Geordy takes a piece of barley cake from his pocket and holds that up. After which the ambassador bows to him, and retires to the other professors, who anxiously inquire his opinion of their brother. ' He is a per fect miracle,' says the ambassador; ' I would not give him for the wealth of the Indies.' ' Well,' say the professors, ' to descend to particulars.' ' Why,' said the ambassador, ' I first held up one finger, denoting that there is but one God; he held up two, sig nifying that there are the Father and Son; I held up three, meaning the Holy Trinity; he clenched his fist, to say that these three are one. I then took out an orange, signi fying the goodness of God, who gives his creatures not only the necessaries but the luxuries of life; upon which the wonderful man presented a piece of bread, showing that it was the staff of life and preferable to every luxury.' The professors were glad that matters had turned out so well; so having got quit of the ambassador, they next got Geordy, to hear his version of the signs. ' Well, Geordy, how have you come pn, and what do you think of yon man?' ' The rascal,' said Geordy, ' what did he do first, think you? He held up one finger as much as to say, you have only one eye. Then I held up two, meaning that my one eye was perhaps as good as both his. Then the fellow held up three of his fingers, to say that there were but three eyes be tween us; and then I was so mad at the scoundrel that I steekcd my nieve, and wanted to come a whack on the side of his head, and would ha' done it too but for your sakes. Then the rascal did not stop with his provocation there, but, forsooth, takes out an orange, as much as to say, your poor beggarly country cannot produce that. I showed him a whang of a bear ban nock, meaning that I did na' care a farthing for him or his trash neither, as long as I hae this! But by a' that's guid,' concluded Geordy, ' I'm angry yet that I didna' thrash the hide of the scoundrel! '
"So much for signs, or two ways of tel ling a story." "McDiarmid's Scrap Book" is given as the source from which the above is taken. I only recently discovered that this amusing story, as it appears in its comparatively modern garb, with various changes introduced into the original narrative, and various incidents added to it, was plagiarized in substance from the old civilian Accursius, one of the commentators of the corpus juris cii'ilis, who lived in the twelfth century. In treating of the origin of the Twelve Tables of the Roman Law, he tells us of the appointment of ten envoys (the decem virs) by the Roman People, who were di rected to proceed to Athens and there ob tain a copy of the laws of Solon. On their arrival at Athens the Athenians were unwill ing to permit them to do so until they had first ascertained if the Romans were suffi ciently intelligent to be worthy of receiving this favor. In order to satisfy themselves on this point, they dispatched a certain learned Greek to Rome to make the neces sary investigations. When this was known at Rome, it was decided that as soon as this learned Greek should arrive, they would make a laughing-stock of him and of those who had sent him. Accordingly, as soon as he made his appearance, they sent to meet him a certain Roman simpleton — but let Accursius tell his story in his own words : — "Et sic objecerint illi quendam Stultum Romanum ad hoc, ut ille sapiens Graecus disputaret cum illo Stulto et derisus recederet. Qui sapiens Gnecus credens illi sibi objectum esse sapientem, ccepit cum eo disputare nutu et signis; et elevavit unum digitum, significans in corde suo — quod unus esset Deus. At ille Stultus credebat, quod volebat sibi eruere unum oculum cum illo digito, et ipse elevavit duos dígitos et etiam pollicem (et sic tres,) dicens in corde suo, quôd si tu vis mihi eruere unum oculum, ego erueram tibi duos oculos. Sed ille Gnecus credebat quod Stultus ille intelligebat de Trinitate. Deinde sapiens Grrecus ostendit illi Stulto manum oper
