“ One day they said to the Cogia, ‘Pray what may be your horoscope?’ Said the Cogia, ‘I was born under the sign of the He-goat.’ ‘O Cogia,’ said they, ‘there is no such sign as the He-goat.’ Said the Cogia, ‘When I was a child my mother had my horoscope taken, and at that time the Kid was in the ascension.’ ‘O Cogia,’ said they, ‘that’s all right; but a kid is one thing and a he-goat is another.’ Said the Cogia, ‘O you simpletons! ”

“ One day a man came to the house of the Cogia and asked him to lend him his ass. ‘He is not at home,’ replied the Cogia. But it so happened that the ass began to bray within. ‘O Cogia Efendi,’ said the man, ‘you say that the ass is not at home, and there he is braying within.’ ‘What a strange fellow you are!’ said the Cogia. ‘You believe the ass, but will not believe a grey-bearded man like me.’ p. ”

“ One day Tamerlank invited the Cogia to dine with him. The Cogia accepted the invitation, and mounting his ass, taking the groom along with him, set out, saying, ‘Now, Tamerlank, where may you be?’ When he came to the Emperor, Timour Shah, pointing to a place, bade him sit down. The Cogia, seeing that Timour Shah sat with one foot supported on a cushion, when he sat down, stretched out his own leg, and placed it upon a corner of the cushion. Timour Shah being very much offended that the Cogia stretched out his leg as he did, said to himself, ‘If I do so I have an excuse, and I am also a king’ ”

“ One day the Cogia said to his wife, ‘O wife, how do you know when a man is dead?’ ‘I know it by his hands and feet being cold,’ said she. One day as the Cogia was going to the mountain for wood, he felt cold in his hands and feet; whereupon he said, ‘I am a dead man,’ and laid himself down at the foot of a tree. Some wolves, however, coming up and beginning to devour his ass, the Cogia shouted to the wolves from the place where he was lying, ‘The ass is dead, it seems, and not the master.’
One day as the Cogia was cutting wood in the mountain, a wolf, coming up to his ass, began to devour it ”

“ One day the boys of Belgrade took the Cogia along with them into the bath. They had secretly brought in their pouches a number of eggs. One and all going into the bathing-house, took off their clothes and went in, and then, sitting down on the bench, they all said to one another, ‘Come, let us lay eggs: whosoever does not lay an egg shall pay the expenses of the bath’ ”

“ One day Cogia Efendi, on whom God be merciful, went to the city of Conia, and going into a pastry-cook’s shop, seized hold of a tart, and saying, ‘In the Name of God,’ began to eat it. The pastry-cook cried out, ‘Halloa, fellow, what are you about?’ and fell to beating him. The Cogia said, ‘Oh what a fine country is this of Conia, in which, whilst a man eats a tart, they put in a blow as a digester for every morsel.’ p. ”

“ Now what becomes of the old moons?’ Says the Cogia, ‘How is it that you don’t know a thing like that? They take those old moons and make lightning of them; have you not seen them when the heaven thunders, glittering like so many swords?’ ‘Bravo, Faquir,’ said the shepherd. ‘Well art thou acquainted with the matter, I had come to the same conclusion myself.’
Nasr Eddin Efendi, now with God, had a sum of money. One day, when all was quiet in the house, he dug in the earth and buried it ”

“ A Moolah, who had travelled about Arabia, Persia, Hindustan, and, in a word, the whole seven climes without finding any one who could answer his questions, was told by a man, ‘In this country there is a man called Cogia Nasr Eddin, who will answer your questions if any one can.’ The Moolah arising, went straight to Belgrade, where he bought an aspre’s worth of pomegranates, which he placed in his bosom. Going out of the suburbs of Belgrade, he saw a man going to his labour ”

“ Some people say that, whilst uttering what seemed madness, he was, in reality, divinely inspired, and that it was not madness but wisdom that he uttered. The mercy of God be upon him, mercy without bounds. ”

“ Nasr Eddin Efendi had two daughters. One day the two coming to see their father, the Cogia said to them, ‘Well, daughters, how do things go on with you?’ Now, the husband of one of them was a farmer, that of the other was a maker of tiles. One of them said, ‘My husband has sown a great deal of corn; if there is plenty of rain my husband will give me a new gown.’ The other said, ‘My husband is a tile-maker; he has made a great quantity ”

“ Once on a time there was a drunken Governor of Siouri Castle. It happened one day that he lay in a state of drunkenness in the garden; and the Cogia taking a walk in the garden with Amad, came up and found him lying drunk and insensible. The Cogia instantly stripped him of his feradje or upper coat, and putting it on his own back, walked away. ”

“ Now before the house there was a height, and the Cogia going to the garden of the house, cut a pole, and putting the money in a sack, tied the sack to the top of the pole, and bringing the pole, stuck it up on the top of the height; then going down he looked upwards and said, ‘Unless a man is a bird he cannot fly up to that, I have surely chosen a good place,’ and having said this, he went away. Now it happened that a thief saw all that Cogia p. ”

“ Forty or fifty years have passed since then. Must not the kid have become an old goat?’
One day whilst the Cogia was holding an oration at the Castle of Siouri, he was contradicted by the Soubashi or Superintendent. Shortly after, it happened that the Soubashi died and was buried; whereupon they said, ‘Come, Efendi, preach a sermon over him.’ ‘You must find some one else,’ said the Cogia. ”

“ The Cadi asking what they came for, the Jew said, ‘This man took from me so many altoons and now he denies having done so.’ The Cadi looked in the Cogia’s face, whereupon the Cogia said, ‘My Lord, I asked in prayer of the Most High a thousand altoons, which He gave. On counting them, however, I found that one was wanting, whereupon I said, “He who gives so many altoons will doubtless give one more,” and I accepted them ”