sacrificed the paschal lamb: we are forbidden to do so out of Jerusalem, but the pains we take to prepare the unleavened bread, proves how anxious we are to perpetuate this commemoration of the Lord's sparing our first-born in the land of Egypt."

"I am very fond of your passover cake," said I.

"We are most particular in the preparation of it," added she, "for the word homitz has a much wider signification than what you Christians attach to that of leaven, by which word it is rendered in your translations of the Bible, for homitz means the fermentation of corn in any shape, whether as beer, or spirituous liquors distilled from corn; therefore, during the passover week, a Jew-distiller or brewer, must suspend his business for part of that time, he may work only on what we call the half holy days, but on the days of the full holy days, he can do nothing.'

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"I suppose you have heard of our society, which consist of our elders, and pious men," she went on to say: they often go out into the fields at the time of harvest to select the finest ripe wheat, and no expense is spared to get in a sufficient quantity for cur use, and with the greatest dispatch; this is carefully kept until the ensuing spring, in a dry place, lest any moisture should fall upon it, and cause fermentation. The time we take to cleanse the mill we hire for grinding this pure wheat, is very long, a full week; giving away to the Gentiles the flour we first grind in it, lest it be contaminated by any remains of the old leaven left therein before; next the ovens we use throughout all the country, must be heated several times, if they do not belong exclusively to ourselves, that they may be purified, and "purged out from old abominations."

"Oh" said Rebecca, "that the inside of the cup and platter' could be equally well attended to!" but her mother, not having read the New Testament, understood not the allusion: she did not, however, like the interruption, nor the use of the word 'platter,' she thought it, she said, not over and above genteel.

"Well," said I, wishing to restore good humour, "how do you knead these cakes, when you have got this fine unleavened flour ground to your mind."

"Oh! I forgot to tell you that," responded Mrs. Salamons; "why the pious Jews and Jewesses are employed in kneading and rolling out the paste, which must never exceed ten minutes in the operation; so if we have not sufficient persons to finish the work in that time, the wealthiest Jews in the land will hasten to assist them. Do you remember, Rebecca, seeing your father and uncle covered with flour, a year or two ago, because the society had not engaged enough hands?"

Yes, my dear mother," answered Rebecca smiling, giving a side glance at me," and also how angry he was the night before the passover, when he was searching all over our house with a host of candles, held by all our servants, to hunt up and remove away every crumb of bread, that might by chance be lying about, containing the abominated leaven, when he discovered in my little. Indian cabinet, I remember, a whole Gentile seed-cake, brought to me as a present by my play-fellow, our gardener's daughter, Fanny

6

Pritchard. O how he questioned me, as to whether I had secreted more in any other place; thus bringing down' he said, the just resentment of the God of Israel, upon himself and all his race, by breaking His express commandments!'"

I am rejoiced to find my child," said the kind-hearted mother, "that you have not forgotten the reprimands of your dear father upon that occasion, and also what our Rabbi said to you upon it. I am not over-strict myself, but to have such a thing as a Gentile diet cake in my house during the passover week, it would be scandalous! I would rather lose my -, no, not lose, but I should deserve to lose my first-born child, even thee, my Rebecca;" who now with infinite grace, here arose, and tenderly kissed her mother. She was not only the first-born, but the only child of her parents.

"How do you eat the passover?" I enquired of Mrs. Salamons, although I much feared I had asked a question that might be leemed improper, as I remembered having once before received a very severe rebuff from another Jewess I happened to know, by begging her to translate for me, the Hebrew characters that I saw in gold letters, placed under glass, round the doors of all her rooms. I have since had them explained to me by one of a lower grade, who took down from one of hers, a bit of vellum carefully enclosed in a case of tin, which was nailed at the top of every door in her humble abode; she assured me that they had the same writing in every Jewish house; some most gorgeously emblazoned, some in gold cases, others wrapt up, like the one I saw, in different metals. It begins with (but of course in Hebrew) thus

"Hear O Israel! I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, and out of the house of bondage, &c. &c." These sentences are also written on vellum, and sewn within the leather frontlets, that they accustom their young boys to wear every morning upon their foreheads for some time, as if their divine legislators wished such important truths to be engraven on the fleshy tables of the head or heart. And yet, perhaps, seeing a holy text upon the doors of our habitations, as the Musselmans put verses of their Koran on the outsides of their houses, might chance to recall some wanderers back to their duty, or help to instruct the ignorant.

