him enter a cave and as soon as he has folded his goats he will lead us to it.  But the villagers were in no mood for waiting; the goats could be folded by another; and the goatherd was bidden and obliged to leave his goats and lead the way, Jesus and his disciples following with the others through the forest till we came to a ravine.  And the goatherd said:  look between yon great rocks, for it was between them he passed out of my sight.  And let one of you creep in after him, but I must return to my goats, having no confidence that they have been properly folded for the night.  The goatherd would have run away if he hadn’t been held fast, and there were questions as to who would enter.  The first said “no,” the second the same, giving as reason that they were not young or strong enough, whereas the goatherd was both, and none better endowed for the struggle; and the people became of one mind that they must beat the goatherd with the crows if he did not go down into the cave, but Jesus, arriving in time, said:  it is not lawful to break into any man’s dwelling with crows, nor to kill him because his sins affront you; let us rather give him means to cut himself free from sins.  At which words the people were near to jeering, for it seemed to them that Jesus knew little of the man they were pursuing, and they knew not what to understand when he asked if any among them had a long, sharp knife, and there was a movement as if they were about to leave him; but one man said:  thou shalt have mine, Master, and, taking it out of his girdle, he gave it to Jesus, who tested it with his thumb, and, satisfied with it, laid it on the rock beside the cave.  But the people began to mutter:  he will use the knife against us, Master.  Not against you, Jesus answered, but against himself, thereby defending himself against himself.  There were mutterings among the people, and some said that his words were too hard to understand, but all were silent as soon as Jesus raised his hands and stepped towards the cave, and began to breathe his spirit against the lust that possessed the man’s flesh.  We must return here, he said, with oil and linen cloths.  At which all wondered, not knowing what meaning to put upon his words, but they believed Jesus, and came at daybreak to meet him at the edge of the forest and followed the path as before till they came to the hillside.  The man was no longer hidden in his cave, but sat outside by the rock on which Jesus had laid the knife, and Jesus said:  happy is he born into the world without sting, and happy is he out of whom men have taken the sting before he knew it, but happier than these is the man that cuts out the part that offends him, setting the spirit free as this man has done.