_Source._--Bell's _Speaker_.
_Parallels._--Jacques de Vitry, _Exempla_, ed. Crane, No. ccv., a
servant being asked the news by his master returned from a pilgrimage to
Compostella, says the dog is lame, and goes on to explain: "While the
dog was running near the mule, the mule kicked him and broke his own
halter and ran through the house, scattering the fire with his hoofs,
and burning down your house with your wife." It occurs even earlier in
Alfonsi's _Disciplina Clericalis_, No. xxx., at beginning of the twelfth
century, among the _Fabliaux_, and in Bebel, _Werke_, iii., 71, whence
probably it was reintroduced into England. See Prof. Crane's note _ad
loc._
_Remarks._--Almost all Alfonsi's _exempla_ are from the East. It is
characteristic that the German version finishes up with a loss of
honour, the English climax being loss of fortune.