Bayle relates this legend in his account of Lamech as follows:
"There is a common tradition that Lamech, who had been a great
lover of hunting, continued the sport even when, by reason of
his great age, he was almost blind. He took with him his son,
Tubal-Cain, who not only served him as a guide, but also
directed him where and when he ought to shoot at the beast. One
day, as Cain was hid among the thickets, Lamech's guide seeing
something move in that place, gave him notice of it; whereupon
Lamech shot an arrow, and slew Cain. He was extremely concerned
at it, and beat his guide so much as to leave him dead upon the
place."
One of the frescos of the Campo Santo at Pisa gives the whole subject,
from the offering of Abel's and Cain's sacrifice, to the death of the
young man {363} by the hand of Lamech, painted by Pietre da Orvieto
about 1390. In one corner of the fresco, Cain is depicted as a wild and
shaggy figure, crouched in a thicket, at which Lamech, at the suggestion
of his guide, shoots an arrow. Below, the homicide is represented as
murdering the cause of his error by blows on the head inflicted with his
bow.