saw him thus encumbered, he took an axe, whereof the handle was ten ells long, and jumped ten ells high, and then, since Moses was ten ells in stature, he could reach thirty ells high, so he struck Og on the ancle bone that he died." After this, we shall be prepared for the story of the hunter, who, according to the treatise Nidda, once pursued a buck into the shin bone of a man; the hunter continued the chase for three miles up the bone, and then not being able either to catch the buck or to see the end of the bone, returned disappointed. Can we wonder that this turned out to have been one of the legs of Og, the king of Bashan? We pass over the stories which are told of many other individuals, because they are merely admeasurements of monstrous animals, and accounts of incredible feats of strength, set off with such particulars as this "When Samson shook himself, his hair clattered together, and the sound was heard from Dan to Bersheba."

We pass over these; we merely may state, that it requires no genius to invent fiction of this kind:-Unicorn's a hundred miles high, on the horns of one of which David was lifted up to heaven; men with feet forty miles long, and cities sixty miles high, are not objects, of which, in the present day, it will be necessary to relate all the adventures. It has been supposed that the Jewish Rabbis were aware of the existence of the fossil elephant, and the kraken of Norway; but it may be objected, and I think with great reason, that they who invented the animals I have just mentioned, and birds so big that, when an egg by chance broke, the white of it overflowed threescore villages, would be very likely to magnify fishes in the same way, without supposing them to be acquainted with that immense creature of which naturalists are yet debating the existence. The fabulous simorg, the roc of the "Arabian Nights," the cock of the moslem heaven, parallel creations, are the only creatures with which to compare these monstrous and useless fictions.

At the time of Solomon a new era opens; a character is brought forward on which all the poets and romancists of the east have ever loved to dwell. Pre-eminently wise, and highly favoured by the Supreme Being, he stood alone among the potentates of his age: his fame filled the then civilized world, and princes, from the furthest regions, thronged round his throne to offer their choicest treasures, to acknowledge his immeasurable superiority, and to hear the lessons of wisdom, which, like a stream of honey, flowed from his inspired lips. And on account of this universal fame, the legends of other eartern nations are as full of his power and magnificence as those of the Jews. In science, in art, in riches, in wisdom, and in power, the era of Solomon shone with such surpassing lustre, that the previous age looked dim-even the reign of his glorious, and far more excellent father, and the succeeding-" oh! what a falling off was there!" The peculiar circumstances in which Solomon was placed, and the fact of his wisdom and knowledge being not the product of study and experience, but the express gift of the Deity, cast around him an undefined awe. A great and learned man is, after all, but a man. Solomon seemed somewhat more, and the cold sternness of his

The Heroic or Romantic Ages.

character added to the distance which his greatness placed between
The influx of treasure, and of those luxuries
him and other men.
which are ever the most costly, was so great, and their influence and
effects so remarkable, as to invest the earlier period of his reign
with the character, rather of a gorgeous vision than of a story of
real life. We cannot be surprised that the ancients should attribute,
to a prince so distinguished, magical power; and as we know that
they considered magic as a science, and which by long study a man
might attain, it must be evident, that for them to have thought
Solomon ignorant of magic, would have been an impossibility.
Accordingly we find spirits and genii, fairies and demons, acknow-
ledging his power and executing his commands. We find him ab-
solute over the elements, and ruling them and their spiritual inhabi-
tants and movers with the same cold, proud, stern, controul which
he evinced towards men: The character, both real and fabulous, of
Solomon, is ever consistent, and there is not a single action related
of him, in either character, which can be called amiable.

The fall and the dimned glory of his reign before his close, the removal of God's favour, the complaints of his oppressed people, and the successful hostilities of his warlike neighbours, are passed over lightly in the pages of tradition. He was a favourite hero, and they have been tender of his fame. The reader will, of course, recollect the frequent allusions made to his seal and his power over spirits, in the "Arabian Nights;" the Talmudic history, touching how he became possessed of that seal, and how he was once cast out of his kingdom for three years, and how he built the temple by magic, will, perhaps, be interesting, as their decided oriental character show the great change that had taken place since the periods of which I last quoted the legends.

