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 colour 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 labour.”
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 laboured 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 meantime had seized on the throne,
threatened them with death, and Saleh, obliged to fly to save his life,
had only time to speak this 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]
Footnote 275:
Koran, Sura xxvi. v. 153.
Footnote 276:
Ibid. xi. v. 67.
Footnote 277:
Tabari, i. c. xlv.
Footnote 278:
Weil, pp. 48-61; Abulfeda, p. 21.
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 chose
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]
Footnote 279:
Pirke of Rabbi Eliezer, c. xi.
Footnote 280:
Ibid. c. xxiv.
Footnote 281:
Ibid. c. xi.
Footnote 282:
Targums, ed. Etheridge, i. p. 187.
Footnote 283:
Bechaji, Comm. in 1 Mos. xi.; Pirke of R. Eliezer, c. xi.; Talmud,
Sanhedrim, 109a; Targums, i. pp. 189-90, &c.
Footnote 284:
Talmud, Sanhedrim; see also the history of Nimrod in Yaschar, pp.
1107-8.
Footnote 285:
Herbelot, s. v. Nimroud.
Footnote 286:
Hist. Dynast., p. 12.
Footnote 287:
Mémoires conc. les Chinois, i. p. 213.
Footnote 288:
Euseb., Præp. Ev., ix. 14; Cory, Ancient Fragments, pp. 34-50.
Footnote 289:
George Syncellus, Bibl. Græc., v. p. 178.
Footnote 290:
Euseb., Præp. Ev., ix. 17.
Footnote 291:
Mos. Chorene, i. 9.
Footnote 292:
Müller, Glauben u. Wissen. d. Hindus; Mainz, 1822, i. p. 303.
Footnote 293:
Allgem. Hist. d. Reisen, vi. p. 602.
Footnote 294:
Luken, p. 287; Amerikanische Urreligionen, p. 517, &c.
Footnote 295:
Humboldt, Ansichten d. Cordilleren, i. p. 42.
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 meantime 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.
After seventy thousand male children had thus perished, the angels of
heaven turned to the All Mighty, and besought Him with tears to stay
this cruel murder of innocents.
“I slumber not, I sleep not,” God answered. “Ye shall see that this
atrocity shall not pass unpunished.”
Shortly after, Terah’s wife was pregnant; she concealed her situation as
long as was possible, pretending that she was ill; but when she could
conceal it no more, the infant crept behind her breasts, so that she
appeared to every eye as if nothing were about to take place.
When the time came for her delivery, she went in fear out of the city,
and wandered in the desert till she lighted on a cave, into which she
entered. Next morning she was delivered of a son, Abraham, whose face
shone, so that the grotto was as light as though the sun were casting a
golden beam into it. She wrapped the child in a mantle, and left it
there to the custody of God and His angels, and returned home. God heard
the cry of the weeping infant, and He sent His angel Gabriel to the
cave, who let the child suck milk out of his fore-finger. But according
to another account he opened two holes in the cave, from which dropped
oil and flour to nourish Abraham. Others, however, say that Terah
visited the cave every day, and nursed and fed the child.
According to the Arab tradition, which follows the Jewish in most
particulars, the mother, on visiting the cave, found the infant sucking
its two thumbs. Now out of one of its thumbs flowed milk, and out of the
other, honey, and thus the babe nourished itself: or, say others, from
one finger flowed water when he sucked it; from a second, milk; from a
third, honey; from a fourth, the juice of dates; and from the little
finger, butter.[297]
When Abraham had been in the cave, according to some, three years,
according to others ten, and according to others thirteen, he left the
cavern and stood on the face of the desert. And when he saw the sun
shining in all its glory, he was filled with wonder, and he thought,
“Surely the sun is God the Creator!” and he knelt down and worshipped
the sun. But when evening came, the sun went down in the west, and
Abraham said, “No! the Author of creation cannot set.” Now the moon
arose in the east, and the stars looked out of the firmament. Then said
Abraham, “This moon must indeed be God, and all the stars are His host!”
