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would arise, and therefore had created the organs of man in pairs, so that neither of the two parties to the dispute might be wronged. On hearing these words from the king, Solo- mon's counsellors lamented : " Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a youth." In a little while they realized the wis- dom of the king, and then they exclaimed : " Happy art thou, O land, when thy king is a free man." The quarrel had of set purpose been brought on by God to the end that Solo- mon's wisdom might be made known. In reality the two litigants were not women at all, but spirits. That all doubt about the fairness of the verdict might be dispelled, a heav- enly voice proclaimed : " This is the mother of the child." *"
During the lifetime of David, when Solomon was still a lad, he had settled another difficult case in an equally bril- liant way. A wealthy man had sent his son on a protracted business trip to Africa. On his return he found that his father had died in the meantime, and his treasures had passed into the possession of a crafty slave, who had succeeded in ridding himself of all the other slaves, or intimidating them. In vain the rightful heir urged his claim before King David. As he could not bring witnesses to testify for him, there was no way of dispossessing the slave, who likewise called him- self the son of the deceased. The child Solomon heard the case, and he devised a method of arriving at the truth. He had the father's corpse exhumed, and he dyed one of the bones with the blood first of one of the claimants, and then of the other. The blood of the slave showed no affinity with the bone, while the blood of the true heir permeated it. So the real son secured his inheritance.27
After his accession to the throne, a peculiar quarrel among
