for the rest--he sinned his sin with an "A," he sinned his
sin with a "B," and so on till he could sin no longer. And, when the
prayers rhymed, how exhilarating it was to lay stress on each rhyme
and double rhyme, shouting them fervidly. And sometimes, instead of
rhyming, they ended with the same phrase, like the refrain of a
ballad, or the chorus of a song, and then what a joyful relief, after
a long breathless helter-skelter through a strange stanza, to come out
on the old familiar ground, and to shout exultantly, "For His mercy
endureth for ever," or "The appearance of the priest!" Sometimes the
run was briefer--through one line only--and ended on a single word
like "water" or "fire." And what pious fun it was to come down sharp
upon _fire_ or _water!_ They stood out friendly and simple, the rest
was such curious and involved Hebrew that sometimes, in an audacious
moment, the child wondered whether even his father understood it all,
despite that he wept freely and bitterly over certain acrostics,
especially on the Judgment Days. It was awe-inspiring to think that
the angels, who were listening up in heaven, understood every word of
it. And he inclined to think that the Cantor, or minister who led the
praying, also understood; he sang with such feeling and such fervid
roulades. Many solos did the Cantor troll forth, to which the
congregation listened in silent rapture. The only time the public
prayers bored the child was on the Sabbath, when the minister read the
Portion of the Week; the Five Books of Moses being read through once a
year, week by week, in a strange sing-song with only occasional
flights of melody. The chant was determined by curious signs printed
under the words, and the signs that made nice music were rather rare,
and the nicest sign of all, which spun out the word with endless turns
and trills, like the carol of a bird, occurred only a few times in the
whole Pentateuch. The child, as he listened to the interminable
incantation, thought he would have sprinkled the Code with bird-songs,
and made the Scroll of the Law warble. But he knew this could not be.
For the Scroll was stern and severe and dignified, like the high
members of the congregation who bore it aloft, or furled it, and
adjusted its wrapper and its tinkling silver bells. Even the soberest
musical signs were not marked on it, nay, it was bare of punctuation,
and even of vowels. Only the Hebrew consonants were to be seen on the
sacred parchm