According to him, she was sent in mockery by Zeus to be a scourge to
man:—
“The Sire who rules the earth and sways the pole
Had spoken; laughter filled his secret soul:
He bade the crippled god his hest obey,
And mould with tempering water plastic clay;
With human nerve and human voice invest
The limbs elastic, and the breathing breast;
Fair as the blooming goddesses above,
A virgin likeness with the looks of love.
He bade Minerva teach the skill that sheds
A thousand colours in the glittering threads;
He called the magic of love’s golden queen
To breathe around a witchery of mien,
And eager passion’s never-sated flame,
And cares of dress that prey upon the frame;
Bade Hermes last endue, with craft refined
Of treacherous manners, and a shameless mind.”[54]
That Eve was Adam’s second wife was a common Rabbinic speculation;
certain of the commentators on Genesis having adopted this view to
account for the double account of the creation of woman in the sacred
text,—first in Genesis i. 27, and secondly in Genesis ii. 18; and they
say that Adam’s first wife was named Lilith, but she was expelled from
Eden, and after her expulsion Eve was created.
Abraham Ecchellensis gives the following account of Lilith, and her
doings:—“There are some who do not regard spectres as simple devils, but
suppose them to be of a mixed nature, part demoniacal, part human, and
to have had their origin from Lilith, Adam’s first wife, by Eblis, the
prince of the devils. This fable has been transmitted to the Arabs from
Jewish sources, by some converts of Mahomet from Cabbalism and
Rabbinism, who have transferred all the Jewish fooleries to the Arabs.
They gave to Adam a wife, formed of clay, along with Adam, and called
her Lilith; resting on the Scripture, ‘_male and female created He
them_:’[55] but when this woman, on account of her simultaneous creation
with him, became proud and a vexation to her husband, God expelled her
from Paradise, and then said, ‘_It is not good that the man should be
alone; I will make him a help meet for him._’[56] And this they confirm
by the words of Adam when he saw the woman fashioned from his rib,
‘_This is now bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh_,’[57] which is as
much as to say, Now God has given me a wife and companion, suitable for
me, taken from my bone and flesh, but the other wife he gave me was not
of my bone and flesh, and therefore was not a suitable companion and
wife for me.
“But Lilith, after she was expelled from Paradise, is said to have
married the Devil, by whom she had children, who are called Jins. These
were endued with six qualities, of which they share three with men, and
three with devils. Like men, they generate in their own likeness, eat
food, and die. Like devils, they are winged, and they fly where they
list with great velocity; they are invisible, and they can pass through
solid substances without injuring them. This race of Jins is supposed to
be less noxious to men, and indeed to live in some familiarity and
friendship with them, as in part sharers of their nature. The author of
the history and acts of Alexander of Macedon relates, that in a certain
region of India, on certain hours of the day, the young Jins assume a
human form, and appear openly and play games with the native children of
human parents quite familiarly.”[58]
It must not be supposed that women, as they are now, are at all
comparable to Eve in her pristine beauty; on this point the Talmud says:
“All women in respect of Sarah are like monkeys in respect of men. But
Sarah can no more be compared to Eve than can a monkey be compared with
a man. In like manner it may be said, if any comparison could be drawn
between Eve and Adam, she stood to him in the same relation of beauty as
does a monkey to a man; but if you were to compare Adam with God, Adam
would be the monkey, and God the man.”[59]
Literary ladies may point to the primal mother as the first authoress;
for a Gospel of Eve existed in the times of S. Epiphanius, who mentions
it as being in repute among the Gnostics.[60] And the Mussulmans
attribute to her a volume of Prophecies which were written at her
dictation by the Angel Raphael.[61]
All ladies will be glad to learn that there is a tradition, Manichean,
it is true, and anathematized by S. Clement, which nevertheless contains
a large element of truth; it is to this effect, that Adam, when made,
was like a beast, coarse, rude, and inanimate, but that from Eve he
received his upright position, his polish, and his spirituality.[62]
Footnote 37:
It is unfortunate that I have already written on the myths relating to
the formation of Eve in “Curiosities of Olden Times.” I would
therefore have omitted a chapter which must repeat what has been
already published, but that by so doing I should leave this work
imperfect. However, there is much in this chapter which was not in the
article referred to.
Footnote 38:
Rabboth, fol. 20 b.
Footnote 39:
Eisenmenger, i. 830.
Footnote 40:
Weil, pp. 17, 18.
Footnote 41:
Tabari, i. c. xxvi.
