Note 120 — THE SIMPLETON AND THE SHARPER.

See the Second Lady’s story (tantôt Kadi, tantôt bandit), pp. 20–26 by my friend Yacoub Artin Pasha in the Bulletin before quoted, series ii. No. 4 of 1883. The sharpers’ trick is common in Eastern folk-lore, and the idea that underlies is always metempsychosis or metamorphosis. So, in the Kalilah was Dimnah (new Syriac), the three rogues persuade the ascetic that he is leading a dog not a sheep.