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512 Bar Shalmon

THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Baraita

requesting, however, as a boon, that she be permitted to kiss him before departing. He acceded to the request but no sooner had their lips

She Slays met than Bar Shalmon

Him.

fell

dead, the

exclaiming: "This is the punishment for thy perjury and thine infidelity to God, thy father, and myself." Thereupon she returned to her own people, but left her son behind, fearing that his presence might remind her of his father. The purpose of the legend, as evident from the narrative, is to inculcate the sacredness of an oath nor can there be the slightest doubt as to its Jewish origin, the usual superscription, according to which it is represented as a translation from the Arabic, being evidently false. The statement that Abraham Maimon was the translator and even the author of the legend is likewise incorrect for this Abraham by whom probably no other than the son of Maimonides was meant in all likelihood did not even believe in the existence of demons. It is probably true, however, that the legend originated in the circle of the Arabian Jews, as demonstrated by the many points of resemblance it bears to the "Arabian Nights," the similitude between the characters of the Jewish legend and the Jewish merchant Benesdra (fcOTJ? p) an d ms son Solomon in the "Arabian Nights" ("Les 1,000 Quarts d'Heure," Paris, 1715; German ed. by Dessau er, 1844, i. 497 et seq.), as Steinschneider observes, being especially striking. The names also seem to correspond somewhat for " Bar princess

it puts it gently down (Rashi on Bek. I.e. Rashi and Tos. on Men. 66ft; compare Sifra.Wayikra, Nedabah, xiv. 13; ed. Weiss, 12b). The opinion that the bird was reserved for the food of the pious in Messianic times occurs only in Elijah Levita, Tishbi,

where

s.v.

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Shalmon " in the Arabian version becomes " Solomon," who in the Ashmedai legend, again, is mentioned as the son of Bar Shalmon. Indeed, the name " Bar Shalmon " is itself to he suspected, and is probably corrupted from JVD^ri "Q (Bartholomreus). In Lev. R. vi. 3 a certain Bartholomreus is mentioned as an example of a perjurer. The legend of Bar Shalmon, in the Hebrew literature known under the title "Ma'aseh Yerushalmi," belongs to the most widely popular stories of this class and even to-day in Russia it is a great favorite with the children. There are three Latin and two German translations of it, and one in Judaeo-German a fact which furnishes the best proof of its popThere is besides an adaptation in French ularity. by Carlotta Patino Rosa, "Mitra, ou la Demone Mariee" (Padua?, 1745?).

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Bibliography: Stelnschneider, Cat. Bodl. col. 700; Zanoltni, Lexicon Clialdaico-Rahhinicum, pp. 774-801, which contains a Latin translation from the Hebrew text; Carmoly, in Oliolihnft, pp. 40-70; Pascheles, Sippurim, iii. 166; idem, in Stelnschneider, HebrUliche Bihliographie, xvi. 67, xix. 113. L. G. a.

BAB YOKNI

A

(written ">J3r 13 and i)y -Q) gigantic bird mentioned several times in the Talmud. An authority at the beginning of the third century, in relating a number of wonders, says that this bird was so large that once one of its eggs dropping from a height flooded sixty cities and shattered three hundred cedar-trees (Bek. 57b). In two other passages the egg and the bird are similarly used as examples of huge size (Yoma 80r«; Suk. 5b, top). The Talmud identifies Bar Yokni with the ostrich, mentioned in Job xxxix. 13, and says that the bird lifts its egg from the place where it happens to lay it and flies with it at a great height until it reaches its nest.



nJ3V.

The name of the bird, " Bar Yokni " (Son of the Nest; " Yokni "= Arabic "wukanatun," nest), is probably due to a prevailing belief that the female upon her eggs, but merely lets them lie in the nest. Some scholars connect Bar Yokni with Varaghna, the swiftest bird mentioned in the Zend Avesta; but the two do not resemble each other in their characteristics. ostrich does not sit

Bibliography ii.



877; Kohut,

Eisenmenger, EnMeclrt.es Judenthums,i. 398, Aruch Completion, fl. 170, 177; Windisch-

mann, Zoroastriselic Studien, J.



—

512

p. 93.

L. G.

SB.

BARABAS

The principal character in Christopher Marlowe's "The Rich Jew of Malta," first pro:

duced at the Rose Theater, Bankside, London, in 1591, and entered in the Stationers' Books May 17, The role of Barabas was created by Edward 1594. Alleyn, the founder of Dulwich College. The play was revived in 1818 at Drury Lane Theater by Edmund Kean, but failed to secure popular approval. Barabas is an inhuman fiend, with an occasional His predominating traits are lapse into humanity. vicious ingenuity, intensity of vengeful emotions, a lustful love of gold, and a degenerate desire to kill. He is the embodiment of all that is thoroughly bad, and as a character-drawing must rank high during the first two acts of the play almost as high The latter harsh as the Shakespearian Shylock. though his methods be seeks payment of a just claim; Barabas seeks revenge on all humanity Christian, or Turk, or Jew. He prostitutes his own daughter and uses her as a bait for which her two lovers fight to the death. Shylock has some nobility of character Barabas, none. His money and estates confiscated by the governor of Malta to pay an overdue indemnity to the Turks, Barabas, who has hidden the greater part of his gold and jewels in his former home, induces his daughter, Abigail, to feign conversion to Christianity, that she may reenter the home, now a cloister, to obtain the hoard. When Abigail protests, Barabas reassures her with:

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"... Tush As good dissemble that tbou never mean'st As first mean truth and then dissemble it

A counterfeit profession

is

better

Than unseen hypocrisy."

Having obtained the hoard, Barabas buys a palace shame the Christians, and plots vengeance against the governor of Malta and incidentally against Ma-

to

thias, the Christian lover of Abigail. By means of a forged letter he brings MatMas and Lodowick, son of the governor, into a duel, in which both die. When Abigail learns of her father's deed, through his slave ItJiamore, she turns Christian and retires to the nunnery, her former home. On hearing this, Barabas sends poisoned broth to the nuns. Abigail, dying, confesses her father's villainy to the two friars, Jacomo and Bernardine, and they become the next victims of Barabas' wrath. He lures Bernardine into his home by promises of money, and, aided by Ithamore, strangles him. Then he places