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A MOSES LEGEND
By Samuel Krauss, Vienna
The manuscript which sees light here for the first time
comes from the valuable collection of manuscripts of Mr.
Elkan Adler in London, and its origin is most probably
either Persia or Yemen. The few leaves which form the
subject of our inquiry are incorporated in a quite bulky
volume in quarto which contains heterogeneous matter in
great quantity and in motley diversity, and from which I
have published an Oriental Ketubba 1 and a version of the
well-known Toldot Jeshu. 2
Our manuscript deserves the name Midrash of the type
of many similar edifying stories in the well-known collec-
tion of Jellinek; it, moreover, deals with a biblical person-
age, viz. Moses, and constitutes a series of stories rather
than one continuous and uninterrupted story. To judge
from the contents, however, our narrative belongs to the
large domain of ethical fables ( nwjJO ), for the mere
reason that, as will be shown, it is a product of the Arabic
age.
To facilitate a survey of the contents, I have divided
the theme in three chapters.
The first chapter tells the following tale : When Moses
was feeding the sheep of Jethro in the wilderness, an angel
1 ZfhB., V, 29 {.
2 Krauss, Leben Jesti nach jud. Quellen, 118 f.
339
34-0 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW
C"I*6d) approached him in the shape of a white wolf
C3Nf) , and demanded a sheep from him to satisfy his
hunger. Moses, the faithful shepherd, refused his demand,
claiming that the sheep did not belong to him, whereupon
the wolf made him run to Jethro and obtain permission,
promising to guard the flock meanwhile. Jethro gave his
permission, but when Moses returned to the flock, the wolf
had disappeared. The story breaks off at this point, and
we are left in the dark as to whether Moses was aware
of the angelic nature of the talking wolf. This omission
serves to prove that it was not the object of the narrator
to show that Moses communicated with transcendental
beings, but rather to furnish evidence of Moses' true and
faithful discharge of his duties as a shepherd.
The second chapter is considerably larger. A deceitful
old man ( }pt ) joins Moses, and they wander together in
the wilderness. Altogether they have five loaves of bread ;
of which they consume two each in two halting-places,
while the fifth disappears in the hands of the old man.
Being in the sad plight of starvation, Moses performs
miracles with the divine staff in his hand: he seizes deer,
whose flesh they consume, and whose bones he resuscitates
to new life. He also causes water to flow from a rock.
Furthermore, it is related as an episode that Moses re-
vived a dead person by means of his staff. In the hand
of the old man, however, the staff loses its miraculous
power, and thus, as the narrator states, is verified the pro-
verb : Not all men are alike. It is evident that this moral
is the point of the story. Another point which is accentu-
ated through the whole piece is the villainy of the old man,
who, despite the miracles he witnesses, perseveres in his
imposture. .
A MOSES LEGEND — KRAUSS 34I
The third chapter furnishes the denouement: the old
man receives his well-deserved punishment. This occurs in
the following way: Moses puts up three heaps of dust and
transforms them into gold; then, leaving the whole treas-
ure to the avidity of the old man, he departs from him
forever. The old man is unable to carry the heavy weight
of gold, and espying Bedouins on camels, he solicits their
aid, stipulating to give them a third part of the treasure.
The Bedouins, however, dispatch the old man to an ad-
jacent city in order to buy bread for them. During his
absence they resolve to kill him, which they do, in order
to appropriate the whole treasure for themselves. But
they pay with their lives for this plot, for the bread was
poisoned — probably by the old man who envied them the
stipulated reward — , and as a result all of them died. Thus
poetical justice receives due emphasis and accentuation at
the hand of our narrator.
As is seen from this outline, the first story has no
connection whatever with the subsequent trend of the
narrative. To be sure, Moses is and remains the hero
throughout, and it is certainly the consummate aim of the
narrator to bring out in relief the overtowering personal-
ity of Moses the man; but while in the first story a divine
being, an angel, is employed to bring out the greatness of
Moses, in the following stories it is always the deceitful
old man who forms the contrast to the great lawgiver. This
loose construction can only be explained by the fact that
the narrator found certain stories relating to Moses, and
from these he adopted and remodeled some which pleased
him, rejecting the others as unworthy of his attention.
The narrator no doubt employs familiar fable motives.
One need not be surprised that he clothes the angel in
342 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW
white, since angels are always pictured in white garb;
for an example comp. Daniel 10, 5 f. and 12, 6. Nor can
we find it inappropriate that he makes the angel assume
the shape of a preying beast: the rape of a sheep being
involved, temptation in the form of a wolf is particularly
fitting. The preying animal was to tempt Moses, in order
to test his faithfulness.
As to the disguise or transformation itself, it is a
motive quite familiar in the fable literature of all times
and all nations. In the Talmud we read of the metamor-
phosis of Satan, who assumes once the shape of a deer, 8
another time that of a bird/ and it appears to us quite
superfluous to adduce proof for the existence of such
popular notions. But what is of especial interest to us in
the wolf scene is the manner in which Moses addresses
the wolf: Do animals ( nvn ) speak? To which his inter-
locutor replies: Thou who wilt one day be called upon to
perform great deeds, who wilt be an eye-witness to the
story of the golden calf and the speaking ass of Balaam
— thou askest such questions? This dialogue leads us
straightway to the source of the story, and this source is
none other than Mohammedan.
This fact in itself that the golden calf (hiV ) is rep-
resented as an animated and living being, is a Mohamme-
dan notion. The Mohammedan legend maintains that
Al-Samiri (known from the Koran as the creator of the
calf) took dust from under the hoofs of the horse of
Gabriel (the guardian angel of the children of Israel),
and threw it into the mouth of the calf, whereupon the
calf was endowed with life and began to low. 5 A some-
3 b. Sanh. 950.
