Part 37 (2/2)

The curse of Iblis--Samael as Democrat--His vindication by Christ and Paul--Asmodaus--History of the name--Aschmedai of the Jews--Book of Tobit--Dore's 'Triumph of Christianity'--Auca.s.sin and Nicolette--Asmodeus in the convent--The Asmodeus of Le Sage--Mephistopheles--Blake's 'Marriage of Heaven and h.e.l.l'--The Devil and the artists--Sadi's Vision of Satan--Arts of the Devil--Suspicion of beauty--Earthly and heavenly mansions--Deacon versus Devil.

On the parapet of the external gallery of Notre Dame in Paris is the carved form, of human size, represented in our figure (15). There is in the face a remarkable expression of pride and satisfaction as he looks forth on the gay city and contemplates all the wickedness in it, but this satisfaction is curiously blended with a look of envy and l.u.s.t. His elegant head-dress gives him the pomp becoming the Asmodeus presiding over the most brilliant capital in the world.

His seat on the fine parapet is in contrast with the place a.s.signed him in Eastern traditions--ruins and desert places,--but otherwise he fairly fulfilled, no doubt, early ideas in selecting his headquarters at Paris. A mussulman legend says that when, after the Fall of Man, Allah was mitigating the sentences he had p.r.o.nounced, Iblis (who, as the Koran relates, pleaded and obtained the deferment of his consignment to h.e.l.l until the resurrection, and unlimited power over sinners who do not accept the word of Allah) asked--

'Where shall I dwell in the meantime?

'In ruins, tombs, and all other unclean places shunned by man.

'What shall be my food?

'All things slain in the name of idols.

'How shall I quench my thirst?

'With wine and intoxicating liquors.

'What shall occupy my leisure hours?

'Music, song, love-poetry, and dancing.

'What is my watchword?

'The curse of Allah until the day of judgment.

'But how shall I contend with man, to whom thou hast granted two guardian angels, and who has received thy revelation?

'Thy progeny shall be more numerous than his,--for for every man that is born, there shall come into the world seven evil spirits--but they shall be powerless against the faithful.'

Iblis with wine, song, and dance--the 'pride of life'--is also said to have been aided in entering Paradise by the peac.o.c.k, which he flattered. [143]

This fable, though later than the era of Mohammed in form, is as ancient as the myth of Eden in substance. The germ of it is already in the belief that Jehovah separated from the rest of the earth a garden, and from the human world a family of his own, and from the week a day of his own. The reply of the elect to the proud Gentile aristocracy was an ascetic caste established by covenant with the King of kings. This att.i.tude of the pious caste turned the barbaric aristocrats, in a sense, to democrats. Indeed Samael, in whom the execrated Dukes of Edom were ideally represented, might be almost described as the Democratic Devil. According to an early Jewish legend, Jehovah, having resolved to separate 'men' (i.e., Jews) from 'swine' (i.e., idolaters, Gentiles), made circ.u.mcision the seal on them as children of Abraham. There having been, however, Jews who were necessarily never circ.u.mcised, their souls, it was arranged, should pa.s.s at death into the forms of certain sacred birds where they would be purified, and finally united to the elect in Paradise. Now, Samael, or Adam Belial as he was sometimes called, is said to have appealed to the Creator that this arrangement should include all races of beings. 'Lord of the world!' he said, 'we also are of your creation. Thou art our father. As thou savest the souls of Israel by transforming them that they may be brought back again and made immortal, so also do unto us! Why shouldst thou regard the seed of Abraham before us?' Jehovah answered, 'Have you done the same that Abraham did, who recognised me from his childhood and went into Chaldean fire for love of me? You have seen that I rescued him from your hands, and from the fiery oven which had no power over him, and yet you have not loved and wors.h.i.+pped me. Henceforth speak no more of good or evil.' [144]

The old rabbinical books which record this conversation do not report Samael's answer; nor is it necessary: that answer was given by Jesus and Paul breaking down the part.i.tions between Jew and Gentile. It was quite another thing, however, to include the world morally. Jesus, it would seem, aimed at this also; he came 'eating and drinking,'

and the orthodox said Samael was in him. Personally, he declined to subst.i.tute even the cosmopolitan rite of baptism for the discredited national rite of circ.u.mcision. But Paul was of another mind. His pharisaism was spiritualised and intensified in his new faith, to which the great world was all an Adversary.

It was a tremendous concession, this giving up of the gay and beautiful world, with its mirth and amus.e.m.e.nts, its fine arts and romance--to the Devil. Unswerving Nemesis has followed that wild theorem in many forms, of which the most significant is Asmodeus.

Asmodaus, or Aeshma-daeva of the Zend texts, the modern Persian Khasm, is etymologically what Carlyle might call 'the G.o.d Wish;' aesha meaning 'wish,' from the Sanskrit root ish, 'to desire.' An almost standing epithet of Aeshma is Khrvidra, meaning apparently 'having a hurtful weapon or lance.' He is occasionally mentioned immediately after Anro-mainyus (Ahriman); sometimes is expressly named as one of his most prominent supporters. In the remarkable combat between Ahuro-mazda (Ormuzd) and Anro-mainyus, described in Zam. Y. 46, the good deity summons to his aid Vohumano, Ashavahista, and Fire; while the Evil One is aided by Akomano, Aeshma, and Aji-Dahaka. [145] Here, therefore, Aeshma appears as opposed to Ashavahista, 'supreme purity'

of the Lord of Fire. Aeshma is the spirit of the lower or impure Fire, l.u.s.t and Wrath. A Sanskrit text styles him Kossa-deva, 'the G.o.d of Wrath.' In Yacna 27, 35, Sraosha, Aeshma's opponent, is invoked to s.h.i.+eld the faithful 'in both worlds from Death the Violent, from Aeshma the Violent, from the hosts of Violence that raise aloft the terrible banner--from the a.s.saults of Aeshma that he makes along with Vidatu ('Divider, Destroyer'), the demon-created.' He is thus the leading representative of dissolution, the fatal power of Ahriman. Ormuzd is said to have created Sraosha to be the destroyer of 'Aeshma of the fatal lance.' Sraosha ('the Hearer') is the moral vanquisher of Aeshma, in distinction from Haoma, who is his chief opponent in the physical domain.

Such, following Windischmann, [146] is the origin of the devil whom the apocryphal book of Tobit has made familiar in Europe as Asmodeus. Aschmedai, as the Jews called him, appears in this story as precisely that spirit described in the Avesta--the devil of Violence and l.u.s.t, whose pa.s.sion for Sara leads him to slay her seven husbands on their wedding-night. The devils of l.u.s.t are considered elsewhere, and Asmodeus among them; there is another aspect of him which here concerns us. He is a fastidious devil. He will not have the object of his pa.s.sion liable to the embrace of any other. He cannot endure bad smells, and that raised by the smoke of the fish-entrails burnt by Tobit drives him 'into the utmost parts of Egypt, where the angel bound him.' It is, however, of more importance to read the story by the light of the general reputation of Aschmedai among the Jews and Arabians. It was notably that of the devil represented in the Moslem tradition at the beginning of this chapter. He is the Eastern Don Giovanni and Lothario; he plies Noah and Solomon with wine, and seduces their wives, and always aims high with his das.h.i.+ng intrigues. He would have cried Amen to Luther's lines--

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