There is, no doubt, very much in the Talmud that possesses a recondite,
spiritual meaning; but it would likely puzzle the most ingenious and
learned modern Rabbis to construe into mystical allegories such absurd
legends regarding Biblical personages as the following:
_Adam and Eve._
Adam's body, according to the Jewish Fathers, was formed of the earth of
Babylon, his head of the land of Israel, and his other members of other
parts of the world. Originally his stature reached the firmament, but
after his fall the Creator, laying his hand upon him, lessened him very
considerably.[57] Mr Hershon, in his _Talmudic Miscellany_, says there
is a notion among the Rabbis that Adam was at first possessed of a
bi-sexual organisation, and this conclusion they draw from Genesis i,
27, where it is said: "God created man in his own image, male-female
created he him."[58] These two natures it was thought lay side by side;
according to some, the male on the right and the female on the left;
according to others, back to back; while there were those who maintained
that Adam was created with a _tail_, and that it was from this appendage
that Eve was fashioned![59] Other Jewish traditions (continues Mr.
Hershon) inform us that Eve was made from the thirteenth rib of the
right side, and that she was not drawn out by the head, lest she should
be vain; nor by the eyes, lest she should be wanton; nor by the mouth,
lest she should be given to garrulity; nor by the ears, lest she should
be an eavesdropper; nor by the hands, lest she should be intermeddling;
nor by the feet, lest she should be a gadder; nor by the heart, lest she
should be jealous;--but she was taken out from the side: yet, in spite
of all these precautions, she had every one of the faults so carefully
guarded against!
[57] Commentators on the Kurán say that Adam's beard did not
grow till after his fall, and it was the result of his
excessive sorrow and penitence. Strange to say, he was
ashamed of his beard, till he heard a voice from heaven
calling to him and saying: "The beard is man's ornament
on earth; it distinguishes him from the feeble woman."
Thus we ought to--should we not?--regard our beards as
the offshoots of what divines term "original sin"; and
cherish them as mementoes of the Fall of Man. Think of
this, ye effeminate ones who use the razor!
[58] The notion of man being at first androgynous, or
man-woman, was prevalent in most of the countries of
antiquity. Mr. Baring-Gould says that "the idea, that
man without woman and woman without man are imperfect
beings, was the cause of the great repugnance with which
the Jews and other nations of the East regarded
celibacy." (_Legends of the Old Testament_, vol. i, p.
22.) But this, I think, is not very probable. The
aversion of Asiatics from celibacy is rather to be
ascribed to their surroundings in primitive times, when
neighbouring clans were almost constantly at war with
each other, and those chiefs and notables who had the
greatest number of sturdy and valiant sons and grandsons
would naturally be best able to hold their own against
an enemy. The system of concubinage, which seems to have
existed in the East from very remote times, is not
matrimony, and undoubtedly had its origin in the
passionate desire which, even at the present day, every
Asiatic has for male offspring. By far the most common
opening of an Eastern tale is the statement that there
was a certain king, wise, wealthy, and powerful, but
though he had many beautiful wives and handmaidens,
Heaven had not yet blest him with a son, and in
consequence of this all his life was embittered, and he
knew no peace day or night.
[59] Professor Charles Marelle, of Berlin, in an interesting
little collection, _Affenschwanz, &c.; Variants orales
de Contes Populaires, Français et Etrangers_
(Braunschweig, 1888), gives an amusing story, based
evidently on this rabbinical legend: The woman formed
from Adam's tail proved to be as mischievous as a
monkey, and gave her spouse no peace; whereupon another
was formed from a part of his breast, and she was a
decided improvement on her sister. All the giddy girls
in the world are descended from the woman who was made
from Adam's tail.
