affairs. Their synagogues were built at Mestre, on the main-land; and
their dead were buried in the sand upon the seashore, whither, on the
Mondays of September, the baser sort of Venetians went to make merry, and
drunken men and women danced above their desecrated tombs. These unhappy
people were forced also to pay tribute to the state at first every third
year, then every fifth year, and then every tenth year, the privilege of
residence being ingeniously renewed to them at these periods for a round
sum; but, in spite of all, they flourished upon the waste and wickedness
of their oppressors, waxed rich as these waxed poor, and were not again
expelled from the city. [Footnote: _Del Commercia del Veneziani_.
Mutinelli.]

There never was any attempt to disturb the Hebrews by violence, except on
one occasion, about the close of the fifteenth century, when a tumult was
raised against them for child-murder. This, however, was promptly quelled
by the Republic before any harm was done them; and they dwelt peacefully
in their Ghetto till the lofty gates of their prison caught the sunlight
of modern civilization, and crumbled beneath it. Then many of the Jews
came forth and fixed their habitations in different parts of the city, but
many others clung to the spot where their temples still remain, and which
was hallowed by long suffering, and soaked with the blood of innumerable
generations of geese. So, although you find Jews everywhere in Venice, you
never find a Christian in the Ghetto, which is held to this day by a large
Hebrew population.

We had not started purposely to see the Ghetto, and for this reason it had
that purely incidental relish, which is the keenest possible savor of the
object of interest. We were on an expedition to find Sior Antonio Rioba,
who has been, from time immemorial, the means of ponderous practical jokes
in Venice. Sior Antonio is a rough-hewn statue set in the corner of an