[236] At length Joseph asked them whom they had to vouch for their veracity; but they told him they knew no man who could vouch for them in Egypt. Then, replied he, one of you shall stay behind with me as a pledge, and the others may return home with their provision; and when ye come again, ye shall bring your younger brother with you, that I may know ye have told me the truth. Whereupon, it being in vain to dispute the matter, they cast lots who should stay behind, and the lot fell upon Simeon. When they departed, Joseph gave each of them a camel, and another for their brother.—S. (B.) [237] The original word signifying not only money but also goods bartered or given in exchange for other merchandise, some commentators tell us that they paid for their corn, not in money, but in shoes and dressed skins.—S. (B.) [238] The belief in the influence of the evil eye prevails among all the Muslims, even the most religious and learned; for their prophet said, ‘The eye hath a complete influence; because verily, if there were a thing to overcome fate, it most certainly would be a malignant eye.’ Hence he permitted charms (which he disallowed in almost every other case) to be employed for the purpose of counteracting its influence. [239] It is related that Joseph, having invited his brethren to an entertainment, ordered them to be placed two and two together; by which means, Benjamin, the eleventh, was obliged to sit alone, and, bursting into tears, said, If my brother Joseph were alive, he would have sat with me. Whereupon Joseph ordered him to be seated at the same table with himself, and when the entertainment was over, dismissed the rest, ordering that they should be lodged two and two in a house, but kept Benjamin in his own apartment, where he passed the night. The next day, Joseph asked him whether he would accept of himself for his brother, in the room of him whom he had lost; to which Benjamin replied, ‘Who can find a brother comparable unto thee? Yet thou art not the son of Jacob and Rachel.’ And upon this, Joseph discovered himself to him.—S. (B.). [240] Some, however, are of opinion that it was a drinking-cup. [241] The occasion of this suspicion, it is said, was that Joseph having been brought up by his father’s sister, she became so fond of him, that when he grew up and Jacob designed to take him from her she contrived the following stratagem to keep him. Having a girdle which had once belonged to Abraham, she girt it about the child, and then pretending she had lost it, caused strict search to be made for it; and it being at length found on Joseph, he was adjudged, according to the above-mentioned law of the family, to be delivered to her as her property. Some, however, say that Joseph actually stole an idol of gold, which belonged to his mother’s father, and destroyed it; a story probably taken from Rachel’s stealing the images of Laban: and others tell us that he once stole a goat or a hen, to give to a poor man.—S.