Adam's excuse for eating of the forbidden fruit, "She gave me of the
tree and I did eat," is said to be thus ingeniously explained by the
learned Rabbis: By giving him of the _tree_ is meant that Eve took a
stout crab-tree cudgel, and gave her husband (in plain English) a sound
rib-roasting, until he complied with her will!--The lifetime of Adam,
according to the Book of Genesis, ch. v, 5, was nine hundred and thirty
years, for which the following legend (reproduced by the Muslim
traditionists) satisfactorily accounts: The Lord showed to Adam every
future generation, with their heads, sages, and scribes.[60] He saw that
David was destined to live only three hours, and said: "Lord and Creator
of the world, is this unalterably fixed?" The Lord answered: "It was my
original design." "How many years shall I live?" "One thousand." "Are
grants known in heaven?" "Certainly." "I grant then seventy years of my
life to David." What did Adam therefore do? He gave a written grant, set
his seal to it, and the same was done by the Lord and Metatron.
[60] You and I, good reader, must therefore have been seen by
the Father of Mankind.
The body of Adam was taken into the ark by Noah, and when at last it
grounded on the summit of Mount Ararat [which it certainly never did!],
Noah and his three sons removed the body, "and they followed an angel,
who led them to a place where the First Father was to lie. Shem (or
Melchizidek, for they are one), being consecrated by God to the
priesthood, performed the religious rites, and buried Adam at the centre
of the earth, which is Jerusalem. But some say he was buried by Shem,
along with Eve in the cave of Machpelah in Hebron; others relate that
Noah on leaving the ark distributed the bones of Adam among his sons,
and that he gave the head to Shem, who buried it in Jerusalem."[61]
[61] _Legends of Old Testament Characters_, by S.
Baring-Gould, vol. i, pp. 78, 79.
_Cain and Abel._
The Hebrew commentators are not agreed regarding the cause of Cain's
enmity towards his brother Abel. According to one tradition, Cain and
Abel divided the whole world between them, one taking the moveable and
the other the immoveable possessions. One day Cain said to his brother:
"The earth on which thou standest is mine; therefore betake thyself to
the air." Abel rejoined: "The garment which thou dost wear is mine;
therefore take it off." From this there arose a conflict between them,
which resulted in Abel's death. Rabbi Huna teaches, however, that they
contended for a twin sister of Abel; the latter claimed her because she
was born along with him, while Cain pleaded his right of primogeniture.
After Adam's first-born had taken his brother's life, the sheep-dog of
Abel faithfully guarded his master's corpse from the attacks of beasts
and birds of prey. Adam and Eve also sat near the body of their pious
son, weeping bitterly, and not knowing how to dispose of his lifeless
clay. At length a raven, whose mate had lately died, said to itself: "I
will go and show to Adam what he must do with his son's body," and
accordingly scooped a hole in the ground and laid the dead raven
therein, and covered it with earth. This having been observed by Adam,
he likewise buried the body of Abel. For this service rendered to our
great progenitor, we are told, the Deity rewarded the raven, and no one
is allowed to injure its young: "they have food in abundance, and their
cry for rain is always heard."[62]
[62] The Muhammedan legend informs us that Cain was
afterwards slain by the blood-avenging angel. But the
Jewish traditionists say that God was at length moved by
Cain's contrition and placed on his brow a seal, which
indicated that the fratricide was fully pardoned. Adam
happened to meet him, and observing the seal on his
forehead, asked him how he had turned aside the wrath of
God. He replied: "By confession of my sin and sincere
repentance." On hearing this Adam exclaimed, beating his
breast: "Woe is me! Is the virtue of repentance so great
and I knew it not?"
_The Planting of the Vine._
When Noah planted the vine, say the Rabbis, Satan slew a sheep, a lion,
an ape, and a sow, and buried the carcases under it; and hence the four
stages from sobriety to absolute drunkenness: Before a man begins to
drink, he is meek and innocent as a lamb, and as a sheep in the hand of
the shearer is dumb; when he has drank enough, he is fearless as a lion,
and says there is no one like him in the world; in the next stage, he is
like an ape, and dances, jests, and talks nonsense, knowing not what he
is doing and saying; when thoroughly drunken, he wallows in the mire
like a sow.[63] To this legend Chaucer evidently alludes in the Prologue
to the Maniciple's Tale:
I trow that ye have dronken _wine of ape_,
And that is when men plaien at a strawe.
