Page:Apocryphal Gospels and Other Documents Relating to the History of Christ.djvu/313

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THE ARABIC GOSPEL OF THE INFANCY.
197

this, she was straightway cleansed, and praised God, and gave thanks to him.

CHAPTER XXXII.

And after she had staid three days with her she departed, and going into the city saw there a chief man who had married the daughter of another chief man; but when he saw the woman he perceived between her eyes the mark of leprosy like a star; so the marriage had been dissolved and annulled. And seeing them in that state, oppressed with sorrow and weeping, the woman asked of them the cause of their weeping. And they said, Inquire not after our condition, for we cannot tell our trouble to any mortal, or reveal it to any. But she was urgent, and begged them to commit it to her, for perhaps she could show them its remedy. When therefore they showed her the girl and the sign of leprosy which appeared between her eyes, as she saw it the woman said, I also, whom you see here, suffered from the same disease, when on some business, which I had, I went to Bethlehem. There entering a cave I saw a woman named Mary, whose son was one called Jesus; and when she saw that I was leprous she had pity on me, and gave me the water with which she had washed the body of her Son. I poured it on my body, and I became clean. Therefore, the women said to her, wilt thou,