“Then came the king’s wise men; but they could not read the writing nor make known to the king the interpretation thereof.
“Then was Daniel brought before the king, and the king said: “If thou canst read the writing thou shalt be clothed with scarlet and have a chain of gold about thy neck and shalt be third ruler of the kingdom.”
“Then Daniel answered and said before the king, “Let thy gifts be to thyself and give thy rewards to another; yet I will read the writing and make known unto the king the interpretation.”
“And this is the writing that was written: MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.”
BELSHAZZAR’S FEAST.
“Billy” Sunday’s Version.
Belshazzar’s feast was no common beer, pretzel and dill pickle blow-out, but the real goods. Nude and lewd women wormed and wriggled their way through the banquet hall. The bunch began to get soused and the revelry increased.
Then came the obscene song, the drunken hiccough, the slavering lip, and the guffaw of idiotic laugh bursting from the lips of princes, flushed, reeling and bloodshot, while mingled with it all were the hurrahs for great Belshazzar.
Then from the atmosphere flashed an armless hand which wrote upon the frieze in words that blazed like fire and glistened like gold. Terror froze Belshazzar to the very soul. His countenance changed, his thoughts troubled him so that the joints of his loins were loose and his knees smote together. I tell you old “Bel” was about all in.
In a few moments he hoarsely cried: “Bring in the astrologers, the Chaldeans and the soothsayers (we’d call ’em mediums today). And in came the Magi and when they couldn’t decipher the heiroglyphics, Belshazzar cried, “Give ’em the hook.”
Then he sent for Daniel on his mother’s advice.