"Vill you not taste a cup vith the poor Jew, Zacharias Yoglan?--Vill you

Tokay ave?--vill you Lachrymae taste?--vill you--"

"You offend in your proffers," said Wayland; "minister to me in what I

require of you, and forbear further discourse."

The rebuked Israelite took his bunch of keys, and opening with

circumspection a cabinet which seemed more strongly secured than the

other cases of drugs and medicines amongst which it stood, he drew out a

little secret drawer, having a glass lid, and containing a small portion

of a black powder. This he offered to Wayland, his manner conveying

the deepest devotion towards him, though an avaricious and jealous

expression, which seemed to grudge every grain of what his customer was

about to possess himself, disputed ground in his countenance with the

obsequious deference which he desired it should exhibit.

"Have you scales?" said Wayland.

The Jew pointed to those which lay ready for common use in the shop,

but he did so with a puzzled expression of doubt and fear, which did not

escape the artist.

"They must be other than these," said Wayland sternly. "Know you not

that holy things lose their virtue if weighed in an unjust balance?"

The Jew hung his head, took from a steel-plated casket a pair of scales

beautifully mounted, and said, as he adjusted them for the artist's

use, "With these I do mine own experiment--one hair of the high-priest's

beard would turn them."

"It suffices," said the artist, and weighed out two drachms for himself

of the black powder, which he very carefully folded up, and put into his

pouch with the other drugs. He then demanded the price of the Jew, who

answered, shaking his head and bowing,-

"No price--no, nothing at all from such as you. But you will see the

poor Jew again? you will look into his laboratory, where, God help him,

he hath dried himself to the substance of the withered gourd of Jonah,

the holy prophet. You will ave pity on him, and show him one little step

on the great road?"

"Hush!" said Wayland, laying his finger mysteriously on his mouth; "it

may be we shall meet again. Thou hast already the SCHAHMAJM, as thine

own Rabbis call it--the general creation; watch, therefore, and pray,

for thou must attain the knowledge of Alchahest Elixir Samech ere I

may commune further with thee." Then returning with a slight nod the

reverential congees of the Jew, he walked gravely up the lane, followed

by his master, whose first observation on the scene he had just

witnessed was, that Wayland ought to have paid the man for his drug,

whatever it was.




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