He was a long thin man, who towered above the congregation, and was as tall as the bulk of them even when he was bowing his acknowledgments to his Maker.
"How do you make that out ?" he asked Karlkammer.

"Moses of course adds up the same as Moses--but while the other part of the _Maggid's_ name makes seventy-three, da Leon's makes ninety-one." "Ah, that's because you're ignorant of _Gematriyah_," said little Karlkammer, looking up contemptuously at the cantankerous giant.

"You reckon all the letters on the same system, and you omit to give yourself the license of deleting the ciphers." In philology it is well known that all consonants are interchangeable and vowels don't count; in _Gematriyah_ any letter may count for anything, and the total may be summed up anyhow.
Karlkammer was one of the curiosities of the Ghetto.

In a land of _froom_ men he was the _froomest_.

He had the very genius of fanaticism.
On the Sabbath he spoke nothing but Hebrew whatever the inconvenience and however numerous the misunderstandings, and if he perchance paid a visit he would not perform the "work" of lifting the knocker.