which Saleh had foretold, they knew that their end was near. The first
day they became ash pale, the second day coal black, and the third day
red as fire, and then there came a sound from heaven, and all fell dead
on the earth, save Saleh and those who believed in him; these heard the
sound, but did not perish.
By the will of God, when the people were destroyed, one man was absent
at Mecca; the name of this man was Abou-Ghalib. When he knew what had
befallen his nation, he took up his residence in Mecca; but all the
rest perished, as it is written in the Koran, “In the morning they were
found dead in their houses, stretched upon the ground, as though they
had never dwelt there.”
From Saleh to Abraham there was no prophet. At the time of that
patriarch there was no king over all the earth. The sovereignty had
passed to Canaan, the son of Cush, the son of Ham, who was the son of
Noah.[277]
The camel of the prophet Saleh was placed by Mohammed in the heavens,
together with the ass of Balaam, and other favored animals.
Now wonderful as is this story, it is surpassed by that related by
certain Arabic historians of the mission of Saleh. This we proceed to
give.
Djundu Ibn Omar was king of the Thamudites, a people numbering seventy
thousand fighting men. He had a palace cut out of the face of a rock,
and his high priest, Kanuch Ibn Abid, had one likewise. The most
magnificent building in the city was a temple which contained the idol
worshipped by the people. This idol had the head of a man, the neck of
a bull, the body of a lion, and the feet of a horse. It was fashioned
out of pure gold, and was studded with jewels.
One day, as Kanuch, the high priest, was worshipping in the temple, he
fell asleep, and heard a voice cry, “The truth will appear, and the
madness will pass away.” He started to his feet in alarm, and saw the
idol prostrate on the floor, and its crown had fallen from its head.
Kanuch cried out for assistance, and fled to the king, who sent men to
set up the image, and replace on its head the crown that had fallen
from it.
But doubt took possession of the heart of Kanuch; he no longer
addressed the image in prayer, and his enthusiasm was at an end. The
king observed this, and sent two vizirs with orders to imprison and
execute him. But Allah struck the vizirs with blindness, and he sent
two angels to transport Kanuch to a well-shaded grotto, well supplied
with all that could content the heart of man.
As Kanuch was nowhere to be found, the king appointed his kinsman Davud
to be high priest. But on the third day he came to the king to announce
to him that the idol was again prostrate.
The monarch set it up once more, and Eblis, entering the image, spoke
through its mouth, exhorting all men to beware of novel doctrines which
were about to be introduced.
Next feast-day Davud was about to sacrifice two oxen to the idol, when
one of them opened its mouth, and thus addressed him:--
“Will you sacrifice creatures endued with life by the living God to a
mass of lifeless metal? O God, do thou destroy this sinful nation!” And
the oxen broke their halters, and ran away.
Horsemen were deputed to pursue and capture them, but they escaped, for
Allah screened them.
But God in his mercy resolved to give the Thamudites another chance of
repenting of their idolatry.
Raghwah, Kanuch’s wife, had shed incessant tears since the
disappearance of her husband. Allah despatched a bird out of Paradise
to guide her to the grotto of Kanuch.
This bird was a raven; its head was white as snow, its back was green
as emerald. Its feet were purple; its beak of heaven’s blue. Its eyes
were gems; only its body was black, for this bird did not fall under
the curse of Noah, as it was in Paradise.
It was midnight when the raven entered Raghwah’s dark chamber, where
she lay weeping on a carpet; but the glory of its eyes illumined the
whole room, as though the sun had suddenly flashed into it. Raghwah
rose from her place, and gazed in wonder on the lovely bird, which
opened its beak and said, “Arise and follow me! God has seen thy tears,
and will reunite thee to thy husband.”
Raghwah followed the raven, which flew before her, and with the light
of its eyes turned the night into day. The morning star had not risen,
when they stood before Kanuch’s grot. Then cried the raven, “Kanuch,
open to thy wife!” and so vanished.
Nine months after that Raghwah had rejoined her husband, she bore him
a son, who was the image of Seth, and had on his brow the prophetic
light; and Kanuch, in the hope of drawing him to the knowledge of the
true God and to a pious life, gave him the name of Saleh (The Blessed).
Not long after Saleh’s birth, Kanuch died; and the raven of Paradise
returned to the grotto to lead back Saleh to his own people.
