Page:Apocryphal Gospels and Other Documents Relating to the History of Christ.djvu/294

178 the child and his mother, and go into Egypt. Therefore he arose at cock-crowing and departed.

he considered with himself how his journey should be performed, morning overtook him after he had made but very little way. And now he was approaching a great city wherein was an idol to which the remaining idols and divinities of the Egyptians offered gifts and vows; and a priest attended on this idol ministering to it, and as often as Satan spoke by the idol, he reported it to the inhabitants of Egypt and its borders. This priest had a son of three years old, possessed by certain demons, who said and told much, and when the demons seized him, he rent his garments and remained naked and threw stones at men. And there was an hospital in that city, dedicated to the idol; and when Joseph and lady Mary came thither, and tarried at the hospital, the citizens were greatly afraid, and all the princes and priests of idols came to the idol and said, What is this agitation and commotion which hath arisen in our land? The idol answered them: There cometh hither a God in secret, who truly is a God, neither is any God beside him worthy of worship, because he is truly the Son of God. When this land became aware of