u renew to-day in the name of the entire Jewish
community, and, assured that you will respect the laws and orders of
the Senate, and that you will pay, as in the past, the tribute and the
dues which are incumbent upon you, we accord you our protection in the
hope that you will know how to make yourself worthy of it." Then,
placing his foot upon the Rabbi's neck, he cried: "Andate!" (Begone!)

Rising, the Rabbi presented the Conservators with a bouquet and a cup
containing twenty crowns, and offered to decorate the platform of the
Senator on the Piazza of the People. And then the deputation passed
again in its motley gear through the swarming streets of buffoons,
through the avenue of scurrilities, to renew its hypocritical
protestations before the throne of the Senator.

Mock processions parodied this march of Jews. The fishmongers, who,
from their proximity to the Ghetto, were aware of its customs,
enriched the Carnival with divers other parodies; now it was a
travesty of a rabbi's funeral, now a long cavalcade of Jews galloping
upon asses, preceded by a mock rabbi on horseback, with his head to
the steed's tail, which he grasped with one hand, while with the other
he offered an imitation Scroll of the Law to the derision of the mob.
Truly, the baiting of the Jews added rare spice to the fun of the
Carnival; their hats were torn off, filth was thrown in their faces.
This year the Governor of Rome had interfered, forbidding anything to
be thrown at them except fruit. A noble marquis won facetious fame by
pelting them with pineapples. But it was not till the third day, after
the asses and buffaloes had raced, that the Jews touched the extreme
of indignity, for this was the day of the Jew races.

The morning dawned blue and cold; but soon the clouds gathered, and
the jostling revellers scented with joy the prospect of rain. At the
Arch of San Lorenza, in Lucina, in the long narrow street of the Via
Corso, where doorways and casements and roofs and footways were agrin
with faces, half a dozen Jews or so were assembled pell-mell. They had
just been given a hearty meal, but they did not look grateful. Almost
naked, save for a white cloak of the meagrest dimensions, comically
indecent, covered with tinsel and decorated with laurels, they stood
shivering, awaiting the command to "Go!" to run the gauntlet of all
this sinister crowd, overwelling with long-repressed venom, seething
with taunts and lewdness. At last a mounted of