him," he answered.

Abraham continued:

"As long as he sees the Karaimian girl he will not care to marry."

"And what can I do to prevent him from seeing her?"

The three men looked at each other.

"Something must be done with her!" said one.

After a long while of deep thought, the two guests bowed to Saul and
left the house. Abraham remained in the room.

"Father," said he, "how do you propose to punish him?"

"I will command him to sit for a whole day in the Bet-ha-Midrash and
read the Talmud."

"It would not do any good," said Abraham, with an impatient gesture;
"you had better order him to be flogged."

Saul remained bent over.

"I shall not do it," he answered. Then he added softly: "Michael's
soul passed into the body of my father Hersh, and my father's soul is
now dwelling in Meir's body."

"And how can you know this?" asked Abraham, evidently shocked by his
father's words.

"Hersh's wife, the great-grandmother first recognised this soul, and
then Rabbi Isaak recognised it."

Saul sighed deeply, and repeated:

"I will command him to sit in the Bet-ha-Midrash and read the Talmud.
He shall neither eat nor sleep in my house for a whole week, and the
Shamos (care-taker and messenger of the synagogue) shall announce his
shame and punishment through the town!"

CHAPTER VIII

The Bet-ha-Midrash was a large, well-lighted building standing on the
courtyard close to the synagogue. It served for various purposes:
people congregated there for the less solemn prayers or lectures; the
learned used it for their discussions upon knotty points of the
Talmud, here also were kept the books of the different brotherhoods
or societies, of which there are many in every Jewish community; and
lastly, it served as a place of penance in exceptional cases, when
any of the young men had transgressed the religious or moral laws.
The punishment was not so much a physical discomfort as a moral one,
and left an indelible stain upon the delinquent's character.

Opposite the Ha-Midrash rose a smaller but equally well-kept
building. It was the Bet-ha-Kahol or Kahol room, where the
functionaries of the town council and the elders held sittings. A
little further was a more modest building, the Hek-Dosh or poor
house, where all those who were unable to work and were hungry had
the right to apply for food and shelter.

Opposite the house of prayer was the heder or school, where the
learned and much-respected Reb Moshe rul