"Исаак Башевис Зингер. Taibele and her demon " - читать интересную книгу автора

As the saying goes, may God preserve us from all that we can get
accustomed to. And so it was with Taibele. In the beginning she had feared
that her nocturnal visitant might do her harm, give her boils or elflocks,
make her bark like a dog or drink urine, and bring disgrace upon her. But
Hurmizah did not whip her or pinch her or spit on her. On the contrary, he
caressed her, whispered endearments, made puns and rhymes for her. Sometimes
he pilled such pranks and babbled such devil's nonsense, that she was forced
to laugh. He tugged at the lobe of her ear and gave her love bites on the
shoulder, and in the morning she found the marks of his teeth on her skin.
He persuaded her to let her hair grow under her cap and he wove it into
braids. He taught he charms and spells, told her about his night-brethren,
the demons with whom he flew over ruins and fields of toadstools, over the
salt marshes of Sodom, and the frozen wastes of the Sea of Ice. He did not
deny that he had other wives, but they were all she-devils; Taibele was the
only human wife he possessed. When Taibele asked him the names of his wives,
he enumerated them: Namah, Machlath, Alf, Chuldah, Zluchah, Nafkah and
Cheimah. Seven altogether.
He told her that Namah was black as pitch and full of rage. When she
argued with him, she spat venom and blew fire and smoke through her
nostrils.
Machlath had face of a leech, and those whom she touched with her
tongue were forever branded.
Alf loved to adorn herself with silver, emeralds, and diamonds. Her
braids were spun gold. On her ankles she wore bells and bracelets; when she
danced, all the deserts rang put with their chiming.
Chuldah had the shape of a cat. She meowed instead of speaking. Her
eyes were green as gooseberries. When she copulated, she always chewed
bear's liver.
Zluchah was the enemy of brides. She robbed bridegrooms of potency. If
a bride stepped outside alone during the Seven Nupital Benedictions, Zluchah
danced up to her and the bride lost the power of speech or was taken by a
seizure.
Nafkah was lecherous, always betraying him with other demons. She
retained his affection only by her vile and insolent talk, which delighted
his heart.
Cheimah should have, according to her name, been as vicious as Namah
should have been mild, but reverse was true: Cheimah was a she-devil without
gall. She was forever doing charitable deeds, kneading dough for housewives
when they were ill, or bringing bread to the homes of the poor.
Thus Hurmizah described his wives, and told Taibele how he disported
himself with them, playing tag over roofs and engaging in all sort of
pranks. Ordinarily, a woman is jealous when a man consorts with other women,
but how can a human be jealous of a female devil? Quite the contrary.
Hurmizah's tales amused Taibele, and she was always plying him with
questions. Sometimes he revealed to her mysteries no mortal may know - about
God, his angels and seraphs, his heavenly mansions, and the seven heavens.
He also told her how sinners, male and female, were tortured in barrels of
pitch and caldrons of fiery coals, on beds studded with nails and in pits of
snow, and how the Black Angels beat the bodies of the sinners with rods of
fire.