THE RABBI'S SON-IN-LAW.

[Gittin, 56. Kethuboth, 63, Nedarim, 49.]

I.

THE WEDDING OF AKIBA.

AT the peeping of the morning
Stood a damsel at the door
Of her father's barn, a plucking

From her lover's locks the straw.

She was daughter of a Rabbi,
Calba Shebua, far and wide
Known for wealth and lavish splendour,
Noted for his boundless pride.

From her lattice often looking,

She had watched her father's hind

On a wild-thyme slope reclining,

As his nimble fingers twined

With the asphodel, the lily,

Whilst the sheep about him lay Dozing in the glowing splendour

Of the cloudless summer day;

Or, beneath a fig-tree halting,
Leaning on his shepherd's staff,

Where the pleasant water bubbled,
That his thirsty flock might quaff.

When beside her window sitting,
Through the rattle of her loom,
Flowed a lay of limpid gladness,
Wafted lightly through the room,

Telling how the shepherd Jacob
Tended Laban's herds so long

For the love he bore to Rachel.
As she listened to the song,

Were her cheeks as damask roses, And her eyelids dripped with tears At the thought of Jacob's waiting

Through those weary fourteen years.

Once it fell at happy springtime, When the mowers mowed the grass, And the tossing hay made fragrant Every zephyr that did pass

That she went into the meadow;
Akiba, the hind, was there
Blithely singing, with a sunbeam
Tangled in his amber hair-

That she offered him a beaker

Brimming o'er with Helbon wine;

In it lay the sun reflected

With a ruby-crimson shine.

As the shepherd came towards her Were his cheeks with labour flushed,

Were his eyes as azure tarnlets

Whence a stream of rapture gushed. Mantling face and neck and bosom,

Scarlet to her forehead rushed.

Trembled all the ruddy liquor

When the flowing cup she set In his fingers, stretched towards it; Then their hands and glances met.

Calba Shebua saw them standing, And he read the looks that burned

In their faces; and with fury

Sudden on his daughter turned, And he spat at her with loathing And with frenzy at her spurned.

Then he cast her from his household, And he cast her from her home, And he bid her, with her shepherd, In her degradation roam.

And he sentenced her for ever
From his presence to depart,
For he plucked her from his memory,
And erased her from his heart.

Spoke the shepherd very calmly,
'Then I call on the Most High
God of Abram, Isaac, Jacob!

He will stand the orphan by ;

'And before His sacred Presence
Take I this sweet dove of thine,
Be thou witness, haughty Rabbi-
And I make her wife of mine.

'For of thought or word unlawful Have I kept my conscience clear:

It is thou, in thy blind passion,
Who bestow'st her on me here.

'Child of thine she is. Her portion I demand of thee. At least

Do thou deck the wedding chamber, And prepare the marriage feast.'

Cried the father, raging madly,
'As her portion take my scorn;
For thy chamber, yonder outhouse;
For thy feast, the husks of corn!'