after which they began to make a great noise, cackling like hens, and flinging the eggs which they had brought on the stone bench. Cogia Efendi, seeing what they were about, suddenly began to make a great noise and crow like a cock. ‘What are you about, Cogia Efendi?’ said the boys. ‘Why,’ said he, ‘is not a cock necessary where there are so many hens?’
One day the Cogia, putting on black clothes, went out. The people, looking at him, said, ‘Cogia Efendi, for whose death are you in mourning?’ The Cogia answered, ‘My son’s father is dead, and I wear mourning for him.’
One day Cogia, returning from the harvest field, felt very thirsty. Looking around, he saw that they watered a tree by means of a pipe from a fountain. The Cogia exclaimed, ‘I must drink,’ and pulled at the spout, and as he did so the water, spouting forth with violence, wetted the mouth and head of the Cogia, who, in a great rage, said, ‘They watered this wretched tree in order that one fool might wet another.’
One day the Cogia, taking some water melons with him, went to the mountain in order to cut wood. Feeling thirsty, he cut one of the melons, and, putting it to his mouth, cast it away, saying that it was tasteless. He then cut up another, and, to be short, he cut them all up, and, having
eaten a little of each, made water over what remained. He then fell to work at cutting wood. After some time the Cogia again became thirsty, and finding no water, he went to the bits of the melons which he had cut up, and saying, ‘This is sprinkled, and this is sprinkled,’ ate them all.
Cogia Nasr Eddin Efendi had a lamb which he had fattened to a high degree. One day some of his friends having assembled, said, ‘Let us get the lamb from the Cogia and feast upon it.’ So coming to the Cogia as quick as possible, they said, ‘O Cogia, to-morrow is the Day of Judgment; what would you do with this lamb? Come, take it, and let us eat it.’ The Cogia, however, would not believe them. Coming again, however, they said the same thing, and the Cogia, at last believing their words were true, slaughtered the lamb, and, taking it on his back, he carried it to the public walk, and, lighting a fire, he began to prepare a roast. Presently, stripping their bodies, they delivered their clothes to the Cogia, and each went aside to sleep. Whereupon the Cogia, taking their garments, flung them all into the fire and burnt them. In a little time, their bellies becoming hungry from the sleep they had had, they came again, and saw that their garments were nearly reduced to a coal. Whereupon they said to the Cogia, ‘Who burnt our clothes?’ ‘My dear friends,’ replied the Cogia, ‘to-morrow is the Day of Resurrection, so what need can you have of clothes?’
One day a thief, entering the house of the Cogia, laid hold of everything there was there, and, placing it on his back, went away. The Cogia, however, spying somebody going out, followed the thief, who went into his own house. The Cogia following close behind, pushed against him at the door. Whereupon the thief said, ‘What do you want, Cogia Efendi?’ ‘What do I want?’ said the Cogia. ‘Why, are we not going to remove hither to-day?’
One day certain individuals stole from the Cogia a sum of money, whereupon the Cogia said, ‘O Lord, what need have you that you give my money to others.’ So he made a dreadful outcry, and going into the mosque, wept until it was morning, groaning like a ship labouring in the sea. Those who were there said, ‘Ye who have found salvation make up a sum of money for the Cogia.’ So whosoever had found salvation through the assistance of the Almighty made up what he could, and brought it to the Cogia. Whereupon the Cogia exclaimed, ‘Allah, Allah! by lying one night publicly in the mosque and weeping, I have caused Allah to send me my money again.’
One day the Cogia borrowed a cauldron of a brazier, and carrying it home, put a little saucepan into it, and then carrying it back, returned it to its owner. The owner seeing a little saucepan in the cauldron, said, ‘What is this?’
‘Why,’ cried the Cogia, ‘the cauldron has borne a child’; whereupon the owner took possession of the saucepan. One day the Cogia asked again for the cauldron, and having obtained it, carried it home. The owner of the cauldron waited one day and even five days for his utensil, but no cauldron coming, he went to the house of the Cogia and knocked at the door. The Cogia coming to the door, said, ‘What do you want?’ ‘The cauldron,’ said the man. ‘Oh, set your heart at rest,’ said the Cogia, ‘the cauldron is dead.’ ‘O Cogia,’ said the man, ‘can a cauldron die?’ ‘Oh,’ said the Cogia, ‘as you believed it could bear a child, why should you not believe that it can die?’