mouth, and rub his belly, and
call me a brave fellow, I'm to let myself be shot! Courage! Be a man!
Little Strauss was a man, and yesterday went to the Roemer to see the
tilting, thinking they would not know him because he wore a frock of
violet velvet--three florins a yard-covered with fox-tails and
embroidered with gold--quite magnificent; and they dusted his violet
frock for him till it lost its color, and his own back became violet and
did not look human. Courage, indeed! The crippled Leser was courageous,
and called our scoundrel of a magistrate a blackguard, and they hung him
up by the feet between two dogs, while Jack drummed. Courage! Don't be
a hare! Among many dogs the hare is helpless. I'm a lone man, and I am
really afraid."

"That I'll swear to," cried Jaekel.

"Yes; I _have_ fear," replied Nose Star, sighing. "I know that it runs
in my blood, and I got it from my dear mother"--

"Yes, yes," interrupted Jaekel, "and your mother got it from her father,
and he from his, and so all thy ancestors one from the other, back to
the forefather who marched under King Saul against the Philistines, and
was the first to take to his heels. But look! Oxheady is all ready--he
has bowed his head for the fourth time; now he is jumping like a flea at
the Holy, Holy, Holy, and feeling cautiously in his pocket."

In fact the keys rattled, the gate grated and creaked and opened, and
the Rabbi led his wife into the empty Jews' Street. The man who opened
it was a little fellow with a good-naturedly sour face, who nodded
dreamily, like one who did not like to be disturbed in his thoughts, and
after he had carefully closed the gate again, without saying a word he
sank into a corner, constantly mumbling his prayers. Less taciturn was
Jaekel the Fool, a short, somewhat bow-legged fellow, with a large, red,
laughing face, and an enormous leg-of-mutton hand, which he now
stretched out of the wide sleeve of his gaily-chequered jacket in
welcome. Behind him a tall, lean figure showed, or rather, hid
itself--the slender neck feathered with a fine white cambric ruff, and
the thin, pale face strangely adorned with an incredibly long nose,
which peered with anxious curiosity in every direction.

"God's welcome to a pleasant feast-day!" cried Jaekel the Fool. "Do not
be astonished that our street is so empty and quiet just now. All our
people are in the synagogue, and you have come just in time to hear the
history of the sacrifice of Isaa