Saleh grew in beauty and strength, to the admiration of his mother and
all who saw him.
A war was being waged between the descendants of Ham and the
Thamudites, and the latter had lost many battles and a large portion
of their army, when Saleh suddenly appeared in the battle-field at the
head of a few friends, and, by his personal heroism, turned the tide of
victory, and routed the enemy.
This success drew upon him the gratitude and love of the people,
but the envy of the king was kindled, and he sought the life of the
young prophet. But as often as assassins were sent by the king to
take his life, their arms shrivelled up, and were only restored by
the intercession of Saleh. These circumstances tended to increase and
confirm the number of his adherents, so that he was able to build a
mosque, and occupy with worshippers of the true God one whole quarter
of the city.
But one day the king surrounded the mosque with his troops, and
threatened Saleh and his followers with death if they would not work a
miracle to prove their worship to be the true one.
Saleh prayed, and instantly the leaves of the date-tree that stood
before the mosque were transformed into serpents and scorpions, which
fell over the king and his soldiers; whilst two doves, which dwelt
on the terrace of the mosque, sang aloud, “Believe in Saleh, he is a
prophet and messenger of God!”
But Saleh was moved with compassion when he saw the anguish of those
who had been bitten by the scorpions and vipers, and he prayed to God,
and the noxious reptiles were transformed back again into date-leaves,
and those who had been stung were made whole. Nevertheless the king
hardened his heart, and continued to worship false gods.
When Saleh saw the impenitence of the Thamudites, he besought God to
destroy them; but an angel appeared to him in a cave, and sent him to
sleep for twenty years.
When he awoke he betook himself towards the mosque he had built, never
doubting that he had slept but a single night. The mosque was gone,
his friends and adherents were dead or dispersed, a few remained, but
they were old, and he hardly recognized them. Falling into despair, the
angel Gabriel came to him and said,--
“Thou wert hasty in desiring the destruction of this people, therefore
God hath withdrawn from thy life twenty years, which He has taken from
thee in sleep. Now He sends thee precious relics wherewith to establish
thy mission, to wit, Adam’s shirt, Abel’s sandals, Seth’s overcoat,
Enoch’s seal ring, Noah’s sword, and Hud’s staff.”
Next day, as the king Djundu with his brother Schihab, and the priests
and the princes of the people formed a procession to an idol temple
near the town, Saleh ran before the procession entered the temple, and
stood in the door.
“Who art thou?” asked the king in astonishment: for he did not
recognize Saleh, so greatly had God changed him in his sleep of twenty
years.
He answered: “I am Saleh, the messenger of the only God, who preached
to you twenty years ago, and showed to you many signs and wonders, but
you would not believe. And now once more I appear unto you to give you
a proof of my mission. Ask what miracle I shall perform and it shall be
done.”
Then the king said, “Bring me here out of the rock a camel one hundred
ells long, of every color under the sun, whose eyes are like lightning,
and whose feet are swifter than the wind.”
Saleh consented. Then said Davud, “Let its fore feet be golden and its
hinder feet silver, its head of emerald and its ears of ruby. Let it
bear on its hump a tent of silver, woven with gold threads and adorned
with pearls, resting on four pillars of diamonds!”
When Saleh agreed to this also, the king added, “And let it bring with
it a foal like to its mother, just born, and running by her side; then
will I believe in Allah, and in thee as His prophet.”
“And wilt thou believe too?” asked Saleh of the high priest.
“Yes,” answered Davud, “if she give milk without being milked, cold in
summer and warm in winter.”
“And one thing more,” threw in the king’s brother, Schihab, “the milk
must heal the sick, enrich the poor, and the camel must of its own
accord go into every house, and fill the pails with milk.”
“Be it according to your will,” said Saleh. “But I warn you,--no one
must injure the camel, deprive it of its food or drink, attempt to ride
it, or use it for any other kind of labor.”
When they consented, Saleh prayed to God, and the earth opened under
his feet and a well of fragrant water gushed up, and poured over the
rock, and the rock was rent, and the camel started forth in every
particular such as the king and his high priest had desired. So they
cried, “There is no God but God, and Saleh is his prophet.”
Then the angel Gabriel came down from heaven, having in his hand a
flaming sword, wherewith he touched the camel, and she bore instantly a
foal like her parent.