[63] A garbled version of this legend is found in the Latin
_Gesta Romanorum_ (it does not occur in the Anglican
versions edited by Sir F. Madden for the Roxburghe Club,
and by Mr. S. J. Herrtage for the Early English Text
Society), Tale 179, as follows: "Josephus, in his work
on 'The Causes of Things,' says that Noah discovered the
vine in a wood, and because it was bitter he took the
blood of four animals, viz., of a lion, a lamb, a pig,
and a monkey. This mixture he united with earth and made
a kind of manure, which he deposited at the roots of the
trees. Thus the blood sweetened the fruit, with the
juice of which he afterwards intoxicated himself, and
lying naked was derided by his youngest son."
_Luminous Jewels._
Readers of that most fascinating collection of Eastern tales, commonly
but improperly called the _Arabian Nights' Entertainments_, must be
familiar with the remarkable property there ascribed to certain gems, of
furnishing light in the absence of the sun. Possibly the Arabians
adopted this notion from the Rabbis, in whose legends jewels are
frequently represented as possessing the light-giving property. For
example, we learn that Noah and his family, while in the ark, had no
light besides what was obtained from diamonds and other precious stones.
And Abraham, who, it appears, was extremely jealous of his wives, built
for them an enchanted city, of which the walls were so high as to shut
out the light of the sun; an inconvenience which he easily remedied by
means of a large basin full of rubies and other jewels, which shed forth
a flood of light equal in brilliancy to that of the sun itself.[64]
[64] Luminous jewels figure frequently in Eastern tales, and
within recent years, from experiments and observations,
the phosphorescence of the diamond, sapphire, ruby, and
topaz has been fully established.
_Abraham's Arrival in Egypt._
When Abraham journeyed to Egypt he had among his _impedimenta_ a large
chest. On reaching the gates of the capital the customs officials
demanded the usual duties. Abraham begged them to name the sum without
troubling themselves to open the chest. They demanded to be paid the
duty on clothes. "I will pay for clothes," said the patriarch, with an
alacrity which aroused the suspicions of the officials, who then
insisted upon being paid the duty on silk. "I will pay for silk," said
Abraham. Hereupon the officials demanded the duty on gold, and Abraham
readily offered to pay the amount. Then they surmised that the chest
contained jewels, but Abraham was quite as willing to pay the higher
duty on gems, and now the curiosity of the officials could be no longer
restrained. They broke open the chest, when, lo, their eyes were dazzled
with the lustrous beauty of Sarah! Abraham, it seems, had adopted this
plan for smuggling his lovely wife into the Egyptian dominions.
_The Infamous Citizens of Sodom._
Some of the rabbinical legends descriptive of the singular customs of
the infamous citizens of Sodom are exceedingly amusing--or amazing. The
judges of that city are represented as notorious liars and mockers of
justice. When a man had cut off the ear of his neighbour's ass, the
judge said to the owner: "Let him have the ass till the ear is grown
again, that it may be returned to thee as thou wishest." The hospitality
shown by the citizens to strangers within their gates was of a very
peculiar kind. They had a particular bed for the weary traveller who
entered their city and desired shelter for the night. If he was found to
be too long for the bed, they reduced him to the proper size by chopping
off so much of his legs; and if he was shorter than the bed, he was
stretched to the requisite length.[65] To preserve their reputation for
hospitality, when a stranger arrived each citizen was required to give
him a coin with his name written on it, after which the unfortunate
traveller was refused food, and as soon as he had died of hunger every
man took back his own money. It was a capital offence for any one to
supply the stranger with food, in proof of which it is recorded that a
poor man, having arrived in Sodom, was presented with money and refused
food by all to whom he made his wants known. It chanced that, as he lay
by the roadside almost starved to death, he was observed by one of Lot's
daughters, who had compassion on him, and supplied him with food for
many days, as she went to draw water for her father's household. The
citizens, marvelling at the man's tenacity of life, set a person to
watch him, and Lot's daughter being discovered bringing him bread, she
was condemned to death by burning. Another kind-hearted maiden who had
in like manner relieved the wants of a stranger, was punished in a still
more dreadful manner, being smeared over with honey, and stung to death
by bees.
