about the work of dividing their treasure. Now, there were twelve
robbers, but by mistake the chief of the band divided the gold
into thirteen heaps. When he saw his mistake he said they had not
time to count it all over again, but that the thirteenth heap
should belong to whoever among them could strike off the head of
the old stone statue in the niche with one stroke. With these
words he took up an axe, and approached the niche where the liar
was standing. But, just as he had waved the axe over his head
ready to strike, a voice was heard from the stone coffin saying,
in sepulchral tones: ‘Clear out of this, or the dead will arise
from their coffins, and the statues will descend from the walls,
and you will be driven out more dead than alive.' And with a
bound the thief jumped out of his coffin and the liar from his
niche, and the robbers were so terrified that they ran
helter-skelter out of the crypt, leaving all their gold behind
them, and vowing that they would never put foot inside the
haunted place again. So the partners divided the gold between
them, and carried it to their homes; and history tells us no more
about them.



Fortunatus and His Purse



Once upon a time there lived in the city of Famagosta, in the
island of Cyprus, a rich man called Theodorus. He ought to have
been the happiest person in the whole world, as he had all he
could wish for, and a wife and little son whom he loved dearly;