Page:Folk-lore of the Holy Land.djvu/42

18 her husband with great devotion, but supported him by her earnings, and, when she could get no work, used to carry him about on her back in an abâyeh, while she begged from door to door. This she did for seven years without a murmur. One day, when she had been forced to leave her husband for a short time, Iblìs appeared to her, and promised that if she would worship him he would cure her husband and restore his lost possessions. The woman, sorely tempted, went to ask leave of Ayûb, who was so angry with her for daring to parley with the devil that he swore, if Allah would restore him to health, to give her a hundred lashes. He then uttered this prayer: “O my Lord, verily evil hath afflicted me: but Thou art the most merciful of those who show mercy.” Hereupon Allah sent Gabriel, who took Ayûb by the hand and raised him. At the same instant the fountain which supplies the Bìr Ayûb in the valley below Jerusalem sprang up at the Patriarch’s feet. The latter, by the Angel’s direction, immediately drank thereof, and the worms in his wounds at once fell from his body; and when he had bathed in the fountain, his former health and beauty were restored. Allah then restored his children to life, and made his wife so young and handsome that she bore him twenty-six sons. To enable the Patriarch to support so large a family, and also to compensate him for the loss of his wealth, the threshing-floors close to Bìr Ayûb, which belonged to him, were filled with gold and silver coinage rained down by two clouds sent for the purpose. Softened by these evidences of the