7
and went to the magicians house in order to put the child to sea. They put on him many warm and rich garments, with an upper coat of oil, that no water might penetrate it; and the magician, on a piece of parchment, wrote the following words:
MY NAME IS JUDAS.
which his mother sawed round his neck and put him into the boat, and shut down the cover. At parting with the child the mother was almost distracted, wringing her hands and weeping bitterly, but being comforted by the magician and her kinswoman she was at last pacified, and desired to go home, as she could not bear to see the child put into the water, so she and her kinswoman departed home. The magician then took the boat and carried it down to his own garden, at the foot of which ran the river Jordan, and putting it in where, a strong stream ran, it was soon carried out of sight.
The mother when she got home fainted away, but was revived by being informed by her maid servant, that during her absence they had almost brought the matter to a close, having found a neighbour’s male child, who had died the day before, and was just of the same age as Judas, for whose body they had given the parents a small sum of money, and paid the expense of burying a coffin full of bones, by way of a blind: and the only thing that remained was to deceive her husband, and get this child buried under the sanction of Judas’s body.
The father coming home at night, and finding iris wife in tears, soon guessed the dismal cause; and inquiring of the servants, they with dissembled grief informed him, that the child died in the morning soon after his departure. The man was
