the demons have their chief seats close to me. And I it is who make manifest the apparition of each demon." And he promised to bring to me in bonds all the unclean spirits[1]. And I again glorified the God of heaven and earth, as I do always give thanks to him.
16. I then asked of the demon if there were females among them. And when he told me that there were, I said that I desired to see them. So Beelzeboul went off at high speed, and brought unto me Onoskelis[2], that had a very pretty shape, and the skin[3] of a fair-hued woman; and she tossed her head.
17. And when she was come, I said to her: "Tell me, who art thou?" But she said to me: "I am called Onoskelis, a spirit wrought …[4], lurking upon the earth. There is a golden cave where I lie. But I have a place[5] that ever shifts. At one time I strangle men with a noose; at another, I creep up from the nature to the arms[6]. But my most frequent dwelling-places are the precipices, caves, ravines. Oftentimes, however, do I consort with men in the semblance of a woman, and above all with those of a dark skin. For they share my star with me; since they it is who privily or openly worship my star, without knowing that they harm themselves, and but whet my appetite for further mischief. For they wish to provide money by means of memory[7], but I supply a little to those who worship me fairly."
18. And I Solomon questioned her about her birth, and she replied: "I was born of a voice untimely, the so-called echo of a man's ordure[8] dropped in a wood."
19. And I said to her: "Under what star dost thou pass[9]?" And she answered me: "Under the star of the full moon, for the reason that the moon travels over most things." Then I said to her: "And- ↑ ἀκάθαρτα πνεύματα So in the N. T.
- ↑ τὴν Ὀνοσκελίδα See Origen, c. Celsum, vi. ch. 30.
- ↑ Reading δέρμα for δεσμά.
- ↑ The word σεβοωματω, which here stands in the text, is obscure. Perhaps שבתאי, shabtai, i.e. Saturn, transcribed Σέβεται in a Greek Papyrus Bibl. Nat. li. 2501, underlies our text. See Schwab sub voce.
- ↑ See note 2 on p. 28.
- ↑ In the margin is written "worms."
- ↑ The sense is obscure to me. Perhaps one should render "for the purpose of commemoration."
- ↑ Reading βολβίτου for μολύβδου. For the demon born of an echo we have an analogue in the Hebrew Bath Kol, "the daughter of a voice." In the Gnostic Hymn to Hermes, edited by Dieterich, Abraxas, p. 19, we read, l. 104: ὁ θεὸς ἔφη τῷ ἰσχυρῷ σὺ μὲν ἀπὸ ποππυσμοῦ τυγχάνεις, οὗτος δὲ ἐξ ἤχους.
- ↑ διέρχῃ. For the word cp. Origen, c. Celsum, vi. 31 παροδεύω τὴν σὴν ἐλεύθερος πάλιν ἐξουσίαν… τὸν διελθόντα τὸν Ἰαλδαβαώθ.
