5. Thermuthis was the king's daughter. She was now diverting herself by
the banks of the river; and seeing a cradle borne along by the current,
she sent some that could swim, and bid them bring the cradle to her.
When those that were sent on this errand came to her with the cradle,
and she saw the little child, she was greatly in love with it, on
account of its largeness and beauty; for God had taken such great care
in the formation of Moses, that he caused him to be thought worthy of
bringing up, and providing for, by all those that had taken the most
fatal resolutions, on account of the dread of his nativity, for the
destruction of the rest of the Hebrew nation. Thermuthis bid them bring
her a woman that might afford her breast to the child; yet would not the
child admit of her breast, but turned away from it, and did the like to
many other women. Now Miriam was by when this happened, not to appear to
be there on purpose, but only as staying to see the child; and she said,
"It is in vain that thou, O queen, callest for these women for the
nourishing of the child, who are no way of kin to it; but still, if thou
wilt order one of the Hebrew women to be brought, perhaps it may admit
the breast of one of its own nation." Now since she seemed to speak
well, Thermuthis bid her procure such a one, and to bring one of those
Hebrew women that gave suck. So when she had such authority given her,
she came back and brought the mother, who was known to nobody there. And
now the child gladly admitted the breast, and seemed to stick close to
it; and so it was, that, at the queen's desire, the nursing of the child
was entirely intrusted to the mother.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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