name is introduced to us in the fourteenth of Genesis, he is king of
Salem, which means peace. Salem was a city on the site of Zion.

Originally it was called Jebus, then Zadek, then Salem, and finally
Jerusalem. So says Rabbi Joseph Ben-Gorion. But other writers, no doubt
just as well informed, differ from him; and while the doctors disagree,
simple laymen may well hold their judgment in suspense; or, better
still, dismiss Jebus, Zadek, Salem, and Jerusalem, to the limbo of
learned trivialities. Counting the spots on a leopard, the quills on
a porcupine, or the hairs in a cat's whiskers, is just as amusing and
quite as edifying as most of the problems of divines and commentators.

When Abraham returned from a successful campaign, in which he defeated
five kings and their armies with three hundred and eighteen raw
recruits, Melchizedek came out to meet him with victuals and drink.
These two friends joined in the friendly office of _scratching_ each
other. They were, in fact, a small mutual admiration society. Abraham,
although at other times a rank coward, was on this occasion a bold
warrior laden with spoil; and Melchizedek besides being King of Salem,
was "the priest of the most high God." "Bully for you, Abraham," said
Melchizedek. "Bully for you, Melchizedek," said Abraham. As usual,
however, the priest got the best of it, for the patriarch paid him
tithes, which were a capital return for his compliments. Genesis is a
little confused, indeed; and what scripture is not? "And he gave him
tithes of all" is not very clear. It reminds one of the West of England
yokel, who gave his evidence on a case of homicide in this way:

"He had a stick, and he had a stick; and he hit he, and he hit he. And
if he'd only hit he as hard as he hit he, he'd a' killed he, and not he
he."

But we must not be too hard on Bibles and yokels. So long as we can get
a scintillation of their meaning we must be satisfied. Scripture, we may
take it, means that the _he_ who paid tithes was Abraham, and the _him_
who received them was Melchizedek.

Now the book of Genesis is not an early, but a very late portion of the
Jewish scriptures, dating only a few centuries before Christ. And we may
depend on it that this little sentence about _tithes_, and perhaps the
whole story that leads up to it, was got up by the priests, to give
the authority of Abraham's name and the sanction of antiquity to an
institution which kept them in luxury at the expense