12 On certain Jlediceval Apologues. [No. 1, 



Ikhivdn-us-Safd, of the Hebrew translation of which there are no less 

 than three editions, — printed respectively in 1557, 1703 and 1713.* 



The next of these legends to be noticed occurs in the 237th num- 

 ber of the Spectator, in a paper by Hughes, who gives it as an old 

 Jewish tradition. I cannot however find any trace of Hughes' pro- 

 ficiency in Hebrew or Eabbinical lore, though he was a good classical 

 scholar, and I am quite at a loss to trace the source from which he 

 derived it. The story, as he relates it, describes an interview between 

 Moses and the Supreme Being, respecting the apparent anomalies of 

 Providence, and the discourse turns on an incident which takes place 

 beside a stream at the mountain's foot. A soldier comes to drink, 

 and, as he leaves, drops bis purse, which is soon after picked up by a 

 boy who passes by. An old man next totters up to the fountain and 

 sits down to rest, when the soldier suddenly returns and accuses him 

 of having his purse. An altercation ensues, and the soldier in his 

 passion kills him. " Moses fell on his face with horror and amaze- 

 ment, when the divine voice thus prevented his expostulation : ' Be 

 not surprised, Moses, nor ask why the Judge of the whole earth has 

 suffered this tiling to come to pass. The child is the occasion that 

 the blood of the old man is spilt ; but, know, that the old man, 

 whom thou sawest, was the murderer of that child's father.' " 



The story is particularly interesting to an English reader, as there 

 can be no doubt that it must have given, the first idea of ' the Her- 

 mit' to Parnell. Whether it occurs in any Hebrew work, I cannot 

 say, — but the story wears on its face an oriental aspect. The only 

 oriental book, however, where I remember to have seen it, is the 

 Subhat ul Abrar of Jami ; and I subjoin the original with a trans- 

 lation. There are one or two singular variations between the two 

 versions, and the oriental has the advantage in compactness of nar- 

 rative. 





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* De Sacy, Notices des MSS, vol. ix. p. 406. 

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