Legends of the Patriarchs and Prophets: And Other Old Testament Characters from Various Sources — John Shaqi
Legends of the Patriarchs and Prophets: And Other Old Testament Characters from Various SourcesBaring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Religion
Legends of the Patriarchs and Prophets: And Other Old Testament Characters from Various Sources
Baring-Gould, S. (Sabine)
Bible. Old Testament -- Legends
According to the Talmudic book, Emek Hammelech (f. 23, col. 3), Eve,
on eating the fruit, felt in herself the poison of Jezer hara, or
Original sin, and resolved that Adam should not be without it also; she
made him eat and then forced the fruit on the animals, that they might
all, without exception, fall under the same condemnation, and become
subject to death. But the bird Chol--that is, the Phœnix--would not be
deceived, but flew away and would not eat. And now the Phœnix, says
the Rabbi Joden after the Rabbi Simeon, lives a thousand years, then
shrivels up till it is the size of an egg, and then from himself he
emerges young and beautiful again.
We have seen what are the Asiatic myths relating to Adam and Eve; let
us now turn to Africa. In Egypt it was related that Osiris lived with
Isis his sister and wife in Nysa, or Paradise, which was situated
in Arabia. This Paradise was an island, surrounded by the stream
Triton, but it was also a steep mountain that could only be reached
on one side. It was adorned with beautiful flowers and trees laden
with pleasant fruits, watered by sweet streams, and in it dwelt the
deathless ones.
There Osiris found the vine, and Isis the wheat, to become the food and
drink of men. There they built a golden temple, and lived in supreme
happiness till the desire came on Osiris to discover the water of
Immortality, in seeking which he left Nysa, and was in the end slain by
Typhon.[72]
The following is a very curious negro tradition, taken down by Dr.
Tutschek from a native in Tumale, near the centre of Africa.
Til (God) made men and bade them live together in peace and happiness,
labor five days, and keep the sixth as a festival. They were forbidden
to hurt the beasts or reptiles. They themselves were deathless, but
the animals suffered death. The frog was accursed by God, because when
He was making the animals it hopped over his foot. Then God ordered
the men to build mountains: they did so, but they soon forgot God’s
commands, killed the beasts and quarrelled with one another. Wherefore
Til (God) sent fire and destroyed them, but saved one of the race,
named Musikdegen, alive. Then Til began to re-create beings. He stood
before a wood and called, Ombo Abnatum Dgu! and there came out a
gazelle and licked His feet. So He said, stand up, Gazelle! and when it
stood up, its beast-form disappeared, and it was a beautiful maiden,
and He called her Mariam. He blessed her, and she bore four children, a
white pair and a black pair. When they were grown up, God ordered them
to marry, the white together and the black together. In Dai, the story
goes that Til cut out both Mariam’s knee-caps, and of each He made a
pair of children. Those which were white He sent north; those which
were black He gave possession of the land where they were born.
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