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Moscione’s father sends him to do business in Cairo to get him out from under his own roof, where he behaves worse than a jackass. At every turn of the road he meets up with men of exceptional powers whom he takes with him; thanks to them he returns home weighed down and laden with silver and gold. There was no lack of courtiers around the prince who would have made evident the anger they felt at being touched on their sore point, if their art had not been precisely that of dissimulation. Nor could one say whether the affront of seeing their own deceit thrown back in their faces or the envy in hearing of Corvetto’s happiness irritated them more. But as she began to speak, Paola drew their hearts out of the well of their self-love with the hook of these words: “An ignoramus who frequents virtuous men has always been praised much more than a wise man who associates with worthless people, because just as the ignoramus may earn comfort and greatness thanks to the former, the wise man may lose his goods and honor by the fault of the latter. And if you can tell that a ham is good by testing it with a stick,1 you will be able to tell if what I have proposed to you is true from the case that I will tell you about. “There once was a father as rich as the sea, but since perfect happiness is not possible in this world, he had a son who was so wretched and worthless that he couldn’t tell a carob pod from a cucumber. No longer able to digest his idiocy, the father gave him a nice handful of scudos and sent him in the direction of the Orient2 to do business, since he knew that seeing diverse countries and associating with different people awakens wits, sharpens reason , and makes a man clever. 8 The Ignoramus Eighth Entertainment of the Third Day 267 AT 513: The Extraordinary Companions, and AT 513A: Six Go Through the Whole World. This tale bears some similarity to the latter part of tale 1.5. The “joint efforts” motif is a common one and can be found in Grimm 71 (“How Six Made Their Way in the World”) and 134, and other variants. 1. “The quality of a ham was ascertained by making a hole in it with a stick, which revealed, by smell, any internal rancidity” (Guarini and Burani 358). 2. “The privileged route to arrive at the mythical Orient, full of spices and riches, was Venice, and then Cairo” (Rak 596). “Moscione, for this was the name of the boy, got on his horse and started to walk off in the direction of Venice, arsenal of the world’s marvels,3 from which place he intended to embark on a vessel that went to Cairo. When he had traveled a good day he came across a man standing at the foot of a poplar tree, to whom he said, ‘What do they call you, my young man? Where are you from? And what’s your trade?’ And the other answered, ‘My name is Flash, I come from Thunderbolt, and I can run as fast as lightning.’ ‘I’d like to see proof of that,’ replied Moscione. And Flash said, ‘Wait a minute, and you’ll see if it’s dust or flour!’ They stood there for a while, and then a deer passed through the countryside and Flash, after letting it get a bit ahead so that it would have the advantage, began to run at such an excessive speed and with such a fleet foot that he could have passed over a field of flour without leaving a footprint, and in four leaps he reached the deer. When he saw this, Moscione was full of marvel and told Flash that if he wanted to stay with him he would pay him handsomely. Flash agreed, and they set off together. “But they had walked no farther than four miles when they met another young man, to whom Moscione said, ‘What’s your name, pal? What town are you from and what trade do you practice?’ And the other answered, ‘My name is Hare’s-Ear, I’m from Curious Valley, and when I put my ear to the ground I can hear what’s going on all over the world without moving a hair. I can...

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