shelf in the steam-bath, and choke you with burning steam? Did they
flog you with birch-rods for having been caught mumbling a Hebrew
prayer? Did they make you kneel for hours on sharp stones for
having refused to kiss the ikon and the crucifix? Did they discover
you secretly kissing the Arba-Kanfos, and give you as many lashes as
there are treads in the Tzitzis? If you have not passed through all
that, uncover our backs, and count the welts that still mark them!
And to this you must add the number of blows I have still to get,
simply because my little body could not take in at once all it was
expected to take in. And yet, not a day passed without our having
recited our Modeh-Ani. As to eating pork, we abstained from it in
spite of the rods. Then they gave up flogging us; but, instead of
that punishment, they gave us nothing but pork to eat. Two days we
held out; we did not touch any food. We did not get even a drink of
water. Do you see little Simeon? Well, he tried to eat the grass
in the courtyard. . . . On the third day of our fast I saw my
father in my dream. He was dressed in his holiday clothes, and
holding the Bible in his hands he quoted the passage, 'Be ye mindful
of your lives.' Suddenly, the earth burst open, and the Angel of
Death appeared. He had rods in one hand and a piece of swine's
flesh in the other. He put the piece of pork into my mouth. I
looked up, terror-stricken, to my father, but he smiled. His smile
filled the place with light. He said to me, 'Eatest thou this of
thy own free will?' Then he began to soar upwards, and called out
to me from afar: 'Tell all thy comrades, the Cantonists: Your
reward is great. Every sigh of yours is a prayer, every good
thought of yours is a good action! Only beware, lest you die of
hunger; then surely you will merit eternal punishment!'

"I awoke. Since then we eat all kinds of forbidden food. The main