The Forge in the Forest  by Padraic Colum

King Solomon and the Servitor of the Lord of Earth

ENAIAH, King Solomon's giant captain, spied within the cave where the Servitor of the Lord of Earth had his lair. He saw him lying with his hair in tangles, and all around him were the bones and teeth of dragons. The Servitor did not see King Solomon's giant captain, and Benaiah, after he had looked upon him, went back to his camp in the high grasses.

He had been commanded by King Solomon to seize Sokar, the Servitor of the Lord of Earth, and to bring him to him—Sokar who had the strength of the storm. For King Solomon would have him bear the stones that were for the building of the Temple. Benaiah had brought chains to lay upon the Servitor of the Lord of Earth—chains that even he might not break on account of their being inscribed with the magical names that were known to King Solomon. And now Benaiah, the giant captain, had looked upon him, he went back to his camp in the high grasses, and he and his comrades whispered together as to what they might do.

In a day they saw Sokar come forth from that cave that went deep into the earth. He came forth, crouched towards the ground. But, even crouched, Sokar had great bulk, and when he stood up he was immensely tall. Huge and earth-coloured, the Servitor of the Lord of Earth stood there in the sunset, and was beheld of Benaiah and his comrades. He went to a place, and, stooping down, he took water in his joined hands and drank. They saw that Sokar drank out of a cistern that he had made. And having drunk greatly of the snow-water that came down to that cistern, Sokar went back to his cave.

They went to the cistern, Benaiah and the men sent by Solomon, and they looked into it. It was a great cistern, but Sokar had nearly emptied it of the water it held. When they went back again to their camp in the high grasses they made up a plan by which Sokar, the Servitor of the Lord of Earth, might be taken.

They dug beneath the cistern and they drained off the water that was in it, and they turned away from it the course of the water that came down from the snow of the mountain. They stopped up the hole they had made with a pack of wool. And then they filled up the cistern with wine from their wine-skins, and they went back to their camp in the high grasses.

And Sokar came forth upon another day. He came forth holding in his hand for a staff the mid-bone of a dragon, and he went to the cistern he had made. But coming to it he smelled, not the clear smell of snow-water, but the smell of wine. Then Sokar, fearing that a trap had been set for him, went back to his cave. In a while he came forth again. Leaving the staff that was the mid-bone of a dragon against the cistern, he dipped in his hand, and he drank the wine he had taken up in his hand. He dipped his joined hands in and raised them to his mouth. And then, until the sunset came, he stayed there drinking the wine that he lifted to his mouth with his joined hands. They heard his shouts of exultation as the wine went through his veins. He whirled in his hands the staff that was the mid-bone of a dragon. And then he lay down upon the earth, overcome with the wine he had drunken.

Then Benaiah, the giant captain, and his comrades, went to where Sokar was lying in his stupor. They put the heavy chains upon him, the chains that were inscribed with the magical names that King Solomon knew.

When he awakened from his stupor, Sokar, the Servitor of the Lord of Earth, found himself weighed down with chains. His strength that was the strength of a storm failed him, when he tried to break the chains. And when Benaiah laid against his bones a link that had a magic name inscribed upon it, he shouted out in pain and terror. Benaiah made the Servitor of the Lord of Earth go with him towards the city of King Solomon. He raged, and sometimes in his rages he broke down trees and buildings with his kicks.

And as soon as Sokar was brought before King Solomon he uttered a cry so shrill that the earth quaked to it. But Solomon made him gaze upon his ring, and when he had gazed upon it, Sokar, the Servitor of the King of Earth, knew that Solomon would have to be obeyed.

Solomon made him gaze upon his ring.

Then Solomon sent him to fetch stones for the building of the Temple. This he did, fetching them down from a far mountain. It was then that an Angel of God made Solomon the King know that on the stones that were for the building of the Temple no tool of iron was to be used.

For iron was used in weapons that were for the killing of men, and for that reason iron might not be used in the making of the Temple that was as a sign of peace between God and mankind. But how, without the iron chisel and the iron sledge, might stones be cut so that they would fit together? King Solomon brought his wise men together and he asked this question of them.

