Page:Legends of Old Testament Characters.djvu/85

VII.] smote one of the oxen, and it spoke to him and said, "Wherefore hast thou smitten me?"

Adam replied, "Because thou dost not draw the plough." "Adam!" said the ox, "when thou wast rebellious, did God smite thee thus?" "O God!" cried Adam to the Almighty, "is every beast to reproach me, and recall to me my sin?" Then God heard his cry, and withdrew from beasts the power of speech, lest they should cast their sin in the teeth of men. But as the plough was still arrested, Adam dug into the soil, and found that the iron had been caught by the body of his son Abel. When the wheat was sprung up, Gabriel gave Adam fire from hell, which however he had previously washed seventy times in the sea, or it would have consumed the earth and all things thereon. In the beginning, wheat-grains were the size of ostrich eggs, but under Edris (Enoch) they were no bigger than goose eggs; under Elias they were the size of hen's eggs; under Christ, when the Jews sought to slay him, they were no larger than grapes; it was in the time of Uzeir (Esdras) that they diminished to their present proportions. After Adam and Eve had been instructed in all that appertained to agriculture, Gabriel brought them a lamb and showed Adam how to slay it in the name of God, how to shear off the wool, and skin the sheep. Eve was instructed in the art of spinning and weaving by the angel, and she made of the wool, first a veil for herself, and then a shirt for her husband.

The first pair brought up their grandsons and great grandsons, to the number of 40,000 according to some, and 70,000 according to others, and taught them all that they had learned of the angel. After the death of Abel, and after Cain had been slain by the avenging angel, Eve bore a third son, named Seth, who became the father of the race of the prophets.

Finally, when Adam had reached his nine hundred and thirtieth year, the Angel of Death appeared under the form of a goat, and ran between his legs. Adam recoiled with horror, and exclaimed, "God has given me one thousand years; wherefore comest thou now?" "What!" exclaimed the Angel of Death, "hast thou not given seventy years of thy life to the prophet David?"