Now that the time has come for us to part, I feel how much thy loss means to my heart; For when the sun sinks suddenly to rest, 'Tis then that darkness grows most manifest. Of a more humorous nature are the following lines^[125-4] put in the form of questions and answers:— _Question._ What is the most useful thing to any man in life? _Answer._ Knowledge, or wealth, or a good and loving wife. _Question._ But, if none of these commodities man has ever got? _Answer._ Then by keeping golden silence he might improve his lot. _Question._ And if he cannot do so, that poor and hapless knave? _Answer._ Then let him go away at once, and dig himself a grave. Apart from the literary value which _The Prince and the Dervish_ possesses, it has a special importance which recalls to mind that all its versions have been rendered by Jewish writers into different languages. This fact lends support to the theory that the Jews have always displayed a peculiar aptitude in the translation of books, and more especially from Arabic, Greek, and Latin, into the sacred tongue of the Bible. By this means they preserved to posterity many valuable literary works which might otherwise have remained unknown or even perished. Among the more prominent Jewish translators living in mediaeval times were, besides several members of the famous Tibbon family, Kalonymos ben Kalonymos, Moses di Rieti, Immanuel di Roma, Alcharizi, Judah Romano, Elias del Medigo, and last, but not least, Abraham Ibn Chasdai, the author of _The Prince and the Dervish_. It should also be observed that several learned Jewish linguists have, in more modern times, been greatly helpful, in a literary sense, to many of their less educated co-religionists by introducing to them in a Hebrew garb some of the best-known works of general literature, including Homer, Virgil, Horace, Shakespeare, Milton, Dante, Racine, Schiller, and Goethe. Thus it is interesting to note that the language of the Bible has, like the Bible itself, at all times rendered most valuable services to Jews as well as to those of other creeds. Footnotes: [117-1] Cp. Wolf, _Bibl. Hebr._, I, 57; Delitzsch, _Geschichte der jüd. Poesie_, p. 46; Steinschneider, _Manna_. [117-2] Among these may specially be mentioned: (_a_) ‪מאזני צדק‬, edited by Goldenthal in 1839, being a Hebrew translation of an Arabic work by Ghasali entitled ‪אל מיזאן‬. (_b_) ‪ספר התפוח‬ and ‪סודות‬, which are Hebrew versions of two works composed respectively in Arabic and Greek. [118-1] It was printed in Constantinople in 1518; in Mantua in 1557; in Wandsbeck in 1727; in Frankfurt a.d.O. and Frankfurt a.M. respectively in 1766 and 1769; in Zolkiew in 1771; in Fürth in 1769; in Lemberg in 1870; in Szitomir in 1873; and in Warsaw in 1884. [118-2] The Latin translation exists as a MS. at the Nürnberg Library; it was done by Daniel Schwenter, having for its title _Proverbia filii regis Nazar._