Footnote 42:
Talmud, Tract Berachoth, f. 61; Bartolocci, Bibl. Rabbin., iv. p. 66.
Footnote 43:
Bartolocci, Bibl. Rabbin., iv. p. 67.
Footnote 44:
Ibid., iii. p. 395.
Footnote 45:
Bartolocci, Bibl. Rabbin., iii. p. 396; Eisenmenger, t. i. p. 365.
Footnote 46:
Bhagavat, iii. 12, 51.
Footnote 47:
Colebrooke, Miscell. Essays, p. i. 64.
Footnote 48:
Bun-dehesch, p. 377.
Footnote 49:
Bartolocci, Bibl. Rabbin., iv. p. 465.
Footnote 50:
Mendez Pinto, Voyages, ii. p. 178.
Footnote 51:
Bhagavat, iii. 12, 25.
Footnote 52:
Bhagavat, iv. 15, 27.
Footnote 53:
Ovid, Metamorph., x. 7.
Footnote 54:
Hesiod, Works and Days, 61-79.
Footnote 55:
Gen. i. 27.
Footnote 56:
Gen. ii. 18.
Footnote 57:
Gen. ii. 23.
Footnote 58:
Abraham Ecchellensis. Hist. Arabum, p. 268.
Footnote 59:
Talmud, Tract. Bava Bathra.
Footnote 60:
S. Epiphan. Hæres., xxvi.
Footnote 61:
Tho. Bangius, Cœlum Orientis, p. 103.
Footnote 62:
S. Clementi Recog., c. iv.
IV.
THE FALL OF MAN.
What was the tree of which our first parents were forbidden to eat? In
Midrash, f. 7, the Rabbi Mayer says it was a wheat-tree; the Rabbi
Jehuda, that it was a grape-vine; the Rabbi Aba, that it was a
Paradise-apple; the Rabbi Josse, that it was a fig-tree: therefore it
was that, when driven out of Paradise, they used its leaves for a
covering.
The Persian story, adopted by the Arabs, is that the forbidden fruit was
wheat, and that it grew on a tree whose trunk resembled gold and its
branches silver. Each branch bore five shining ears, and each ear
contained five grains as big as the eggs of an ostrich, as fragrant as
musk, and as sweet as honey. The people of Southern America suppose it
was the banana, whose fibres form the cross, and they say that thus, in
it, Adam discovered the mystery of the Redemption. The inhabitants of
the island of St. Vincent think it was the tobacco plant. But, according
to an Iroquois legend, the great mother of the human race lost heaven
for a pot of bears’ grease.[63] The story is as follows:—The first men
living alone were,
“By the viewless winds,
Blown with resistless violence round about
The pendant world.”
Fearing the extinction of their race, and having learnt that a woman
dwelt somewhere in the heavens, they deputed one of their number to seek
her out. This messenger of mankind was borne to the skies on the wings
of assembled birds; and then watched at the foot of a tree till the
woman came forth to draw water from a neighbouring well. On her approach
he addressed her, offered her bears’ fat, and then seduced her. The
Deity perceiving her shame, in His anger thrust her out of heaven. The
tortoise received her on his back; and from the depths of the sea the
fish brought clay, and thus gradually built up an island on which the
universal mother brought forth her first twins.
According to the traditions of the Lamaic faith, the first men lived to
the age of sixty thousand years.[64] They were invisibly nourished, and
were able to raise themselves at will to the heavens. In this age of the
world the transmigration of souls was universal,—all men were twice
born; and in this age it was that the thousand gods settled themselves
in heaven. In an unlucky hour the earth produced a honey-sweet
substance: one of the men lusted after it, tasted and gave to his
companions; the consequence was, that men lost the power of rising from
off the earth, their size, and their wisdom, and were obliged to satisfy
themselves with food produced by the soil.
