Page:Folk-lore of the Holy Land.djvu/92

 NOTES SECTION II contents of this chapter are practically identical with Mejr-ed-din, vol. i. ch. i., though it is here derived from the lips of an Arab Khatib.

P. 5. The idea of the great serpent is analogous to that of the great Midgard-snake in Scandinavian myths.

P. 6. Behemoth and the great whale.—This is apparently drawn from Talmudic sources. Thus we read in Bava Bathra, fol. 74, col. 2, R. Judah said: Everything that God created in the world He created male and female. And thus He did with Leviathan the piercing serpent, and Leviathan the crooked serpent He created them male and female. But if they had been united, they would have desolated the entire world. What, then, did the Holy One do? He took away the strength of the male Leviathan, and slew the female and salted her for the righteous for the time to come, for it is said: “And he shall slay the whale (or dragon) that is in the sea” (Isaiah xxvii. 1). In like manner with regard to Behemoth upon a thousand mountains, He created them male and female, but if they had been united they would have desolated the world. What then did the Holy One do? He took away the strength of the male Behemoth, and made the female barren, and preserved her for the righteous for the time to come.” The Moslems, in like manner, believe that the meat of a great bull and a great fish shall furnish forth the feast of the righteous on their entry into Paradise.

There are, in Rabbinical writings, many similar allusions to the great ox and the great fish or sea dragon.

P. 7. Eclipses of the moon.—On the 6th of October 1903, we had the good fortune to bivouac within the walls of the famous palace of Meshetta in Moab. While the sun was setting the moon was eclipsed, and a more magnificent spectacle, in surroundings so beautiful and so solitary, could hardly be imagined. Even the impassive Arab servants, most of whom had been long in European service, were impressed, and crowded