specially in disrepute among the Hebrews, and no priest who had such an impediment was allowed to pronounce the Levitical benediction" (Maimonides on the Mishna, Treatise of Prayer, chap, xv.) Josephus does not mention the test of the child's simplicity, but it is recorded in the Talmud; the story is included in Polandi's somewhat meagre Selections,[1] and there it is Jithro, or Jethro, priest of Midian, who suggests the trial. A plate of gold and a plate of fire were presented to the child, and he grasped at the latter, and burned himself, as before related. Mr. Baring Gould[2] says that the choice lay between rubies and hot coals, and that Moses would have seized the jewels but for a monitory hint from the angel Gabriel.
It happened in after years that war broke out with the Ethiopians, who invaded Egypt, and Moses went forth to fight the foe, taking with him reed-baskets of storks[3] and ibises to quell the reptiles infesting a district through which he made a short cut to face the enemy, who soon turned tail, and shut themselves up in Saba. It came to pass that the daughter of the besieged king fell in love with the Egyptian general, and offered to betray the city if he would respond. He consented, and became King of Ethiopia, but the thought of his enslaved countrymen haunted him, and, after a while, being
"learned and traded in the stars,
Both by the Hebrews and Egyptians taught,"
he made "two sundry figures," one of which caused the wearer to forget all bygone things, whilst the other had the effect of quickening the memory. These he combined with jewels, and made into two rings; handsomely presented that inducing oblivion to his queen, and donned himself the one which strengthened and refreshed his sym-
- ↑ pp. 127-8.
- ↑ Legends of Old Testament Characters, vol. ii. pp. 77-78.
- ↑ Thus quaintly does Sir Roger L'Estrange render Josephus (Ant. 19, book ii. ch. 10), who does not mention storks:—"The bird Ibis is a mortal Enemy to all sorts of serpents. They fly from the pursuit of it as from Deer, till they are overtaken and devour'd. The bird is only fierce to those Insects, and gentle to all other Creatures. Now Moses's Invention to secure his army against these Creatures was to carry with him so many of these birds in Cages of Bull-rushes to clear the way for him."
