I came from the ocean and was drowned in a spoonful of water.

Because the cat could get no meat, he said, “To-day is Friday.”

The house that a woman builds God will not destroy; but a woman is likely to destroy the house that God has built.

The dowry a woman brings into the house is a bell.  Whenever you come near, the clapper strikes in your face.

By asking, one finds the way to Jerusalem.

Which of the five fingers can you cut off without hurting yourself?

The father’s kingdom is the son’s mite.

Far from the eye, far from the heart.

If a brother was really good for anything, God would have one.

When God gives, He gives with both hands.

A daughter is a treasure which belongs to another.

The world is a pair of stairs:  some go up and others go down.

The poor understand the troubles of the poor.

The childless have one trouble, but those who have children have a thousand.

God turns away his face from a shameless man.

The eyes would not disagree even if the nose were not between them.

Until you see trouble you will never know joy.

You never know a man until you have eaten a barrel of salt with him.

Every man’s own trouble is as large as a camel.

The goat prefers one goat to a whole herd of sheep.

The fox has destroyed the world, and the wolf has lost his calling.

The fool throws himself into the stream, and forty wise men cannot pull him out.

A near neighbor is better than a distant kinsman.

When I have honey, the flies come even from Bagdad.

A guest comes from God.

The guest is the ass of the inn-keeper.

When everything is cheap the customer has no conscience.

* * * * *

THE SHEEP-BROTHER

Once there was a widow and she had a daughter.  The widow married a widower who had by his first wife two children, a boy and a girl.  The wife was always coaxing her husband:  “Take the children, do, and lead them up into the mountains.”  Her husband could not refuse her, and, lo! one day he put some bread in his basket, took the children, and set off for the mountain.

They went on and on and came to a strange place.  Then the father said to the children, “Rest here a little while,” and the children sat down to rest.  The father turned his face away and wept bitterly, very bitterly.  Then he turned again to the children and said, “Eat something,” and they ate.  Then the boy said, “Father, dear, I want a drink.”  The father took his staff, stuck it into the ground, threw his coat over it, and said, “Come here, my son, sit in the shadow of my coat, and I will get you some water.”  The brother and sister stayed and the father went away and forsook his children.  Whether they waited a long time or a short time before they saw that their father was not coming back is not known.  They wandered here and there looking for him, but saw no human being anywhere.