The geographical situation of Italy and its commercial connections
during the Middle Ages would lead us to expect a large foreign element
in its popular tales. This foreign element, it is hardly necessary to
say, is almost exclusively Oriental, and was introduced either by direct
communication with the East, or indirectly from France, which received
it from Spain, whither it was brought by the Saracens. Although this
Oriental element is now perfectly popular, it is, as far as its origin
is concerned, purely literary. That is to say, the stories we are about
to examine are to be found in the great Oriental collections of tales
which were early translated into all the languages of Europe, and either
passed directly from these translations into circulation among the
people, or became familiar to them from the novelists who made such
frequent use of this element.[1] A few stories may have been taken from
the French _fabliaux_ or from the French translations of the _Disciplina
Clericalis_, as we shall afterwards see.[2] The Pentamerone, and
especially Straparola's tales, may finally be mentioned as the source
from which many Oriental stories have flowed into popular
circulation.[3] In this chapter it is proposed to notice briefly only
those stories the Oriental origin of which is undoubted, and which may
be found in the great collections above mentioned and in some others
less known. For convenience, some stories of this class have been
referred to chapter VI.

The first of this class which we shall mention is well known from the
version in Lafontaine (IX. 1), _Le Depositaire infidele_. The only
Italian version we have found is Pitre, No. 194, which is as follows:

XXXVII. THE PEASANT AND THE MASTER.

A peasant one day, conversing in the farmhouse with his master and
others, happened, while speaking of sheep and cheese, to say that he had
had a present of a little cheese, but the mice had eaten it all up. Then
the master, who was rich, proud, and fat, called him a fool, and said
that it was not possible that the mice could have eaten the cheese, and
all present said the master was right and the peasant wrong. What more
could the poor man say? Talk makes talk. After a while the master said
that having taken the precaution to rub with oil his ploughshares to
keep them from rusting, the mice had eaten off all the points. Then the
friend of the cheese broke forth: "But, master, how can it be that the
mice cannot eat my