When we leave behind us our withered bodies.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 13: A name for Ireland.]

THE DEVIL'S TRIBUTE TO MOLING

Once as Moling was praying in his church he saw a man coming
in to him. Purple raiment he wore and a distinguished form
had he. 'Well met, cleric!' says he. 'Amen!' says Moling.
'Why dost thou not salute me?' says the man. 'Who art thou?'
says Moling. 'I am Christ, the Son of God,' he answers. 'I
do not know that,' says Moling. 'When Christ used to come to
converse with God's servants, 'twas not in purple or with
royal pomp he would come, but in the shape of a leper.'
'Then dost thou not believe in me?' says the man. 'Whom dost
thou suppose to be here?' 'I suppose,' says Moling, 'that it
is the Devil for my hurt.' 'Thy unbelief will be ill for
thee,' says the man. 'Well,' says Moling, raising the
Gospel, 'here is thy successor, the Gospel of Christ.'
'Raise it not, cleric!' says the Devil; 'it is as thou
thinkest: I am the man of tribulations.' 'Wherefore hast
thou come?' says Moling. 'That thou mayst bestow a blessing
upon me.' 'I will not bestow it,' says Moling, 'for thou
dost not deserve it. Besides, what good could it do thee?'
'If,' says the Devil, 'thou shouldst go into a tub of honey
and bathe therein with thy raiment on, its odour would
remain upon thee unless the raiment were washed.' 'How would
that affect thee?' asks Moling. 'Because, though thy
blessing do nought else to me, its good luck and its virtue
and its blossom will be on me externally.' 'Thou shalt not
have it,' says Moling, 'for thou deservest it not.' 'Well,'
said the Devil, 'then bestow the full of a curse on me.'
'What good were that to thee?' asks Moling. 'The venom and
the hurt of the curse will be on the lips from which it will
come.' 'Go,' says Moling; 'thou hast no right to a
blessing.' 'Better were it for me that I had. How shall I
earn it?' 'By service to God,' says Moling. 'Woe is me!'
says the Devil, 'I cannot bring it.' 'Even a trifle of
study.' 'Thine own study is not greater, and yet it helps me
not.' 'Fasting, then,' says Moling. 'I have been fasting
since the beginning of the world, and not the better thereof
am I.' 'Making genuflexions,' says Moling. 'I cannot bend
forward,' says the Devil, 'for backwards are my knees.' 'Go
forth,' says Moling; 'I cannot teach thee nor help