Page:Folk-lore of the Holy Land.djvu/88

64 met Alexander the Great, when that conqueror (known in Arab folk-lore as the second Iskander Dhu’lkarnein, the first of that name having been a prophet contemporary with El Khalìl, and to whom we alluded when speaking of El Khudr and the Fountain of Youth) came to Jerusalem about 330; while a third asserts that it was Simon the Just who tried to dissuade Ptolemy Philopator from intruding into the Temple at Jerusalem. The whole city was panic-stricken when the monarch announced his resolution. The dense crowds sent heavenward a shriek so piercing that it seemed as if the very walls and foundations shared in it. In the midst of the tumult was heard the prayer of Simon, invoking the All-seeing God. And then, like a reed broken by the wind, the Egyptian king fell on the pavement, and was carried out by his guards.

It is also related that, till the days of Simon the Just, it was always the right hand of the high priest that drew the lot for the scape-goat: but that afterwards the right and left wavered and varied. ‘Till his time the scarlet wool bound round the horns of the animal turned white in token of the atonement being accepted and all sin forgiven: but after his days its changing colour was never certain. In his days the golden candlestick in the holy place burned without failing: afterwards it frequently went out. Two faggots daily were sufficient to keep the flame on the great altar of burnt-offering in front of the Temple porch alive in his time: but later, piles of wood were not enough. In the last year of his life he is said to have foretold his own death from the