intermarriage. These people are all of one blood--all of one great
family. This family is one of actors, serious, intelligent, devoted,
and all these virtues are turned to effect in their acting.

This work is that of a lifetime. Little boys and girls come on the
stage in the arms of the mothers--matrons of Jerusalem. Older boys
shout in the rabble and become at last Roman soldiers or servants of
the High Priest. Still later, the best of them are ranged among the
Apostles, and the rare genius becomes Pilate, John, Judas, or the
Christ.

In the house of mine host, the chief of the money-changers in the
temple, the eldest daughter was called Magdalena. In 1890, at
fourteen, she was leader of the girls in the tableau of the falling
manna. In 1900, she may, perhaps, become Mary Magdalen, the end in
life which her parents have chosen for her.

After the cannon sounds, the chorus of guardian spirits
(_Schützengeister_) comes forward to make plain by speech or action the
meaning of the coming scenes. This chorus is modeled after the chorus
in the Greek plays. It is composed of twenty-four singers, the best
that Oberammergau has, all picturesquely clad in Greek costumes,--white
tunics, trimmed with gold, and over these an outer mantle of some deep,
quiet shade, the whole forming a perfect harmony of soft Oriental
colors. Stately and beautiful the chorus is throughout. The time
which in ordinary theaters is devoted to the arranging of scenes behind
a blank curtain is here filled by the songs and recitations of the
guardian spirits. Once in the play the chorus appears in black, in
keeping with the dark scenes they come forth to foretell. But at the
end the bright robes are resumed, while the play closes with a burst of