"Your father commanded us before he died that we should say this to you: 'We pray that you will forget and not remember the sin of your brothers, and the malice with which they treated you. Forgive for thy father's sake this great wickedness.' Joseph, hearing this, wept bitterly, and his brothers came and knelt low to the ground and worshipped him, saying, "We are your servants." "Be you nothing afraid and dread you not. Think you that you can resist God's will? You thought to have done me evil, but God has turned it into good, and has exalted me as you see and know, so that He might save many people from death by famine. Be not afraid; I shall feed you and your children." So he comforted them with many fair and friendly words. So Joseph dwelt in the land of Egypt with the house of his father, and lived an hundred and ten years, and he saw the sons of Ephraim to the third generation. After these things he said to his brethren, "After my death, God shall visit you and shall send you again from this land into the land that he promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. When that time shall come, take my bones and carry them with you from this place and bury them in the land of Canaan." So saying, Joseph died, and they embalmed his body with sweet spices and aromatics, and laid it in a sepulchre in Egypt till they should go forth into the land of Canaan. This Story of Joseph has been taken from a translation of The Golden Legend. The tale has been simplified somewhat, and the language made a little more modern, but the quaintness and charm of the old narrative have not been destroyed. The Golden Legend was written in the thirteenth century by Jacobus de Voragina, the Archbishop of Genoa. He used the Bible as the basis of his stories, but combined with the Bible narrative the many interesting legends that had grown up in the Church. In the fourteenth century The Golden Legend was translated into French, and from the latter version the English translation was in turn made. This was one of the books printed by the famous William Caxton, and for many, many years it was read in church in England, where its simple and graphic language created a lively interest in the stories of the Old Testament. PRONUNCIATION OF PROPER NAMES NOTE. The pronunciation of difficult words is indicated by respelling them phonetically. N is used to indicate the French nasal sound; K the sound of ch in German; ü the sound of the German ü, and French u; ö the sound of ö in foreign languages. ABRAHAM, a' bra ham AGINCOURT, ah zhan koor' AMHERST, am' urst AMORITE, am' o rite ARCADIA, ar ka' di a ASENATH, as' e nath ATALANTA, at' a lan' tah BAUCIS, baw' sis BJÖRNSON, BJÖRNSTJERNE, byorn' son, byorn' shur" ne BRAHMINS, brah' minz CANAAN, ka' nan CINDERELLA, sin" dur el' lah CORMORAN, kor' mor an DANISH, dayn' ish DON QUIXOTE, don ke ho' tay, or don quix' oat DOTHAN, do' than EDINBURGH, ed' 'n bur" o EPHRAIM, e' fra im ESKIMO, es' ky mo FREY, fri GAELIC, gayl' ik GOSHEN, go' shen GRENADIER, gren a deer' GRETHEL, greth' el GRIMM, WILHELM and JAKOB, grim, vil' helm and yah' kohp GUILD, gild GULLIN-BURSTI, gool" in boor' sty GUNGNIR, goong' nir HANSEL, han' sel HEBRON, he' bron HIPPOMENES, hip pom' e neez ISHMAELITES, ish' ma el ites IVAN, e vahn' JASIUS, ja' si us JEKYLL, jek' il JUDAH, ju' dah JUPITER, ju' pi ter LOKI, lo' ke MANASSEH, ma nas' seh MARIE, mah ree' MASSACHUSETTS, mas" sa chu' sets MERCURY, mur' ku ry MERLIN, mur' lin MOOREFIELDS, moor' feeldz ODIN, o' din OGRE, o' gur OGRESSES, o gres sez PALESTINE, pal' es tine PERRAULT, pa" ro' PHARAOH, fa' ro, or fa' ra o PHILEMON, fil' e mon PHRYGIA, frij' e a |