Page:Legends of Old Testament Characters.djvu/247

XXVIII.] Reuben made an effort to scream, but it was unavailing. Then astonishment got hold of him, and he said to Joseph, "I think that there must be one of the family of Jacob in this house."

Then Joseph ordered Benjamin to be chained. And when Judah saw this, he roared like a lion, and his voice was so piercing, that Chuschim, the son of Dan, who was in Canaan, heard him, and began to roar also.

And Judah drew his sword, and roared, and pursued the Egyptian soldiers sent to bind Benjamin, and the fear of him fell on them all, and they fell, and he smote them up to the gates of the king's polace; and he roared again, and all the walls of Memphis rocked, and the earth shook, and Pharaoh was shaken off his throne and fell on his face, and the roar of Judah was heard four hundred miles off.

Joseph feared to be killed by Judah. When Judah was angry, blood spirted from his right eye. Judah wore five sets of clothes upon him, one above another; and when he was angry, his heart swelled so as to tear them all. Joseph, fearing him, roared at him, and his voice shivered a pillar of the palace into fine dust, so that Judah thought, "This is a great hero! he can master me." Then said Judah to Joseph, "Let our brother go, or we will devastate this land."

Then Joseph answered, "Go home, and tell your father that a wild beast has devoured him."

Then Judah beckoned to his brother Naphtali, who was very swift of foot, and said to him, "Run speedily and count all the streets in Egypt, and come swiftly back and tell me."

But Simeon said, "There is no need; I will break a stone out of the mountains and throw it down on the land of Egypt, and will utterly destroy it." Then Joseph saw that it was not well to press them further; so he took a bowl, and filled it, and looked into it as though he were divining by it, and said suddenly, "Ye are liars! Ye told me that your brother Joseph was dead, and behold he is alive, and I see him in this bowl! Ye sold him."

Then he bade Zuleika bring the deed of sale, and he handed