ack man!" she whispered, dropping the flower, and with a soft
exclamation of fear she retreated and hid herself in the willow
copse.

Meir looked behind him. Some distance off he saw emerging from the
grove, and passing swiftly across the meadow, a strange figure walked
swiftly. It was a medium-sized man, very thin, with a dark face, gray
hair and a dark, dullish beard falling to his waist. He was robed in
a long dress made of rough woven cloth, and his yellow, bare neck was
thrust from an open shirt of rough material. He stooped in the
shoulders and his steps were noiseless, as he wore low, woven
slippers. In either hand he carried a big bunch of variegated herbs.
When that man, without looking at Meir, passed him at a distance, the
youth mechanically bent low his head in sign of humility and
reverence Soon, however, he raised it. His face was pale, and
expressed suppressed grief. He looked gloomily at the black figure
passing swiftly across the meadow, and through his teeth set in
either grief or anger, he said:

"Rabbi Isaak Todros!"

CHAPTER V

Rabbi Isaak Todros' appearance, and also his spiritual development,
perhaps, were expressive characteristics of several centuries of long
sojourn of his ancestors in Spain.

Wandering people, although astonishingly perseverant and conservative
of marks distinguishing them from other nations, still by the
inevitable influence of nature, draw here and there something from
the different skies under which the lot of the exile scattered them.

Among the common characteristics of Israelites, however, there can be
seen great differences. There are among them people but recently
arrived from the South and West, and again there are others over
whose head a pale sky has stretched and a cold wind has blown for
centuries. There are among them phlegmatic natures, and also ardent
mystical ones, and others redolent of reality. Some of them have hair
black as the darkest raven wing--others have eyes the colour of the
sky. There are among them white and also swarthy foreheads; strong,
hardy natures, and others nervous, quivering with passion, imbued
with dreaming, and consumed with fanciful ideals.

The swarthiest among the swarthy faces, the darkest of dark hair, the
most passionate among the fiery spirits belonged to Isaak Todros.

What precise position did he occupy in the community, and on what was
it based? He was not a priest; rabbis are not priests, and perhaps
there is