Bible Stories and Religious Classics | Page 6

dread, which before was but subject
by love; and because she sinned in the fruit, she is punished in her fruit,
when it was said to her: Thou shalt bring forth children in sorrow; in
the pain of sorrow standeth the curse, but in bringing forth of children
is a blessing. And so, in punishing, God forgat not to have mercy. And

because Adam sinned but only in eating of the fruit, therefore he was
punished in seeking his meat, as it is said to him: Accursed be the earth
in thy work, that is to say for thy work of thy sin, for which is made
that the earth that brought forth good and wholesome fruits plenteously,
from henceforth shall bring forth but seldom, and also none without
man's labor, and also sometime weeds, briars, and thorns shall grow.
And he added: Thereto shalt thou eat herbs of the earth, as who saith
thou shalt be like a beast or jument. He cursed the earth because the
trespass was of the fruit of the earth and not of the water. He added
thereto to him of labor: In the sweat of thy cheer [face] thou shalt eat
thy bread unto the time thou return again into the earth; that is to say
till thou die, for thou art earth, and into earth thou shalt go again.
Then Adam, wailing and sorrowing the misery that was to come of his
posterity, named his wife Eve, which is to say, mother of all living folk.
Then God made to Adam and Eve two leathern coats of the skins of
dead beasts, to the end that they bare with them the sign of mortality,
and said: Lo, Adam is made as one of us, knowing good and evil, now
lest he put his hand and take of the tree of life and live ever, as who
saith: beware and cast him out, lest he take and eat of the tree of life.
And so he was cast out of Paradise, and set in the field of Damascus
where as he was made and taken from, for to work and labor there. And
our Lord set Cherubim to keep Paradise of delight with a burning
sword and pliant, to the end that none should enter there ne come to the
tree of life.
After then that Adam was cast out of Paradise and set in the world, he
engendered Cain, the fifteenth year after he was made, and his sister
Calmana; but after another fifteen years was Abel born, and his sister
Delbora.
When Adam was an hundred and thirty years of age, Cain slew Abel
his brother. Truth it is, after many days Cain and Abel offered sacrifice
and gifts unto God. It is to be believed that Adam taught his sons to
offer to God their tithes and first fruits. Cain offered fruits, for he was a
ploughman and tiller of earth, and Abel offered milk and the first of the
lambs, Moses saith, of the fattest of the flock. And God beheld the gifts
of Abel, for he and his sacrifices were acceptable to our Lord; and as to
Cain his sacrifices, God beheld them not, for they were not to him
acceptable, he offered withies and thorns. And as some doctors say, fire

came from heaven and lighted the sacrifice of Abel, and the gifts of
Cain pleased not our Lord, for the sacrifice would not belight nor burn
clear in the light of God. Whereof Cain had great envy unto his brother
Abel, which arose against him and slew him. And our Lord said to him:
Where is Abel thy brother? He answered and said: I wot never, am I
keeper of my brother? Then our Lord said: What hast thou done? The
voice of the blood of thy brother crieth to thee from the earth,
wherefore thou art cursed, and accursed be the earth that received the
blood of thy brother by his mouth of thy hands. When thou shalt work
and labor the earth it shall bring forth no fruit, but thou shalt be fugitive,
vagabond, and void on the earth. This Cain deserved well to be cursed,
knowing the pain of the first trespass of Adam, yet he added thereto
murder and slaughter of his brother.
Then Cain, dreading that beasts should devour him, or if he went forth
he should be slain of the men, or if he dwelt with them, they would slay
him for his sin, damned himself, and in despair said: My wickedness is
more than I can deserve to have forgiveness, whoso find me shall slay
me. This he said of dread, or else wishing, as who said, would God he
would slay me. Then our Lord said: Nay not so, thou