[65] Did the Talmudist borrow this story from the Greek
legend of the famous robber of Attica, Procrustes, who
is said to have treated unlucky travellers after the
same barbarous fashion?
It may be naturally supposed that travellers who were acquainted with
the peculiar ways of the citizens of Sodom would either pass by that
city without entering its inhospitable gates, or, if compelled by
business to go into the town, would previously provide themselves with
food; but even this last precaution did not avail them against the wiles
of those wicked people: A man from Elam, journeying to a place beyond
Sodom, reached the infamous city about sunset. The stranger had with him
an ass, bearing a valuable saddle to which was strapped a large bale of
merchandise. Being refused a lodging by each citizen of whom he asked
the favour, our traveller made a virtue of necessity, and determined to
pass the night, along with his animal and his goods, as best he might,
in the streets. His preparations with this view were observed by a
cunning and treacherous citizen, named Hidud, who came up, and,
accosting him courteously, desired to know whence he had come and
whither he was bound. The stranger answered that he had come from
Hebron, and was journeying to such a place; that, being refused shelter
by everybody, he was preparing to pass the night in the streets; and
that he was provided with bread for his own use and with fodder for his
beast. Upon this Hidud invited the stranger to his house, assuring him
that his lodging should cost him nothing, while the wants of his beast
should not be forgotten. The stranger accepted of Hidud's proffered
hospitality, and when they came to his house the citizen relieved the
ass of the saddle and merchandise, and carefully placed them for
security in his private closet. He then led the ass into his stable and
amply supplied him with provender; and returning to the house, he set
food before his guest, who, having supped, retired to rest. Early in the
morning the stranger arose, intending to resume his journey, but his
host first pressed him to partake of breakfast, and afterwards persuaded
him to remain at his house for two days. On the morning of the third day
our traveller would no longer delay his departure, and Hidud therefore
brought out his beast, saying kindly to his guest: "Fare thee well."
"Hold!" said the traveller. "Where is my beautiful saddle of many
colours and the strings attached thereto, together with my bale of rich
merchandise?" "What sayest thou?" exclaimed Hidud, in a tone of
surprise. The stranger repeated his demand for his saddle and goods.
"Ah," said Hidud, affably, "I will interpret thy dream: the strings that
thou hast dreamt of indicate length of days to thee; and the
many-coloured saddle of thy dream signifies that thou shalt become the
owner of a beauteous garden of odorous flowers and rich fruit trees."
"Nay," returned the stranger, "I certainly entrusted to thy care a
saddle and merchandise, and thou hast concealed them in thy house."
"Well," said Hidud, "I have told thee the meaning of thy dream. My usual
fee for interpreting a dream is four pieces of silver, but, as thou hast
been my guest, I will only ask three pieces of thee." On hearing this
very unjust demand the stranger was naturally enraged, and he accused
Hidud in the court of Sodom of stealing his property. After each had
stated his case, the judge decreed that the stranger must pay Hidud's
fee, since he was well known as a professional interpreter of dreams.
Hidud then said to the stranger: "As thou hast proved thyself such a
liar, I must not only be paid my usual fee of four pieces of silver, but
also the value of the two days' food with which I provided thee in my
house." "I will cheerfully pay thee for the food," rejoined the
traveller, "on condition that thou restore my saddle and merchandise."
Upon this the litigants began to abuse each other and were thrust into
the street, where the citizens, siding with Hidud, soundly beat the
unlucky stranger, and then expelled him from the city.
