The
king was driven forth and Sakhr ruled (or rather,
misruled) in his stead; till the wise men of the palace,
suspecting him to be a demon, began to read the Book of
the Law in his presence, whereupon he flew away and cast
the signet into the sea. In the meantime Solomon hired
himself to some fishermen in a distant country, his
wages being two fishes each day. He finds his signet in
the maw of one of the fish, and so forth.
It may appear strange to some readers that the Rabbis should represent
the sagacious Solomon in the character of a practitioner of the Black
Art. But the circumstance simply indicates that Solomon's acquirements
in scientific knowledge were considerably beyond those of most men of
his age; and, as in the case of our own Friar Bacon, his superior
attainments were popularly attributed to magical arts. Nature, it need
hardly be remarked, is the only school of magic, and men of science are
the true magicians.
_Unheard-of Monsters._
The marvellous creatures which are described by Pliny, and by our own
old English writers, Sir John Mandeville and Geoffrey of Monmouth, are
common-place in comparison with some of those mentioned in the Talmud.
Even the monstrous _roc_ of the _Arabian Nights_ must have been a mere
tom-tit compared with the bird which Rabbi bar Chama says he once saw.
Pages:
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256