But long ere I had made these wise reflections, Mrs. Salamons had informed me of the manner in which the passover was eaten in her husband's house; I fear I shall weary the reader by repeating it, and yet it lies full in my way.

"When the solemn evening, the feast of the passover arrives" said the good lady," for which the men have all prepared themselves by prayer in the synagogue, every member of the family, servants and all, assemble. On the table are placed three dishes; one contains three of the unleavened cakes; the second one with horse-radish and bitter herbs, and the third, a small piece of roast meat, and a roasted egg; these two last, are to symbolise the pascal, or sacrificial lamb, and the offering with it. There is also a dish of vinegar, or salt and water, and a mixture of various ingredients, worked up to resemble lime, to remind us of the time we worked in Egypt."

"I remember breaking my glass at the ceremony," remarked the young Rebecca," when I was a child, and getting a rebuke for my awkwardness from my poor dear father!"

"It was, I suppose, because you were in such a hurry to get at the wine," said her mother smiling," and besides, you never could bear at that age, I remember, to sit still."

"Nor do I much like it now I am older," responded Rebecca archly; "make haste, dear mother, and finish the passover supper tale, for I begin to weary of it."

"I shall soon have done with it," continued the mother; "each person has a glass, or cup, which is filled four times in the course of the ceremony; the master of the house stands up, with his loins girded, his staff in his hand, and his shoes on his feet, as if in haste to depart from the land of Egypt."

"The first cup of wine is called The cup of sanctification;' some of the bitter herbs are dipped in the vinegar, and each one has a small portion given to them by the master of the feast."

"Which I always contrived to slip under the table,” interrupted Rebecca laughing, "I cannot endure such horrid stuff." "Thou art but a scoffing maiden at the best," said her mother rather gravely, "and if thy uncle knew half thy tricks, or Joel Levison either, the elders would be made acquainted with them, and—”

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"Well, what would they do unto me, my dearest mother?" said the incorrigible girl. Would they beat me with rods, think you; these terrible old men, with their beards, and grey old locks? but pray tell Mrs. Griffiths all about the Effickonmen.'

"Of the what?" I enquired, "O, I must write down that mighty word in my tablets; or, I shall forget it, pray tell me how you spell

it?"

in a

"Effick-on-men," said the mother, slightly tapping her Rebecca's hand for interfering. "This word means the past hidden,' which the master of the house takes from the dish of cakes, wraps up napkin, and carefully conceals in some part of the house.' "And what is the meaning of this?" I enquired. "I do not think any of us quite know, not even the sagacious Rabbi himself,” said Rebecca.

"You are a silly girl," gravely replied her mother; "it is the common belief, that this part of the ceremony means, the hidden manna, or bread of life, that God has entrusted to our care; and that the bitter herbs mean, Lo, this is as the bread of affliction, which our ancestors ate in the land of Egypt.'"

"My dearest mother, do you remember the fearful agony I was thrown into," asked Mrs. Levison, "when first admitted to the supper of the passover? never shall I forget what I then endured, when later in the evening, the hidden cake, or Effick-on-men, was brought forth, and Elijah's cup was filled."

"Elijah's cup!" I repeated, "I never heard of that before." "Nor had I," continued Mrs. Levison, "at that time: so when the cup was filled, with all due solemnity by my father, and he aro e to open the door for the admission of the prophet Elijah, who I knew had been dead so many years, when I saw the eyes of all the company

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fixed upon that open door, hoping, partly expecting, I believe, that he would enter there bodily, and take his place beside us, the dead with the living, to bring us tidings that the Messiah is at hand, I thought I should have fainted, and can never witness the filling of 'Elijah's cup,' even now, without a tremor and a shudder."

There was a pause of some short time in our conversation just here; and during it, I could not help reflecting, that The last supper of our Lord," was commemorated in somewhat of this manner, "He to whom I shall give a sop when I have dipped it ;” likewise also, the cup after supper. The breaking of the bread being mentioned in connection with this cup, gave me reason to suppose, that it was the "hidden cake," which our Lord used according to custom, as symbolic of the hidden manna, or bread of life.

