diff -r f89864234b5d src/load-path.cc
--- a/src/load-path.cc	Sun Mar 29 22:18:21 2009 -0700
+++ b/src/load-path.cc	Mon Mar 30 16:45:18 2009 +0200
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@
 #endif
 
 #include <algorithm>
+#include <map>
 
 #include "dir-ops.h"
 #include "file-ops.h"
@@ -1095,6 +1096,9 @@
 load_path::do_find_file (const std::string& file) const
 {
   std::string retval;
+  static std::map<std::string, std::string> memo;
+  if (memo.find(file) != memo.end()) return memo[file];
+  if (memo.size()>32) memo.clear();
 
   if (file.find_first_of (file_ops::dir_sep_chars ()) != std::string::npos)
     {
@@ -1103,8 +1107,10 @@
 	{
 	  file_stat fs (file);
 
-	  if (fs.exists ())
-	    return file;
+	  if (fs.exists ()) {
+	    memo[file] = file;
+	    return memo[file];
+	  }
 	}
       else
 	{
@@ -1116,8 +1122,10 @@
 
 	      file_stat fs (tfile);
 
-	      if (fs.exists ())
-		return tfile;
+	      if (fs.exists ()) {
+		      memo[file] = tfile;
+		return memo[file];
+	      }
 	    }
 	}
     }
@@ -1133,12 +1141,13 @@
 
 	  for (octave_idx_type i = 0; i < len; i++)
 	    {
-	      if (all_files[i] == file)
-		return file_ops::concat (p->dir_name, file);
+	      if (all_files[i] == file) {
+		      memo[file]= file_ops::concat (p->dir_name, file);
+		      return memo[file];
+	      }
 	    }
 	}
     }
-
   return retval;
 }