A Number Of Boys Were Dipping Their Hands In The
Blood, And Making With It The Representation Of An Outspread Hand On The
Doors, Posts And Walls, For The Purpose Of Keeping Off "The Evil Eye,"
(_El Ojo Maligno,_) And So Ensuring Good Luck To The New Married Couple.
I then mounted the house-top to see a game played by the young men.
Here, on the flat roof, was assembled a court, with a sultan sitting in
the midst.
Various prisoners were tried and condemned. Two or three of
the greatest culprits were then secured and dragged down to the ladies,
the officers of justice informing them that, if no one stepped forward
to rescue them, it was the sultan's orders that they should be
imprisoned. Several young Jewesses now clamourously demanded their
release. It is understood that these compassionate maidens who, on such
occasions, step forward to the rescue, and take one of the young men by
the hand, are willing to accept of the same when it may hereafter be
offered to them in marriage, so the contagion of wedding-feasts spreads,
and one marriage makes many.
I now proceed to the supper-table of the men, where the party ate and
drank to gluttonous satiety. Several rabbis were hired to chant, over
the supper-table, prayers composed of portions of Scripture, and legends
of the Talmud.
The dinning noise of bad music, and horrible screaming, called singing,
with the surfeit of the feast, laid me up for two days afterwards.
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