Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 9.djvu/57

ⅩⅩ, 89-96. Said he, ‘ O my people ! did not your Lord promise you a good promise ? Has the time seemed too long for you, or do you desire that wrath should light on you from your Lord, that ye have broken your promise to me ?’

They said, ‘ We have not broken our promise to thee of our own accord. But we were made to carry loads of the ornaments of the people, and we hurled them down, and so did es Sâmarly cast ; and he brought forth for the people a corporeal calf which lowed.’ And they said, ‘ This is your god and the god of Moses, but he has forgotten !’ What ! do they not see that it does not return them any speech, and cannot control for them harm or profit? Aaron too told them before, ‘ O my people ! ye are only being tried thereby ; and, verily, your Lord is the Merciful, so follow me and obey my bidding.’

They said, ‘ We will not cease to pay devotion to it until Moses come back to us.’

Said he, ‘ O Aaron ! what prevented thee, when thou didst see them go astray, from following me ? Hast thou then rebelled against my bidding ?’

Said he, ‘ O son of my mother! seize me not by my beard, or my head! Verily, I feared lest thou shouldst say, “ Thou hast made a division amongst the children of Israel, and hast not observed my word.”’

Said he, ‘ What was thy design, O Sâmarîy ?’ Said he, ‘ I beheld what they beheld not, and I grasped a handful from the footprint of the messenger and cast it ; for thus my soul induced me.’