THERE was once a very learned man who knew all the languages under the sun, and who was acquainted with all the mysteries of creation. He had in his private room a big book bound in black leather and fitted with iron clasps, and it was chained to a table which was screwed fast to the floor. When he wanted to read in the book he unlocked the clasps with a brass key, and he never allowed any one else to read in it, for it contained many magician’s secrets. Among other things it told the names of the demons, and what they did, and how they could be summoned and made to work for man.
A young lad lived with the magician and served him, but though he worked for the great master he was an ignorant youth who was scarcely allowed so much as to enter the learned man’s private room. But one day, when his master was absent, he went in there, and satisfied his curiosity by looking around to his heart’s content. Here was the wondrous apparatus for changing copper into gold, and lead into silver; and the mirror in which could be seen all that was passing in the world; and the shell which, when held to the ear, enabled one to hear any words being spoken by whatever person one desired to know about.
The lad tried in vain with the crucibles to turn copper into gold and lead into silver. Next he gazed long and vainly into the mirror, but clouds and smoke passed over the scenes within, and he could discern nothing clearly. Then he put the shell to his ear. That too disappointed him, for he could hear only indistinct murmurings like the breaking of waves on a distant shore.
“I can do nothing,” he said, “because I do not know the right words to utter and make things go right. The words I need are locked from sight in yonder book.”
Just then he noticed with surprise that the book lay open. The master had forgotten to lock it, and the lad ran eagerly to look at its secret-revealing pages. Some of the words were in black ink and some in red, and they seemed to be in a strange language. He could not see a single one that appeared familiar, and he sat down and put his finger on a line and spelled it through.
At once the room was darkened, and the house trembled, and there was a startling clap of thunder. Then the lad saw standing before him a horrible winged creature, breathing fire, and with eyes like burning lamps. It was the demon Beelzebub whom he had called up to serve him.
“Set me a task!” cried the demon with a voice like the roaring of an iron furnace.
The boy shivered with fright, and his hair stood on end. He knew not what to do or say.
“Set me a task or I shall strangle you,” said the demon.
But the lad could not find voice to speak. The evil spirit stepped toward him and reached out his hands toward the boy’s throat. The youth shrank from the demon’s burning touch, while again the command was dinned in his ears. “Set me a task!”
“Water yon flower,” said the boy in despair, pointing to a geranium which stood in a pot on the floor.
Instantly the demon left the room, but a moment later he returned with a barrel on his back and poured its contents over the flower. Again and again he went and came, and poured more and more water until the floor of the room was ankle-deep.
“Enough, enough!” gasped the lad.
But the demon heeded him not. The boy did not know the words that must be spoken in order to send the demon away, and the evil spirit continued to fetch water. It rose to the boy’s knees, and yet more water was poured. It mounted to his waist, and still Beelzebub brought barrel after barrel full. It rose to the lad’s armpits, and he scrambled to the table-top. Presently the water was half way up the window and washing against the glass, and it swirled around the lad’s legs where he stood on the table. It kept on rising and reached his breast.
In vain he ordered and begged the demon to desist. The evil spirit refused to obey, and he would have been pouring water even to this day had not the master returned. He came in haste, for he had recollected that he had left his book unlocked, and he arrived just as the water had reached his pupil’s chin. Without a moment’s delay he shouted the proper words to make Beelzebub return to his fiery home, and the lad was saved.
