72 HAUPT— TOBIT'S BLINDNESS AND SARA'S HYSTERIA. 



The common opinion that Asmodeus is depicted in the Tahnud as 

 lustful and sensual is unfounded. Nor does the Book of Tobit state 

 that Asmodeus was enamored of Sara. 



Also in the twelfth canto (1. 6600) of Wieland's romantic epic 

 " Oberon," which was published in 1780, Asmodi is identified with 

 Cupid. The libretto of Weber's famous opera " Oberon " was 

 adapted by the English dramatist and antiquary, James Robinson 

 Planche, from Wieland's " Oberon." Wieland's poetic masterpiece 

 is based on the old French chanson de geste of " Huon de Bor- 

 deaux," which we have in a beautiful illustrated adaptation in mod- 

 ern French by Gaston Paris (1898). The old French text was 

 edited by Guessard and Grandmaison in i860. The fairy dwarf 

 Oberon (Old French "Alberon") is identical with Alberich in 

 Wagner's " Nibelungen " and the " Erlkonig " of Herder, Goethe, 

 and Schubert. Alberich means king of the elves, and Herder's 

 " Erlkonig " is due to a misunderstanding of the Danish ellerkonge, 

 which does not mean king of the alder-trees, but king of the elves. 

 Dan. ellerkonge stands for elverkonge, with progressive assimilation 

 of the V. 



In Jewish legends the lameness of Asmodeus is explained dif- 

 ferently. Asmodeus is said to have been captured by Solomon's 

 captain of the host, Benaiah ben-Jehoiadah. On the way to Solo- 

 mon the demon brushed against a palm-tree and uprooted it ; he 

 knocked against a house and overturned it. When, at the request of 

 a poor woman,, he turned aside from her hut, he broke a bone. He 

 wept when a bridal procession passed by, and laughed at a man who 



Society. — ^JBL = Journal of Biblical Literature. — JE = " Jewish Encj^lopae- 

 dia." — JHUC = /o/n;.y Hopkins University Circular. — ]QR = J ezvish Quar- 

 terly Review. — ]SOR^= J our)ial of the Society of Oriental Research. — MK = 

 Meyer''s " Konversations-Lexikon."— OLZ = " Orientalistische Literaturzei- 

 tung."- — FAPS ^= Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. — RB = 

 Riehm-Bsethgen, " Handworterbuch des biblischen Altertums." — RE^ = " Real- 

 encyklopadie fiir protestantische Theologie und Kirche." — RV = Revised Ver- 

 sion. — WZKM = " Wiener Zeitschrift fiir die Kunde des INIorgenlandes." — 

 ZDMG = " Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlandischen Gesellschaft." — 

 Cant.=z'H.aupt, "The Book of Canticles" (Chicago, 1902) = AJSL 18, 193- 

 245; 19, 1-32.— £.?/. = Haupf, " The Book of Esther " (Chicago, 1908) = AJSL 

 24. 97-186. — Nah.= Haupt. "The Book of Nahum " (BaUimore, 1907) =JBL 

 26, 1-53. — Pur. = Haupt, " Purim " (Leipsic, 1906) = BA 6, part 2. 