4 lb., 107a.
5 All this is found in Jew. Bnc., Ill, 509.
A MOSES LEGEND — KRAUSS 343
what similar view is contained in the Rabbinic work
Pirke di R. Eliezer, 6 and we know that this book bears the
stamp of Arabic influence.'
The dialogue between Moses and the wolf leads us
distinctly into Arabic territory. Its prototype we meet in
the book Hayyat al-haywan ("Life of the Animals") by
Damiri. In the part relating to the wolf (di'b) — I, 446-
452 — a number of wolf fables are cited from various
writers, which fables, for example, run as follows: A
shepherd tending his flock in the desert sees a wolf ap-
proach and seize one of his sheep. While the shepherd
attempts to save the victim, the wolf begins to expostulate :
Dost thou wish to deprive me of the prey which Allah
has apportioned me? To which the shepherd ejaculates:
Does an animal speak? And the wolf replies: Did not
Allah's prophet proclaim still greater miracles? — According
to another story, the wolf had a conversation with three of
Mohammed's companions, among them Uhban ibn Aus
( j\ .j jU*l). While the latter was feeding his herd a
wolf came and seized one of his sheep. Uhban began to
battle with the preying animal, but was astounded at the
latter's defense: Dost thou wish to deprive me of the
food which God has allotted me? — Does an animal speak?
— Does this surprise thee? The wolf then pointed toward
Medinah, where the prophet was teaching and preaching,
saying: Even greater wonders occur there! Thereupon
Uhban ibn Aus set out on his way to Medinah, came to
Mohammed, and related his adventure to him, and finally
embraced Islam. Also a tradition is quoted, according to
which Uhban is called "he who conversed with the wolf,"
6 c 45: nyu ron 'uyn «s»i.
" Zunz, Gotlesd. Vortrage, 2d ed., 288.
344 TH E JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW
and his children "the children of him who conversed with
the wolf." — Again in another tale (according to Bokhari)
not only the wolf (in the manner recorded above), but
also the cow speaks. The cow, being overburdened by her
master, turns to him with reproach : Was I created to carry
loads? My creator has destined me for ploughing! Thus
we see a wolf and a cow speaking. And Mohammed says :
I believe it, for Abu Bekr and Omar are with me. — Always
reference to Mohammed! And so the speaking cow is
of especial interest to us, since under the title "Cow"
(<>.«») the second Sura comprises all that which Mo-
hammed, in his customary obscurity and confusion, was
able to say of the golden calf, the "red" heifer, and the
beheaded heifer."
Just as in the Mohammedan tradition Mohammed is
apparently glorified through the speaking wolf, so also in
the person of our narrator a man was found, who, instead
of the false prophet, aimed to apotheosize with the same
means the first prophet, the father of all prophets, the
great teacher Moses. Also Moses is bewildered: Does an
animal speak? And immediately the high rank of Moses
is pointed out: Thou forsooth wilt receive the Torah
from heaven; thou wilt behold a living calf made out of
gold; thou wilt record to posterity the story of Balaam
and his loquacious ass : and yet thou art astonished ? Our
narrative thus proves to be polemical in a considerable
degree, breaking a lance with Islam, and this in itself is
a proof that it originated under Mohammedan influence.
The Oriental origin of our story is furthermore at-
tested by the fact that the speaking bird likewise forms
8 For the reference to Damiri I am indebted to my friend B. Heller in
Budapest.
A MOSES LEGEND — KRAUSS 345
a customary motive in the Oriental fables. Thus we find
it among others in the last piece of "A Thousand and One
Nights," Galland's edition, although the Arabic original
does not contain it. The well-known fact of the migration
of fairy-tales accounts for the familiarity of the subjects
also in the Occident, so that originally there was a refer-
ence to the "wonder bird" even in Schiller's "Wallenstein"
(Act III, Scene 13) ; this reference, however, was later
obliterated by the poet, while we still find in Turandot "the
bird that speaks."
In that part of the narrative which we call the first
chapter, there is still another point that may be singled out,
viz. the wolf guarding the herd faithfully. Also this motive
belongs no doubt to the universal fable literature, but I
am not able at present to designate its true source.
In the second chapter, the "staff of Moses" (ntao)
forms the most essential element of the story. The thau-
maturgical power of the staff is too well-known from the
voluminous literature bearing on the subject, 10 and it is
scarcely necessary to dwell upon it here. It is only the
deeds performed by the aid of the staff that are not known
anywhere else.
The element dealing with the deceitful old man ac-
companying Moses has its counterpart in a similar story
contained in the Talmud (b. Gittin 680&), according to
which Ashmedai, the arch-demon, set out on a wandering
tour with Benaiah b. Jehoiada, the messenger of Solomon.
During this tour some deeds are performed by the demon
which are incomprehensible and even repugnant to his
» R. Kohler, Kleine Schriftcn, III, 170 f.
10 M. Grunbaum, Neue BeitrSge sur sent. Sagenkunde, 163 f.; see also
my "Antoninus uAd Rabbi," p. ti, note.
346 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW
companion, being utterly unjust and calculated to bring
divine providence into disrepute. At last the companion is
made to understand the true meaning of the "wonderful
deeds" 11 of the unearthly being. This theme is a favorite
with fairy-tale writers: in French, for instance, we find
it under the title of I'ange et I'ermite." The roots of this
fable reach out unto remote antiquity, and their receptive
soil is the fantastic Orient. The Talmud itself, besides the
case already cited, contains many other tales of such
"wonderful deeds.""
