skins with wine.  Then Benaiah went and sank a pit below that of Ashmedai, into which he drained off the water and plugged the duct between with the fleece.  Then he set to and dug another hole higher up with a channel leading into the emptied pit of Ashmedia, by means of which the pit was filled with the wine he had brought.  After leveling the ground so as not to rouse suspicion, he withdrew to a tree close by, so as to watch the result and wait his opportunity.  After a while Ashmedai came, and examined the seal, when, seeing it all right, he raised the stone, and to his surprise found wine in the pit.  For a time he stood muttering and saying, it is written, “Wine is a mocker:  strong drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.”  And again, “Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the heart.”  Therefore at first he was unwilling to drink, but being thirsty, he could not long resist the temptation.  He proceeded to drink therefore, when, becoming intoxicated, he lay down to sleep.  Then Benaiah, came forth from his ambush, and stealthily approaching, fastened the chain round the sleeper’s neck.  Ashmedai, when he awoke, began to fret and fume, and would have torn off the chain that bound him, had not Benaiah warned him, saying, “The name of thy Lord is upon thee.”  Having thus secured him, Benaiah proceeded to lead him away to his sovereign master.  As they journeyed along they came to a palm-tree, against which Ashmedai rubbed himself, until he uprooted it and threw it down.  When they drew near to a hut, the poor widow who inhabited it came out and entreated him not to rub himself against it, upon which, as he suddenly bent himself back, he snapt a bone of his body, and said, “This is that which is written (Prov. xxv. 15), ’And a gentle answer breaketh the bone.’” Descrying a blind man straying out of his way, he hailed him and directed him aright.  He even did the same service to a man overcome with wine, who was in a similar predicament.  At sight of a wedding party that passed rejoicing along, he wept; but he burst into uncontrollable laughter when he heard a man order at a shoemaker’s stall a pair of shoes that would last seven years; and when he saw a magician at his work he broke forth into shrieks of scorn.

On arriving at the royal city, three days were allowed to pass before he was introduced to Solomon.  On the first day he said.  “Why does the king not invite me into his presence?” “He has drunk too much,” was the answer, “and the wine has overpowered him.”  Upon which he lifted a brick and placed it upon the top of another.  When this was communicated to Solomon, he replied “He meant by this, go and make him drunk again.”  On the day following he asked again, “Why does the king not invite me into his presence?” They replied, “He has eaten too much.”  On this he removed the brick again from the top of the other.  When this was reported to the king, he interpreted it to mean, “Stint him in his food.”