Page:Edmund Dulac's picture-book for the French Red cross.djvu/188

JUSEF AND ASENATH 'Go thou into thy cellar,' said the angel, 'and thou wilt find a honeycomb.'

Wondering, she went to the cellar, and found a honeycomb there upon the table. It was as white as snow and had the combined fragrance of all the flowers that bloom on hillside and plain. And she returned to him with the honeycomb, saying, 'My lord, as thou spakest, so it was, and the fragrance of it is as the breath of thy presence.'

'Blessed art thou,' said the angel, laying his hand tenderly upon her hair; 'thou hast cast away thine idols and hast turned to the living God. Thou hast come to me in penitence, and shalt now eat of this honeycomb which was gathered and made by the bees of God from the red roses of Eden. It is the food of angels, and those who eat it can never die.'

With this he brake a portion from the honeycomb and set it to her lips, saying, 'Eat, and thy youth shall not fail, thy beauty shall not fall away, thy breasts shall not wither, and thou shalt come at last, in eternal youth, before the throne of God.'

Asenath ate the morsel of honeycomb, and immediately her face was radiant with the glory of heaven.

'See,' said the angel, touching the broken honeycomb, 'it is now whole as before.' Then he rose up, and with his finger traced a line upon the honeycomb from east to west, and another from north to south; and the lines stood out as red as the blood shed on the cross erected upon the foundations of the world. And, as Asenath looked upon it, there came forth from the comb a multitude of bees with purple wings; and they swarmed around her with incessant life, and, swiftly speeding to and from the gardens of Paradise, deposited in the bosom of her dress a honeycomb as white as snow.

'This,' said the angel, 'shall be a sign to thee of sweetness for ever.' And, as at his command, the bees flew eastward to Eden; then he touched the honeycomb, and it was immediately consumed by flames; but the fragrance of that burning was like the marriage of honey with fire. It rose into the nostrils of Asenath and overcame

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