The essence of the Ashmedai story and its predomin-
ating idea is this, that God's messenger, a supramundane
being, commits unjust, nay cruel, deeds, punishing the just
and rewarding the wicked, and his companion, who sees
these acts, is astonished and amazed, until an explanation
reaches him. All this is a kind of theodicy. In a Judseo-
German ne>jflD -book, which has been made accessible to
us by modern investigation," the hero of the tale is the
pious R. Joshua b. Levi, who is known from the talmudic
haggadah, while the prophet Elijah plays the role of the
thaumaturgist. The narrative begins as following: R.
Joshua b. L,evi met one day the prophet Elijah, and asked
him: What is my lord doing all the time? The prophet
11 IV DM M»7'D 73 is the expression in a parallel passage in Midrash
Tehillim on 78, 12, p. 177, ed. Buber.
12 See esp. Isr. Levi in RBI., VIII, 64-73, and 202-205; also ib., XLVIII,
275-277. The story of Ashmedai and King Solomon is also found in
WtPpDfl 1BD, and the Genizah fragment forming an Arabic translation of it
was printed ib., XEV, 305-308.
18 See b. Taanit 220& and 23a* (see also Abot R. Nathan, Vers. II, c.
19, p. 2iff, Schechter). Also b. Shabb. 1276.. Comp. also the occurrences in
the house of Abuiah (the father of Elisha b. Abuiah) in b. Hag. 15a and
p. Hag. II, 1, fol. 77b.
14 Griinbaum, Judisch-deutsche Chrestomathie, 303 f.
A MOSES LEGEND KRAUSS 347
answered: I travel about in the world, from city to city,
from country to country. This prologue is apparently de-
rived from the Book of Job; yet it must be remarked that
it is missing in all the Hebrew versions, which are very
numerous, while the prototype of the Judseo-German
ntPyiD-book must have contained it.
Now let us proceed to the examination of our text.
Moses asks the old man: -Whither goest thou? And he
answers : I go to and fro in the earth ( Die* ) . This scarcely
admits of a misconstruction, and it is evident that our text
bestows on Moses the role of the miracle-worker, while
the deceitful old man is introduced in the same manner as
the demon in the Ashmedai story. It is only when we
consider the demon as model that we understand the role
of the deceitful old man. The thought of Faust and
Mephistopheles suggests itself, and this is already of ab-
sorbing interest to the universal history of civilization.
Still the introductory words remind me of the Ashmedai
tale, while the deeds performed by Moses with his staff
have their parallel, as mentioned above, nowhere else.
In the absence of a better source let us not omit to
point out a slight trace, which is liable to give us a clue
to the character of our story. In the great mediaeval col-
lection of fables, known under the name Gesta Romanorum,
we find the following anecdote: Three men travel on the
road, and all three possess only one loaf of bread. Says
one : Comrades, let the bread belong to him who will dream
the most beautiful dream. Two of them fall asleep in
order to dream the desired dream, but the third man con-
sumes the bread meanwhile. 15 A violent strife over food
15 Gesta Roman., ed. Oesterley, p. 436-438; see on p. 728 the unusually
large literature, among others also Toledot Jesu, which illustrates sufficiently
the wide currency of this fahle material.
348 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW
occurs also in the Jewish "Life of Jesus" (Tolcdot Jeshu,
ed. Huldreich, 1705, p. 51); however, here not bread is
involved, but a fat goose, for the possession of which Jesus,
Peter, and Judas vie with each other, the strife reminding
us of the controversy between the apostles and Zebedee's
sons (Matth. 20, 24)," and then Peter maintains that
he was sitting in his dream near the throne of the Son of
God. No less a man than Gaston Paris, the famous au-
thority on fables, to whom we are also indebted for the
investigation of the above-mentioned legend of the angel
and the hermit, has already proved that a connection exists
between this strife and the parable of the "three rings";
and it is the same Gaston Paris who links together the
anecdote of Historia Jcschua Nazareni with an anecdote
from the Arabic book Nuzhetol Udeba (?) (i. e.
nuzhat al-udaba) according to which it was the Jew among
those three men who dreamed that he had consumed the
bread, and this was naturally the most beautiful dream.
The point then to be brought out is this, that in the compe-
tition over the bread the Jew is the wisest, which supposi-
tion unfortunately does not seem to be borne out in many
cases.
In the same chapter, a special detail still calls for our
attention. The deers which were captured by means of
the staff were not consumed entirely: their bones were
left untouched, and these Moses resuscitated to new life.
This miracle of Moses does not seem to be simply a copy
of Ezekiel's resurrection scene, but it rather rests on a
well-circulated belief, according to which certain parts of
w See my "Leben Jesn," p. 162
17 G. Paris, "La Parabole des Trois Anneaux," in RBJ., XI, 15; printed
again in La Pocsie du Moyen Age, II e serie, II ed., Paris 1903, 159.
A MOSES LEGEND — KRAUSS 349
the body, which control animal life, are tabooed. Even
according to the Torah the blood should not be eaten,
for the blood is the soul of every flesh (Lev. 17, 14) ; and
so also the Greeks abstained from eating the brains, be-
lieving them to be the abode of every sense of life. Even
in our own days some savage tribes leave entirely un-
touched the head, the wings, and the legs of the birds
which they seize and consume, offering these parts as sac-
rifices to their gods and beseeching them that out of these
may arise new immortal creatures of the same kind. 18 This
is the most essential element in this belief, and it may serve
to elucidate certain ordinances in the Torah (e. g. the
Passover sacrifice) as well as our anecdote; yet I should
have preferred finding our anecdote as a whole in some
one Arabic tale, for, after all that has been said, there can
be no doubt that also here we must have recourse to
Arabic sources. However, the proper source is unknown
to me. Thus also I am unable to fit into a larger frame
the characteristic trait of Moses, admonishing the deceit-
ful old man after every miracle to bethink himself before
he swears and to consider the sanctity of the oath. The
old man swears impudently and wickedly that he has no
bread, persevering in this assertion despite the repeated ad-
monitions, until finally he is caught in his own net.
