Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 7, 1896.djvu/136

114 offspring, but all his time he would pray to the false gods to give him offspring; but they could not give it.

Then after a long time there was born to him a son. Whereat the king rejoiced, and he made much merry-making and feasting in the temples of the idols during many days; for he thought that his son had been given by them, and he called his name Jovasaph. And then he brought together fifty men who were astrologers and learned, and he asked of them what was to become of this child. And they carefully examined for many days the season of the child's birth, and the omens of the signs of the Zodiac. Then they came before the king and said: "As the courses of the stars teach us concerning thy son, so we will tell thee, O king. The prosperity of the infant is not in thy kingdom, but of another higher kingdom, which is above all kingdoms of the earth." But a certain one of the astrologers said: "To me it seemeth thus, O king, that thy son taketh up the very doctrine of the Christians, which thou, with much persecution, hast banished from thy realm, and he will exalt it in manifold ways far above thy kingdom."

When the king heard this he was sorely grieved, and, having reflected, he devised means whereby to preserve his son from the Christian religion. And he gave orders that they should build a palace, beautiful and sumptuous; and within it he made every provision for the child's wants, and adorned it with fair constructions. And after the child was weaned he placed it in the palace which he had built and decorated; and he assigned there slaves to wait upon him, children fair to behold and youths of maturer age. And he charged them to take care lest the child should hear any of the distressing incidents which mar this life, either of poverty, or of pain, or of old age, or of death, or of any other distressing circumstance. But he was to be told of everything which gladdens, which is good and blithe and joyous; of whatsoever is fair and noble unto the eyes and heart of man, of that he was to hear from them. But if any one of his attendants should fall sick or die, they were to conceal it from him, and appoint instead others to wait upon the child; and they were to excuse the absence of their fellow slave, saying that he had been sent on a journey into a far land by the king. And one other strict command was laid upon the slaves, that they should not let fall in the child's hearing any hint of Christ and his commandments.

All this the king did because of the words of the astrologer who said: "Thy son is to become a Christian." And so the son of the king lived and was brought up in the beautiful palace, until he reached his full age, and then the king appointed teachers for his son from among the learned men of the country. And of these the youth learned all the use of foreign languages; so that his tutors were amazed at such talent in one so young, and at the subtlety of his conversation. And the king was correspondingly pleased, and marvelled at the beauty of the child and at the swiftness of his growth. And every day the king went and saw the child and came back full of joy. And he perpetually charged the attendants not to let the child hear aught of death or of the sorrows of men upon earth. Yet since it is impossible to conceal from man the knowledge of death, it so chanced that one day Jovasaph called to