To afford a little relaxation from the duller chapters of this work, to furnish a few grains of pepsin to aid in the digestion of a Sunday dinner, a small collection of these funny tales of ancient wits--the Baron Munchausen writers of old times--is given. He who can read them without a smile must be either dull of comprehension or without appreciation of humor. The First Cutlet. PRACTICAL JOKE PLAYED UPON A SLEEPY MAN BY HIS FACETIOUS CREATOR. And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him an help meet for him.... And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept; and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof. And the rib which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man (Gen. ii, 18, 21, 22). The Great Freshet. A STORY CALCULATED TO PARALYZE A KENTUCKY COLONEL. The same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.... And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered. Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered (Gen. vii, 11, 12, 19, 20). Ringstreaked, Speckled, and Spotted. THE DOCTRINE OF PRENATAL INFLUENCES LAUGHABLY BURLESQUED. And Jacob took him rods of green poplar, and of the hazel and chestnut tree; and pilled white streaks in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods. And he set the rods which he had pilled before the flocks in the gutters in the watering troughs when the flocks came to drink, that they should conceive when they came to drink. And the flocks conceived before the rods, and brought forth cattle ringstreaked, speckled, and spotted (Gen. xxx, 37-39). The Waters Were Divided. MOSES TELLS, WITH A WINK, ABOUT THE STRONGEST GALE OF WIND KNOWN TO HISTORY. And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground; and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left (Ex. xiv, 21, 22). Quails!!! THE MODERN BIRD HUNTER WILL SAY: "I LOVE A LIAR, BUT THIS ONE SUITS ME TOO WELL!" And there went forth a wind from the Lord, and brought quails from the sea, and let them fall by the camp, as it were a day's journey on this side, and as it were a day's journey on the other side, round about the camp, and as it were two cubits high upon the face of the earth. And the people stood up all that day, and all that night, and all the next day, and they gathered the quails: he that gathered least gathered ten homers [over 100 bushels] (Num. xi, 31, 32). Three Good Snake Stories. "WINE IS A MOCKER, STRONG DRINK IS RAGING."