ABSTRACT
Vretnais a small, insignificant town in Galicia. Its chief claim to notoriety rests upon the fact that, whenever any outbreak occurred in the province, whether famine, pestilence, or revolution, it was there that the earliest symptoms were detected. The inhabitants of the Ghetto, moreover, enjoyed the reputation of being more bigoted, more gullible, and more credulous of the supernatural powers popularly attributed to the “Rebbes “than any of their contemporaries. There was thus a constant stream of itinerent “Rebbes “flowing through the town who, for a small consideration, were prepared to administer blessings or advice.
