The funeral ceremonies of the Jews are among the things which tend to
preserve the distinctness and peculiarity of this people. Sometimes,
though now rarely, the nearest relatives of the deceased wear sackcloth
(a coarse crape), and throw ashes and dust on their hair, for the
term during which the corpse remains unburied, this term being the
same as among Christians. When the corpse is carried to the Jews’
burial-ground for interment the coffin is frequently opened, and
the corpse addressed, in a Hebrew formula, by any relative, friend,
or acquaintance who may be present. The words are to the following
purport: “If I have done anything that might be offensive--pardon,
pardon, pardon.” After that the coffin is carried round the
burial-ground in a circuit, children chanting the 90th Psalm in its
original Hebrew, “a prayer of Moses, the man of God.” The passages
which the air causes to be most emphatic are these verses:--
“3. Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of
men.
“4. For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is
past, and as a watch in the night.
“5. Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in
the morning they are like grass which groweth up.
“6. In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is
cut down, and withereth.
“10. The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by
reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength
labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.”
The coffin is then carried into a tent, and the funeral prayers,
in Hebrew, are read. When it has been lowered into the grave, the
relatives, and indeed all the attendants at the interment, fill up
the grave, shovelling in the earth. In the Jews’ burial-ground are no
distinctions, no vaults or provisions for aristocratic sepulture. The
very rich and the very poor, the outcast woman and the virtuous and
prosperous gentlewoman, “grossly familiar, side by side consume.” A
Jewish funeral is a matter of high solemnity.
The burial fees are 12_s._ for children, and from 2_l._ to 3_l._ for
adults. These fees are not the property of the parties officiating, but
form a portion of the synagogue funds for general purposes, payment of
officers, &c. No fees are charged to the relatives of poor Jews.
Two fasts are rigidly observed by the Jews, and even by those Jews who
are usually indifferent to the observances of their religion. These are
the Black Fast, in commemoration of the destruction of Jerusalem, and
the White Fast, in commemoration of the atonement. On each of those
occasions the Jews abstain altogether from food for 24 hours, or from
sunset to sunset.
OF THE JEW STREET-SELLERS OF ACCORDIONS, AND OF THEIR STREET MUSICAL
PURSUITS.
I conclude my account of the Street-Jews with an account of the
accordion sellers.
Although the Jews, as a people, are musical, they are little concerned
at present either in the sale of musical instruments in the streets,
or in street-music or singing. Until within a few years, however, the
street-sale of accordions was carried on by itinerant Jews, and had
previously been carried on most extensively in the country, even in the
far north of England. Some years back well-dressed Jews “travelled”
with stocks of accordions. In many country towns and in gentlemen’s
country mansions, in taverns, and schools also, these accordions were
then a novelty. The Jew could play on the instrument, and carried a
book of instructions, which usually formed part of the bargain, and by
the aid of which, he made out, any one, even without previous knowledge
of the practical art of music, could easily teach himself--nothing
but a little practice in fingering being wanted to make a good
accordion-player. At first the accordions sold by the Jew hawkers were
good, two guineas being no unusual price to be paid for one, even to a
street-seller, while ten and twenty shillings were the lower charges.
But the accordions were in a few years “made slop,” cheap instruments
being sent to this country from Germany, and sold at less than half
their former price, until the charge fell as low as 3_s._ 6_d._ or even
2_s._ 6_d._--but only for “rubbish,” I was told. When the fragility
and inferior musical qualities of these instruments came to be known,
it was found almost impossible to sell in the streets even superior
instruments, however reasonable in price, and thus the trade sunk to a
nonentity. So little demand is there now for these instruments that no
pawnbroker, I am assured, will advance money on one, however well made.
The itinerant accordion trade was always much greater in the country
than in London, for in town, I was told, few would be troubled to try,
or even listen, to the tones of an accordion played by a street-seller,
at their own doors, or in their houses. While there were 100 or 120
Jews hawking accordions in the country, there would not be 20 in
London, including even the suburbs, where the sale was the best.
Calculating that, when the trade was at its best, 130 Jews hawked
accordions in town and country, and that each sold three a week, at
an average price of 20_s._ each, or six in a week at an average price
of 10_s._ each, the profit being from 50 to 100 per cent., we find
upwards of 20,000_l._ expended in the course of the year in accordions
of which, however, little more than a sixth part, or about 3000_l._,
was expended in London. This was only when the trade had all the
recommendations of novelty, and in the following year perhaps not half
the amount was realized. One informant thought that the year 1828-9
was the best for the sale of these instruments, but he spoke only from
memory. At the present time I could not find or hear of one street-Jew
selling accordions; I remember, however, having seen one within the
present year. Most of the Jews who travelled with them have emigrated.
It is very rarely indeed that, fond as the Jews are of music, any of
them are to be found in the bands of street-musicians, or of such
street-performers as the Ethiopian serenaders. If there be any, I was
told, they were probably not pure Jews, but of Christian parentage
on one side or the other, and not associating with their own people.
At the cheap concert-rooms, however, Jews are frequently singers,
but rarely the Jewesses, while some of the twopenny concerts at the
East-end are got up and mainly patronized by the poorer class of Jews.
Jews are also to be found occasionally among the supernumeraries of
the theatres; but, when not professionally engaged, these still live
among their own people. I asked one young Jew who occasionally sang
at a cheap concert-room, what description of songs they usually sung,
and he answered “all kinds.” He, it seems, sang comic songs, but his
friend Barney, who had just left him, sang sentimental songs. He earned
1_s._ and sometimes 2_s._, but more frequently 1_s._, three or four
nights in the week, as he had no regular engagement. In the daytime he
worked at cigar-making, but did not like it, it was “_so confining_.”
He had likewise sung, but gratuitously, at concerts got up for the
benefit of any person “bad off.” He knew nothing of the science and
art of music. Of the superior class of Jew vocalists and composers, it
is not of course necessary here to speak, as they do not come within
the scope of my present subject. Of Hebrew youths thus employed in
cheap and desultory concert-singing, there are in the winter season, I
am told, from 100 to 150, few, if any, depending entirely upon their
professional exertions, but being in circumstances similar to those of
my young informant.