ther of Abraham,
and Abraham bare them with him when he went on pilgrimage out of the
land of Chaldee into Ebron, which was then called Arabia, and there he
bought with them a burial-place for himself, his wife, and his children,
Isaac and Jacob. In exchange for the same thirty pieces Joseph was sold
by his brethren to merchants of Egypt. Afterward, when Jacob died, they
were sent to the land of Sheba to buy divers spices and ornaments for
his sepulture, and so they were put into the king's treasury of that
land. Then by process of time, in Solomon's reign, the Queen of Sheba
offered these thirty gilt pennies, with many rich jewels, in the Temple
at Jerusalem; but in the time of Roboam, King Solomon's son, when
Jerusalem was destroyed and the Temple despoiled, they were carried to
the King of Arabia, and were put into his treasury with other spoils
from the Temple.

And Melchior offered these same thirty pieces to Christ, because they
were of the finest gold, and the best that he had. But when Mary went
into Egypt she lost all the gifts of the three Kings by the way, bound
all in one cloth together. And it happened there was a shepherd who had
so great an infirmity that no leech might heal him, and all that he had
he paid to the leeches to be whole,--yet it might not be. But, on a
time, as he went into the fields with his sheep, he found these thirty
gilt pennies, with incense and myrrh, bound all in a cloth together, and
he kept them privily to himself, until, hearing tell of a holy prophet
that healed all men of their infirmities by a word, he came to Christ
and prayed Him for grace and help; and, being healed, he offered the
gold, and incense, and myrrh to Him with good devotion. And when Christ
saw the thirty gilt pennies and precious herbs He knew them well, and
bade the shepherd go into the Temple and offer them upon the altar.

Now, when the priest saw such oblations laid upon the altar he marvelled
much, and took all three things and put them in the common treasury. And
afterward, when Judas Iscariot came into the Temple to make covenant
with the Princes of the Law to betray his master, they gave him for his
pay the same thirty pieces of gold, and for them Judas sold his Master.
And after Christ was crucified, then Judas repented, and went to the
Temple and cast down to the Princes of the Law the thirty pieces. And
with fifteen of these gilt pennies the Jews bought a field of burial for
pilgrims; and the other