Then the king fell on Saleh’s neck, and kissed him and believed. But
his brother Schihab and Davud attributed all that had been done to
magic, and they labored to convince the people that the camel was the
work of necromancy.
But as daily the camel gave her milk, and, whenever she drank, said her
grace with formality, the number of true believers increased daily,
and the high priest and all the chiefs of the infidels resolved on
her destruction. Schihab, the king’s brother, hoping to overturn the
king and take his place, by adhering to the established religion and
ignoring all novelties, was resolute in his resistance to the true
religion. Therefore he promised his daughter Rajan in marriage to
whosoever should kill the wondrous camel.
Now there was a young man of humble origin, named Kaddar, who had long
loved the maiden, but had never ventured to show his passion; he armed
himself with a great sword and attacked the camel as it was drinking,
in the rear, and wounded it in the hock.
Instantly all nature uttered a piercing cry. Then the youth, filled
with compunction, ran to the top of a mountain, and cried, “God’s curse
on you, ye sinful people!”
Saleh betook himself with the king, who would not be separated from
him, into the town, and demanded the punishment of Kaddar and his
accomplices. But Schihab, who in the mean time had seized on the
throne, threatened them with death, and Saleh, obliged to fly to save
his life, had only time to speak his threat, “Three days are given you
for repentance; after that ye shall be slain.”
Next day every man’s face was yellow as the leaves in autumn, and
wherever the wounded camel limped a spring of blood bubbled out of the
soil.
On the second day the faces of all were blood-red, and on the third
they were coal-black.
Towards evening the camel spread a pair of scarlet wings and flew away,
and then mountains of fire were rained from heaven on the city, by the
hands of angels; and the keepers of the fire beneath the earth opened
vents, and blew fire from below in the form of flaming camels.
When the sun went down, all that remained of the Thamudites was a heap
of ashes.
Saleh alone, and the king Djundu, were saved.[278]
XXIII.
THE TOWER OF BABEL.
First we will take Jewish traditions, and then Mahommedan legends. The
Rabbis relate as follows:--
After the times of the great Deluge, men feared a recurrence of that
great overthrow, and they assembled on and inhabited the plain of
Shinar. There, they no longer obeyed the gentle guidance of Shem, the
son of Noah; but they cast the kingdom of God far from them, and choose
as their sovereign, Nimrod, son of Cush, son of Ham.[279] Nimrod became
very great in power. Having been born when his father was old, he was
dearly beloved, and every whim had been gratified. Cush gave him the
garment which God made for Adam when he was expelled from Paradise, and
which Adam had given to Enoch, and Enoch to Methuselah, and Methuselah
had left to Noah, and which Noah had taken with him into the ark. Ham
stole it from his father in the ark, concealed it, and gave it to
his son Cush. Nimrod, vested in this garment, was unconquerable and
irresistible.[280] All beasts and birds fell down before him, and his
enemies were overcome almost without a struggle.
It was thus that he triumphed over the king of Babylon. His kingdom
rapidly extended, and he became daily more powerful, till at last he
was sole monarch over the whole world.[281]
Nimrod rejected God as his ruler; he trusted in his own might,
therefore it is said of him, “He was mighty in hunting, and in sin
before the Lord; for he was a hunter of the sons of men in their
languages. And he said to them, Leave the judgments of Shem, and adhere
to the judgments of Nimrod.”[282]
But Nimrod was uneasy in his mind, and he feared lest some one should
arise who would be empowered by God to overthrow him; therefore he said
to his subjects, “Come, let us build a great city, and let us settle
therein, that we may not be scattered over the face of the earth, and
be destroyed once more by a flood. And in the midst of our city let us
build a high tower, so lofty as to overtop any flood, and so strong as
to resist any fire. Yea, let us do further, let us prop up the heaven
on all sides from the top of the tower, that it may not again fall and
inundate us. Then let us climb up into heaven, and break it up with
axes, and drain its water away where it can do no injury. Thus shall we
avenge the death of our ancestors. And at the summit of our tower we
will place an image of our god with a sword in his hand, and he shall
fight for us. Thus shall we obtain a great name, and reign over the
universe.”