As against the difficulty in identifying the one part
of the narrative, it is a great satisfaction to us to be able
to state, that in the matter of the youth, 18 who is being
killed by the old man, there is ample material in the fable
literature to corroborate it. Of this rich material, as we
18 Treated by me in the Hungarian Journal Bthnographia, X, 277 £,
19 pl3*n of the Hebrew text need not be a small child, but, according
to general usage, may also designate a youth.
350 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW
shall note soon, only the following three points have been
retained in our text: a well ( "1K3 ) in the desert; 20 the
youth with money in his hand, who is being slain; and
finally the old man, who stands in some connection with
the youth. This is all — a mere skeleton, such as the one
that remained from the slain deer after its flesh had been
consumed. The pathetic tragedy in the story of the youth
was equally sacrificed by our narrator, so that only skin
and bones are left behind. The narrative in its present
form is stripped of its beauty and great import, and the
resulting moral is scarcely recognizable. This defacement
can be accounted for only through lack of understanding
in the author, or else through an unfortunate accident, for
deliberate distortion seems to be excluded. The remarkable
story, as it appears in the Judseo-German "Megillat
Esther,'" 1 runs in brief as follows:
It was Moses' habit to roam about in the country, in
order to give free play to his meditations. Once upon a
time he was sitting far away from a well, which, however,
he was able to overlook, ruminating in his usual manner.
Suddenly he noticed a man approaching the well, drinking
from it, and resuming his way, after dropping a money-bag
unknowingly. Immediately after him a poor man came
to the well, quenched his thirst, picked up the money-bag,
and departed joyfully. Also a third man came the same
way, drank, and sat down to rest. Meanwhile the first
man became aware of his loss, hastened back to the well,
found there the resting man, and with rage and fury
demanded his money from him. The latter, knowing him-
80 In a truly Jewish spirit it says that Moses goes to the well in order
to purify himself after easing his nature. In all the other versions the
well seryes only to quench the thirst of the wanderers.
21 Also in Griinbautn, Judisch-deutsche Chrestomathie, 215 f.
A MOSES LEGEND — KRAUSS 35 1
self innocent, repudiated the accusation with equal vigor,
so that a quarrel soon ensued with the result that the first
man, who had lost the money, killed the third man, after
which he ran away. It is true that Moses, who witnessed
all this, hastened to the spot in order to save the innocent
man, but he came there too late, With hands raised to-
wards heaven, he entreats God to reveal to him these
mysterious workings of fate, and in answer a voice from
heaven says : Know that the man who lost the money-bag,
although pious and God-fearing himself, inherited it from
his father who had robbed it from the father of the man
who now found it; and so, by divine Providence, the lat-
ter came to his rightful possession. The third man, how-
ever, who was slain, although apparently he committed no
crime — know that in years gone by he had slain the brother
of this man, and there were no witnesses to accuse him;
hence I have ordained it so, that the one who lost the money
should kill the other at the well, so that his brother might
be avenged. Thus the human mind, says God, cannot per-
ceive my measures ( fine ), and therefore let no one say
that God is unjust.
This graceful eulogy over fate in the frame of a de-
lightful narrative was elaborated poetically by the German
poet Gellert. In his poem "Das Schicksal" he narrates the
following parable: When Moses stood on the mountain,
supplicating God to make His way known to him/ 2 God
commanded him to look down. When he did so, he saw
a mounted soldier descend from his horse and quench his
thirst at a well. Scarcely had he gone, when a youth 23
22 Comp. Exod. 33, 13.
13 "Knabe" agrees with pii'fl of our text and not with "Mann" of
the Judso-German text.
352 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW
came running from his herd, and drank from the same
source. Here he found the purse which the soldier had
lost, and seizing it he returned to his flock. Next came a
frail old man, sipped from the well, and, overcome by
fatigue, fell asleep. Meanwhile the rider returned, and
impetuously demanded his money from the old man. In
vain the old man asseverates that he had found nothing : the
rider stabs him. Overwhelmed with grief Moses falls
on his face, whereupon he hears the divine voice saying:
"Denn wiss, es hat der Greis, der jetzt im Blute liegt,
Des Knaben Voter einst erschlagen,
Der den verlornen Raub zuvor davon getragen."
The ways of fate are presented in this poem in a gen-
uine poetical manner and with much more precision than
in the Judaeo-German text: The victim is an old man who
cannot defend himself; seemingly he deserves our com-
passion, in reality, however, he is the slayer of the father
of the youth, who had found the money, and thus the
latter unconsciously becomes the instrument through
which the slayer of his father receives his long-delayed
punishment.
