"As well. There is no virtue in it. He hath swallowed a water pot full already. Evil is about. The sky is red."
While the sisters stood about the bed the physician, garbed in a long coat of brown and striped turban, hurried in with an air of importance. He was followed by a servant carrying a bundle of herbs, some green sprigs and several cruises of oil. "What evil thing hath befallen thy brother since yesternoon?" he asked, going to the couch.
"A strange sleep hath fallen upon him."
The physician turned back his patient's eyelids and looked carefully. "Evil spirits are about," he announced. "When the medicine I did leave yesterday drove from his veins the devils of fire, then did demons of sleep rush in. So doth he sleep."
"Canst thou awaken him?" Mary asked.
"By my rare skill I can. Pour out thine oil," this to the servant, "and set forth the herbs. Mix thou a bitter potion and I will administer a prayer." From a wallet the physician took a small paper which he rolled into a pill between the palms of his hands. The pill he dipped in a bowl. "This is to dispel evil spirits," he explained. "Make fast his head while I push the prayer between his lips."
Mary and Martha raised the shoulders of Lazarus, and the physician tried to force the pill into his throat.
"Even of his mouth have the evil spirits taken possession," he said, failing to force open the set teeth of the man. "Bring the oil." Then followed an elaborate anointing while the physician tried to rub in his prayers. Meantime several neighbors had entered the room and while Mary watched eagerly for the awakening of her brother, Martha stepped to the door to tell in anxious whispers of her brother's serious condition.
"Evil spirits have taken entire possession," the physician told the sisters when no sign of life responded to the oil bath. "There be yet one manner in which evil may be driven from thy brother. Wilt thou give of thy abundant hair, Mary?"
"Of my hair? Yea, thou shalt have all—even my blood for my brother
Larazus."