Abraham once sent his servant Eliezer to Sodom with his compliments to
Lot and his family, and to inquire concerning their welfare. As Eliezer
entered Sodom he saw a citizen beating a stranger, whom he had robbed of
his property. "Shame upon thee!" exclaimed Eliezer to the citizen. "Is
this the way you act towards strangers?" To this remonstrance the man
replied by picking up a stone and striking Eliezer with it on the
forehead with such force as to cause the blood to flow down his face. On
seeing the blood the citizen caught hold of Eliezer and demanded to be
paid his fee for having freed him of impure blood. "What!" said Eliezer,
"am I to pay thee for wounding me?" "Such is our law," returned the
citizen. Eliezer refused to pay, and the man brought him before the
judge, to whom he made his complaint. The judge then decreed: "Thou must
pay this man his fee, since he has let thy blood; such is our law."
"There, then," said Eliezer, striking the judge with a stone, and
causing him to bleed, "pay my fee to this man, I want it not," and then
departed from the court.[66]
[66] There are two Italian stories which bear some
resemblance to this queer legend: In the fourth novel of
Arienti an advocate is fined for striking his opponent
in court, and "takes his change" by repeating the
offence; and in the second novel of Sozzini, Scacazzone,
after dining sumptuously at an inn, and learning from
the waiter that the law of that town imposed a fine of
ten livres for a blow on the face, provokes the landlord
so that he gets a slap from him on the cheek, upon which
he tells Boniface to pay himself out of the fine he
should have had to pay for the blow if charged before
the magistrate, and give the rest of the money to the
waiter.--A similar story is told in an Arabian
collection, of a half-witted fellow and the kází.
_Abraham and Ishmael's Wife._
Hagar, the handmaid of Sarah, was given as a slave to Abraham, by her
father, Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who said: "My daughter had better be a
slave in the house of Abraham than mistress in any other house." Her son
Ishmael, it is said, took unto himself a wife of the daughters of Moab.
Three years afterwards Abraham set out to visit his son, having solemnly
promised Sarah (who, it thus appears, was still jealous of her former
handmaid) that he would not alight from his camel. He reached Ishmael's
house about noontide, and found his wife alone. "Where is Ishmael?"
inquired the patriarch. "He is gone into the wilderness with his mother
to gather dates and other fruits." "Give me, I pray thee, a little bread
and water, for I am fatigued with travelling." "I have neither bread nor
water," rejoined the inhospitable matron. "Well," said the patriarch,
"tell Ishmael when he comes home that an old man came to see him, and
recommends him to change the door-post of his house, for it is not
worthy of him." On Ishmael's return she gave him the message, from which
he at once understood that the stranger was his father, and that he did
not approve of his wife. Accordingly he sent her back to her own people,
and Hagar procured him a wife from her father's house. Her name was
Fatima.
Another period of three years having elapsed, Abraham again resolved to
visit his son; and having, as before, pledged his word to Sarah that he
would not alight at Ishmael's house, he began his journey. When he
arrived at his son's domicile he found Fatima alone, Ishmael being
abroad, as on the occasion of his previous visit. But from Fatima he
received every attention, albeit she knew not that he was her husband's
father. Highly gratified with Fatima's hospitality, the patriarch called
down blessings upon Ishmael, and returned home. Fatima duly informed
Ishmael of what had happened in his absence, and then he knew that
Abraham still loved him as his son.
This is one of the few rabbinical legends regarding Biblical characters
which do not exceed the limits of probability; and I confess I can see
no reason why these interesting incidents should be considered as purely
imaginary. As a rule, however, the Talmudic legends of this kind must be
taken not only _cum grano salis_, but with a whole bushel of that most
necessary commodity, particularly such marvellous relations as that of
Rabbi Jehoshua, when he informs us that the "ram caught in a thicket,"
which served as a substitute for sacrifice when Abraham was prepared to
offer up his son Isaac, was brought by an angel out of Paradise, where
it pastured under the Tree of Life and drank from the brook which flows
beneath it. This creature, the Rabbi adds, diffused its perfume
throughout the world.[67]
[67] The commentators on the Kurán have adopted this legend.
