The Idaho world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1864-1918, 1872-06-20
IDAHO WORLD.
CURIOUS LEGENDS.
SOLOMON AND THE QUEEN OF sHEBA.

Rev. S. Baring-Gould, the young Eng
Iish clergyman whose researches among
the literature of neurological and dimly
historic time, have opened such wide
fields of thought and discovery, has
compiled a volume which possesses
great interest to the general reader as
well as the student, collating and re-
producing the legends of the Rabbis
and the Cabalists and the Mussulmans
in form which is serviceable as we'll as
entertaining. The number of these le-
gends is impossible of estimation.
Solomon is the great king of legend
as well as of Scripture, and the rich
Oriental tinge of his gorgeous reign,
which is not without its magnifcence
in the Old Testament books, appears
dressed out in wonderful imagings in
the traditions of the East. Both the
Rabbis and the Mussulmans preserve
the same general features in the stories
of the monarch, and not even the diver
sions of the Thousand and One Nights
surpass them in ingenious and gro
tesque narration. The story of the
building of the Temple includes the
well-known myth of Schamir, and is "a
follows:
When Solomon returned from the sea-
shore to Jerusalem, he heard the noise
of the hammers and saws and axes OF
the Jinns who were engaged in the
building of the Temple; and the noise
was so great that the inhabitants Of
Jerusalem could not hear one another
speak. Therefore he commanded the
Jinns to cease from their work, and he
asked them if there was no means
whereby the metals and stones could be
shaped and cut without making So much
noise. Then one of the spirits stepped
forth and said: "The means are known
only to the mighty Sachr, who has hith-
erto escaped your authority" is III
impossible to capture this Sachr?" ask
cd Solomon "Sachr," replied the Jim.
"is stronger than all the rest of us to-
gether, and he excels us in speed as he
does in strength. However, | know
that once every month he goes to drink
of fountain in the land of Hidir; by
this, Oh, King, thou mayest be able to
bring him under thy scepter" Solomon
thereupon commandcd-a Jim to fly to
Hidir, and to empty the we'll Of water
and to fill it up with strong wine. He
babe the other Jim remain in ambush
beside .the we'll and watch the result
After some weeks, when Solomon was
pacing his terrace before his palace, he
saw the Jim flying, swifter than the
wind, from the direction Of Hidjr, and
he asked, "What news of Sachr?'
.'Sachr lies drunk on the edge of the
fountain" said the Jim; "and we bound
him with chains as thick as the pillars
Of the Temple; nevertheless, he will
snap them as the hair of the maiden,
when he wakes from his drunken sleep"
Solomon instantly mounted the winged
Jim, and babe him transport him to the
well at Hadjr. In less than an hour he
stood beside the intoxicated demon. He
was not a moment too soon, for the |
fumes of the wine were passing of, |
and if Sachr had opened his eyes Solo
mon would have been unable to con-
strain him. But now he pressed his
signet upon the nape of his neck; Sachr
uttered cry SO that the earth rocked
on its foundation. "Fear not said Sol
onion, mighty Jim; will restore thee
to liberty, if thou wilt tell me how
will without noise, cut and shape the
hardest metals" II myself know no
MEANS" answered the demon; but the
raven can tell you how to do this. Take
the eggs out of the ravens nest, and
place crystal over them, and thou
shalt see how the raven will break it."
Solomon followed the advice Of Sachr
A raven came and futtered some time
around the cover, and, seeing that she
could not reach her eggs, she vanished
and returned shortly with stone in
her beak named Samus or Schamir; and
no sooner had she touched the crystal
Herewith than it clave asunder.
whence hast thou this stone" ask
ed Solomon of the raven. ut come
from mountain in the Far West" re-
piled the bird. Solomon commanded
Jim to follow the raven to the mount