Note 3 — THE HERMIT AND THE FIG-TREE.

“In the frying, you shall see.” Equivalent to our “The proof of the pudding’s in the eating.” The following is told as the origin of this Spanish proverb:—A good housewife having frequently had occasion to find fault with the quality of the charcoal the village dealer sold her, was highly delighted when another one set up who professed to sell a better kind. “But how am I to know yours is any better?” inquired she. “Al freir, lo vereis” (“when you come to fry with it you will see if it doesn’t give a clear fire”), he replied, for as his wares were good they needed only to be proved: taberna vieja no necesita rama: good wine, or, more literally, an old established tavern, needs no bush. ↑