Page:Legends of Old Testament Characters.djvu/71

V.] right way, so shall I pervert those whom Thou hast made." Satan went to man and said to him, "God has driven me out of Paradise, never to return there, and He has taken from me the sovereignty of this world to give it to thee. Why should we not be friends and associate together, and I can advise thee on thy concerns?" And Adam thought to himself, "I must be the companion of this one, but I will make use of him." So he suffered him to be his comrade. The first act of treachery he did was this.

Every child Adam had by Eve died when born. Eve became pregnant for the fourth time, and Eblis said to Adam, "I believe this child will be good-looking and will live."

"I am of the same opinion," answered Adam. "If my prophecy turns out right," said the Evil One, "give the child to me." "I will give it," said Adam. Now the child, when born, was very fair to look upon, and Adam, though he repented of his rash promise, did not venture to break his word; so he gave the child to Eblis, that is to say, he named it Abd-el-Hareth, or Servant of Hareth, instead of Abd-Allah, Servant of God. And after living two years it died. Thus Satan became an associate in the affairs of man.

But others tell the conclusion of the story somewhat differently. They say that the child Abd-el-Hareth became the progenitor of the whole race of Satyrs, nightmares, and hobgoblins.

Maimonides says that the Sabians attribute to Adam the introduction of the worship of the moon, on which account they call him the prophet or apostle of the moon.

A large number of books are attributed to Adam. The passage in Genesis, This is the Book of the generations of Adam, led many to suppose that Moses quoted from a book written by our first parent. That such an apocryphal book did exist in after-times, appears from the fact of Pope Gelasius in his decrees rejecting it as spurious. He speaks of it as "the book which is called the Book of the generations of Adam or Geneseos." And the Rabbis say that this book was written by Adam, after he had seen all his posterity brought out before