Peloni looked about for a Jew to guide him, but could find none.
Finally a Seneca Indian from the camp just below Buffalo undertook to
look for the spot. It was with a strange thrill that Peloni's eyes
rested for the first time on a red Indian. Was this indeed a long-lost
brother of his? He cried "Shalom Aleikhem" in Hebrew, but the Indian,
despite Noah's theories, did not seem to understand. Ultimately the
dialogue was carried on in the few words of broken English which the
Indian had picked up from the trappers, and in the gesture-language,
in which, with his genius for all languages, Peloni was soon at home.
And in truth he did find at heart some subtle sympathy with this
copper-coloured savage which was not called out by the busy citizens
of Buffalo. On a sunlit morning, bearing his flagstaff with the flag
wrapped round it, a blanket, and a little store of provisions for
camping out over-night, Peloni slipped into the birch canoe and the
Indian paddled off. For miles they glided in silence along the
sparkling Niagara, lone denizens of a lonely world.
Suddenly Peloni thought of the _Judengasse_ of Frankfort, and for a
moment it seemed to him that he must be dreaming. What! a few short
months ago he was selling prayer-books and phylacteries in the shadow
of the old high-gabled houses, and now, in a virgin district of the
New World, in company with a half-naked red Indian, he was going to
plant the flag of Judah on an island forest and to found the New
Jerusalem. What would they say, his old friends, if they could see him
now? And he--the _Possemacher_--what winged jest would he let fly? A
perception of the monstrous fantasy of the thing stole on poor Peloni.
Was he, perhaps, dreaming after all? No, there was the Niagara River,
the village of Black Rock on his right hand, and on the other side of
the gorge the lively Fort Erie and the poplar-fringed Canadian shore,
and there too--on the map Noah had given him--Ararat lay waiting.
The Indian paddled imperturbably, throwing back the sparkling water
with a soft, soothing sound. Peloni lapsed into more pleasurable
reflections. How beautiful was this great free place of sun and wind,
of water and forest, after the noisome Jew-street! He was not
dreaming, nor--thank God!--was Noah. Strange, indeed, that thus should
deliverance for Israel be wrought; yet what was Israel's history but a
series of miracles? And his--Peloni's--humble hand was to plant the
flag that had lain folded and inglorious these twenty centuries!
They glided by a couple of little islands, duly marked on the map, and
then a great, wooded, dark purple mass rose to meet them with a band
of deep orange on the low coast-line.
It was Grand Island.
Peloni whispered a prayer.
Obeying the map marked by Noah, the canoe glided round the island,
keeping to the American side. As they shot past a third little island,
a dull booming began to be audible.
"What is that?" Peloni's face inquired.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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