Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 7, 1896.djvu/146

124 for I own in myself no want or need. But riches and poverty are from God, and I reckon not that a good or ill of my soul.'

"When the young man heard the words of the damsel, he straightway went back to his father and said: 'Dost thou desire my salvation? If so, bring me to wife the daughter of yonder white-haired old man; for I am much pleased with her. And he persuaded his father to bring her to him as his wife. But when the marriage took place, his white-haired father-in-law called him, and gave him an emerald which weighed twenty litres and said:

Forasmuch as it hath pleased thee, my son, to become heir of my property, take this unto thee as my daughter's dowry.'

"And he took the stone and sold it to princes, and received much money as its price, and became sevenfold richer than his father."

Jovasaph said: "I am much delighted with thy story, O holy father, and I pray thee to tell me also the meaning of thy parable."

Baralam said: "A youth art thou, and an old man am I. And my daughter is the life of our religion, which is a lovely likeness of the arche-typal God in its holiness. And the emerald is the life eternal that passes not away; but the twenty litres of weight shew forth the age which never grows old of them that are immortal. But if thou listen to my preaching, and come to know the true God, thou shalt be sevenfold richer than thy sire in this life, and shall inherit immortal life."

Jovasaph said: "My heart is rejoiced full much at thy words, O holy father. But tell me also this, how old thou art and what time thou learnedst all this doctrine which thou teachest."

Baralam said: "Forty-five years I have been in the desert, continually reading the divine scriptures."

Jovasaph said: "How sayest thou that thou art forty years old: for behold I see thee white haired, more than if thou wert eighty years of age."

Baralam said: "I number, all my days, more than seventy years; but I reckon not all this unto my life. For so long as I was a slave to sin, I was not alive. For he that is a slave to sin is dead in the spirit ; and so I do not count my days of death in the tale of my life."

Jovasaph said: "Whence the raiment wherein ye are clad, and what is your food in the desert?"

Baralam said: "Our food is the green herb, and our drink is of the dew of heaven. We eat and drink in peace and calm by the command of our Creator; and there is no one who arouses discord among us or who is avaricious or jealous of another about his food. But they bring us bread from our brethren who live near and love God. Thus do we eat, and thank God. But our raiment is the sackcloth of our neighbours, and skins, which protect our parched bodies. And this is our clothing in winter and summer. And thus we endure patiently a little time, looking unto the luminous and imperishable and deathless food."