Irishman.

"As we went from house to house peeping in at the windows, sometimes
some of the family would come out and drag us in by force, and make us
drink wine and eat cakes. If we did not wish to join in the dancing, but
wanted to leave, they would just say 'Shalom'--'go in peace but come
again.' I can tell you it was jolly, and nowhere else in all the world
could Yomtov be kept up as it is here.

"We were given wine in so many houses that from the eldest to the
youngest we were beginning to feel rather funny. Next morning, after
being well shaken up by Father, and after we had had a wash with cold
water in the open air, we made up our minds to be firmer at the next
Purim.

"After going in the morning to hear the Chazan again, and coming home
and enjoying the Hamantaschen and other good things, then begins the
pleasure and excitement of sending Shalach-manoth to friends,
acquaintances, and chiefly to the poor, and even to enemies if you have
any. As you are supposed, if possible, to send back to the sender
something similar to what is sent to you, things cannot be made ready
beforehand. To the poor you always send useful presents as well as
delicacies which are likely to last them for months or longer.

"As to the beggars, I never imagined there could be so many in one
country. We generally get enough beggars coming to us on Fridays and
before holy days, but at Yom Kippur and Purim they come in crowds. Most
of them are Sephardim and Yeminites. It is true you give each of them
only a para, which is about a quarter of a farthing, and they give you a
blessing for it; but, if they come to a rich class of home and are not