"After the passover, comes the Feast of Weeks," said Mrs. Salamons," but”

"O for mercy's sake, do not let us go through the whole catalogue of our ceremonials," interrupted our young hostess, "you will make me sick to death of our religion, and that would certainly be a heinous sin in you. Come, I will shew Mrs. Griffiths some of those splendid views of the two temples, and my own drawing of Pharaoh's daughter, picking up the pretty baby Moses, who it seems, would not be drowned; but had he lived in our days, he would certainly have been hanged, for slaying the Egyptian, and then burying him in the sand."

"Rebecca!" said her mother, "do you wish me to leave your house? Never will I enter it again if you speak in that light manner, of our great lawgiver Moses."

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"Our great lawgiver was Jehovah, and Moses was only his servant, my dearest mother," argued the fair Hebrew, looking like one inspired, never did you hear your child fail in respect to Him, before whom even the angels veil their faces; but it seems to me, much like Roman Catholic idolatry, thus to almost worship a man, who, however wise and good, still was a mere human being, with all our weaknesses and frailties: but I pain you, mother; so look at this, I have made the young Moses a fine sturdy boy you see, with limbs and cheeks fit for a heathen's Bacchus. In this drawing, I have done him ample justice, so I hope he and you will forgive me for all former offences."

"The Pharaoh's daughter is the very image of your own," said I, looking from one to the other, and handing the drawing to Mrs. Salamons.

"Yes," murmured out that lady, not quite restored yet to her usual good humour," Levison, who is a good draftsman, came in one morning when this subject was in hand, and with a lover's flattery sketched in Rebecca's face from memory, before she entered the room. It was a very foolish thing for him to do, but when men are in their courting days, they may well be said to be in their dotage; he has flattered her, I think," added the good lady, a mother's pride getting the better of her momentary displeasure.

"Is that really your opinion, Madam?" enquired I, with an archness that was well understood by both mother and daughter;

"nothing ever could have surpassed the loveliness of Mrs. Levison.'

"Rebecca," enquired her mother, quite recovered of her petulance," do you intend to go to-morrow to assist in making poor Esther Cohen's shroud? I think it would be but kind in you, as her sister is too much afflicted to help in that office: I shall certainly go, and can call for you."

"Certainly I will," responded Mrs. Levison; then turning to me, she added, "This is one of our usages also, and one I approve of more than many of the others. We never allow a stranger-hand, to touch the dead; no coarse and vulgar undertaker ever approaches the body of those we love: women prepare the burial-dress of women; and men those of men; and what is very singular, and also I think, very proper too, the grave-clothes of the very poorest of our people, are made of the same materials, and in the same form precisely, as those of the very richest: we say, for this reason, That at the final day, when we must all reappear, no respect of persons will be there shown, but all habited alike, will stand before Jehovah's awful throne, and his Messiah.'"

I took my leave at an early hour,-in parting, Mrs. Levison insisted on my promising to spend a day very soon with her again, whispering as she pressed her lips to my cheek, "That we may resume you know our high argument, and should I be convinced""What then?" demanded I, looking most searchingly upon her. "Can you not divine?" she answered most earnestly; but it would kill my mother, I believe."

but

"What would kill me, my dearest child?" quickly asked that mother, who had overheard the last sentence, and looked from one to the other in some alarm. "What would cause my death?"

"Making my burial-clothes, as I must assist to do to-morrow, for poor Esther Cohen," answered her daughter, with ready, and surely justifiable equivocation.

Her answer fully satisfied Mrs. Salamons; she merely wondered that her Rebecca had made any mystery about it: "but she loved this poor girl once," she said, as if explaining it to herself; " and they saw a good deal of each other when they were both young: lately indeed"

“Hush! dearest mother," softly murmured the young Hebrew lady; but the spirit of Christianity lent its divine radiance to her eye as she spoke-" Hush, I beseech you; whatever errors fell to the lot of this poor girl, remember that she is dead, and that 'judgment belongs only unto the Lord.'"

"I am not ashamed to learn from my own child," said the really kind-natured mother; "and I will mention her faults no more: perhaps they were not so heavy as the elders thought, when they admonished her so the other day, and"

"Let her faults and her virtues, mother, repose within the bosom of her Father and God," said the sweet remonstrator; "but we are detaining Mrs. Griffiths; the carriage is at the door. And," continued Mrs. Levison, but in a low voice to me as I took my seat," shall you be at home on Saturday? it is Sabbath, you know. If so, I will