The ancient and extraordinary charge against the Jews of .sacrificing
human beings in their Passover rites has been revived in Hungary. A girl named Esther Solymosi was recently mur- dered, or supposed to be murdered, at Tisza Esslar, and certain -Jews were accused of cutting her throat in the synagogue, to mix the blood with unleavened bread. The principal man accused was the Jewish butcher, Scharf, who is half a rabbi, and the witness -against him is his own son, Moritz, a boy of fifteen. This lad :says he saw the murder, and his testimony, if believed, would be final ; but the defendants allege that he is abnormally wicked, and has invented the whole story. It is certain that he endeav- oured to stab his mother, and that his evidence against his -father is marked by virulent hatred, both of him and of all .Jews.. The charge looks prima facie ridiculous, and derives its -whole importance from its recurrence from time to time in widely :separated countries and in nearly every century. We have read much apologetic Jewish literature, but have never seen a reason- able explanation either of the charge, or of what is much more -wonderful, the persistent popular belief in it. If that has any foundation, which is most improbable, there must exist embedded in Judaism a cabalistic sect which has preserved through ages some dark tradition of the efficacy in extreme cases of human sacrifice. Such a sect, it is almost certain, is embedded in Ilindooism, though the teachers of that faith repudiate it.with unaffected horror.
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