But according to the Kurán it was not Isaac, but
Ishmael, the great progenitor of the Arabs, who was to
be sacrificed by Abraham.
_Joseph and Potiphar's Wife._
The story of Joseph and Potiphar's wife, as related in the Book of
Genesis, finds parallels in the popular tales and legends of many
countries: the vengeance of "woman whose love is scorned," says a Hindú
writer, "is worse than poison"! But the rabbinical version is quite
unique in representing the wife of Potiphar as having aiders and
abettors in carrying out her scheme of revenge: For some days after the
pious young Israelite had declined her amorous overtures, she looked so
ill that her female friends inquired of her the cause, and having told
them of her adventure with Joseph, they said: "Accuse him before thy
husband, that he may be cast into prison." She desired them to accuse
him likewise to their husbands, which they did accordingly; and their
husbands went before Pharaoh and complained of Joseph's misconduct
towards their wives.[68]
[68] Commentators on the Kurán inform us that when Joseph was
released from prison, after so satisfactorily
interpreting Pharaoh's two dreams, Potiphar was degraded
from his high office. One day, while Joseph was riding
out to inspect a granary beyond the city, he observed a
beggar-woman in the street, whose whole appearance,
though most distressing, bore distinct traces of former
greatness. Joseph approached her compassionately, and
held out to her a handful of gold. But she refused it,
and said aloud: "Great prophet of Allah, I am unworthy
of this gift, although my transgression has been the
stepping-stone to thy present fortune." At these words
Joseph regarded her more closely, and, behold, it was
Zulaykhá, the wife of his lord. He inquired after her
husband, and was told that he had died of sorrow and
poverty soon after his deposition. On hearing this,
Joseph led Zulaykhá to a relative of the king, by whom
she was treated like a sister, and she soon appeared to
him as blooming as at the time of his entrance into her
house. He asked her hand of the king, and married her,
with his permission.
Zulaykhá was the name of Potiphar's wife, if we may
believe Muhammedan legends, and the daughter of the king
of Maghrab (or Marocco), who gave her in marriage to the
grand vazír of the king of Egypt, and the beauteous
princess was disgusted to find him, not only very old,
but, as a modest English writer puts it, very mildly,
"belonged to that unhappy class which a practice of
immemorial antiquity in the East excluded from the
pleasures of love and the hope of posterity." This
device of representing Potiphar as being what Byron
styles "a neutral personage" was, of course, adopted by
Muslim traditionists and poets in order to "white-wash"
the frail Zulaykhá.--There are extant many Persian and
Turkish poems on the "loves" of _Yúsuf wa Zulaykhá_,
most of them having a mystical signification, and that
by the celebrated Persian poet Jámí is universally
considered as by far the best.
_Joseph and his Brethren._
Wonderful stories are related of Joseph and his brethren. Simeon, if we
may credit the Talmudists, must have been quite a Hercules in strength.
The Biblical narrative of Simeon's detention by his brother Joseph is
brief but most expressive: "And he turned himself about from them and
wept; and returned to them again, and communed with them, and took from
them Simeon, and bound him before their eyes."[69] The Talmudists
condescend more minutely regarding this interesting incident: When
Joseph ordered seventy valiant men to put Simeon in chains, they had no
sooner approached him than he roared so loud that all the seventy fell
down at his feet and broke their teeth! Joseph then said to his son
Manasseh: "Chain thou him"; whereupon Manasseh dealt Simeon a single
blow and immediately overpowered him; upon which Simeon exclaimed:
"Surely this was the blow of a kinsman!"--When Joseph sent Benjamin to
prison, Judah cried so loud that Chushim, the son of Dan, heard him in
Canaan and responded. Joseph feared for his life, for Judah was so
enraged that he wept blood. Some say that Judah wore five garments, one
over the other; but when he was angry his heart swelled so much that his
five garments burst open. Joseph cried so terribly that one of the
pillars of his house fell in and was changed into sand. Then Judah said:
"He is valiant, like one of us."
