Fig. 29.—Satan and Noraita.
The most remarkable legend of this kind is that found in the Eastern Church, and which is shown in various mediæval designs in Russia. Satan is shown, in an early sixteenth century picture belonging to Count Uvarof ([Fig. 29]), offering Noah’s wife a bunch of khmel (hops) with which to brew kvas and make Noah drunk; for the story was that Noah did not tell his wife that a deluge was coming, knowing that she could not keep a secret. In the old version of the legend given by Buslaef, ‘after apocryphal tradition used by heretics,’ Satan always addresses Noah’s wife as Eve, which indicates a theory. It was meant to be considered as a second edition of the attack on the divine plan begun in Eden, and revived in the temptation of Sara. Satan not only taught this new Eve how to make kvas but also vodka (brandy); and when he had awakened her jealousy about Noah’s frequent absence, he bade her substitute the brandy for the beer when her husband, as usual, asked for the latter. When Noah was thus in his cups she asked him where he went, and why he kept late hours. He revealed his secret to his Eve, who disclosed it to Satan. The tempter appears to have seduced her from Noah, and persuaded her to be dilatory when entering the ark. When all the animals had gone in, and all the rest of her family, Eve said, ‘I have forgotten my pots and pans,’ and went to fetch them; next she said, ‘I have forgotten my spoons and forks,’ and returned for them. All of this had been arranged by Satan in order to make Noah curse; and he had just slipped under Eve’s skirt when he had the satisfaction of hearing the intended Adam of a baptized world cry to his wife, ‘Accursed one, come in!’ Since Jehovah himself could not prevent the carrying out of a patriarch’s curse, Satan was thus enabled to enter the ark, save himself from being drowned, and bring mischief into the human world once more.
This is substantially the same legend as that of the mediæval Morality called ‘Noah’s Ark, or the Shipwright’s Ancient Play or Dirge.’ The Devil says to Noah’s wife:—
Yes, hold thee still le dame,
And I shall tell thee how;
I swear thee by my crooked snout,
All that thy husband goes about
Is little to thy profit.
Yet shall I tell thee how