The Book of Jasher 71

¹🔗nd the king went forth on the appointed day, and all the Egyptians came before him and cried unto him, saying,

²🔗 May the king live forever. What is this thing thou doest in the town to thy servants, not to suffer a dead body to be buried until so much silver and gold be given? Was there ever the like unto this done in the whole earth, from the days of former kings yea even from the days of Adam, unto this day, that the dead should not be buried only for a set price?

³🔗 We know it to be the custom of kings to take a yearly tax from the living, but thou dost not only do this, but from the dead also thou exactest a tax day by day.

⁴🔗 Now, O king, we can no more bear this, for the whole city is ruined on this account, and dost thou not know it?

⁵🔗 And when the king heard all that they had spoken he was very wroth, and his anger burned within him at this affair, for he had known nothing of it.

⁶🔗 And the king said, Who and where is he that dares to do this wicked thing in my land without my command? Surely you will tell me.

⁷🔗 And they told him all the works of Rikayon and his men, and the king's anger was aroused, and he ordered Rikayon and his men to be brought before him.

⁸🔗 And Rikayon took about a thousand children, sons and daughters, and clothed them in silk and embroidery, and he set them upon horses and sent them to the king by means of his men, and he also took a great quantity of silver and gold and precious stones, and a strong and beautiful horse, as a present for the king, with which he came before the king and bowed down to the earth before him; and the king, his servants and all the inhabitants of Egypt wondered at the work of Rikayon, and they saw his riches and the present that he had brought to the king. 25.