THE PASSOVER GUEST 157
mother, giving her a Yiddish version of nearly every phrase. And my mother was quite overcome by every single thing she heard, and Eikel the maid was over- come likewise. And no wonder! It is not every day that a person comes from perhaps two thousand miles away, from a land only to be reached across seven seas and a desert, the desert journey alone requiring forty days and nights. And when you get near to the land, you have to climb a mountain of which the top reaches into the clouds, and this is covered with ice, and dread- ful winds blow there, so that there is peril of death! But once the mountain is safely climbed, and the land is reached, one beholds a terrestrial Eden. Spices, cloves, herbs, and every kind of fruit apples, pears, and oranges, grapes, dates, and olives, nuts and quantities of figs. And the houses there are all built of deal, and roofed with silver, the furniture is gold (here the guest cast a look at our silver cups, spoons, forks, and knives), and brilliants, pearls, and diamonds bestrew the roads, and no one cares to take the trouble of picking them up, they are of no value there. (He was looking at my mother's diamond ear-rings, and at the pearls round her white neck.)
"You hear that ?" my father asked her, with a happy face.
"I hear," she answered, and added: "Why don't they bring some over here? They could make money by it. Ask him that, Yoneh !"
My father did so, and translated the answer for my mother's benefit :
"You see, when you arrive there, you may take what you like, but when you leave the country, you must 11