And kneeling down he adored the moon.
But after some hours of darkness the moon set, and from the east
appeared once more the bright face of the sun. Then said Abraham,
“Verily these heavenly bodies are no gods, for they obey law: I will
worship Him who imposed the law upon them.”
The Arab story is this. When Abraham came out of the cave, he saw a
number of flocks and herds, and he said to his mother, “Who is lord of
these?” She answered, “Your father Azar (Terah).” “And who is the lord
of Azar?” he further asked. She replied, “Nimrod.” “And who is the lord
of Nimrod?” “Oh, hush, my son,” said she, striking him on the mouth;
“you must not push your questions so far.” But it was by following this
train of thought that Abraham arrived at the knowledge of the one true
God.
Another Rabbinical story is, that Abraham was only ten days in the cave
after his birth, and then he was able to walk, and he left it. But his
mother, who visited the grotto, finding him gone, was a prey to anguish
and fear.
Wandering along the bank of the river, searching for her child, she met
Abraham, but did not recognize him, as he had grown tall; and she asked
him if he had seen a little baby anywhere.
“I am he whom you seek,” answered Abraham.
“Is this possible!” exclaimed the mother. “Could you grow to such a
height, and be able to walk and talk, in ten days?”
“Yes, mother,” answered the youthful prodigy; “all this has taken place
that you might know that there is but one living and true God who made
heaven and earth, who dwells in heaven and fills the earth with His
goodness.”
“What!” asked Amtelai, “is there another god besides Nimrod?”
“By all means,” replied the infant son; “there is a God in heaven, who
is also the God who made Nimrod. Now go to Nimrod and announce this to
him.”
Abraham’s mother related all this to her husband, who bore the message
to the king. Nimrod, greatly alarmed, consulted his council what was to
be done with the boy.[298]
The council replied that he had nothing to fear from an infant of ten
days,—he, the king and god of the world! But Nimrod was not satisfied.
Then Satan, putting on a black robe, mingled with the advisers of the
monarch and said, “Let the king open his arsenal, arm all his troops,
and march against this precocious infant.” This advice fell in
completely with Nimrod’s own personal fears, and his army was marched
against the baby. But when Abraham saw the host drawn up in battle
array, he cried to heaven with many tears, and Gabriel came to his
succour, enveloped the infant in clouds, and snatched him from the sight
of those who came against him; and they, frightened at the cloud and
darkness, fled precipitately to Babylon.
Abraham followed them on the shoulders of Gabriel, and reaching the
gates of the city in an instant of time, he cried, “The Eternal One is
the true and only God, and none other is like Him! He is the God of
heaven, God of gods and Lord of Nimrod! Be convinced of this, all ye
men, women and children who dwell here, even as I am Abraham, his
servant.” Then he sought his parents, and bade Terah go and fulfil his
command to Nimrod.
Terah went accordingly, and announced to the king that his son, whom the
army had been unable to capture, had, in a brief space of time,
traversed a country across which was forty days’ journey.
Nimrod quaked, and consulted his princes, who advised him to institute a
festival of seven days, during which every subject and dweller on the
face of the earth was to make a pilgrimage to his palace, and there to
worship and adore him.
In the meantime Nimrod, being very curious to see Abraham, ordered Terah
to bring him into his royal presence. The child entered the throne-room
boldly, and going to the foot of the steps which led to the throne, he
exclaimed: “Woe to thee, accursed Nimrod, blasphemer of God!
Acknowledge, O Nimrod, that the true God is without body, everlasting,
never slumbering nor sleeping; acknowledge that He created the world,
that all men may believe in Him likewise!”
At the same moment all the idols in the palace fell, and the king rolled
from his throne in convulsions, and remained in a fit for two hours.
When he came to himself again, he said to Abraham, “Was that thy voice,
or was it the voice of God?”
Abraham answered, “It was the voice of the meanest of His creatures.”
“Then your God must be great and mighty, and a King of kings.”