sso is too ugly for anything; our Star once made the witty
remark: 'The bass singer is a bigger fool than even a basso is expected
to be!' All three eat in my restaurant--perhaps you don't know that I'm
Elle Schnapper?"

Beautiful Sara expressed thanks for this information, whereupon
Schnapper-Elle proceeded to narrate in detail how she had once been in
Amsterdam, how she had been subjected to the advances of men on account
of her beauty, how she had come to Frankfort three days before
Whit-suntide and married Schnapper, how he had died, and what touching
things he had finally said on his deathbed, and how hard it was to carry
on the restaurant business and keep one's hands nice. Several times she
glanced aside with a contemptuous air, apparently at some giggling
girls, who seemed to be eyeing her clothes. And the latter were indeed
remarkable enough--a very loose skirt of white satin, on which all the
animals of Noah's Ark were embroidered in gaudy colors; a jacket of gold
cloth, like a cuirass, with sleeves of red velvet, yellow slashed; a
very high cap on her head, with a mighty ruff of stiff white linen
around her neck, which also had around it a silver chain hung with all
kinds of coins, cameos, and curiosities, among them a large picture of
the city of Amsterdam, which rested on her bosom.

But the dresses of the other women were no less remarkable. They
consisted of a variety of fashions of different ages, and many a woman
there was so covered with gold and diamonds as to look like a wandering
jeweler's shop. It is true that there was at that time a fashion of
dress prescribed by law to the Frankfort Jews, and to distinguish them
from Christians the men had to wear yellow rings on their cloaks, and
the women very stiff, blue-striped veils on their caps. However, in the
Jewish quarter the law was little observed, and there, in the synagogue,
especially on festival days, the women put on as much magnificent
apparel as they could--partly to arouse envy of others, and partly to
advertise the wealth and credit of their husbands.

While passages from the Books of Moses are being read on the lower floor
of the synagogue, the devotion is usually somewhat lulled. Many make
themselves comfortable and sit down, whispering perhaps business affairs
with a friend, or go out into the court to get a little fresh air. Small
boys take the liberty of visiting their mothers in the women's balcony;
and here worship is still more lo