seek the Child to slay Him." Then Joseph arose and took the Child and
His mother and went into Egypt in the night, and there he remained until
Herod died. And Mary and her Son dwelt in Egypt seven years.

And it is told that by the road which Mary journeyed thither and came
back again, grew roses, which are called the Roses of Jericho, and they
grow in no other place. The shepherds of that country, in following
their sheep, gather these roses in their season, and sell them to
pilgrims, and thus they be borne into divers lands. And the place where
Mary dwelt is now a garden where groweth balm, and to every bush a
Christian man, among the Sultan's prisoners, is assigned to protect it
and keep it clean; for when a paynim keepeth them, anon the bushes wax
dry and grow no more. And this balm hath many virtues the which were
long to tell; but all men in the East believe truly that the place bears
such a virtue of growing balm because Mary dwelt there seven years, and
washed and bathed her Son in its wells of water.

And as to the gifts which the three Kings gave to Christ: the thirty
gilt pennies of Melchior were made of old by Thara, father of Abraham,
and Abraham bare them with him when he went on pilgrimage out of the
land of Chaldee into Ebron, which was then called Arabia, and there he
bought with them a burial-place for himself, his wife, and his children,
Isaac and Jacob. In exchange for the same thirty pieces Joseph was sold
by his brethren to merchants of Egypt. Afterward, when Jacob died, they
were sent to the land of Sheba to buy divers spices and ornaments for
his sepulture, and so they were put into the king's treasury of that
land. Then by process of time, in Solomon's reign, the Queen of Sheba
offered these thirty gilt pennies, with many rich jewels, in the Temple
at Jerusalem; but in the time of Roboam, King Solomon's son, when
Jerusalem was destroyed and the Temple despoiled, they were carried to