"Ill omens dog ye both!" said the old woman; "and a kennel be your
burying-place! May the evil demon Zernebock tear me limb from limb, if I
leave my own cell ere I have spun out the hemp on my distaff!"

"Answer it to our lord, then, old housefiend," said the man, and
retired; leaving Rebecca in company with the old woman, upon whose
presence she had been thus unwillingly forced.

"What devil's deed have they now in the wind?" said the old hag,
murmuring to herself, yet from time to time casting a sidelong and
malignant glance at Rebecca; "but it is easy to guess--Bright eyes,
black locks, and a skin like paper, ere the priest stains it with his
black unguent--Ay, it is easy to guess why they send her to this lone
turret, whence a shriek could no more be heard than at the depth of
five hundred fathoms beneath the earth.--Thou wilt have owls for thy
neighbours, fair one; and their screams will be heard as far, and as
much regarded, as thine own. Outlandish, too," she said, marking the
dress and turban of Rebecca--"What country art thou of?--a Saracen?
or an Egyptian?--Why dost not answer?--thou canst weep, canst thou not
speak?"

"Be not angry, good mother," said Rebecca.

"Thou needst say no more," replied Urfried "men know a fox by the train,
and a Jewess by her tongue."