There was a momentary silence. The faces looked perplexedly at each other. One of them at last said:
"They only understand the Jewish language." The owner of Kamionka looked at them in open-eyed amazement; he could scarcely believe that he heard aright.
"What! You don't mean to say they do not understand the language of the country they live in?"
"Well, they do not understand it."
There was some indefined resentment in the voice that said that.
At this moment Isaak Todros drew himself up, and raising both arms above his head, began to speak quickly:
"And a day will arrive when the Messiah, who sleeps in Paradise, will wake up and descend to the earth. Then a great war will spread over the world. Israel will stand up against Edom and Ishmael, until Edom and Ishmael will fall at his feet like shattered cedars."
His gestures were at once solemn and threatening, his eyes blazing, and catching his breath, he repeated again:
"Edom and Ishmael will lie at the feet of Israel like broken cedars, and the thunderbolt of the Lord will fall upon them and crush them to powder."
It was now the Edomite's turn to look astonished, for he did not understand a word. He looked not unlike a tall, stately cedar as he stood there, but not like one that could be easily crushed to powder. His face was rippling over with laughter, which he carefully tried to suppress.