Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 28, 1917.djvu/166

 134 T^f^^ Cursing of Vcnizelos.

devotion of the Greek people to M. Venizelos. From fuller accounts of the ceremony now received by the Anglo-Hellenic League it appears that during the night the cairn of stones so solemnly cursed and supposed to symbolise the ' casting out ' of the ' traitor,' was covered with masses of flowers ; and in the morning these bright garlands were seen to be attached to an inscription which read ' From the Venizelists of Athens.' "

This cursing and stoning of the great statesman and good patriot Venizelos, who has been banished from Athens by- traitors, resembles the cursing and stoning of King David, when that great monarch was banished from Jerusalem by the treachery of his unnatural son Absalom, who had usurped the throne. As David and the procession of loyal men who followed their beloved king into exile were wending their way sadly down the steep road which descends from Jerusalem into the deep valley of the Jordan, a certain Benjamite named Shimei kept pace with them on the hill- side above, and as he went he threw stones at the king and his escort and cursed, saying, " Begone, begone, thou man of blood, and man of Belial ! " This was more than one of the king's captains, a man of hot blood, could bear, and he asked David, " Why should this dead dog curse my lord the king } Let me go over, I pray thee, and take off his head." But the king received the curses and the stones with magnanimous patience, and rebuked the fiery Hotspur who would have washed out the insult on the spot with the caitiff's blood. He reminded his would-be champion that his own son Absalom was at that moment seeking his father's life, and " How much more," he asked, " may this Benjamite now do it } Let him alone, and let him curse ; for the Lord hath bidden him. It may be that the Lord will look on the wrong done unto me, and that the Lord will requite me good for his cursing of me this day." ^

The king's trust in Providence was not misplaced. In a short time the traitor and usurper was defeated and slain,

-2 Samuel, xvi. 5-13.