Third Tale Of a Lame Man #2
Your penance, he replied, is to go into the city and cry out your confession: I am the one who earlier announced for the hungry to come see me and from them I recruited bandits, who robbed and murdered many souls. That is your penance.
The bandits’ chief handed over all his treasures to the once lame man. He accompanied him into the city, and there the chief did as he was bidden. It was adjudged that, since he had 33 murdered so many souls, he was to be hanged to serve as a lesson for others.
Then the formerly lame man decided to go to the two thousand mountains the moon had spoken of to see what was happening there.
When he was still at a distance from the mountains he could see there were myriads and multitudes of demon families, for they were fruitful and multiplied, having children just as people do.
He saw their king seated upon a throne the likes of which no man born of woman had ever sat upon.
He saw the demons capering and making jokes.
One bantered about how he had maimed a baby; another quipped about how he had mangled someone’s hand; and yet another wisecracked about how he had mutilated a human’s foot. And there was other joking to boot.
Meantime, the formerly lame man spied a demon father and mother walking and crying.
When another demon encountered them and asked, Why are you crying?
, they replied that they had a son who had the habit of setting out and then returning at a particular time.
Now, however, he had been gone for a long while and had not yet returned.
So the parents were brought to the demon king who ordered messengers dispatched throughout the world to find him.
When the father and mother returned from the king they came across a childhood friend of their son.
He asked them, Why are you crying? So they told him, to which he replied, Let me tell you:
Your son and I had an islet in the sea, which was our own little playground.
But the king who owned the islet came and wanted to build a palace there and went and laid a foundation for 34 it.
So your son said to me, Let’s teach him a lesson.
So we went and sapped him of his strength.
The king employed numerous physicians but none could help him, so he started consulting with sorcerers.
There was one sorcerer who knew your lineage of demons but was unfamiliar with mine.
Since a human’s knowledge of a demon’s lineage gives him power over that particular demon clan, he went and captured your son, and he tortured him harshly. But he could do nothing to me.
This young demon was brought to the demon king and he told the king the whole story. The demon king said, Let that king’s strength be returned to him. The young demon replied, I do not have it. There was another demon among us who lacked strength, so we gave the king’s strength to him.
The demon king answered, Then let that demon’s strength be taken away again and returned to the king.
He replied, But that demon has since become a cloud.
The demon king then said, Let the cloud be summoned and brought here. So a messenger was sent for him.
The formerly lame man thought to himself, Let me go and find out how a cloud is made from a demon.
He followed the messenger and arrived at the city where the cloud was. He asked the city folk, Why is there a cloud looming over your city?
They replied, There was never a cloud here before, but not long ago a cloud came and covered the city.
Then the messenger came and summoned the cloud, and they headed back to the demon king together.
The formerly lame man decided to follow them to listen in on what they were 35 talking about.
He heard the messenger ask the cloud, How is it that you became a cloud?
The cloud replied, I will tell you the story.
Once there was a sage. The emperor of the sage’s country was a formidable heretic and had made unbelievers of his entire country.
So the sage gathered all his family together and said to them, Surely you see that the emperor is a formidable heretic and he has made all the people of this country unbelievers, even some members of our own family.
Let us therefore decamp to the wastelands where we may keep our faith in Blessed God.
They agreed. So the sage uttered a spell, which whisked them all away to a wasteland.
This wasteland was not to his liking so he again uttered a spell, and they were borne away to a different wasteland.
This wasteland was not to his liking either, so once more he uttered a spell, and they were brought to yet another wasteland.
This time the wasteland was to his liking.
This wasteland was close to the two thousand mountains and our demon lair.
So the sage went and traced a magic circle around their encampment so that the nearby demons would not be able to enter it.
There is a tree, the cloud continued, that were it to be watered all of us demons would be obliterated. So some of us keep eternal watch over it, and day and night other demons dig away at a trench around the tree to prevent any water from getting to it.
The messenger asked the cloud, Why do they need to keep digging away there day and night? Would it not be enough for them just to dig one deep trench so the water would never be able to reach the tree? 36
The cloud replied, Among us there are talebearers who foment conflict between one king and another, causing war.
War produces earthquakes, which in turn repeatedly cause the earthworks of the trench to collapse, enabling water to reach the tree.
That is why we must stand perpetual watch and keep digging.
Now, whenever a new demon king is named among us, we caper for him and make all kinds of jokes, and everyone is merry.
This one jests about how he grievously maimed a baby and how the mother mourned it, and that one makes a different joke.
It is the custom when our new king arrives at the festivities that he sallies forth with his royal ministers and attempts to uproot the tree, for it would be very good for all of us demons if there were no tree at all.
The king steels himself to uproot the tree completely.
As he rushes towards the tree, it shrieks at him at full volume.
This frightens the king and he is forced to retreat.
Once, the cloud continued, there was a new demon king among us and there was the customary capering and joking for him.
He arrived at the festivities and plucked up his courage, eager to uproot the tree utterly.
He advanced with his ministers, steeled himself gravely, and sallied forth to uproot it.
As he approached the tree, it shrieked loudly at him.
He was stricken by fear and turned back.