Many people have found delight in Gellert's poem,
without surmising that the fable which forms the basis of
this poem is of Oriental origin. This fact became known
in i860, when it was pointed out for the first time that Gel-
lert's poem bears striking resemblance to a poem by a
Persian poet Gami whose Persian text together with an
English translation was first published in the Journal of the
Asiatic Society of Bengal, i860, pp. 10-17. Also accord-
ing to the Persian poet Moses desires to fathom God's
decrees, whereupon God makes him observe these incidents
A MOSES I.EGEND — KRAUSS 353
at a well: a horseman comes galloping to the well, in the
same manner as the prophet Al-Chidr ( <r i£-\ ) in form-
er days. He divests himself of his raiment, and bathes
hurriedly in the water. On leaving, he forgets his purse
on the ground near the water. A wanderer wends his
way towards the same place, where he beholds the money,
and seizing it, he makes haste to depart. After him comes
a blind old man, performs the ritual ablutions and also the
prayers prescribed to a pilgrim. At this point the horse-
man comes back, and boisterously demands his money.
The blind old man retorts harshly, whereupon he is slain.
Moses is startled at the sight of these things, and he en-
treats God to grant him an explanation.
Then came the Divine Voice: "Oh thou censurer of
my ways,
Square not these doings of mine with thy rule !
That young boy had once a father
Who worked for hire and so gained his bread ;
He wrought for that horseman and built him his house
Long he wrought in that house for hire,
But ere he received his due, he fell down and died,
And in that purse was the hire, which the youth
carried away.
Again, that blind man in his young days of sight
Had spilt the blood of his murderer's father ;
The son by the law of retaliation slays him to-day.
And gives him release from the price of blood in
the day of retribution."
In Gami's poem as well as in our Hebrew text the
motive for seeking the well consists in the ritual ablutions
354 TH E JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW
and the required prayers, and this motive is intelligible only
to Jews and Mohammedans. Gellert, the Occidental bard,
had to reject such a motive as being beyond the compre-
hension of his readers, and hence he speaks of drinking
from the well. This slight deviation does not, of course,
exclude the assumption that he was guided by an Oriental
archetype. It is true that he knew no Persian ; it is equally
true that Gami's poem remained unpublished in his days.
Still the scholar who first pointed to Garni 34 concludes his
observations as follows: "Gellert undoubtedly derived his
story from No. 237 of the "Spectator,'" 5 where it was
rendered by Hughes as an old Jewish tradition. Both
redactions, however, the one by Hughes (=Gellert) as well
as the one by ("rami, go positively back to a single ultimate
source. Which is this? I conjecture that this legend was
originally incorporated in an Arabic fable collection, which
Gami used directly and which, translated into Hebrew,
became known to Hughes. An authentication of both the
Arabic original and the Hebrew translation would prove
of great interest."
Dr. Cyrus Adler has kindly called my attention to a
poem by Thomas Parnell (1679-1717) entitled "The
Hermit" (see The Poems of Dr. Thomas Parnell, in The
Works of the English Poets, edited by Samuel Johnson,
London 1790, vol. XXVII, p. 81), in which two hundred
years ago the same matter was poetically treated. In this
poem the Hermit is wandering with a Youth and becomes
witness of apparently unjust deeds. In a noble house he
steals a cup of great value and gives it to an avaricious
M H. Brockhaus in ZDMG., XIV (i860), 710.
25 The Spectator, III, London, 1753, p. 264; yet the article is not signed
by Hughes, but by somebody with an initial C.
A MOSES LEGEND — KRAUSS 355
landlord. In another noble house he kills the only son of
his host; furthermore, on the road, he makes a servant
perish in the floods of a rapid stream. To the astonished
Hermit he finally explains the motives of his acts, teaching
him as follows:
"Then know the truth of government divine,
And let these scruples be no longer thine.
The Maker justly claims that world he made,
In this the right of Providence is laid. . . .".
The wish of the scholar that the source might be
identified has not yet, as far as I can see, been realized,
and even to-day, after a space of fifty years, it still re-
mains a desideratum. As to the Hebrew source, the Judseo-
German text demonstrates sufficiently that the legend was
known also in Jewish circles, and our Hebrew text, which
contains the rudiments of the legend, shows it in its He-
brew garb. But the Arabic original is still missing. In its
stead an additional Persian text has been found which
tells the same story in prose." Also here we have a horse-
man and religious ablutions, and also here the victim is
a blind man. The explanation imparted to Moses runs
like this: The father of the money-finding youth was a
shepherd to the horseman, and the latter refused him his
justly earned wages. In the purse there was exactly the
amount that the horseman owed to the shepherd. The
blind man, however, had formerly killed the horseman's
father, and so the son, by slaying him, had only exercised
the right of retaliation.
The horseman, figuring in the Persian texts and also
in Gellert's poem, might induce us for a moment to think
!S Behrmaner in ZDMG., XVI (1862), 762.
356 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW
that the Gesta Romctnorum is the source sought for since
most of the stories in this collection turn about a soldier
(miles). However, this is not the right clue; let us rather
keep constantly the Arabic source in mind. Thus I con-
sider it useful to point to a well-known passage in the
Koran which seems to contain not alone the story of fate,
but also the whole of our Hebrew text. The Koran is
a kind of reservoir that has preserved many Jewish legends ;
but more than that, it is also the living fountain from which
spring forth new legends. The Koran may have been
instrumental in shaping the Moses legend among the Arabs
as it appears in our Hebrew text to-day. The following
is related in the Koran, ch. XVIII, verses 59-82 f
Moses goes forth with his servant (Joshua) to the
place where the two seas meet. 28 Near that place the ser-
vant forgets his fish, and this takes its way freely in the
sea. As they wander farther, 29 Moses desires to eat. Then
it dawns upon his servant, that he forgot the fish on the
rock on which they lodged during the tide, and that this
was nothing else but the doing of Satan. 3 " Continuing
their tour of inspection they encounter Al-Chidr, 31 and
Moses begs leave to follow him. The divine man bores a
hole in a ship, kills a youth, and builds the wall of a city
whose inhabitants refused to give them food. Moses is
astounded, and then he is initiated into the mysteries of
fate.