Even if all were not inspired with the same presumption, yet all saw in
the tower a means of refuge from a future deluge; and therefore they
readily fell in with the proposal of the king. Six hundred thousand
men were set to work under a thousand captains, and raised the tower
to the height of seventy miles (_i. e._, fifty-six English miles). A
great flight of stairs on the east side was used by those carrying up
material, and a flight on the west side served those who descended,
having deposited their burdens. If a workman fell down and was killed,
no one heeded; but if any of the bricks gave way, there was an outcry.
Some shot arrows into the sky, and they came down tinged with blood,
then they shouted and cried, “See, we have killed every one who is in
heaven.”[283] Curiously enough a similar story is told by the Chinese
of one of their earlier monarchs, who thought himself so great that he
might war against heaven. He shot an arrow into the sky, and a drop of
blood fell. “So,” said he, “I have killed God!”
At this time Abraham was forty-eight. He was filled with grief and
shame at the impiety of his fellow-men, and he prayed to God, “_O Lord!
confound their tongues, for I have spied unrighteousness and strife in
the city!_”
Then the Lord called the seventy angels who surround His throne, that
they should confuse the language of the builders, so that none should
understand the other.
The angels came down, and cast confusion among the subjects of Nimrod,
and seventy distinct languages sprang up, and the men could not
understand each other; so they separated from one another, and were
spread over the surface of the earth. The tower itself was destroyed in
part. It was in three portions: the upper story was destroyed by fire
from heaven, the basement was overthrown by an earthquake, only the
middle story was left intact,--how, we are not informed.[284]
We will now take the Mussulman tradition. Nimrod, who, according to the
Arabs, was the son of Canaan, and brother of Cush, sons of Ham, having
cast Abraham, who refused to acknowledge him as supreme monarch of the
world, into a burning, fiery furnace, from which he issued unhurt, said
to his courtiers, “I will go to heaven and see this God whom Abraham
preaches, and who protects him.”
His wise men having represented to him that heaven is very high, Nimrod
ordered the erection of a tower, by which he might reach it. For three
years an immense multitude of workmen toiled at the erection of this
tower. Every day Nimrod ascended it and looked up, but the sky seemed
to him as distant from the summit of his tower as it had from the level
ground.
One morning he found his tower cast down. But Nimrod was not to be
defeated so easily. He ordered a firmer foundation to be laid, and a
second tower was constructed; but however high it was built, the sky
remained inaccessible. Then Nimrod resolved on reaching heaven in
another fashion. He had a large box made, and to the four corners he
attached gigantic birds of the species Roc. They bore Nimrod high into
the air, and then fluttered here and fluttered there, and finally upset
the box, and tumbled him on the top of a mountain, which he cracked by
his fall, without however materially injuring himself.
But Nimrod was not penitent, nor ready to submit to the Most High,
therefore God confounded the language of his subjects, and thus rent
from him a large portion of his kingdom.[285]
God sent a wind, says Abulfaraj, which overthrew the Tower of Babel and
buried Nimrod under its ruins.[286]
Of Babel we find fewer traditions preserved amongst the ancient
nations, than we did of the Deluge.
The Zendavesta makes no mention of such an event; and it is equally
unknown to the Chinese books, though curiously enough, in Chinese
hieroglyphics, the _tower_ is the symbol of _separation_.[287]
The Chaldeans, however, says Abydessus, probably quoting Berosus, the
priest of Bel, related, “That the first inhabitants of the earth,
glorying in their own strength and size, and despising the gods,
undertook to raise a tower whose top should reach the sky in the place
where Babylon now stands; but when it approached the heavens, the
winds assisted the gods, and overthrew the work of the contrivers; and
its ruins are said to be still in Babylon; and the gods introduced a
diversity of tongues among men, who till that time had all spoken the
same language; and a war arose between Kronos and Titan. The place on
which they built the tower is now called Babylon.”[288]
Alexander Polyhistor relates the events as follows, and quotes the
Sibyl. “The Sibyl says, when all men had one speech, they built a great
tower in order to climb into heaven, but the gods blowing against it
with the winds, threw it down, and confounded the language of the
builders, therefore the city is called Babylon.”[289] The writings of
this Sibyl, commonly called the Chaldean Sibyl, formed part of the
sacred scriptures of the Babylonians. Eupolemus, quoting apparently
Syro-phœnician traditions, relates the matter somewhat differently.
