good; but Eliezer did not appreciate humor, and a slap was the reward of this humorous effort. Eliezer not only spoke little at any time, but on Sabbath he eschewed the vulgar vernacular altogether and would only speak Hebrew, which language he alone considered suitable, as the holy tongue for the holy day. But as he was anything but a Hebrew scholar, the results of his efforts at restoring to colloquial use the idiom of ancient Canaan I will leave to the imagination of the reader. Then there was Asher, the _Chazan_, who was not really the Chazan or official precentor of the synagogue, but a hard-working merchant in a small way, who supported himself and his family by untiring and unceasing labor and industry, but who was called Chazan because of his remarkable knowledge of the traditional melodies of the German-Jewish ritual. These melodies he could chant with much skill and a pleasant voice; and his rendition of the services was so well liked by the members of the congregation that they did not hesitate to say that Asher “was a better Chazan than the Chazan.” Asher was a pleasant and friendly individual altogether; but if one wished to gain his particular and undying gratitude, there was no better way of doing so than by communicating to him some new _niggun_ or Hebrew melody. It was my good fortune to communicate to him some of the more modern synagogue chants which I had heard in America, and which he, in his isolated village life, had never had occasion to hear; and I do not doubt but he remembers me gratefully to this day. Asher and his two brothers were _Cohanim_—that is to say, of Aaronitic or priestly descent. As such it was their prerogative, and that of their sons, to pronounce the threefold benediction over the congregation on holidays; and it was touching, indeed, to listen to their solemn and melodious rendition of the ancient chant, and to notice the dignity and earnestness with which they prepared to perform their traditional function. To gaze at them while chanting the benediction was not permitted.