"You ask about a Gentile? He saw nothing. Perhaps he was tipsy--nothing--he did his work, made his inventory." "And sold the things?" "Nothing, there was as yet no one to buy." "And the corpses?" "Ah--the corpses!" * * * * * He rests for a moment and then goes on: "Hardly had night fallen, when the corpses came back into the town; each one went to his home, stole in at the door, the window, or down the chimney--went hastily to the wardrobe, took out some clothes, dressed himself, yawned, and lay down somewhere to sleep. "Next morning there was a whole townfull of corpses." "And the living said nothing?" "They never remarked; they were taken up with the dispute; their heads were full of it, they were all at sixes and sevens! And really, when you come to think of it, how much difference is there between a dead-alive person and a walking corpse in winding-sheets? When a son saw his father, he spat out three times, indignant with himself: 'To think of the dream I had--I dreamt I said Kaddish for my father and inherited him! May such dreams plague my enemies.' "A widow saw her husband, and gave him a hearty slap. He had deceived her, the wretch! made game of her! and she, foolish woman that she was, had made him new winding-sheets!" "And supposing she had married again?" "How should she have? In the course of the dispute some one set fire to the Shool and to the house-of-study and to the wedding canopy; everything, you may say, was burnt. They accused pretty well everybody in turn--" "And after that?" "Nothing; the corpses had come to life and the living began to die out, for want of room, for want of air--but specially of hunger--" "Was there a famine?" "No more than anywhere else! But there _was_ one for all that. The corpses took their place at the prayer-meetings and at the table at home as well. People didn't know why, but there were suddenly not enough spoons. All ate out of one dish, and there were not enough spoons. Every house-mistress knows that she has as many spoons as there are people in the house, so she thinks there has been a robbery! The pious say: Witchcraft! But as they came to see the spoons were missing everywhere, and there was not food to go round, then they said: A famine! and they hungered, and they are hungering still." * * * * * "And in a short time the corpses outnumbered the living; now they are the community and the leaders of the community! They do not beget children and increase naturally--not that, but when anyone dies, they steal him away off his bed, out of the grave--and there is a fresh corpse going about the town. "And what is lacking to them? They have no cares, no fear of death--they eat for the purpose of saying grace--they don't want the food, they have no craving for it--let alone drink and lodging; a hundred corpses can sleep in one room--they don't require air!