McGuffey's Sixth Eclectic Reader, Revised Edition · Lesson LXXIV · Part 8: Webster, Evangeline and the poets of death and toil
80. Diamond Cut Diamond (Édouard René Lefebvre-Laboulaye)
Goal: Your student can follow a story of tricks and counter-tricks and explain the title.
You'll need
- The book, open to this lesson
- A notebook and pen
- A dictionary
What's in the book
A tale adapted from Laboulaye's Abdallah. A young Banian merchant, cheated out of his casket of diamonds by a crafty jeweler named Ali, brings his case before the cadi, and cleverer people turn the cheat's own tricks against him. Notes at the end explain the Eastern words.
The lesson, step by step
Words and meanings
Read the notes printed at the end of the lesson together before reading. The book explains, among others:
cadi: in the Mohammedan countries, corresponds to our magistrate
sheik: may mean simply an old man, or a man of eminence
Banian: a Hindoo merchant who visits foreign countries on business
pasha: the governor of a Turkish province
Jidda: a city in Arabia, on the Red Sea
The notes also say the Turkish piaster was once worth twenty-five cents.
Ask your student to find two other hard words in the lesson, guess their meaning from the sentence, then check a dictionary.
About the author
The book says Laboulaye was a French writer whose works mostly concern law and politics. A few works, such as Abdallah, from which this extract is adapted, were written as a mere recreation. He also translated the works of William E. Channing into French.
Read aloud
This is a long story. Read it in two sittings if needed. Take parts: one reads the narration, one reads what the characters say.
Listen for these lines:
Mansour, the Egyptian merchant, one day repaired to the cadi on account of a suit
Talk about it
SayHow did Ali cheat the young Banian? Was it against the law, or just against fairness?
SayHow is Ali beaten at his own game? Explain the trick in your own words.
SayWhat does the cadi decide, and why does a bargain have to be kept even when it is foolish?
SayThe saying 'diamond cut diamond' means one sharp person outwitted by another. Who are the two diamonds in this story?
Narration
Your student tells the whole story aloud in order, as if telling it to someone who has never heard it. Allow three or four minutes.
Writing (optional)
Write a short scene where a trickster is caught by his own trick. Keep it to a page.
Afterwards
If you split the reading, begin the second day by having your student retell the first half.
Tip
Draw a quick chart of who is who (Mansour, the Banian, Ali, the cadi). It makes the story much easier to follow.