nt himself
back, he snapt a bone of his body, and said, "This is that which
is written (Prov. xxv. 15), 'And a gentle answer breaketh the
bone.'" Descrying a blind man straying out of his way, he hailed
him and directed him aright. He even did the same service to a
man overcome with wine, who was in a similar predicament. At
sight of a wedding party that passed rejoicing along, he wept;
but he burst into uncontrollable laughter when he heard a man
order at a shoemaker's stall a pair of shoes that would last
seven years; and when he saw a magician at his work he broke
forth into shrieks of scorn.

On arriving at the royal city, three days were allowed to pass
before he was introduced to Solomon. On the first day he said.
"Why does the king not invite me into his presence?" "He has
drunk too much," was the answer, "and the wine has overpowered
him." Upon which he lifted a brick and placed it upon the top of
another. When this was communicated to Solomon, he replied "He
meant by this, go and make him drunk again." On the day
following he asked again, "Why does the king not invite me into
his presence?" They replied, "He has eaten too much." On this he
removed the brick again from the top of the other. When this was
reported to the king, he interpreted it to mean, "Stint him in
his food."

After the third day, he was introduced to the king; when
measuring off four cubits upon the floor with the stick he held
in his hand, he said to Solomon, "When thou diest, thou wilt not
possess in this world (he referred to the grave) more than four
cubits of earth. Meanwhile thou has conquered the world, yet
thou wert not satisfied until thou hadst overcome me also." To
this the king quietly replied, "I want nothing of thee, but I
wish to build the Temple and have need of the _Shameer_." To
which Ashmedai at once answered, "The Shameer is not committed
in charge to me, but to the Prince of the Sea, and he intrusts
it to no one except to the great wild cock, and that upon an
oath that he return it to him again." Whereupon Solomon asked,
"And what does the wild cock do with the Shameer?" To which the
demon replied, "He takes it to a barren rocky mountain, and by
means of it he cleaves the mountain asunder, into the cleft of
which, formed into a valley, he drops the seeds of various