Baring-Gould’s sources: Greek Menaea, a S. Malchus on Nov. 24, but whether this one or another is not certain; another S. Malchus on March 26, which is this Malchus, commemorated in the Roman Martyrology on Oct. 21. Authority:— His Life as related by himself to S. Jerome, who wrote it down.] About the year 375, S. Jerome was at Maronia in Syria, where he had an estate left him. He was then a young man. In the neighbourhood lived an old man named Melek, which is Latinized into Malchus, and an old decrepit woman, who used to attend church with the utmost devotion. The young man made inquiries about the old couple, and was told such a strange story that he went to 1 I have quoted in full the conclusion of Canon Kingsley’s article, on account of its great beauty.

S. Malchus. Melek himself, and got him to narrate to him his life. This, Jerome committed to history in after years. Melek was a native of Nisibis, the only son of his parents. His father and mother were very anxious to get him married and settled, but the young man having no fancy for the wedded life, ran away from home, and fell among some monks who lived in a desert of Chalcis, between the Imma and the Bersa. He remained with them some years, and then probably getting very tired of this manner of life, resolved to return home to his mother, his father having died whilst he was away. The thought of the dear old woman haunted him in his solitude, and he found no rest The call of filial duty drew him towards Edessa. But when he told the abbot that he was going home to solace his mother, and be the comfort of her declining years, the abbot was aghast, and cried out that this was “ a temptation of the devil/’ Melek offered to rebuild part of the monastery with some of the money which would have devolved to him, but this did not satisfy the abbot; he declared that the going back of Melek to his aged mother was the return of a dog to its vomit. He threw himself at the knees of Melek and implored him not by going away to lose his soul. Melek, however, had a clear sense of which way duty pointed, and he was not dissuaded by the vehemence and threats of the abbot. He joined a caravan on its way to Edessa, composed of about seventy persons, men, women, and children, and started for his home. On the way, as they were crossing the desert, on a sudden they were swooped down on by a party of Saracens [medieval Christian name for Arab and Muslim peoples], who plundered the caravan, and divided the party as slaves amongst themselves. Melek and a young married woman fell to the share of a Saracen chief, the woman’s husband was allotted to another desert rover. The two were placed on camels: “aloft, and always fearing destruction in that great waste, we clung to their backs rather than sat on [Oct. ax.

them. As for food, we were given underdone meat, and for drink had camel’s milk. At last we crossed a great river (the Mygdon), and arrived at the heart of this great waste, and had to bow our necks, and venerate, alter the fashion of these people, the mistress and the children. Here we were almost as in a prison; our clothes were taken from us, and we were made to go about our work almost naked. But indeed it is so hot there that we could not endure more clothes than a loin-cloth. I was made to keep sheep, and in the midst of miseries had this consolation, that I was left very much to myself, seeing little of my master and fellowservants. And it seemed to me that my lot was much like that of holy Jacob, and I remembered Moses, for both of these had been shepherds in a desert. I lived on fresh cheese and milk. I prayed incessantly; I sang the psalms I had learned in the monastery.”

His master and mistress resolved to marry him to his fellow-servant. Melek positively refused, saying that it was not lawful for him to take her, as her husband was still alive. But the Saracen did not see the force of this argument, and drew his sword on the young man. The woman, however, threw himself into his arms, so that the barbarian could only pierce him through her body; and he, thinking that her endearments were likely to be more successful than his threats, sheathed his sword, and provided them with a cool, roomy cavern, which they were to occupy as their cottage. When the forcibly married couple were left alone, Melek began to express his view of the situation aloud in somewhat forcible terms, as he rolled on the ground. “ Woe is me ! never till this moment did I feel how galling was my slavery. What avails it to abandon parents, country, estates, if one is to be driven reluctantly into a marriage one detests ! If I marry this woman, I take another man’s wife. This can never be. Shall I wait for the hand of God, or run Oct. ax.] S. Malchus.

myself through with this dagger? The death of the soul is more terrible than that of the body, I will transfix myself on this blade. A martyr's corpse will lie bleaching on the desert, and you, O woman ! will have been my persecutor and murderer.” Having so exclaimed, fylelek got out a long, glittering sword, stuck the handle in the sand, and prepared to precipitate himself on the point The woman began to tremble.

“ Farewell, miserable daughter of Eve !” said Melek, in a piteous tone of voice, “ you shall soon have at your feet the body, not of a husband, but of a martyr.” Then he made as though he would fall on the weapon. The poor woman screamed, rushed to his feet, held him back with her arms, and when she had recovered herself assured him that marriage with him was quite as distasteful to her feelings as to his. There was not the smallest occasion for him to run himself through the body, they might get on very comfortably together, without making a fuss about it, and arousing the anger of the master by letting him suspect that they had not acquiesced in his arrangement. She, for her part, would be most thankful to be rid of the irksome society of Melek, and to rejoin her husband, and so, having satisfied one another that each detested the other,1 matters were settled on a rational footing.

So time went on, and the detestation changed to a quiet liking for one another, and the master, seeing them both contented, had no fears of their running away. One day, whilst Melek was keeping his sheep in the desert, he watched a crowd of ants at work in their hill, building up the walls, boring passages, collecting seed, constructing drains to carry off* water which might otherwise spoil the seeds they gathered; and this set him a-thinking how like this was to a monastery, and then a great desire 1 ** Uterque detestamur alterum."

VOL. XII. 12 [Oct. ax. came over him to get back to the society of Christians and the privileges of religion. When he came home, his nominal wife saw that he looked sad, and asked him the reason. He told her that he could not be happy unless he ran away. She agreed to escape with him. So they made their preparations in secret. He killed two great goats, skinned them, and dried their flesh in the sun. She sewed the skins together, and made them into bags. Then, one evening they ran away, carrying the leather sacks and the meat, and reached the Mygdon. They then inflated the goat-skins, and swam across the river, buoyed up on them But unfortunately, in crossing they lost some of the meat, and the rest was sodden in the water and spoiled. On reaching the opposite bank they sadly contemplated their food, or what remained of it, and drank their fill at the river.1 On the third day after their escape, to their horror, they saw their master and a man, mounted on dromedaries, in full pursuit. They had been tracked by their footprints in the sand. Providentially there was a cave near at hand, and they slipped in, but fearing scorpions they did not go beyond the entrance, where a nook at the side allowed them to ensconce themselves. The Saracen came up, and shouting to them to come out, sent his man in with a sword to bring them out. “ Now you vagabonds, come forth, and suffer for your attempt,” shouted the man, and he pushed to the end of the cave. At that moment two glittering eyes shone out of the gloom, and a lioness rose, and struck the man down with her paw before he had time to recoil, for his eyes had been dazzled by the glare outside, and he had not noticed the lioness till he was upon her. She had a cub with her. Melek and his wife turned cold with horror. In the mean time the Saracen was waiting, and as his oc servant did not come forth, he thought that the runaways had fallen on him and killed him. He therefore fastened up the camels, and swearing with rage, rushed into the cavern. The lioness roared and sprang on him, struck him down and killed him, and then, ill-pleased at her den being thus invaded, took her cub in her mouth, and ran out of the cave.

Melek and the woman crept out, unloosed the dromedaries, mounted them, and pursued their route. After ten days of travelling they reached a Roman station, and sold the camels. They told what had taken place to Sabinian, duke of Mesopotamia, and then went to Edessa, where they settled to practices of religion for the rest of their days. Melek wound up his narrative to S. Jerome [translator of the Bible into Latin (d. 420)] with the dry remark, “ I loved the woman as a sister, but I never trusted her altogether as a sister.”