Page:Legends of Old Testament Characters.djvu/165

XXIV.] said to him, "Wilt thou not worship these idols? Well then, adore fire." "Why not water which quenches fire?" asked Abraham.

Nimrod.—"Very well; then worship water." Abraham.—"Why not the clouds which swallow the water?" Nimrod.—"So be it; adore the clouds." Abraham.—"Rather let me adore wind which blows the clouds about." Nimrod.—"So be it; pray to the wind." Abraham.—"But man can stand up against the wind, and build it out of his house."

Then Nimrod in a fury exclaimed, "Fire is my god, and that shall consume you." According to another version, a woman came to Abraham to buy a god, because thieves had stolen her former god; this gave the patriarch a text for his homily against idolatry. The woman was convinced.

"Believe in the true God," said he, "and you will recover the things the thieves stole from your house."

A few days after, the woman recovered all her lost goods, amongst them her image. Then she took a stone, and smashed its head, saying, "Oh, thou blockhead, not to be able to preserve my property and thyself from thieves!" The report of what she had said and done reached the king, who ordered her to be executed. But Nimrod was uneasy, and he announced a grand ceremony to last for seven days, during which every one was to produce his gods and carry them about the streets, which were to be hung with gold and silks. His object was to dazzle Abraham's eyes by the splendour of idol worship. He sent for Terah and Abraham, but the latter refused to attend. The Mussulmans say that Abraham excused himself thus: "I see in the stars that I am going to be very sick to-day." This was the second lie Abraham told, but it was not a lie, it was a justifiable falsehood. Then the king sent his guard, who arrested him and cast him into a dungeon.

He lay in the dungeon ten days. The angel Gabriel brought him food, and a crystal fountain bubbled up through the soil of his cell.

Nimrod called his council together, and it was unanimously decided that Abraham should be burnt alive. The king therefore published a decree ordering every man to bring wood or