valuable secret of inclosing in a bottle
of black glass three millions of infernal spirits, with seventy-two of
their kings, of whom Beleh was the chief, Beliar (_alias_ Belial) the
second, and Asmodeus the third. Solomon afterwards cast this bottle
into a deep well near Babylon. Fortunately for the contents, the
Babylonians, hoping to find a treasure in the well, descended into it,
broke the bottle, and freed the demons (cf. also _The Little Key of
Rabbi Solomon, containing the Names, Seals and Characters of the 72
Spirits with whom he held converse, also the Art Almadel of Rabbi
Solomon, carefully copied by "Raphael,"_ London, 1879). This legend is
also found in the tale of the Fisherman and the Djinn in the _Arabian
Nights_, which was also treated by the German poet Klopstock in his
poem "Wintermaerchen" (1776).

The devil, as it is said in this story, has a mortal hatred of the
sound of bells. The origin of ringing the church bells was, according
to Sir James Frazer, to drive away devils and witches. The devil in
Poe's story "The Devil in the Belfry" (1839) was, indeed, very
courageous in invading the belfry.

The concluding part of the story is identical with the Machiavellian
tale of Belphagor.

This tale of the Devil's mother-in-law first appeared in the volume
_Cuentos y poesias populares Andaluces_ (Seville, 1859), which was
translated the same year into French by Germond de Lavigne under the
title _Nouvelles andalouses_. An English translation under the title
_Spanish Fairy Tales_ appeared in 1881. This particular story was
rendered again into English two years later and included in _Tales
from Twelve Tongues_, translated by a British Museum Librarian
[Richard Garnett?], London, 1883.

THE GENEROUS GAMBLER

BY CHARLES PIERRE BAUDELAIRE

This worshipper and singer of Satan shared his American _confrere's_
predilection for the devil. He found his models in the diabolical
scenes of Edgar Allan Poe, whom he interpreted to the Latin world.
"Baudelaire," said Theophile Gautier, his master and friend, "had a
singular prepossession for the devil as a tempter, in whom he saw a
dragon who hurried him into sin, infamy, crime, and perversity." To
Baudelaire, the trier of men's souls, the Tempter, was as real a
person as he was to Job. He believed that the devil had a great deal
to do with the direction of human destinies. "C'est le Diable qui
tient les fils qui nous remuent!" Men are mere puppets in the h