[69] Gen. xlii, 24.--It does not appear from the sacred
narrative why Joseph selected his brother Simeon as
hostage. Possibly Simeon was most eager for his death,
before he was cast into the dry well and then sold to
the Ishmaelites; and indeed both he and his brother Levi
seem to have been "a bad lot," judging from the dying
Jacob's description of them, Gen. xlix, 5-7.
_Jacob's Sorrow._
But like a gem, among a heap of rubbish is the touching little story of
how the news of Joseph's being alive and the viceroy of Egypt was
conveyed to the aged and sorrow-stricken Jacob. When the brethren had
returned to the land of Canaan, after their second expedition, they were
perplexed how to communicate to their father the joyful intelligence
that his long-lamented son still lived, fearing it might have a fatal
effect on the old man if suddenly told to him. At length Serach, the
daughter of Asher, proposed that she should convey the tidings to her
grandfather in a song. Accordingly she took her harp, and sang to Jacob
the whole story of Joseph's life and his present greatness, and her
music soothed his spirit; and when he fully realised that his son was
yet alive, he fervently blessed her, and she was taken into Paradise,
without tasting of death.[70]
[70] "Jacob's grief" is proverbial in Muslim countries. In
the Kurán, _sura_ xii, it is stated that the patriarch
became totally blind through constant weeping for the
loss of Joseph, and that his sight was restored by means
of Joseph's garment, which the governor of Egypt sent by
his brethren.--In the _Makamat_ of Al-Harírí, the
celebrated Arabian poet (A.D. 1054-1122), Harith bin
Hamman is represented as saying that he passed a night
of "Jacobean sorrow," and another imaginary character is
said to have "wept more than Jacob when he lost his
son."
_Moses and Pharaoh._
The slaughter of the Hebrew male children by the cruel command of the
"Pharoah who knew not Joseph" was a precaution adopted, we are informed
by the Rabbis, in consequence of a dream which that monarch had, of an
aged man who held a balance in his right hand; in one scale he placed
all the sages and nobles of Egypt, and in the other a little lamb, which
weighed down them all. In the morning Pharaoh told his strange dream to
his counsellors, who were greatly terrified, and Bi'lam, the son of
Beor, the magician, said: "This dream, O King, forebodes great
affliction, which one of the children of Israel will bring upon Egypt."
The king asked the soothsayer whether this threatened evil might not be
avoided. "There is but one way of averting the calamity--cause every
male child of Hebrew parents to be slain at birth." Pharaoh approved of
this advice, and issued an edict accordingly. The Egyptian monarch's
kind-hearted daughter (whose name, by the way, was Bathia), who rescued
the infant Moses from the common fate of the Hebrew male children, was a
leper, and consequently was not permitted to use the warm baths. But no
sooner had she stretched forth her hand to the crying infant than she
was healed of her leprosy, and, moreover, afterwards admitted bodily
into Paradise.[71]
[71] Muslims say that Pharaoh's seven daughters were all
lepers, and that Bathia's sisters, as well as herself,
were cured through her saving the infant Moses.
According to the Hebrew traditionists, nine human beings
entered Paradise without having tasted of death, viz.:
Enoch; Messiah; Elias; Eliezer, the servant of Abraham;
the servant of the king of Kush; Hiram, king of Tyre;
Jaabez, the son of the Prince, and the Rabbi, Juda;
Serach, the daughter of Asher; and Bathia, the daughter
of Pharaoh.
The last of the race of genuine Dublin ballad-singers,
who rejoiced in the _nom de guerre_ of "Zozimus" (ob.
