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prostrated themselve before the king but the master took nonotice. The king, greatly surprised, called him to come be-fore him the next day. He came, prostrated himself andmade obeisance. Then the king asked him about his beha-viour of yesterday and the teacher replied," In the schoolI am the king. With loss of respect discipline goes. I teachthe children loyalty to the king. If I prostrate myself aswell I lose their respect and my power over the childrenwhich is increased if they see that I do not recognise eventhe king. But here I prostrate myself." The king greatlyapproved of the teacher's attitude.

429. A Jew who mixed with the Gentiles, had given upeverything in order to carry favour with them. Once whenhe was invited to the prince, an enemy of his put someboys to jeer at him and call out," Jew, Jew." When heheard it, the man threw some gold pieces to them. Askedby the prince why he had done so he told him the story ofa man who had squandered all his fortune and was leftwith one pearl. This he had pledged with a man from whomhe borrowed various sums. At last the man said he preferredto buy the pearl for he could not lend any more on it. Theother refused to part with it, for he wanted to be knownas the owner of the pearl. Similarly he, the Jew, had squan-dered everything left him by his parents and he was gladto have been reminded that he was still the owner of thepearl, i. e., a Jew. For that he rewarded them. He thenreturned to his faith.

430. At the court of a king there lived a Jew who wasvery handsome. The wife of the minister fell in love withhim, but he refused her advances. After a time she gavebirth to a boy and so also did his own wife. The two boyslooked exactly like one another and could not be distin-guished one from the other. The king who heard of it tookthe two children and brought them up in the palace; one ofthem had a sign but only the king knew of it. When theyhad grown up the parents came to ask for their children,but no one could distinguish them so he sent for the Rabbi