27 This passage in the Koran was already pointed out by A. Geiger and
Isr. Levi; recently it was treated by Wiinsche, Aus Israel's Lehrhallen, 173 f.
" Hence Moses investigates also here, as well as in the other legends.
29 The motive of wandering recurs in all the versions.
30 Comp. what was said above concerning the role of Satan.
31 The prophet Elijah.
A MOSES LEGEND — KRAUSS 357
The relation of Moses to Al-Chidr, the deeds accom-
plished by Al-Chidr, the explanation, and so forth — all
this agrees with what we know from the Talmud and the
nBT?D-book about Ashmedai and Benaiah, or about Elijah
and Moses. But also the motives of our new Hebrew text
recur here: the old man resembles Satan of the Arabs;
denial of the bread corresponds to the loss of the fish;
slaying of the youth; arrival in an inhospitable city, and
so on. We may therefore assume that our text was de-
rived from an Arabic original which in one way or an-
other enlarged upon the version of the Koran. The vari-
ations in the Hebrew text are conscious and intentional,
taking into account the Jewish standpoint and also the high
rank of Moses. Equally intentional is the Jewish color
given to the story of the speaking wolf.
And now the story of the third chapter still remains
to be treated. Its chief feature forms the retribution of
the deceitful old man at the hand of the camel-drivers.
whom he sought to deprive of their reward. At last he
was "the biter bitten." This familiar quotation forms the
key-note after which many products of the fable literature
are modeled and cast, e. g. a number of stories by Margaret
of Navarre in the "Heptameron" which appeared in 1543"
All these narratives, as the "Three Rings" in Lessing's
"Nathan der Weise," are derived, as is well-known, from
the Orient.
At last we come to the investigation of the singular
title TBV in by nwo which constitutes the heading of
our narrative. This title is found as heading on every
page of the original manuscript, and since this contains
nine pages in small quarto, the title recurs nine times, and
** See Buchmann, Geflilgelte Worte, 21st ed., p. 156.
358 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW
is therefore absolutely certain. In addition, the term
TEW "in occurs three times in the text itself : first,
when the wolf swears to guard the sheep faithfully, saying:
If I eat them, let me be "of the tenth generation" ; a second
time, when Moses, perceiving that the old man perjured
himself, observes, Truly, this man belongs to the tenth
generation; a third time, when the author himself observes
that the moral which the story aims to propound is this,
that men of the tenth generation are heretics. Thus the
author operates with the expression "tenth generation" as
with a well-known phrase, though we are unable to tell
whence he got it. In the Talmud and Midrash it does not
occur with this particular connotation. It is true that we
find in the Talmud the expression tvwbw rob pJDITO 38 , and
'Xrvbn |c6 34 even seems to be a fixed phrase; how-
ever, we are unable to establish any connection between
these forms of speech and the case before us. The Bible,
indeed, offers us the expression TPU "in ready-made in
the following sentence: "Even to the tenth generation shall
none belonging to them enter into the assembly of the
Lord forever" (Deut. 23, 4) ; yet I do not know any
Midrash or commentary on this passage which would stamp
these words as a fixed term having a color of its own.
Thus nothing remains but to think of the Mishnic expres-
sion : Ten generations there were from Adam unto Noah,
and ten generations there were from Noah unto Abraham,
and all of these were wicked before God (Abot v, 2) ; and
so it seems that, due to an association of ideas, the term
"tenth generation" was coupled with the term "wicked
88 p. Hag. II, 1, fol. Tja, line 72; b. Hag. 146; Midrash Hagadol on
Gen. 1, 1, p. 6, ed. Schechter. Comp. the excellent deductions of Bacher,
Ag. der Tann., I, 2d ed., p. 15.
84 For proofs see Grunbaum, Beitrage sur Sent. Sagenkunde, p. 47.
A MOSES LEGEND KRAUSS 359
generation." The text itself mentions only the generation
of the flood and the generation of the dispersion, both
being subjects of repeated mention by the rabbis. This
clue is far from being faultless, and we would gladly
exchange it for something better. Thus it deserves to be
noted that the primitive Christians were called by their
enemies "new people" and "third generation" 35 and this is
conceivable only when those words conveyed an insult or
a curse. Furthermore, a responsum of Hai Gaon is to be
taken into consideration which fits our case especially,
since it gives information concerning apologues and had
its origin in Arabic soil. In the apologue cited therein for
illustration we find it repeated time and again that the
lion who committed a robbery receives his punishment in
the third generation. 36
The composition and language of our text are not quite
what one would wish. We have already called attention
to the fact that the narrative sometimes has a sudden break,
and that, for instance, the slaying of the youth is more
hinted at than placed in firm relief. As to the language,
it is by no means as beautiful as we find it in the collection
of narratives ascribed to R. Nissim. Still the author made
an effort to imitate the style of the later Midrashim and
to write a pure Hebrew which is, as far as I can see,
purged of Aramaisms and Arabisms. However, his style
is very clumsy and unwieldy, having neither swing nor
poetry. It seems that the author was not a man of literary
skill, that he did not belong to the guild of the learned, but
was a man of the people who derived pleasure from
36 Harnack, Mission und Ausbreitung des Christentums, ist ed., book II,
ch. 6, with Excurs. (esp. p. 200 f.), where the peculiar expression is ex-
plained thoroughly.
36 B'JIKan niaitWl, ed. I^ck, No. 30, p. 13.
360 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW
fairy-tales and fables and who, finding a model fitting his
purpose, excerpts one thing 8 ' and disregards another. Cer-
tainly literary achievement was not his strong point.
