Page:Legends of Old Testament Characters.djvu/89

VIII.] the age of fifty he had a son; he called his name Enoch and named him his executor. He died at the age of nine hundred. Seth and the other sons of Adam waged perpetual war against the Divs, or giants, the sons of Kabil, or Cain.

Rocail was another son of Adam, born next after Seth.

He possessed, says the Tahmurath Nmeh, the most wonderful knowledge in all mysteries. He had a genius so quick and piercing, that he seemed to be rather an angel than a man.

Surkrag, a great giant, son of Cain, commanded in the mountains of Kaf, which encompass the centre of the earth. This giant asked Seth to send him Rocail, his brother, to assist him in governing his subjects. Seth consented, and Rocail became the vizier or prime minister of Surkrag, in the mountains of Kaf. After having governed many centuries, and knowing, by divine revelation, that the time of his death drew nigh, he thus addressed Surkrag: "I am about to depart hence and enter on another existence; but before I leave, I wish to bequeath to you some famous work, which shall perpetuate my name into remote ages." Thereupon Rocail erected an enormous sepulchre, adorned with statues of various metals, made by talismanic art, which moved, and spake, and acted like living men.

According to the Rabbinic traditions, Seth was one of the thirteen who came circumcised into the world. The rest were Adam, Enoch, Noah, Shem, Terah, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Samuel, David, Isaiah, and Jeremiah. The book Schene Luchôth says that the soul of righteous Abel passed into the body of Seth, and afterwards this same soul passed into Moses; thus the law, which was known to Adam and in which Abel had been instructed, was not new to Moses.

The Little Genesis says, that Seth was instructed by the angels in what was to take place in the world; how its iniquity was to grow, and a flood was to overwhelm it; and how the Messiah would come and restore all things. Seth was remarkable for the majesty and beauty of his appearance, as he had inherited much of the loveliness of unfallen man. He married his sister Azur, or, according to others, Noræa or Horæa.