rom the time of Nicholas I., supplementing it by distorted
quotations from talmudie and rabbinic literature, without the slightest
knowledge of that literature or the Hebrew language.

[Footnote 1: See above, p. 165, n. 1.]

The monastic adventurer, finding himself in financial straits, brought
his manuscript to Rabbi Minor of Moscow, declaring his willingness to
forego the publication of his brochure, which no doubt would cause great
harm to the Jews, for a consideration of 500 rubles ($250). His
blackmail offer was rejected Lutostanski thereupon published his hideous
book in 1876, and travelled with it to St. Petersburg where he managed
to present it to the crown prince, subsequently Alexander III., and to
secure from him a grateful acknowledgement. The book also found the
approval of the Chief of Gendarmerie, [1] who acquired a large number of
copies and distributed them among the secret police all over Russia.

[Footnote 1: See above, p. 21, n. 1.]

Encouraged by his success, Lutostanski issued a few years later, in
1879, another libellous work in two volumes, under the title "The Talmud
and the Jews," which exhibits the same crudeness in style and content as
his previous achievement--a typical specimen of a degraded back-yard
literature. The editor of the Hebrew journal _ha-Melitz_, Alexander
Zederbaum, demonstrated clearly that Lutostanski had forged his
quotations, and summoned him to a public disputation, which offer was
wisely declined.

Nevertheless, the agitation of this shameless impostor had a
considerable effect on the highest official spheres in which an ever
stronger drift toward anti-Semitism was clearly noticeable. In 1878 this
anti-Semitic trend gave rise to a new ritual murder trial. The discovery
in the government of Kutais, in the Caucasus, of the body of a little
Gruzinian girl, named Sarra Modebadze, who had disappeared on the eve of
Passover, was deemed a sufficient reason by the judicial authorities to
enter a charge of murder against ten local Jews, although the ritual
character of the murder was not put forward openly in the indictment.
The case was tried before the District Court of Kutais, and the counsel
for the defence succeeded by their brilliant speeches not only to
demolish completely the whole structure of incriminating evidence but
also to deal a death-blow to the sinister ritual legend. The case ended
in 1879 with the acquittal of all the accused.

Withal, the "ritual" agitati