The Nepaul account of the beginning of sin is as follows: “Originally,”
says one of the Tantras, “the earth was uninhabited. In those times the
inhabitants of Abhaswara, one of the heavenly mansions, used frequently
to visit the earth, and thence speedily return. It happened at length
that when a few of these beings, who though half male, half female,
through the innocence of their minds had never noticed their distinction
of sex, came as usual to the earth, Adi Buddha suddenly created in them
so violent a longing to eat, that they ate some of the earth, which had
the taste of almonds; and by eating it they lost their power of flying
back to their heaven, and so they remained on the earth. They were now
constrained to eat the fruits of the earth for sustenance.”[65]
According to the Cinghalese, the Brahmas inhabited the higher regions of
the air, where they enjoyed perfect happiness. “But it came to pass that
one of them beholding the earth said to himself, What thing is this? and
with one of his fingers having touched the earth, he put it to the tip
of his tongue, and perceived the same to be deliciously sweet; from that
time all the Brahmas ate of the sweet earth for the space of sixty
thousand years. In the meantime, having coveted in their hearts the
enjoyment of this earth, they began to say to one another, This part is
mine and that is thine; and so, fixing boundaries to their respective
shares, divided the earth between them. On account of the Brahmas having
been guilty of covetousness, the earth lost its sweetness, and then
brought forth a kind of mushroom,” which the Brahmas also coveted and
divided, and of which they were also deprived; and thus they proceeded
from food to food, till their nature was changed, and from spirits they
became men, imbibed wicked ideas, and lost their ancient glory.[66]
According to the Chinese, man is part spirit, part animal. The spirit
follows the laws of Heaven, as a disciple his master; the animal, on the
other hand, is the slave of sense. At his origin, man obeyed the
heavens; his first state was one of innocence and happiness; he knew
neither disease nor death; he was by instinct wholly good and spiritual.
But the immoderate desire to be wise, or, according to Lao-tsee, to eat,
was the ruin of mankind.[67]
According to the Persian faith, the father of man had heaven for his
destiny, but he must be humble of heart, pure of thought, of word and of
deed, not invoking the Divs: and such in the beginning were the thoughts
and acts of our first parents.
First they said, “It is Ormuzd (God) who has given the water, the earth,
the trees, and the beasts of the field, and the stars, the moon, the
sun, and all things pure.” But Ahriman (Satan) arose, and rushed upon
their thoughts and said to them, “It is Ahriman who has given these
things to you.” Thus Ahriman deceived them, and to the end will deceive.
To this lie they gave credence and became Darvands, and their souls were
condemned till the great resurrection of the body. During thirty days
they feasted and covered themselves with black garments. After thirty
days they went to the chase; and they found a white goat, and with their
lips they drew off her milk, and drank her milk and were glad. “We have
tasted nothing like to this milk,” said our first parents, Meschia and
Meschiane; “the milk we have drunk was pleasant to the taste,” but it
was an evil thing to their bodies.
“Then the Div, the liar, grown more bold, presented himself a second
time, and brought with him fruit of which they ate; and of a hundred
excellences they before possessed, they now retained not one. And after
thirty days and nights they found a white and fat sheep, and they cut
off its left ear; and they fired a tree, and with their breath raised
the fire to a flame; and they burned part of the branches of that tree,
then of the tree khorma, and afterwards of the myrtle; and they roasted
the sheep, and divided it into three portions: and of the two which they
did not eat, one was carried to heaven by the bird Kehrkas.
“Afterwards they feasted on the flesh of a dog, and they clothed
themselves in its skin. They gave themselves up to the chase, and with
the furs of wild beasts they covered their bodies.
“And Meschia and Meschiane digged a hole in the earth, and they found
iron, and the iron they beat with a stone; and they made for themselves
an axe, and they struck at the roots of a tree, and they felled the tree
and arranged its branches into a hut; and to God they gave no thanks;
and the Divs took heart.
“And Meschia and Meschiane became enemies, and struck and wounded each
other and separated; then from out of the place of darkness the chief of
the Divs was heard to cry aloud: O man, worship the Divs! And the Div of
Hate sat upon his throne. And Meschia approached and drew milk from the
bull, and sprinkled it towards the north, and the Divs became strong.
But during fifty winters, Meschia and Meschiane lived apart; and after
that time they met, and Meschiane bare twins.”[68]
The story told by the Mussulmans is as follows:—
Adam and Eve lived for five hundred years in Paradise before they ate of
the tree and fell; for Eblis was outside, and could not enter the gates
to deceive them.
For five hundred years Eblis sought admission, but the angel Ridhwan
warned him off with his flaming sword.
One day the peacock came through the gates of Paradise. This bird with
the feathers of emeralds and pearls was not only the most beautiful
creature God had made, but it had also been endowed with a sweet and
clear voice, wherewith it daily sang the praises of God in the highways
of Eden.
This beautiful bird, thought Eblis, when he saw it, is surely vain, and
will listen to the voice of flattery.
Thereupon he addressed it as a stranger, beyond the hearing of Ridhwan.
“Most beautiful of all birds, do you belong to the denizens of
Paradise?”
“Certainly,” answered the peacock. “And who are you who look from side
to side in fear and trembling?”
