“Right. Sin came into the world through a woman, and ever since then the man who would reach heaven hath to guard against the wiles of the temptress. If it had not been for a woman, we might now be living in the Garden of Eden.”
“Nay, Brother Schneider, teach not that women are evil.” Gerson Brandt placed one thin hand on the desk and turned on the Herr Doktor a face in which was a determined look. “It is meet that thou shouldst tell the children how the world was saved through a woman, who was the mother of Christ.”
“Gerson Brandt, interrupt not this lesson. I have come here to measure the knowledge of those intrusted to thy care.” Adolph Schneider again pounded the floor with his cane. “Can the school tell me nothing more about Eve’s fall?” Adolph Schneider asked.
In the back part of the room rose the fool. He had in his hand one of the gourds that he always carried with him.
“The Bible teacheth us it was the serpent that did tempt Eve,” he said, studying the gourd as if he were reading from it.
“Ja, ja,” said the Herr Doktor; “but Eve, being a woman, was full of curiosity; she inclined her ear to the serpent.”
“And Adam did incline his ear to Eve,” the simple one announced. “It is said it is always thus. Even in the colony I have noticed that the men are keen, indeed, to hear what the women would say.”
Something like a smile flitted over Karl Weisel’s face. He brought his chair forward on its four legs, and listened for what was coming.
“Take thy seat. How darest thou comment on the men and women of Zanah? Thou art the simple one who cannot separate good from evil.”
The fool still stood in his place with the gourd in his hand.