Page:Legends of Old Testament Characters.djvu/25

I.] According to a Talmudic authority, the apostate angels having fallen in a heap, God laid his little finger on them and consumed them.

Sammael was the regent of the planet Mars, and this he rules still, and therefore it is that those born under the influence of that star are lovers of war and given to strife

He was chief among the angels of God, and now he is prince among devils. His name is derived from Simme, which means to blind and deceive. He stands on the left side of men. He goes by various names; such as the Old Serpent, the Unclean Spirit, Satan, Leviathan, and sometimes also Asael. In his fall he spat in his hatred against God, and his spittle stained the moon, and thus it is that the moon has on it spots.

After his fall, Satan took to himself four wives, Lilith and Naama the daughter of Lamech and sister of Tubal-Cain, Igereth and Machalath. Each became the mother of a great host of devils, and each rules with her host over a season of the year; and at the change of seasons there is a great gathering of devils about their mothers. Lilith is followed by four hundred and seventy-eight legions of devils, for that number is comprised in her name (&lrm;—478) According to some, Lilith is identical with Eve. She rules over Damascus, Naama over Tyre, Igereth over Malta and Rhodes, and Machalath over Crete.

Many traditions date the existence of angels and demons from a remote period before the creation of the world, but some connect the fall of Satan and his host with the creation of man.

Abou-Djafar-Mohammed Tabari says that when God made Adam, He bade all the angels worship him as their king and superior, as says the Koran, "All the angels adored Adam" (xv. 30), but that Satan or Eblis answered God, "I will not adore Adam, for he is made of earth and I of fire, therefore I am better than he" (vii. II), and that God thereupon cursed Eblis and gave him the form of a devil, because of his pride, vain confidence, and disobedience.

Abulfeda says, "After God had made man He thus addressed the angels. 'When I have breathed a portion of my spirit into him, bow before him and adore.' After He had inspired Adam