Of two brothers

Once upon a time, there were two brothers, Gedeh and Ḉeǵew.

And it came to pass that the Lady said unto Ḉeǵew: "Where is Gedeh thy brother?"

And he said: "I don't know; we had a quarrel and now we are not speaking with one another."

"What?" the Lady was surprised. "Ye are not speaking with one another? Well, let it be so!"

And when Gedeh and Ḉeǵew met again and wanted to have a talk, they found that they may not understand one another's speech.

Another story of other two brothers

Once upon a time, there were two brothers. The older brother was a hunter, and the younger one was a herdsman.

And it came to pass that the hunter returned to a hunting territory which he temporarily abandoned some time ago to not decrease excessively the numbers of beasts, and what does he not see: no deer, no boar, no rabbit nor hare, everywhere only sheep, sheep, sheep, here and there some goat.

He was not pleased with this, but he was not picky, and if there is no venison, mutton will be a good meal too. So he selected a sheep and shot it.

And then the herdsman appeared here and started to shout angrily: "What doth thou think thou art doing? Why did thou kill my sheep? Doth thou want to rob me of my flock?"

The hunter was surprised. "I never..." he said. "It is chutzpah—instead of an apology that thy flocks has gone out of thy control and are devastating the landscape, thou art shouting insults at me? I intended to help thee to tidy this disaster, but I have no need to hear thy silly babbling; so I will kill only as much sheep as I was used to kill beasts, and with the rest cope thyself as thou can." And he bowed to the sheep a started to disembowel it.

"What?" the herdsman shouted. "Put thy dirty hands away from my sheep, thou nasty thief!" And hit him with his staff.

Every expert on family relations will tell you: "Never have a quarrel with your wife in the kitchen". The basic principle under this rule is the same as here—it is not wise to hit someone who is holding a knife.

It is practically a sucide.

 
(First published at Friday, May 13, 2011, 3:07 AM in conculture@yahoogroups.com.)

Translator's comments

This book is not considered canonical, because adding apocryphal books would violate the checksum.