“The city Babylon,” says he, “was built after the Deluge by those who
were saved. But they were giants, and they built the famous tower
then. But when this was overthrown by the will of the gods, the giants
were scattered over the whole face of the earth.”[290] The Armenian
tradition recorded by Moses of Chorene, is to this effect: “From them
(_i. e._, from the first dwellers on the earth) sprang the race of the
giants, with strong bodies and of huge size. Full of pride and envy,
they formed the godless resolve to build a high tower. But whilst they
were engaged on the undertaking, a fearful wind overthrew it, which the
wrath of God had sent against it, and unknown words were at the same
time blown about among men, wherefore arose strife and contention.”[291]
The Hindu story of the confusion of tongues and the separation of
nations is not connected with the erection of a tower, but with the
pride of the Tree of Knowledge, or the world tree. This tree grew in
the centre of the earth, and its head was in heaven. It said in its
heart, I shall hold my head in heaven, and spread my branches over all
the earth, and gather all men together under my shadow and protect
them, and prevent them from separating. But Brahm, to punish the pride
of the tree, cut off its branches and cast them down on the earth,
where they sprang up as Wata trees, and made differences of belief and
speech and customs to prevail in the earth, to disperse men over its
surface.[292]
The Dutch traveller, Hamel van Gorcum, found a tradition of the Tower
of Babel, in the seventeenth century, in the Korea, in the midst of
a sect which had not adopted Buddhism, but which retained much of
the old primitive Schamanism of the race. They said, “That formerly
all men spake the same language, but, after building a great tower,
wherewith they attempted to invade heaven, they fell into confusion of
tongues.”[293]
The Mexican story was, that after the Deluge the sole survivors Coxcox
and Chichequetzl engendered many children who were born dumb, but one
day received the gift of speech from a dove, which came and perched
itself on a lofty tree: but the dove did not communicate to them the
same language, so they separated in fifteen companies. And Gemelli
Carreri and Clavigero describe an ancient Mexican painting representing
the dove with thirty-three tongues, answering to the languages and
dialects he taught.[294]
At Cholula they related that Xelhuaz began to build a tower on Mount
Tlalok to commemorate his having been saved along with his brothers
from the Flood. And the tower he built in the form of a pyramid. The
clay was baked into bricks in the province of Tlamanalco, at the foot
of the Sierra Cocotl, and to bring them to Cholula a row of men was
placed, that the bricks might be passed from hand to hand. The gods
saw this building, whose top reached the clouds, with anger and dismay,
and sent fire from heaven, and destroyed the tower.[295]
XXIV.
ABRAHAM.[296]
1. HIS YOUTH AND EARLY STRUGGLES.
Abraham or Abram, as he was first called, was the son of Terah, general
of Nimrod’s army, and Amtelai, daughter of Carnebo. He was born at Ur
of the Chaldees, in the year 1948 after the Creation.
On the night on which Abraham was born, Terah’s friends, amongst whom
were many councillors and soothsayers of Nimrod, were feasting in the
house. On leaving, late at night, they observed an unusual star in the
east; it seemed to run from one quarter of the heavens to another,
and to devour four stars which were there. All gazed in astonishment
on this wondrous sight. “Truly,” said they, “this can signify nothing
else but that Terah’s new-born son will become great and powerful, will
conquer the whole realm, and dethrone great princes, and seize on their
possessions.”
Next morning they hastened to the king, to announce to him what they
had seen, and what was their interpretation of the vision, and to
advise the slaughter of the young child, and that Terah should be
compensated with a liberal sum of money.
Nimrod accordingly sent gold and silver to Terah, and asked his son in
exchange, but Terah refused. Then the king sent and threatened to burn
down and utterly destroy the whole house of Terah, unless the child
were surrendered. In the mean time one of the female slaves had born a
son; this Terah gave to the royal officers, who, supposing it to be the
son of the householder, brought it before Nimrod and slew it.
Then, to secure Abraham, Terah concealed him and his mother and nurse
in a cave.
But there is another version of the story, and it is as follows:--
Nimrod had long read in the stars that a child would be born who would
oppose his power and his religion, and would finally overcome both.
Acting on the advice of his wise men, he built a house, sixty ells high
and eighty ells broad, into which all pregnant women were brought to be
delivered, and the nurses were instructed to put to death all the boys
that were born, but to make handsome presents to the mothers who were
brought to bed of daughters.