oted to any particular object of gain. Butter,
dates, olives, broken and pawned articles, are mixed up in the most
absurd confusion. With brocaded coats, valuable lace, and Eastern silks,
Jewish trade resembles the Jewish character and the Jewish faith,--much
that is low, mean, and sordid, combined with some elements of the
beautiful, the prized, and the good.

And yet this strange, fantastic, rococo district, if beyond the pale of
Christianity, is far from being without the pale of fashion. Ladies,
exhibiting the height of Parisian fashions, with dainty footsteps and
soft movement, may be seen of an afternoon endeavoring to thread their
way through the greasy throng, which jostle, elbow, and abuse each other
in these narrow lanes. The cunning Israelites must have scouts to tell
them whenever any particular connoisseur is approaching; for, strange
enough, the article which each is in search of is precisely that which
is displayed in all the shops. If the lady come to purchase lace, the
most valuable specimens of the _pointe du roi_ are forced upon her; if
she require silks, by the strangest magnetism the finest dyes and
richest fabrics are unrolled as she draws near. From the constant and
invaluable habit of concealing their own impressions, the Jews appear to
be better enabled to read the sensations of others. They know, almost to
a nicety, the extent of their customers' means and intentions. Go
disguised as you choose, they will discover you. The Jewish origin,
grafted on the Roman craft, has produced a progeny which would astonish
the adroitness of our own peculiar tribe of Levis and Fagans.

I had, on two or three different occasions, visited the Ghetto in search
of old lace, and on each occasion had turned to admire perhaps one of
the most beautiful faces which could at that time have been found in
Rome. It was that of a young Jewish girl, who was always sitting at the
same corner of the street at the entrance of the Ghetto, where she kept
a fruit-stall.

Hers was one of those faces in which the features, from their strongly
marked development, become at once impressed upon the memory. She was
tall, of a commanding appearance, her cheek was very pale, but lit up by
the blackest eyes. She wore a thick Indian-striped handkerchief, tied
cunningly round her head; and a large pair of massive gold ear-rings,
which fell almost to her neck. Even if plain, she would have been most
remarkable, from the perfect indifference