staff at the plundering of Joseph’s house, and he took it away with him from Pharaoh’s palace and brought it here. This is the staff on which is cut the Schem hammphorasch and the ten plagues that are in store for Egypt, and these are indicated by ten letters on the staff, and they stand thus: _dam_, blood; _zephardeim_, frogs; _kinnim_, lice; _arof_, various insects; _defer_, murrain; _schechim_, blain; _barad_, hail; _arbeh_, locusts; _choschech_, darkness; and _bechor_, first born:—these will be the plagues of Egypt. This staff was for many days and years in my father’s house, till he one day took it in his hand and stuck it into the earth in the garden; and then it sprouted and bloomed and brought forth almonds, and when he saw that, he proved every one who sought one of his daughters by that tree.’” These are the words of the Book Midrash Vajoscha, and thereby may be seen that the staff of Adam was of almond wood; but Yalkut Chadasch, under the title “Adam,” says that the staff was of the wood of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.[85] When Adam and Eve were driven out of the garden, says the Talmud, they wandered disconsolate over the face of the earth. And the sun began to decline, and they looked with fear at the diminution of the light, and felt a horror like death steal over their hearts. And the light of heaven grew paler, and the wretched ones clasped one another in an agony of despair. Then all grew dark. And the luckless ones fell on the earth, silent, and thought that God had withdrawn from them the light for ever; and they spent the night in tears. But a beam of light began to rise over the eastern hills, after many hours of darkness, and the clouds blushed crimson, and the golden sun came back, and dried the tears of Adam and Eve; and then they greeted it with cries of gladness, and said, “_Heaviness may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning_; this is a law that God has laid upon nature.”[86] Among the Manichean myths prevalent among the Albigenses, was one preserved to us by the troubadour Pierre de Saint-Cloud. When Adam was driven out of Paradise, God in mercy gave him a miraculous rod, which possessed creative powers, so that he had only to strike the sea with it and it would forthwith produce the beast he might require. Adam struck the sea, and there rose from it the sheep; then Eve took the staff and smote the water, and from it sprang the wolf, which fell on the sheep and carried it off into the wood. Then Adam took back the staff, and with it called forth the dog to hunt the wolf and recover the sheep.