our tents and for our houses. And he called it gold, and said, it is one of the best things that the LORD has given unto man, and he has given it to none other people than the people of the land of Zahab. And the women and children of the villages were gathered together; and when they saw the gold, they were very glad, and they returned thanks to the LORD for the new and bright and beautiful gift that he had given to the sons and daughters of Adam. And Hareth built a furnace and fined the gold,* and made many beautiful ornaments, and the people, and their cattle, and their houses and tents were adorned with gold, and many people came from the countries afar off, to behold and to admire the bounty of the Lord to the people of the happy land of Zahab.

*

And Phartham continued his tale, and said, Meliz, the young man from the land of Zahab, has told me that there is much dispute and discontent among a part of the people of that region, because the elders

* Burely there is a vein for the silver, and a place for gold where they fine it. —— JOB xxviii. 1.71)

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and captains of the people have taken to themselves and their families much more of the pure gold of the mountain, than they allow the rest of the people to take to themselves and their families. And the people say unto the elders and the captains, Lo, before the gold of the mountain was found, the flocks and the herds appertained to all the people, and ye had no more right to them than we ourselves had, except for the sacrifices to the LORD, which were commanded by the laws, the laws we ourselves had ordained, and elected you as our elders and captains, to see that the laws should not be forgotten, and that the sacrifices should be offered, according to the laws, at the new moons and solemn feasts. In those happy days no man had more of the good things of this world than his neighbour, in all the land of Zahab, though we were told by travellers from the east and the north, that, in the land of Nod and in other regions, some of the people were rich and some were poor, because the elders and captains had taken to themselves alone great numbers of cattle and sheep, and had hired many servants, to whom they had given instruments of brass and iron, and commanded them to guard the flocks and the herds, and the increase of the same, and to take a certain part of the young of the flocks and herds from all the children of the people, and add them to their own flocks and herds, at the time when the trumpet sounds in the

*

plain of Orebah, and the banner is seen upon the high hills of Harhar, to give notice of the first and the sixth of the new moons of the year. And now it is even so among us, for ye take unto yourselves the greatest part of the gold, and ye are become very rich and we are become very poor. And, moreover, the young man from the land of Zahab proceeded and said, The poor people in that country are wroth with the rich people, and, as they are not able to contend with them, because they have employed many servants, and armed them with instruments of iron and brass, and set them to keep guard over the mines, the poor people have sent me as a messenger to the great and wise people of the Am-Olam, to desire that they will come to the assistance of the people of Zahab, and see that right and justice be done unto them, and they will reward the Am-Olam with the treasures that the rich men have heaped up, and with much gold from the bowels of the mountain. And Phartham continued his speech and said, Hear, oh ye chiefs and captains, and all ye people of the AmOlam, and when ye hear, consider and do the things that are just and good. Behold, the LORD hath given unto us great stature and great power, and how can we serve the Lord better than to assist the weak and the poor and the oppressed people of Zahab against the enemies and the oppressors of their own land, who regard neither God nor man, who have

become corrupt and evil through too much love of those bright yellow stones, which are called gold by the people of Zahab'? We love the LORD, and love the just and good among men; we have flocks and herds, and horses and camels without number, and we despise the bright yellow stones of the land of the west, and desire not the vain ornaments of idle women and children... But we will go and assist the poor and the weak in that region, and get ourselves a great name in the earth. And all the people answered with one voice and said, Thou hast well spoken, and we will do as thou hast said. We will go and cause justice to be done in the land of Zahab;" we will exalt the humble, and we will put down the proud; we will be called the Sons of Justice as we are called the Sons of Strength, and we will become mighty men of renown before the LORD throughout all the world.

And when the people of the Am-Olam had thus spoken, it was decreed by Phartham, and the chiefs, and elders that Meliz should return to his own country with the answer of the Am-Olam to the

people of Zahab, and tell them that a powerful host of the Am-Olam would appear among them in the first week of the fifth new moon. And it came to pass that the elders and the captains of Zahab, when they were told that Meliz had been sent by the people to ask assistance of the Am-Olam, caused the trumpets to be sounded, and summoned the people to assemble in the plain of Orebah; and when the people were gathered together, Kosh, one of the elders, made a speech unto the people, and said unto them, Behold, ye are an evil and unjust people, and the anger of the LORD will be poured out upon you from the wine-press of his indignation and the cup of his fury, and he will consume and destroy you from the face of the earth, because ye have conspired against the elders who are appointed by the Lord to teach you his will, and the captains whom the Lord has appointed to rule over you, and to guide you in the paths of truth and wisdom, and because ye have sent to make a corrupt league with the evil ones of the east, the Giants and the Sons of the Serpent. We trust in the LORD, whom we fear and serve with all our heart, that he will sustain our hands and our arms against the multitude of our enemies, and that he will not suffer the blasphemers of his name and the foes of his people to extend their dominion to the deserts of the south, and to the great waters of the west. And Kanoah answered in behalf of the