By the time of Soloman, the east appears to have reached a state not very unlike that in which the era of Haroun Alrashid found it; and the history which we are now about to relate, would seem perfectly in good keeping were it in the "Arabian Nights:"-" King Solomon spoke unto the Rabbi's and said—'What order shall I take that the stones of the temple may be split without iron tools?' and they said, the shamir must be obtained wherewith Moses made the sacred breastplate and tunic. So Solomon called up devils and commanded them to tell him where the shamir was to be found; they came and stood around him, but unable to answer the king's question, at length they said, Ashmedai, the prince of devils, knows it.'" Solomon next enquired where was this fiend to be found; on a certain hill, which they named, he had dug himself a pit and filled it with water, and evey day the demons said he went "Then was Solomon exceeding glad, and sent there to drink. Benaiah, the son of Jehoida, and gave him a chain, on which was engraven the mystic word, 'shemhamphorash,' and a ring, on which it was engraven, with a bundle of wool, and several casks of wine. So when Benaiah came to the pit, he dug a hole and caused the water to run out, then he stopped up the hole with the wool; he next dug a hole at the top and poured in the wine, and then stopped up the

C

hole so dexterously that no one could see that any one had been there. Now when Benaiah had done this, he climbed up into a tree, and waited for the coming of the devil; but when he came and found wine and not water, he was very much enraged, and said, 'strong drink is raging, wine is a mocker, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise,' so he would not drink, though extremely thirsty; but after a little time, he could no longer refrain, but drank, and that so freely, as to be intoxicated and laid down to sleep. Then did Benaiah, the son of Jehoida, descend from the tree, and bound Ashmedai and brought him to Solomon. Yet Ashmedai strove greatly, but Benaiah was too strong for him." "The demon, however, did some mischief in the passage, and when brought into the presence of the king, he haughtily exclaimed, when you are dead you shall have but earth enough to cover you; now have you conquered the whole world, yet you were not satisfied till you have likewise brought me into subjection.' But Solomon said, I want nothing from thee, but I will build the temple, and I want shamir:' then said Ashmedai, 'he is not committed unto me but unto the prince of the sea, and he trusts him to none but his turkey, who his faithful to him.' What does the turkey do with it,' enquired Solomon? Ashmedai answered, 'he takes it along with him on mountains that are desolate, and on which grows neither herb nor tree, he holds it against the rocks of the mountains and they split, so he goes his way: afterwards takes a load of trees and casts it there; and the place becomes fertile and fit to be inhabited; and trees and other things do grow and thrive there, for this reason is shamir called naggar tura, that is, the rock worker.' This shamir is an insect which nothing is hard enough to withstand; but the hardest rocks split before it like soft wood before the wedge." Solomon immediatelely sent his servants to seek the nest of this turkey, which they were fortunate enough to find, and in it were the young ones, which, with the nest, they immediately covered with a cucumber frame. "So when the turkey came to the nest, she essayed to get at her young, but could not for the glass; therefore she brought shamir to set him upon the glass, whereat Benaiah made a great shout, which caused the turkey to drop shamir, and Benaiah took him up. But the turkey strangled herself because of the oath which she had sworn to the prince of the seas." Possessed of this insect, which, to increase its importance, was said to have been created on the first sabbath-aided by the powers of light, and served, though reluctantly, by those of darkness, the zenith of Solomon's fame drew nigh; he built that sublime and stupendous temple upon which nations gazed with wonder, and even Deity deigned to rest visibly. And now comes the tale which will indeed vie with any of the thousand-and-one. D' Israeli, in his "Curiosities of Literature," quotes one version, but there is another more fanciful and more interesting. In the treatise Emek Hammelek is preserved the story which I quote:-" In the height of his prosperity, the king was accustomed every day at noon to convey himself into the firmament to hear the secrets of the universe from the mouths of the spirits Asa and Asael, and no fear was on him.