“I belong to the Cherubim who praise God night and day, and I have
slipped out of their ranks without being observed, that I might take a
glimpse of the Paradise God has prepared for the saints. Will you hide
me under your feathers, and show me the garden?”
“How shall I do that which may draw down on me God’s disfavour?” asked
the peacock.
“Magnificent creature! take me with you. I will teach you three words
which will save you from sickness, old age, and death.”
“Must then the dwellers in Paradise die?”
“All, without exception, who know not these three words.”
“Is this the truth?”
“By God the Almighty it is so.”
The peacock believed the oath, for it could not suppose that a creature
would swear a false oath by its Creator. But, as it feared that Ridhwan
would search it on its return through the gates, it hesitated to take
Eblis with it, but promised to send the cunning serpent out, who would
certainly devise a means of introducing Eblis into the garden.
The serpent was formerly queen of all creatures. She had a head like
rubies, and eyes like emeralds. Her height was that of a camel, and the
most beautiful colours adorned her skin, and her hair and face were
those of a beautiful maiden. She was fragrant as musk and amber; her
food was saffron; sweet hymns of praise were uttered by her melodious
tongues; she slept by the waters of the heavenly river Kaulhar; she had
been created a thousand years before man, and was Eve’s favourite
companion.
This beautiful and wise creature, thought the peacock, will desire more
even than myself to possess perpetual youth and health, and will gladly
admit the cherub for the sake of hearing the three words. The bird was
not mistaken; as soon as it had told the story, the serpent exclaimed:
“What! shall I grow old and die? Shall my beautiful face become
wrinkled, my eyes close, and my body dissolve into dust? Never! rather
will I brave Ridhwan’s anger and introduce the cherub.”
The serpent accordingly glided out of the gates of Paradise, and bade
Eblis tell her what he had told the peacock.
“How shall I bring you unobserved into Paradise?” asked the serpent.
“I will make myself so small that I can sit in the nick between your
front teeth,” answered the fallen angel.[69]
“But how then can I answer when Ridhwan addresses me?”
“Fear not. I will whisper holy names, at which Ridhwan will keep
silence.”
The serpent thereupon opened her mouth, Eblis flew in and seated himself
between her teeth, and by so doing poisoned them for all eternity.
When she had passed Ridhwan in security, the serpent opened her mouth
and asked Eblis to take her with him to the highest heaven, where she
might behold the majesty of God.
Eblis answered that he was not ready to leave yet, but that he desired
to speak to Adam out of her mouth, and to this she consented, fearing
Ridhwan, and greatly desiring to hear and learn the three salutary
words. Having reached Eve’s tent, Eblis uttered a deep sigh—it was the
first that had been heard in Eden, and it was caused by envy.
“Why are you so disquieted, gentle serpent?” asked Eve.
“I am troubled for Adam’s future,” answered the evil spirit, affecting
the voice of the serpent.
“What! have we not all that can be desired in this garden of God?”
“That is true; but the noblest fruit of the garden, the only one
securing to you perfect happiness, is denied to your lips.”
“Have we not abundance of fruit of every colour and flavour—only one is
forbidden?”
“And if you knew why that one is forbidden, you would find little
pleasure in tasting the others.”
“Do you know?”
“I do, and for that reason am I so cast down. This fruit alone gives
eternal youth and health, whereas all the others give weakness, disease,
old age and death, which is the cessation of life with all its joys.”
“Why, dearest serpent, did you never tell me of this before? Whence know
you these things?”
“An angel told me this as I lay under the forbidden tree.”
“I must also see him,” said Eve, leaving her tent and going towards the
tree.
At this moment Eblis flew out of the serpent’s mouth, and stood in human
form beneath the tree.
“Who art thou, wondrous being, the like of whom I have not seen before?”
asked Eve.
“I am a man who have become an angel.”
“And how didst thou become an angel?”
“By eating of this fruit,” answered the tempter,—“this fruit which is
denied us through the envy of God. I dared to break His command as I
grew old and feeble, and my eyes waxed dim, my ears dull, and my teeth
fell out, so that I could neither speak plainly nor enjoy my food; my
hands shook, my feet tottered, my head was bent upon my breast, my back
was bowed, and I became so hideous that all the beasts of the garden
fled from me in fear. Then I sighed for death, and hoping to find it in
the fruit of this tree, I ate, and lo! instantly I was young again;
though a thousand years had elapsed since I was made, they had fled with
all their traces, and I enjoy perpetual health and youth and beauty.”
“Do you speak the truth?” asked Eve.
“I swear by God who made me.”
Eve believed this oath, and broke a branch from the wheat-tree.
Before the Fall, wheat grew to a tree with leaves like emeralds. The
ears were red as rubies and the grains white as snow, sweet as honey,
and fragrant as musk. Eve ate one of the grains and found it more
delicious than anything she had hitherto tasted, so she gave a second
grain to Adam. Adam resisted at first, according to some authorities for
a whole hour, but an hour in Paradise was eighty years of our earthly
reckoning. But when he saw that Eve remained well and cheerful, he
yielded to her persuasions, and ate of the second grain which Eve had
offered him daily, three times a day, during the hour of eighty years.
Thereupon all Adam’s heaven-given raiment fell from him, his crown
slipped off his head, his rings dropped from his fingers, his silken
garment glided like water from his shoulders, and he and Eve were naked
and unadorned, and their fallen garments reproached them with the words,
“Great is your misfortune; long will be your sorrows; we were created to
adorn those who serve God; farewell till the resurrection!”
The throne recoiled from them and exclaimed, “Depart from me, ye
disobedient ones!” The horse Meimun, which Adam sought to mount, plunged
and refused to allow him to touch it, saying, “How hast thou kept God’s
covenant?” All the inhabitants of Paradise turned their backs on the
pair, and prayed God to remove the man and the woman from the midst of
them.
God himself addressed Adam with a voice of thunder, saying, “Did not I
forbid thee to touch of this fruit, and caution thee against the
subtlety of thy foe, Eblis?” Adam and Eve tried to fly these reproaches,
but the branches of the tree Talh caught Adam, and Eve entangled herself
in her long hair.
“From the wrath of God there is no escape,” cried a voice from the tree
Talh; “obey the commandment of God.”
“Depart from Paradise,” then spake God, “thou Adam, thy wife, and the
animals which led you into sin. The earth shall be your abode; in the
sweat of thy brow shalt thou find food; the produce of earth shall cause
envy and contention; Eve (Hava) shall be afflicted with a variety of
strange affections, and shall bring forth offspring in pain. The peacock
shall lose its melodious voice, and the serpent its feet; dark and
noisome shall be the den in which the serpent shall dwell, dust shall be
its meat, and its destruction shall be a meritorious work. Eblis shall
be cast into the torments of hell.”
Our parents were then driven out of Paradise, and one leaf alone was
given to each, wherewith to hide their nakedness. Adam was expelled
through the gate of Repentance, that he might know that through it alone
could Paradise be regained; Eve was banished through the gate of Grace;
the peacock and the serpent through that of Wrath, and Eblis through the
gate of Damnation. Adam fell into the island Serendib (Ceylon), Eve at
Jedda, the Serpent into the desert of Sahara, the Peacock into Persia,
and Eblis into the river Eila.[70]
Tabari says that when the forbidden wheat had entered the belly of Adam
and Eve, all the skin came off, except from the ends of the fingers. Now
this skin had been pink and horny, so that they had been invulnerable in
Paradise, and they were left naked and with a tender skin which could
easily be lacerated; but, as often as Adam and Eve looked on their
fingernails, they remembered what skin they had worn in Eden.[71]
Tabari also says that four trees pitying the shame of Adam and Eve, the
Peacock, and the Serpent, in being driven naked out of Paradise, bowed
their branches and gave each a leaf.
Certain Rabbis say that Adam ate only on compulsion, that he refused,
but Eve “took of the tree,”—that is, broke a branch and “gave it him,”
with the stick.
According to the Talmudic book, Emek Hammelech (f. 23, col. 3), Eve, on
eating the fruit, felt in herself the poison of Jezer hara, or Original
sin, and resolved that Adam should not be without it also; she made him
eat and then forced the fruit on the animals, that they might all,
without exception, fall under the same condemnation, and become subject
to death. But the bird Chol—that is, the Phœnix—would not be deceived,
but flew away and would not eat. And now the Phœnix, says the Rabbi
Joden after the Rabbi Simeon, lives a thousand years, then shrivels up
till it is the size of an egg, and then from himself he emerges young
and beautiful again.
We have seen what are the Asiatic myths relating to Adam and Eve; let us
now turn to Africa. In Egypt it was related that Osiris lived with Isis
his sister and wife in Nysa, or Paradise, which was situated in Arabia.
This Paradise was an island, surrounded by the stream Triton, but it was
also a steep mountain that could only be reached on one side. It was
adorned with beautiful flowers and trees laden with pleasant fruits,
watered by sweet streams, and in it dwelt the deathless ones.