Omaha daily bee., 1899-10-22
dlspensation he COMPOUNDED their tongue into
seventy different Languages"
Legends of Abraham,

over they made idols and sold them upon
the streets. But when a man approached
Abraham to sell him an idol he would ask
him, How much is this image?' Three
mahas he would reply. How old art thou?'
Abraham would ask, Thirty years Thou
art 80 years of age. and yet worshipest this
idol which we made but today! The man
would depart and go his way. Again Eu-
other would come to Abraham and ask,
How much is this idol?' Five manas,' he
would say. How old art thou? would Abra-
ham continue. Fifty years And dost
thou, who are fifty years of age, bow down
to this idol which we made but today"
With this the man would depart and go his
way. When Nimrod heard of Abrahams
utterances he ordered him to be brought be-
fore him, and said, Thou son OF Terah, make
me beautiful god Abraham then entered
his fathers house and said Make a beau
tful image for me- They accordingly made
1t, finished 1t and painted it with many
colors. He went and brought it to Nimrod.
And on that day Abrahams righteous
ness shone forth. 1t was a cloudy day and
rain fell, therefore when they were about
to thrust him into the burning furnace MINI
rod sat down and all the people Of the dis
persion did likewise. Abraham then en-
tered, and standing in the center he pleaded
his cause. After which Nimrod asked, If
not the gods, whom shall l serve?' Abra-
ham replied, The God of Gods and Lord
Of Lords, whose kingdom is everlasting in
heaven and on earth. and in the heavens
of the high heavens. i shall worship
said Nimrod, the God of Fire; and be-
hold | shall cast thee therein. Let then the
God to whom thou testifeth deliver thee
from the burning furnace. They then i'm
mediately bound him strongly and tightly
and placed him on the ground They then
surrounded him with wood on the four sides.
Five hundred cubits thickness to the north,
500 cubits to the south, 500 to the west and
500 to the east. They then set the pile on
fire. The whole house of Terah were wOr-
slippers of idols and until that moment had
not recognized their Creator. Their neigh
bors and fellow citizens assembled, and
beating their heads, said to Terah, oh, |
shame-great shame! Thy son of whom
thou did say that he will inherit this world
and the world to come, has Nimrod burnt
in fire. Immediately then Gods mercy was
moved so that he descended from the hab- |
tation of His glory, His greatness His
majesty and the holiness of His great name
and delivered Abraham, our ancestor, from
that shame, from that reproach and from
the burning furnace as it is said, l am
the Lord who brought thee out of the fire OF
the Chaldeans'
Loss of the Ten Tribes.
"There has been a strange fascination
about the loss of the Ten Tribes of Israel
and Hebrew legend attempts to supply an
account of the fate of those Ten Tribes
in various ways. There is a peculiarly in
teresting legend respecting the so-called
Children of Moses connected, of course, with
ba Iy ah,icb cbod how
arrived in Babylon their enemies and cap
tors said to them: Sing us a song of
Zion, and they replied: How can we sing
a song of Zion upon strange ground" Now
retorted their captors, we shall sing by
! force, but they at once cut off their fingers
| with their teeth and cast them before them
and they replied: How can those fingers,
which struck the strings Of the heart and
| the temple, strike them here in a strange
and? And God exclaimed: If l forget
Jerusalem my right hand shall be for
| gotten
"a cloud then descended and, lifting all
the Children of Moses, with their sheep and
cattle, brought them to the east OF Havila.
In the night they were let down and on that
same night they heard a great noise sur
rounding them, like that OF a river, with
out seeing a drop Of water descending, but
heard only the rolling of stones and sand
where there had never been river. This
river then rolled great stones and the sand
without any water, made noise as Of
great earthquake. This continued until the
Sabbath. The river they called Sabbatyon
or Sabbatianus. On the Sabbath it ceases
to flow and on the eve of Sabbath cloud
ascends full of smoke. No one is able to
approach them, neither do they approach
them There are no wild beasts, no .un-
clean animals, nor any reptiles or creeping
things. Nothing except their fiocks and
herds. They reap and SOW and they ask
the others and thus they learn of the de-
struction OF the Second Temple" 1t is
behind this region in which the Children of
Moses dwell, that the remnants of the Ten
Tribes are said to be found THE Tribe
of Isaacharr dwells on the mountains of
the great deep in the nethermost parts Of
Media and Persia, and there they fulfill the
commandment The book of the Torah shall
not depart from their mouths nor do they
take upon themselves the yoke OF an earthly
kingdom, but only the yoke OF heaven and
the yoke Of the law. They have many cap
tains of the army, but never fight with any
man, but discuss the Torah. They dwell
in peace and tranquility and no rebellious
thought of evil enters their minds. They
possess a country whose area covers land
of ten days journey, and they have an
abundance Of cattle, camel and servants,
but do not bring the horses, nor do they
possess any warlike instruments, except
knives for preparing food and 10 kill the
animals for that purpose. They are men
OF great faith, hating oppression or robbery.
"The children Of Zebuun encamp on the
mountains of Paran and pitch their tents,
made OF the hair of Armania, and stretch as
far as the Euphrates, The Tribe of Reuben
dwell opposite them behind the mountains Of
Paran and between them there are love, unity
and peace The Tribe of Ephraim and half
, the Tribe of Manasseh dwells opposite the
city of Meuqa." Ip a similar way each and
every one of the Zen Tribes is located in
the fabulous region "to the east of Havila," "
which every bible reader will easily connect
with the Garden of Eden as located by the
! second chapter of Genesis.
, Many egions Of Moses. Daniel and all Of
the other famous bible characters are in
cluded in this great chronicle. 1t will at
tract the attention, not only of scholars who
; have found so much that is interesting in the
r legendary law of Israel, rejecting, as it does,
the religious consciousness OF the people, but
it will also interest the mass of the people,
: because Of the peoples fances and sympa-
, thetic legends which are here recorded.