At length Ashmedai prevailed upon Solomon to grant him his liberty, and to give him possession of the ring which had the shemhamphorash engraven upon it. Once possessed of the talismanic gem, which had been to Solomon the sceptre of his supernatural power, the fiend suddenly changed his tone, and dilating himself to a gigantic size, swallowed the now alarmed monarch; spreading his broad wings, he flew two hundred leagues, and then spat out the king in a distant and idolatrous country. Then he took the ring and flung it into the sea, where it was swallowed by a fish. Meantime Ashmedai told Solomon that he was thrust out from the peaceable enjoyment of his kingdom, because he had disobeyed the Lord and broken three commandments: he had multiplied unto himself horses, wives, and gold and silver, all which things he was forbidden, as king of Israel, to do." Ashmedai, now in the likeness of Solomon, sat on the throne of Israel for three years, and truly to judge, from the extreme difficulty which there is in ascertaining which were the three years in question, the devil seems to have been about as good a king as this wisest of monarchs. While the demon was thus ruling, Solomon was an exile and a wanderer. In the course of his peregrinations, he passed through the land of the Amorites, begging from door to door, and saying, "I, the preacher, was king in Jerusalem." In the capital city, to which the legend gives the name of Mashkemen, he was hired as an assistant by the chief cook, and employed in the palace, where he distinguished himself, and gained the favour of the king by his proficiency in the gastronomic art. The chief cook was obliged to yield to superior science, and the quondam sovereign of Jerusalem was elevated to the post. At length Naama, the king's daughter, saw Solomon, and soon became deeply enamoured; her passion was speedily discovered, and as may readily be supposed, met with no small opposition. Solomon's story was, of course, disbelieved, and though Naama was allowed to become his, they were driven into the desert and left without food, tent, or water; aided by unseen spirits, and supported by mutual love, they reached a city by the sea coast, and Solomon became a fisherman. The denouement of the story becomes now quite according to the received style; Solomon catches the fish that swallowed the ring, and again recovers his power and kingdom. After the conviction and expulsion of Ashmedai, Solomon sent for the king of the Amorites, proved his identity with the late chief cook, and introduced Naama to her father as the queen of Israel.

There is a story, partly taken from this, in the " Arabian Nights," wherein we are told how a certain prince, being by magical means cast out of his kingdom, established himself as a pastry-cook in a distant city, whither he was taken by a genie very much against his will, and was at last discovered and restored to his rank by his extraordinary skill in cheesecakes. We will take the present opportunity of noticing that many of the tales of that fascinating collection are taken from the Talmud.

(To be continued.)

HYMN FOR CHRISTMAS DAY.

BY MRS. E. SMITH.

ON earth, on sea, and in the air,

While all was hush'd in calm profound,
The shepherds watch'd their fleecy care,
And silent sate upon the ground.

The stars that gemm'd the midnight sky,
In distant soften'd lustre shone;
-What startles the astonish'd eye?

And whence those sounds of thrilling tone?

Lo! in a flood of dazzling light,

The heralds of the heavens appear ;
And, 'midst that blaze of glory bright,
These tidings greet the wond'ring ear.
Joy to the world! a child is born,—
Joy to the earth! a son is given,
Whose love shall every age adorn,

And pave your future way to heaven.
Good will to man! and peace on earth:
Proclaim, proclaim the Saviour's reign;
Tell to the world the heavenly birth,

And hail with joy the wide domain.
Each nation that o'erspreads the world,
To him shall humbly bend the knee;
By him the powers of darkness, hurled
To deepest night, enchain'd shall be.
The lands shall clap their hands with joy,
The isles with rapture own his sway;
Then let his praise your lips employ,
And hail the Saviour's coming day.

Star of the east! thy lustrous light
Shall lead them to the infant king;
And while they track thy course so bright,
Their steps shalt thou in safety bring.

To Him, before whose infant brow,
The wise of earth shall low incline;
For Him, as priest and monarch now,
Incense shall rise and gold shall shine.
Peace to the world! and joy to men!
The sounds celestial melt away;
But the high descant then began,
Shall last until eternal day.

Still shines that star in sacred story,

And still we hear the heavenly throng;

And unto thee, oh! Lord of glory,

Our praise and homage still belong.