ABSTRACT
A merchant had a wife with whom four of the city stipendiaries and their superior officer fell in love, and they all sent go-betweens to her. She listened to what they said, and appointed a time for a meeting. But when they asked where the meeting-place was to be, she directed them to a fig-tree which stood not far from the city, the head of which soared aloft towards the sky, the branches of which were widespread, and the foliage of which was thick. Up this tree they were to climb, and there to await her. She herself awaited an opportunity of going out of the house. But her husband became suspicious, beat her, and bound her to a pillar. She had told one of the four lovers that he was to climb on to a branch on the eastern side of the tree, and she would come by daybreak. He did so joyfully. The second one, likewise by her instruction, climbed on to a branch on the south side of the tree, the third mounted on the western side, and the fourth on the north side, and the superior officer clambered on to a branch in the middle of the tree. They spent the whole night on the tree in expectation, terrified by the wind, all by themselves. For the woman did not come although the day dawned. Then he who was waiting on the eastern branch uttered this verse: “The sun has risen, from the village comes the ploughman. The fig-tree must learn that the false do not come.”
