf man sitting by the way he took him for a soothsayer, and asked him to find out by his knowledge of magic where the cow would likely be found.  The herdsman was also very deaf, and the other, without hearing what he had said, abused him, and said he wished to be left undisturbed, at the same time stretching out his hand and pointing at his face.  This pointing the herd supposed to indicate the direction where the lost cow and calf should be sought; thus thinking (for he, too, had not heard a word of what the other man had said to him),