he changed about from place to place eating; and when the governor came with his company, and saw him sitting and eating, they despised him, saying, “So this is the monk of whom I have heard!” And they left him and departed.
473. An old man was asked, “How is it that there are men who say, ‘We have seen a vision of angels?’ ” and the old man said, “Blessed is he who seeth his sins continually.”
474. They used to say that when any man came to Abbâ Poemen he used to send him to Abbâ Job, his brother, saying to him, “He is older than I am”; and Job used to say to those who came, “Go unto my brother Poemen, for he possesseth the grace of these gifts.” Now if Abbâ Joseph was sitting with him Abbâ Poemen would not speak before him.
475. When a certain brother went to the festival he asked Abbâ Poemen, “What wouldst thou have me to do?” The old man said unto him, “Be thou a friend unto him that leadeth thee away by force, and sell thy work graciously.”
476. A brother asked an old man, “What is the work of exile?” And the old man said unto him, “I knew a brother who went forth into exile, and he went in to lodge in a church, and it happened that the brethren were about to eat some of the sacramental bread; and when they sat down this man sat down with them. Now when some of the other monks saw him, they said, ‘Who hath brought this man in [to eat] with us?’ And one of them said [unto him], ‘Arise, and get thee outside,’ and straightway he rose up and went forth as the brother had told him; but the others being sorry about this matter went out and brought him in. And after these things a certain man asked him, ‘What was in thy mind when thou didst go out and come in again?’ He said unto them, ‘I thought in my mind that I was like a dog which when he is driven out goeth out, and when he is called cometh in.’ ”
477. They used to say that when Abbâ Moses was one of the clergy he wore a long outer garment, and that the Bishop said unto him, “Behold, thou art wholly white, O Abbâ Moses.” The old man said unto him, “Is the Pâpâ within or without?” And again, wishing to try him, the Bishop said unto the clergy, “When Abbâ Moses goeth into the sacrarium drive him out, and go after him and hear what he saith.” Now when he went into the sacrarium they rebuked him and drove him out, saying, “Get outside, O Ethiopian”; and having gone forth he began to say to himself, “They have treated thee rightly, O thou whose skin is dark and black; thou shalt not go back as if thou wert a [white] man.”
478. An old man used to say, “Do not despise or think