It was then that his wise men spoke to King Solomon, telling him of Samur. Samur, they told him, is a living substance of about the size of a barleycorn; laid upon stone or upon anything harder than stone, it cuts its way through. Solomon, since he might not use iron to shape the stones for his Temple, resolved to use the substance Samur.

And Samur, his wise men told him, was the possession of him who is called the Lord of Earth. When he heard this Solomon pondered in his heart. It might be, he thought, that the Servitor of the Lord of Earth who fetched the stones for the Temple would be able to tell him how he might obtain the substance that would shape the stones.

So once again Sokar was brought before King Solomon. And Solomon told the Servitor of the Lord of Earth that a term would be put to his labours, and that a day would come when he would be set free, if he would tell how Samur might be obtained.

Then Sokar, that one day he might be free from the labour of carrying stones for the building of the Temple, told King Solomon how the substance Samur might be obtained. The Lord of Earth had entrusted Samur to a bird, to the Moorhen. She went upon the high mountains with it, laying the substance upon the rocks, so that they were split open, and seeds that the winds and the birds carried might grow in the openings. And the Moorhen had sworn to the Lord of Earth that she would never let men have Samur from her.

Again Solomon pondered and he thought upon a way by which the Moorhen might be forced to give the substance Samur to his men. He called upon Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, and he sent him upon this other quest, telling him how, to his mind, the Moorhen might be forced to let Samur pass into the possession of men.

Then Benaiah took a horse and rode up into the mountains. And, finding the nest of the Moorhen, he covered it all over with glass. The Moorhen came back to the nest. Her little ones raised their heads to her. She tried to feed them, but she could not bring food to their mouths on account of the cunning substance that men had made and that Benaiah had placed between her and her nest. She tried again and again, but she could not reach to her young ones who held up their mouths behind the sheet of glass. Then the Moorhen said to herself, "Am I not Naggar Tura, the mountain-carver? I will go and bring Samur to this substance that shuts off my young ones from me, and I will split it as I split the rocks of the mountain."

She hurried away, and Benaiah watched her nest. She returned and she laid something down upon the sheet of glass that covered the nest. Then Benaiah raised a great shout, and the Moorhen, frightened, fled. He ran to the nest and found a substance laid upon the glass that was cutting into the glass. This was Samur, the substance that was the size of a barleycorn and that cut through substances that iron could not cut through. Benaiah took it within the beak of one of the little Moorhens and brought it to King Solomon. And the Moorhen, despairing at having broken her oath to the Lord of Earth, slew herself at the bottom of the mountain.

So Samur was brought to King Solomon. And the stones that were fetched by Sokar were shaped by the cutting made by this substance, and no iron was used upon them. And then, as the Temple was all but finished, Solomon the King died.

He died within the Temple, and he died as he was overlooking the work that Sokar, the Servitor of the Lord of Earth, was doing. It was granted to Solomon that for a while Sokar would not know that he was dead. He leaned upon his staff, and his staff supported him even though he was dead, and the ring with the bright stone in it still shone upon his finger. Sokar went on working, not knowing that he who commanded him was no longer in life. Furiously and still more furiously he worked, raising greater and greater stones. And then, on the fourth day, the ants, who are also the servants of the Lord of Earth, came upon the floor of the Temple, and climbed upon the staff that held dead Solomon upright, and ate into the staff; it became hollow and broke, and the dead King fell stiffly upon the floor of the Temple.

Now at this time the Temple was all but built, and only a few stones remained to be put upon it. Sokar, seeking the King prone upon the ground, let fall the stone he was carrying. He rushed out of the Temple. He shouted as he went through Solomon's city, making his way back to his cavern in the earth. And the people of Solomon's city hid themselves as they heard the noise of his shouting that was like the noise of the storm. As he went on he kicked over great trees and high buildings with his feet. In one of his rages he came before the little house of a poor widow. She begged of him that he would not destroy her house, but Sokar, laughing, kicked it over. Then he fell and broke his leg. He won back to his cavern. But ever since that time Sokar goes limping, with two sticks in his hands to help him along.