Page:Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal Vol 29.djvu/24

12 lkizwén-us-Safd, of the Hebrew translation of which there are no less

than three editions,—printed respectively in 1557, 1703 and 1713* The next of these legends to be noticed occurs in the 237th num- ber of the Spectator, in a paper by Hughes, who gives it as an old Jewish tradition. I cannot however ﬁnd any trace of Hughes’ pro- ﬁciency in Hebrew or Rabbinical lore, though he was a good classical scholar, and I am quite at a loss to trace the source from which he derived it. The story, as he relates it, describes an interview between 1\Ioses and the Supreme Being, respecting the apparent anomalies of Providence, and the discourse turns on an incident which takes place beside a stream at the mountain’s foot. A soldier comes to drink, and, as he leaves, drops his purse, which is soon after picked up by a boy who passes by. An old man next totters up to the fountain and sits down to rest, when the soldier suddenly returns and accuses him of having his purse. An altercation ensues, and the soldier in his passion kills him. “ Moses fell on his face with horror and amaze- ment, when the divine voice thus prevented his expostulation: ‘ Be not surprised, Moses, nor ask why the Judge of the whole earth has suffered this thing to come to pass. The child is the occasion that the blood of the old man is spilt; but, know, that the old man, whom thou sawest, was the murderer of that child’s father.’ ”

The story is particularly interesting to an English reader, as there can be no doubt that it must have given the first idea of ‘ the Her- mit’ to Parnell. Whether it occurs in any Hebrew work, I cannot say,—-but the story wears on its face an oriental aspect. The only oriental book, however, where I remember to have seen it, is the Subhat ul Abrar of Jami; and I subjoin the original with a trans- latiOn. There are one or two singular variations between the two versions, and the oriental has the advantage in compactness of nar-

rative. T Liz-3K2.

at...) it? alum )a d4):  Q‘Agga  Fla J! v r .. r

’39 De Sacy, Notices des MSS. vol. ix. 1). 406.

1‘ NIBtl‘O,—u—-——uu—-—\g_u “—