mnation; therefore as the sin of Cain was punished seven
sithes, so was the sin of Lameth seventy sithes and seven. That is to
say, seventy-seven souls that came of Lameth were perished in the deluge
and Noah's flood; also his wife did him much sorrow, and evil-entreated
him. And he being wroth said that he suffered that for his double
homicide and manslaughter, yet nevertheless he feared him by pain,
saying: Why will ye slay me? he shall be more and sorer punished that
slayeth me, than he that slew Cain.

Josephus said that when Abel was slain and Cain fled away, Adam when he
was one hundred and thirty years old engendered Seth like to his
similitude, and he to the image of God. This Seth was a good man, and he
gat Enos, and Enos Cainan, and Cainan begot Malaleel, and Malaleel
Jared, and Jared Enoch, and Enoch Methuselah, and Methuselah Lamech, and
Lamech Noah. And like as in the generation of Cain the seventh was the
worst, so in the generation of Seth the seventh was the best, that was
Enoch whom God took and brought him into Paradise, unto the time that he
shall come with Elias for to convert the hearts of the fathers into the
sons. And Adam lived after he had begotten Seth eight hundred years, and
engendered sons and daughters. Some hold opinion thirty sons and thirty
daughters, and some fifty of that one and fifty of that other. We find
no certainty of them in the Bible. But all the days of Adam living here
in earth amount to the sum of nine hundred and thirty years. And in the
end of his life when he should die, it is said, but of none authority,
that he sent Seth his son into Paradise for to fetch the oil of mercy,
where he received certain grains of the fruit of the tree of mercy by an
angel. And when he came again he found his father Adam yet alive and
told him what he had done. And then Adam laughed first and then died.
And then he laid the grains or kernels under his father's tongue and
buried him in the vale of Hebron; and out of his mouth grew three trees
of the three grains, of which trees the cross that our Lord suffered his
passion on was made, by virtue of which he gat very mercy, and was
brought out of darkness into very light of Heaven. To the which he bring
us that liveth and reigneth God, world without end.

HERE BEGINNETH THE HISTORY OF NOAH

_The First Sunday in Sexagesima_

After that Adam was dead, died Eve and was buried by him. At the
beginning, in the first age, the people lived l