Abbot Macarius went down through the vastness of the desert and entered a tomb to sleep, where the bodies of pagans were buried, and he drew out one body to put under his head like a pillow. The demons, wishing to terrify him, called out as if to a certain woman, saying: 'Rise and come with us to the bath.' And another demon, beneath him as though speaking from that dead body, said: 'I have a stranger upon me; I cannot come.' But he was not afraid; rather he answered that body, saying: 'Rise and go, if you can.' And the demons, hearing this, fled, crying out with a great voice:
'You have conquered us, lord.' Once, as Abbot Macarius was passing through a marsh on his way to his cell, the devil met him with a reaping-sickle, and wishing to strike him with the sickle, he was unable. And he said to him: 'I suffer great violence from you, Macarius, for I cannot prevail against you. For behold, whatever you do, I too do. You fast, and I do not eat at all; you keep watch, and I likewise never sleep. There is one thing only in which you surpass me.' And the abbot said: 'What is that?' He replied: 'Your humility, by which I cannot prevail against you.' When temptations were troubling a certain young man, Macarius rose and, loading a great sack of damp sand upon his shoulders, went about the desert thus for many days. Theosebius, finding him, said:
'Abba, why do you carry such a burden?' And he replied: 'I afflict the one who afflicts me.' Abbot Macarius saw Satan passing by in the guise of a man, wearing a torn linen garment, and through all its holes hung little flasks; and he said to him: 'Where are you going?' And he replied: 'I am going to give the brothers a drink.' Macarius said to him: 'Why do you carry so many flasks?' He answered: 'I carry a taste for the brothers, and if one does not please someone, I offer another, or a third, and so on in turn, until something pleases.' And when he returned, Macarius said to him: 'What have you done?' He answered: 'They are all holy, and none yielded to me except one, who is called Theotistus.' Then Macarius rose and went thither, and finding the tempted brother, by his exhortation converted him.
After this, Macarius, meeting him again, said: 'Where are you going?' He replied: 'I am going to the brothers.' On the devil's return an old man met him and said: 'How are those brothers doing?' The devil said to him: 'Badly.' And he asked: 'Why?' 'Because they are all holy, and—what is the worse evil—the one I had, I have lost, and he has become holier than all.' Hearing this, the old man gave thanks to God. One day holy Macarius found the skull of a dead man and, when he had prayed, asked it whose skull it had been. And it answered that it had been a pagan's. And Macarius said to it: 'Where is your soul?' It replied: 'In hell.' And when he asked whether it was deep down, it answered that it was as deep down as the earth is distant from heaven. Macarius said to it:
'Are there any deeper than you?' It replied: 'Yes, the Jews.' And again he asked: 'And beyond the Jews, are there any deeper still?' It answered: 'Deeper than all are false Christians, who, though redeemed by the blood of Christ, set so little value on so great a price.' As he was going through a very deep wilderness, he stuck a reed in the ground at every mile, so that afterward he would know how to return. But when he had now made nine days' journey and was resting in a certain place, the devil gathered up all the reeds and set them at his head, whence he labored greatly to find his way back. A certain brother was greatly troubled by his thoughts, namely that he was living uselessly in his cell, but that if he dwelt among men he could profit many.
When he had related his thoughts to Macarius, Macarius said: 'Son, answer them thus: At least I do this, that for Christ's sake I guard the walls of this cell.' When he had killed with his hand a flea that was biting him, and much blood had flowed from it, he reproached himself for having avenged his own injury, and remained naked in the desert for six months, and came out from there all torn by hornets. After this, renowned for many virtues, he rested in peace.