e a cave,
and let her into it.

CHAPTER XIII.

1 Joseph seeks a Hebrew midwife,
2 perceives the owls stopping in their flight,
3 the working people at their food not moving,
8 the sheep standing still,
9 the shepherd fixed and immoveable,
10 and kids with their mouths touching
the water but not drinking.

AND leaving her and his sons
in the cave, Joseph went
forth to seek a Hebrew midwife in
the village of Bethlehem.

2 But as I was going (said Joseph),
I looked up into the air,
and I saw the clouds astonished,
and the fowls of the air stopping in
the midst of their flight.

3 And I looked down towards
the earth, and saw a table spread,
and working people sitting around
it, but their hands were upon the
table and they did not move to
eat.

4 They who had meat in their
mouths did not eat.

5 They who lifted their hands
up to their heads did not draw
them back,

6 And they who lifted them up
to their mouths did not put any
thing in;

7 But all their faces were fixed
upwards.

8 And I beheld the sheep dispersed,
and yet the sheep stood still.

9 And the shepherd lifted up
his hand to smite them, and his
hand continued up.

10 And I looked unto a river,
and saw the kids with their mouths
close to the water, and touching it,
but they did not drink.

CHAPTER XIV.

1 Joseph finds a midwife.
10 A bright cloud overshadows the cave.
11 A great light in the cave, gradually
increases until the infant is born.
13 The mid-wife goes out, and tells Salome
that she has seen a virgin bring forth.
17 Salome doubts it.
20 her hand withers,
22 she supplicates the Lord,
28 is cured,
30 but warned not to declare what she had seen.

THEN I beheld a woman coming
down from the mountains,
and she said to me, Where art thou
going, O man?

2 And I said to her, I go to
enquire for a Hebrew midwife.

3 She replied to me, Where is
the woman that is to be delivered?

4 And I answered, In the cave,
and she is betrothed to me.

5 Then said the midwife, Is she
not thy wife?

6 Joseph answered, It is Mary,
who was educated in the Holy of
Holies, in the house of the Lord,
and she fell to me by lot, and is
not my wife, but has conceived by
the Holy Ghost.

7 The midwife said, Is this true?

8 He answered, Come and see.

9 And the midwife went along
with him, and stood in the cave.