unched me on the river, which
drowned me not. The river bore me along; to Akki, the
irrigator, it brought me. Akki, the irrigator, in the
tenderness of his heart, lifted me up. Then Akki, the
irrigator, as his gardener appointed me, and in my
gardenership the goddess Istar loved me. For forty-five
years the kingdom I have ruled, and the black-headed
(Akkadian) race have governed."

Of the childhood of Moses a curious story is told to account for his
being in after life "slow of speech and slow of tongue": Pharaoh was one
day seated in his banqueting hall, with his queen at his right hand and
Bathia at his left, and around him were his two sons, Bi'lam, the chief
soothsayer, and other dignitaries of his court, when he took little
Moses (then three years old) upon his knee, and began to fondle him. The
Hebrew urchin stretched forth his hand and took the kingly crown from
Pharaoh's brow and deliberately placed it upon his own head. To the
monarch and his courtiers this action of the child was ominous, and
Pharaoh inquired of his counsellors how, in their judgment, the
audacious little Hebrew should be punished. Bi'lam, the sooth-sayer,
answered: "Do not suppose, O King, that this is necessarily the
thoughtless action of a child; recollect thy dream which I did interpret
for thee. But let us prove whether this child is possessed of
understanding beyond his years, in this manner: let two plates, one
containing fire, the other gold, be placed before the child; and if he
grasp the gold, then is he of superior understanding, and should
therefore be put to death." The plates, as proposed by the soothsayer,
were placed before the child Moses, who immediately seized upon the
fire, and put it into his mouth, which caused him henceforward to
stammer in his speech.

It was no easy matter for Moses and his brother to gain access to
Pharaoh, for his palace had 400 gates, 100 on each side; and before each
gate stood no fewer than 60,000 tried warriors. Therefore the angel
Gabriel introduced them by another way, and when Pharaoh beheld Moses
and Aaron he demanded to know who had admitted them. He summoned the
guards, and ordered some of them to be beaten and others to be put to
death. But next day Moses and Aaron returned, and the guards, when
called in, exclaimed: "These men are sorcerers, for they cannot have
come in through any of the gates." There were, however, much more
for