Hearne, p. 299, in this there is a double treasure; the first in an iron
pot with a Latin inscription, which the pedlar, whose name is John
Chapman, does not understand. Inquiring its meaning from a learned
friend, he is told--
Under me doth lie
Another much richer than I.
He accordingly digs deeper and finds another pot of gold.
_Parallels._--Blomefield refers to Fungerus, _Etymologicum
Latino-Graecum_, pp. 1110-11, where the same story is told of a peasant
of Dort, in Holland, who was similarly directed to go to Kempen Bridge.
Prof. E.B. Cowell, who gives the passage from Fungerus in a special
paper on the subject in the _Journal of Philology_, vi., 189-95, points
out that the same story occurs in the _Masnavi_ of the Persian port
Jalaluddin, whose _floruit_ is 1260 A.D. Here a young spendthrift of
Bagdad is warned in a dream to repair to Cairo, with the usual result of
being referred back.
_Remarks._--The artificial character of the incident is sufficient to
prevent its having occurred in reality or to more than one inventive
imagination.
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