[4] In the newly-found tablet to which English editors give the title “Logia Jesou,” the 5th “Logion,” so far as it can be made out, reads: “... saith where there are ... and there is one alone ... I am with him. Raise the stone and there thou shalt find me, cleave the wood and there am I.” The last sentence seems to be based on Eccles. x. 9: “Whoso removeth stones shall be hurt therewith; and he that cleaveth wood shall be endangered thereby.” The first sentence may be an allusion to the poor man who alone saved the city (Eccles. ix.). There is no such word as “Jesus” in this “Logion,” and perhaps it is Wisdom who speaks.
[5] Asmodeus (identified as Aêshma by West, Bundahis xxv. 15, n. 10) has (Tobit vi. 13) slain seven men who successively married Sara, whom he (and Tobit) loved, and in Bundahis Aêshma has seven powers with which he will slay seven Kayan heroes. But one is preserved, as Tobit is. (Sacred Books of the East, Vol. V, p. 108.) Darmesteter says: “One of the foremost amongst the Drvants (storm-fiends), their leader in their onsets, is Aêshma, ‘the raving,’ ‘a fiend with the wounding spear.’ Originally a mere epithet of the storm fiend, Aêshma was afterwards converted into an abstract, the demon of rage and anger, and became an expression for all moral wickedness, a mere name of Ahriman.”
[6] The word translated “cross” is σταυρός, a stake. The christian cross began its development by the carving of a figure of Jesus on the stake, which required a support for the arms. Protestantism, by removing the figure, has left the wooden fetish, which, however, has been invested with Symbolical meanings, some derived from the various crosses held sacred in many countries long before Christ.
Chapter XIX.
Postscripta.
Early in the year 1896 a company of Jews performed at the Novelty Theatre, London, in the Hebrew language, a drama entitled “King Solomon.” It was an humble affair, and only about three score in the audience—I and one very dear to me being apparently the only “Gentiles” present. The drama was mainly the legend of the Judgment of Solomon and that of the visit of the Queen of Sheba, both conventionalized, and performed in an automatic way, no spark of human passion or emotion animating either of the women claiming the babe, or the Queen of Sheba. The part of Solomon was acted by a fine-looking man, who went through it in the same perfunctory way that characterized Joseph Meyer, the Oberammergau Christ, as he appears to the undevout critical eye. Such has the biblical Solomon become in Europe.
In the same week I attended a matinée of “Aladdin” in Drury Lane Theatre, which was crowded, mainly with children, who were filled with delight by the fairy play. The leading figures were elaborated from Solomonic lore. A beautiful being in dazzling white raiment and crown appears to Aladdin; she is a combination of the Queen of Sheba and Wisdom; she presents the youth with a ring (symbol of Solomon’s espousal with Wisdom, or as the Abyssinians say, with the Queen of Sheba); by means of this ring he obtains the Wonderful Lamp (the reflected or terrestrial wisdom). An Asmodeus, well versed in modern jugglery, charms the audience with his tricks and antics, before proceeding to get hold of the magic ring of Aladdin, and commanding the lamp, which he succeeds in doing, as he succeeded with Solomon. This is what legendary Solomon has become in Europe.
In European Folklore, Solomon and his old adversary, Asmodeus, now better known as Mephistopheles, have long been blended. Solomon’s seal was the mediæval talisman to which the demon eagerly responds. The Wisdom involved is all a matter of magic. It is wonderful that so little recognition has been given in literature to the epical dignity and beauty of the biblical legends of Solomon. In early English literature there was at one time a tendency to ascribe to Solomon various proverbs not in the Bible. In one old manuscript he is credited with saying: