brother did according as the old man told him for two days, but on the third day he became dejected, and wearied, and said, “What hath the old man done for me, seeing that he hath not commanded me to make prayers?” Then he rose up and sang more Psalms than usual, and after the sun had set he ate his food, and he rose up, and went, and lay down upon his mat; and he saw, as it were, an Ethiopian who stood up and gnashed his teeth at him, and the monk, by reason of his great fear, ran quickly to his master, and he knocked hastily at his door, saying, “Father, have mercy upon me, and open to me immediately.” Now because the old man knew that he had not kept his commandment he refused to open the door to him until the morning, and when he opened the door in the morning, he found him [there], and as the brother entreated him to be allowed to enter, the old man had compassion upon him and brought him in. Then he began to say unto the old man, “I beseech thee, O father, [to believe me]. When I went to lie down to go to sleep, I saw a black Ethiopian on my bed.” The old man said unto him, “This [happened] because thou didst not keep my words.” Then he laid down a rule for him which was suitable to his strength and to the monastic life, and dismissed him, and little by little he became an excellent monk.
245. A man who wanted to be a monk came to Abbâ Sisoes the Theban, and the old man asked him, if he had any possession whatsoever in the world, and he said, “I have one son”; and the old man, wishing to find out if he possessed the faculty of obedience, said unto him, “Go, and throw him in the river, and then come, and thou shalt be a monk,” and because the man was obedient he went straightway to do it. Now when he had departed the old man sent another brother to prevent him from doing this thing, and when the man had taken up his son to throw him into the river, the brother said unto him, “Thou shalt not cast him in.” Then the man said unto him, “My father told me that I was to cast him in,” and the brother replied, “He told me that thou wast not to cast him in,” so the man left him, and came [unto the old man], and through his obedience he became a chosen monk.
246. The Abbâ who was in Îlîû used to say, “Obedience cometh into existence because of obedience; for if a man obeyeth God, God also will obey him.”
247. On one occasion four brethren came to Abbâ Pambô from Scete, and they were wearing skins, and each one of them, whilst his neighbour was absent, recounted [to him] his works, [saying], the first one fasteth very often, and the second leadeth a life of poverty, and the third possesseth great
