Page:Testament of Solomon.djvu/4

4 paper, and worn as an amulet by those who would be safe from their influence.

When these thirty-six spirits have been imprisoned or set to work, Ornias reappears and foretells the death of a youth within three days. The prophecy is fulfilled, and is made the occasion for a discourse on the part of Ornias, in which he explains to Solomon how the demons soar into the firmament of heaven, and there overhear the sentences pronounced on the souls of men; how they descend forthwith and execute these sentences, or appear to men and cause themselves to be worshipped. Such demons ever and anon fall like lightnings from heaven, where they have no foothold; and we men see them fall, and fondly imagine them to be falling stars.

Next comes the visit of the Queen of the South to Solomon, and then the episode of Adares, King of Arabia. The latter is oppressed by a demon, Ephippas, whose hot breath devastates his land. The demon is caught through the magic ring in a skin-bag, and brought into the Temple, where he is utilized to raise into its place the headstone of the corner, which, because of its weight, the workmen had abandoned.

Ephippas declares his subjection to the only-ruling God, who is to be born of a virgin and crucified by the Jews, whom also angels and archangels worship. The same demon, after raising the headstone of the corner to its place, aids the demon of the Red Sea, Abezithibod, son of Beelzeboul, to bring up from that sea an enormous column, and raise it aloft in the Temple, where it still hangs in mid air, supported by these two spirits. This spirit was of old invoked by Iannes and Iambres against Moses, but afterwards, being confined under the pillar or column, had remained in the Red Sea until Ephippas, at Solomon's instance, fetched him thence.

The concluding incident of the Testament is Solomon's fall. Lured by passion for a Shunammite woman, he sacrifices grasshoppers to Moloch. Forthwith the Spirit of God