[591] Comp. Lane, Thousand and One Nights, iii. p. 91.
[592] To signify that he appealed to them.
[593] From a rabbinical book called Mahasee Yerusalemee, i. e. History of a Hebrew of Jerusalem.—"Very old," says Moses Edrehi, "and known by the Hebrews to be true." "Moreover," saith he of another tale, "it really happened, because every thing that is written in the Jewish books is true; for no one can print any new book without its being examined and approved of by the greatest and chiefest Rabbin and wise men of that time and city, and the proofs must be very strong and clear; so that all the wonderful stories in these books are true." The Jews are not singular in this mode of vouching for the truth of wonderful stories.
[594] The moral here is apparent.
[595] From a very ancient rabbinical book called R. H. It is needless to point out its resemblance to German and other tales.
[596] See Davis's translation of The Fortunate Union, i. 68.
[597] Under the title Similar Legends in the Index, legends of this kind are arranged with references to the places where they occur.
[598] The legends from the German and other languages are, in general, faithfully translated, whence the style is at times rude and negligent; English legends are for the most part, also, merely transcribed.
[599] As we have above given an etymon of cobweb, we will here repeat our note on the word gossamer in the Fairy Legends.
"Gossamers, Johnson says, are the long white cobwebs which fly in the air in calm sunny weather, and he derives the word from the Low Latin gossapium. This is altogether unsatisfactory. The gossamers are the cobwebs which may be seen, particularly of a still autumnal morning, in such numbers on the furze-bushes, and which are raised by the wind and floated through the air, as thus exquisitely pictured by Browne in his Britannia's Pastorals (ii. 2),