osed, to learn how he
looked when asleep; of the inquisitive person who held a crow captive in
order to test for himself whether it would live two centuries; of the
man who demanded to know from an acquaintance met in the street whether
it was he or his twin brother who had just been buried. Another Greek
jest that has enjoyed a vogue throughout the world at large, and will
doubtless survive even prohibition, was the utterance of Diogenes, when
he was asked as to what sort of wine he preferred. His reply was: "That
of other people."

Again, we may find numerous duplicates of contemporary stories of our
own in the collection over which generations of Turks have laughed, the
tales of Nasir Eddin. In reference to these, it may be noted that
Turkish wit and humor are usually distinguished by a moralizing quality.
When a man came to Nasir Eddin for the loan of a rope, the request was
refused with the excuse that Nasir's only piece had been used to tie up
flour. "But it is impossible to tie up flour with a rope," was the
protest. Nasir Eddin answered: "I can tie up anything with a rope when I
do not wish to lend it."

When another would have borrowed his ass, Nasir replied that he had
already loaned the animal. Thereupon, the honest creature brayed from
the stable. "But the ass is there," the visitor cried indignantly. "I
hear it!" Nasir Eddin retorted indignantly: "What! Would you take the
word of an ass instead of mine?"

In considering the racial characteristics of humor, we should pay
tribute to the Spanish in the person of Cervantes, for _Don Quixote_ is
a mine of drollery. But the bulk of the humor among all the Latin races
is of a sort that our more prudish standards cannot approve. On the
other hand, German humor often displays a characteristic spirit of
investigation. Thus, the little boy watching the pupils of a girls'
school promenading two by two, graded according to age, with the
youngest first and the oldest last, inquired of his mother: "Mama, why
is it that the girls' legs grow shorter as they grow older?" In the way
of wit, an excellent illustration is afforded by Heine, who on receiving
a book from its author wrote in acknowledgment of the gift: "I shall
lose no time in reading it."

The French are admirable in both wit and humor, and the humor is usually
kindly, though the shafts of wit are often barbed. I remember a humorous
picture of a big man shaking a huge trombone in the face of a tiny
canary in