He grew exceedingly ill-tempered as he headed home.
Just then, he caught sight of the sage who had settled with his family close by. So he dispatched some of his men to do something about it and cause them harm. When the sage’s family saw the demons coming, a terrible fear overtook them. The old sage said to them, Do not be afraid. 37
When the demons arrived they could not draw near because of the magic circle around the sage and his family.
The king sent reinforcements, but they, too, were unable to come any closer.
So the irascible king went himself, but he was similarly prevented from approaching them.
So he asked the old sage to allow him inside.
The old sage said, Because you have asked me I shall let you in.
But it is not customary for a king to enter alone.
Therefore I will grant you admittance with one companion.
He made a wee opening for them, and they entered. Then he closed the circle once more.
The demon king said to the old sage, How is it you have come to settle in my domain?
The old sage replied, Why is it your domain? It is my domain.
The king asked, Are you not afraid of me?
The old sage answered, No.
The king repeated, You are not afraid? He then stretched himself out and expanded to an exceedingly large size, towering up to the sky, and looked as if he were going to swallow the old sage.
The sage responded, I have not the slightest fear of you. But, to be quite honest, you should be afraid of me.
So he went and prayed for a bit. Great clouds billowed and thunder boomed. The thunderclaps massacred all the royal demon ministers, leaving only the demon king and his companion. The king begged the old sage to stop the thunderclaps, and he stopped them.
The king said to the old sage, As you are such a powerful person, I shall gift you with a book of all the demon genealogies.
38 There are wonder workers who may know a single demon’s lineage, but they do not know the lines of all the demons.
I will give you a book containing every demon’s lineage, for they are all registered in it for the king, even the ones just born.
The king dispatched his companion to fetch the book.
(It turns out it was a felicitous decision for the old sage to let the demon king bring a companion, otherwise whom would he have sent for the book?) The book was brought, and the old sage opened it and saw described there the myriads and multitudes of demon families.
The king told the sage that the demons would never harm his family and ordered the sage to bring him portraits of all the members of his family.
And whenever a child was born, its portrait was immediately to be brought to the king to ensure that no harm would come to any member of the old sage’s family.
Later, when the time came for the old sage to depart this world, he called his children together and left them his will, telling them, I entrust this book to you.
You have surely seen that I could have used this book for the sake of goodness.
Yet, I never did. For I have put my trust in Blessed God, so neither shall you use the demons’ book.
Even if there should be one among you who could use it for goodness’ sake, let him not do so.
He should only have faith in Blessed God.
Thereupon the sage died, and the book became an heirloom and came into the possession of his grandson, who also had the power to use it. But he, too, had faith in Blessed God and did not use it, as the old sage had commanded in his will.
The talebearers among the demons tried to inveigle the old sage’s grandson, Since you have marriageable daughters but 39 nothing with which to support them and marry them off, you should use the book.
The sage’s grandson did not know it was demons tempting him, believing these thoughts had come from his own heart.
So he travelled to his grandfather’s grave and asked him, In your will you commanded us never to use the demons’ book but only to have faith in Blessed God.
Now, however, my heart is prompting me to use it.
From beyond the grave his grandfather replied, Even though you might use it for good, it is better simply to have faith in Blessed God and never use it. Blessed God will help you.
And this the grandson did.
And it came to pass…
The king of the country where the sage’s grandson now lived took ill. He consulted physicians, and they were unable to find a cure. Owing to a heatwave that had struck the country, medicines were of no use. So the king decreed that all the Jews should pray for him.
Our demon king, the cloud went on, said that since the old man’s grandson had the power to use the book for good, but he did not do so, we ought to do him a kindness.
He ordered me to become a cloud to put an end to the heatwave so that that country’s king might be cured by the medicines he already took as well as by those he had yet to take. The grandson knew nothing of all this. It was for this reason I became a cloud.
The cloud was brought before the demon king.
The demon king ordered that he return the strength that he received, which 40 had been taken from the king who built his palace on the isle in the sea.
His strength was returned, and the son of the demon couple was released from his captivity and returned home.
The son, however, had suffered greatly, sapped of all strength by his torture. He harboured bitter resentment against the king’s sorcerer who had captured him and caused him so much suffering. So he ordered his children and all his family forever to stalk that sorcerer.
However, among the demons there were talebearers who warned the sorcerer that there were demons lying in wait for him and that he should be on his guard.
The sorcerer devised cunning schemes and called on other sorcerers who knew demon lineages beside the single one he knew so he could be protected from them as well.
The son and his family bore the talebearers a deep grudge for having divulged their cunning plan to the sorcerer.
Once it happened that members of the son’s family and some of the talebearers chanced to meet together near the demon king’s watchtower.
The son’s family denounced the talebearers and, on account of their denunciation, the king executed the talebearers.
The rest of the talebearers were deeply aggrieved about this and went and fomented a rebellion among the various demon tribes.
The demons were then beset by famine and frailty, violence and pestilence as wars were waged between the demon kings.
As a result, there was an earthquake that caused all the earthworks to collapse completely and allowed the tree to be fully watered.
All of the demons were obliterated and none were left.
Amen