Despite all that, we find him quoting from the Talmud,
as e. g. the sentence b)T D"tX pK ruiDK "bill b'Ti riOK 131
JwriDa Tioyb which, however, is not found anywhere
in this wording. The phrase Die DniVM bs vb, to
judge by appearance, is not a rabbinical proverb, but
some philosophical maxim. The sentence "He who
walks with his neighbor four yards will not suffer
any punishment" ( pri nx jn^p Tape) which is cited
in the name of the rabbis is likewise not to be
found. At the end of the narrative the author, under
lnONCP 103 (as we have said), introduces a preceding sen-
tence which, however, is not found in our text, but must
have been in the larger work which formed the prototype.
We shall be able to appreciate the disposition of our author
only then, when we shall have found the models which he
followed, or did not follow, not in mere fragments, but as
a composite whole; for we are absolutely sure that he was
a compiler. That which has remained without elucidation
in this treatise will probably be explained conclusively
by others who are more familiar with folk-lore than the
writer of these lines.
nTOn *in by newo
)b noii ,ia-toa njrn wnv Di^en vby wan neoa neyo [n]
,astn lniK ira-i ne>o butt sac? ~iy . \ib axr niona ma -\xbn
. woo ntro ktvu to . DTt^xn e»k wnx nns yby di^c? ib "ion
37 This is perhaps the reason why we have in our text numerous dots
which have been reproduced by us.
A MOSES LEGEND — KRAUSS 36 1
Dnento am 'jkc jxxn jd 'b jn noo ns?p33 ib "iok ,3Ktn ;wtn
"idn ! nnaio nvnn p« ne>o ib "ion . ^cr pain 38 s<boKi njoo
«b jn i "p -iokh Tf by fnj'b min rrvnyw nm ,ncob awn
{tren ibs f nw3 ib "iok . nsv pn ntryxi 'a-nb 'b "ibxrmnoa
'"» D ,, p3 orvm mox rninm ^imn nrvb jKvm ,*bw Drx
-iok jab inv njrn nwa wan 31pm ,T3&? xbx , 3 , ni jbsw'oi
bo' dik pK naiDK 'bpa b"n nox nai , 39 a"pi aim ^bas ova wn
rur bvx nb xbx ,"|bvs< at^b Tixa s<b astn idk ."jwnos *iioi?b
I«xn bvN 3t5» »o ,ib nouo ibKtr yiana dk nco not* ...ib "iioki
nns nnx «bn onoj noa D'axr noa ,na-io wn iku' 1 abm ,D-iot?b
DniN iiotyb wjn dn 3Ktn -iok ..."mbaiw nrno i"p xbm ,ono
baix dm ...Dibs ;n» bais< s<be> D'ocb n-tiai?n ,jno nnx pnx s<b
nabsn im boon -in rwvao D^bnj on nop Tnw tho 42 n.t
Dnwo moil /"d'jbto ovipw an ,-jb wokc «w b"N ../"poii
...ib iptnc D'twon b33 nrvb tail nw ibn 3"n« . -prb nu^
Nini 3N?n bvs< ne>o -|bn . n<a yn jNvn nnaoo 1b jn rov b"N
lb npne> b"N ?"pmn ib ion no b"N ,vai3 pa icsoi jxvn -ioicp
...wn*i xbi 13 bariDJ . jNvn "inaoo
n'30 nnpbe' nu noon 45 nivni 3-im -inb ntro ibn D'cb [3]
Hint? -tin /"rue* s"" 1 dp nncn DniDxn n<33 mix nDNP nycs ,nn'
Dibts> b"N ,ipr nnx dik invo ,D'3-n nensb j>"Jn ,13103 ^13 ibno
oit^b b"N ? ibm nriK ja'nb ntrD b"N n'bp Dibs? b"x o^an Tby
38 ms. 'Snm.
35 = rt»f>3 mpi (Gen. 31, 40).
40 Comp. b. Taanit 8a '13 fUOK 'tys ; b. 5ag. 17a; p. Shabbat VI,
end, fol. Bd, 1. 27.
41 Fragmentary.
« Perhaps KriK?
43 nn'Bvn?
44 Comp. below, end.
45 flea in our text is fem. The writer had the Arabic KSJ? in mind.
48 According to Sefer Ha-Yaihar on Shemot (ed. Zolkiew, 1875. p.
536 and 540) ten years.
