Page:Folk-lore of the Holy Land.djvu/229

Being a prudent woman, she said no word of her good fortune to the neighbours, but hid the money away till her husband came home, when she told him what had happened to her, and showed. him the treasure. The couple kept their own counsel, and purchased cattle and land so gradually that their neighbours believed their prosperity to be the result of industry.

One person could not credit this, and that was the woman who had refused to lend a knife. Envy made her suspicious, and she gave her friend no peace till she had found out the secret. Having learnt it, she went straight home and made her husband bring the lights and liver of a sheep, which she tore to pieces with her teeth and nails, at the same time omitting to “name.” The immediate result of her deliberate and studied action was the same as of her neighbour’s inadvertence. A whirlwind whisked her down into the bowels of the earth, and she found herself in the room where sat the Persian cat. But her behaviour was the very opposite of that of the good woman. She abused the cat, and even dared to say she hoped it would not live to see its kittens. When from her hiding-place under the chair she heard the Jan assuring her of her safety, she rudely neglected to salute them when she came forth. Having devoured the food set before her with great greediness, she demanded to be sent home.

The Jân, who took no notice of her rudeness, then inquired of the whirlwind whether she had come of her own free-will. “Yes,” was the answer.