Haskalah heresy, destroy their passports, and deliver them up as
poimaniki (recruits), to spare the rich who paid for the substitutes. To
form an idea of the time we need but read some of the numerous
folk-songs of that day. Here is one of many:

Quietly I walk in the street,
When behind me I hear the rush of feet.
Woes have come and sought me,
Alas, had I bethought me.

"Your passport," they ask. Alas, it is lost!
"Then serve the White Czar!" that is the cost.
Woe has come and sought me,
Alas, had I bethought me.

There are many rooms, they take me to one,
And strip from my body the poor homespun.
Woe has come and sought me,
Alas, had I bethought me.

They take me to another room,
The uniform,--that is my doom.
Woe has come and sought me,
Alas, had I bethought me.

Rather than wear the cap of the czar,
To study the Torah were better by far.
Woe has come and sought me,
Alas, had I bethought me.