1846), used to edify his street patrons with a slightly
different reading of the romantic story of the finding
of Moses in the bulrushes, which has the merit of
striking originality, to say the least:
In Egypt's land, upon the banks of Nile,
King Pharaoh's daughter went to bathe in style;
She tuk her dip, then went unto the land,
And, to dry her royal pelt, she ran along the strand.
A bulrush tripped her, whereupon she saw
A smiling babby in a wad of straw;
She tuk it up, and said, in accents mild,
"_Tare an' agers, gyurls, which av yez owns this child?_"
The story of the finding of Moses has its parallels in
almost every country--in the Greek and Roman legends of
Perseus, Cyrus, and Romulus--in Indian, Persian, and
Arabian tales--and a Babylonian analogue is given, as
follows, by the Rev. A. H. Sayce, in the _Folk-Lore
Journal_ for 1883: "Sargon, the mighty monarch, the king
of Agané, am I. My mother was a princess; my father I
knew not. My father's brother loved the mountain land.
In the city of Azipiranu, which on the bank of the
Euphrates lies, my mother, the princess, conceived me;
in an inacessible spot she brought me forth. She placed
me in a basket of rushes; with bitumen the door of my
ark she closed. She launched me on the river, which
drowned me not. The river bore me along; to Akki, the
irrigator, it brought me. Akki, the irrigator, in the
tenderness of his heart, lifted me up. Then Akki, the
irrigator, as his gardener appointed me, and in my
gardenership the goddess Istar loved me. For forty-five
years the kingdom I have ruled, and the black-headed
(Akkadian) race have governed."
Of the childhood of Moses a curious story is told to account for his
being in after life "slow of speech and slow of tongue": Pharaoh was one
day seated in his banqueting hall, with his queen at his right hand and
Bathia at his left, and around him were his two sons, Bi'lam, the chief
soothsayer, and other dignitaries of his court, when he took little
Moses (then three years old) upon his knee, and began to fondle him. The
Hebrew urchin stretched forth his hand and took the kingly crown from
Pharaoh's brow and deliberately placed it upon his own head. To the
monarch and his courtiers this action of the child was ominous, and
Pharaoh inquired of his counsellors how, in their judgment, the
audacious little Hebrew should be punished. Bi'lam, the sooth-sayer,
answered: "Do not suppose, O King, that this is necessarily the
thoughtless action of a child; recollect thy dream which I did interpret
for thee. But let us prove whether this child is possessed of
understanding beyond his years, in this manner: let two plates, one
containing fire, the other gold, be placed before the child; and if he
grasp the gold, then is he of superior understanding, and should
therefore be put to death." The plates, as proposed by the soothsayer,
were placed before the child Moses, who immediately seized upon the
fire, and put it into his mouth, which caused him henceforward to
stammer in his speech.
It was no easy matter for Moses and his brother to gain access to
Pharaoh, for his palace had 400 gates, 100 on each side; and before each
gate stood no fewer than 60,000 tried warriors. Therefore the angel
Gabriel introduced them by another way, and when Pharaoh beheld Moses
and Aaron he demanded to know who had admitted them. He summoned the
guards, and ordered some of them to be beaten and others to be put to
death. But next day Moses and Aaron returned, and the guards, when
called in, exclaimed: "These men are sorcerers, for they cannot have
come in through any of the gates." There were, however, much more
formidable guardians of the royal palace: the 400 gates were guarded by
bears, lions, and other ferocious beasts, who suffered no one to pass
unless they were fed with flesh. But when Moses and Aaron came, they
gathered about them, and licked the feet of the prophets, accompanying
them to Pharaoh.--Readers who are familiar with the _Thousand and One
Nights_ and other Asiatic story-books will recollect many tales in which
palaces are similarly guarded. In the spurious "Canterbury" _Tale of
Beryn_ (taken from the first part of the old French romance of the
Chevalier Berinus), which has been re-edited for the Chaucer Society,
the palace-garden of Duke Isope is guarded by eight necromancers who
look like "abominabill wormys, enough to frighte the hertiest man on
erth," also by a white lion that had eaten five hundred men.