362 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW
njsm yi? Dipo Kb writ? >sh ,12102 i>i3&6 na ~\b v* b"t* , <T pK3
•ne> *i> er> e»xn iniK ids ...ndxi jui st"i? 49 xnn j6s? "t 2 ^
D3iyjl K13 V'K ,niKpDl^J 'J 'b B» 'JK1 HE'D b"K ..."niKpDI^I
DniK npbi p'joa lber inx b2 N'xin 3"n« . -p-6 mx wb rprt'virp
.lbx bv "inyi jn nsro ^"s . ibtd by tnji ib'oim in> 51 Dtyyi jprn
ns a'tfJB' Ha nan id bsso nrb nt iiok ,pb'o 'n in pb'o 'i ids isbn
3"nx ...di!)3ki 133 inx bnb mxpDibj tic wxin ; 3ym to iwbj
.bni pajn nine' iy miKBon jpm T3 nnnxn 'an Dnb 52 D'i obn
'3 lK'tfin ! utucbj ns True H3 "ov Ijsw ,iTan5 inx bs idk
'vn i»3 13103 «W iy in« 133 onb ttiboi .di^ki niKpDiba
tprn iniK cron .ui> i»neoe> i33n ub jn tptb ntpo ios ; dim
is W iy . miss 'i n^n orb pxtr mion nyne jntwi i33n
,tptn ini*6 neo ion . D'sav 'jb» n"3pn onb pn 1113 oyo
'jk noie '3i n"y i"ob |ptn idx iD'aaxn jo inx ub jn ~\b
noon np ntro b"a ...?'3xn p bp e» '3i ,D'«3xn bxx i,W
mi> 1^3' &6i dso.ii ii'3 noon npb . dijjs nmx neyi its
,jprb ntro ion . »i>v one ne>yi ne>o Done-i onpb to ,ooipoo
,D'N3xn }o mpbi mci ibaKt? 15? . moxyn p i3t?n s6ts» intn
nban &aroi D.i'by "nrwrn noon npbi ,ioxy by oxy nco man
iok . dt^ji bv noyi D'soxn nx n"3pn n'nni win vsb nob&
ie»3 xb hnb pNi D'soxn tin Tnne> '03 uk isrsifo ,]p\b neo
n^K' t6l 1^3K N^K* y3tTJ ; 133.1 bv ^K'JUp n'W bw DH'i N^l
41 Comp. Job 1, 7; 2, 2.
48 Num. 20, 5.
'» Perhaps »T» ?
M KoAA(f, see my Lehnworter, II, 175, and what I have written in the
Nahum Sokolow Jubilee Book (Warsaw 1904), p. 489.
51 Perhaps DD'B»1 ?
" [l1Kn]B"l ? Comp. below T'fWJl. Or is it [l«]B"l ? Perhaps
nilKE'jn is to be connected with ni"in»n.
58 Arabism.
M ms. nnj'.n.
M The phrase K'Jljp TVBy occurs frequently in the Talmud, and is
derived from the Greek KOivuvla , which the 'Aruk explains by AMtBI
(deceit).
A MOSES LEGEND — KRAUSS 363
D'o onb N'vim noon ncD npb ,D'»b 1x0x1 -iano3 iabn . t 1a
'03 'JN 1J?'3£5>D tptb nt5>D IDS ;11TI WW nj? t5>'obnn "I1VD
njit5>s-iaa nyne jneo ,-iaaa t nnbsr xhvwKbrm -iixd D'o «'¥ine>
■vy qv 1NS01 iabn nma lb: neo -ion . ns «bi 13 t nbt? sbe
. 3«a Dnb n'm ins jpr M Dnb n'ns? 'sb D'aia Tim via vm nn«
!ie>sj nnn wrwaj nan not? ?Dabia D'bu Dns nob ne>o b"N
tfin ri'by noon mini non mix by bbsnji new an'bv ann
p\ib non ns nvint? 'Da 'jn lyaeo ,jptb nt5>o -ion . n'm non
neo ids . ns xbi t « nbt? t6w mien nyi3B» yaeo naan to
,vpDyb nt5>D hjsj ,-ianea labnc ny . 'inu nW "Trie rw yiT3
'oxy nx inosi ibxs? ny Yra .noon nt njn ,}ptb neo -idn
nsr ,-ioni lovys can i3n ,ioyo neo n,bne ny ;nsan it3
n^nxi nriiK npsi ibx ,ibsn D'D'jn ba neo na nvyv noon
dc kvd ,tvi3 [x]ine> ny .n,bm nniN npb .d-tidd na n3
pirn obxa n'm maer vn — dh^vd no naan ww nns nsa
npb moo na npbi pirnn nm |pt win N3 ,jiod ioy tw
1-idn Djnb xbi ,ru?Da wspp nuD n'm /pmnn by nrvom noon
iyv3 Nine iKxo ,mnx spm noe X3C ny , 57 dw nnivn ba Nb
mnm neo bbsnJ /^esi nnn csj moN mwm ,innb D^pao
ba b"n done? •■sb ,nn'on ;d jptn csj ns b^m pirnn nN
. 69 pn nx jmby Tape n"apn iTani sin m»s j?3"in nbinn
isyn jd ""nma ; j n^D ncyi Snj dc ikvd labnc ny [j]
no ntn ,jptn misb n^D ids . ant icwi n^D on^y M>s>nJi
ns base »o lb ioK ,nr 'ob n"jnob |pw 1b ion 1 n"apn ncy
ns 'nbaxc xin 'jn ,jptn -idn . baN xbc 'ob nnxi 'a np' naan
nco ib "|bm ,ban np ioo ne>p33 nro -ion mine ny ,i3an
lsac ny ,3ntn by jpt mix lyo^j a"ns ,«3 )3'n yr xbi n"yi
M arh naw?
6T This quotation is unknown to me; it seems to be a philosophical
maxim.
M Ex. 21, 23.
** Citation not identified.
«° Sing. n3 .
364 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW
'jb> ,anrn rite i«n i*oa tptn on!) -ids ,d^ds onoy e>*i ms ya
Yyn DNto jn -|b xta /D^jn urux n»x . nab inso »b D^e>
nwTjn nmsa iab ac5»m iW ny i wwai ns rrnjc na
ns itw dSxn xia's? nyt?a iae>n om ; nan pa man dd d.-6
ikboi ,in»i nan p tax Dm , wjo nx lt'nn «ae> ny ; wto
,i31dkb> ioa ,nnsia >W tyte> yvnt? na nt bai ,i»xie jiDion
u^y n"a dbti) . o»jn Dm cnaa D'npB> D'jcna D'jyau> one*
(. 62 jn"^wi •V-ok .mDn jyobi io&5> jyob ono
« psi »n« p 1BK.
62 nfny twa S»A mp d^»ji an.
