Beigle (1929; Bagel, in 1870s, in Belarus?)

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CHILDHOOD IN EXILE
by Shmarya Levin
New York:  Harcourt, Brace and Company
1929

   Shamarya Levin (1867-1935) writes about his childhood in 1870s Swislowitz,
which is now in Belarus.  OED records "bagel" (1932) and "beigel" (1919), but
not "beigle."  The spelling, the early date of recollection, and the
frequency of use here all make this "beigle" important.


Pg. 14:  ..._karobka_--the Kosher meat tax...

Pg. 15:  ..._cheder_ (elementary Hebrew school)...
(OED has "cheder" from 1880--ed.)

Pg. 36:  ...the _goy_, the gentile.

Pg. 46:  ...he was a Luftmensch, living from hand to mouth...

Pg. 68:  There they received a glass of whisky, and a _beigle_--a sort of
doughnut, to go down with it.  "Go down with it" is a euphemism.  Some of the
workers used to settle quietly down to work, and pack away fifteen and twenty
_beigles_.  But the term "appetizer" was not an exact one in Swislowitz.

Pg. 69:  ...and dried _tarane_, a small flat fish which abounded in the
rivers.

Pg. 110:  They brought their food along with them, and most of the time it
consisted of a piece of unbuttered bread, a tail of salt herring, and a
_beigle_--a sort of doughnut--for dessert.  If the bread was buttered, or
smeared with chicken fat, the herring or the doughnut was "off."

Pg. 111:  Of dairy food they knew only sour milk and an occasional piece of
cheese.

Pg. 119:  Between afternoon and evening prayer they used to go down to the
river and watch the ice-floes.  The early ice-floes looked soft, vague.  The
peasants used to call them "lard-floes," and the Jews, to avoid mention of
swine-meat, called them "chicken-fat" floes.

Pg. 130:  He was kept comfortably warm, and they fed him bread and "white
herring."
   "White herring!"  There is no such thing!  Like a lightning flash the
truth broke on the assembled congregants.  The child had been fed bacon!

Pg. 139:  There after comes the crown of the meal, the _kugel_, the Sabbath
pudding, majestic, satisfying, somniferous.

Pg. 142:  It was a difficult and thankless profession, but Cherneh could not
raise the price for fear of competition on the part of the bakers of
_beigle_, or doughnuts.  It was generally conceded that though the pancake
was heavier and more satisfying, the _beigle_ was daintier and sweeter: it
was therefore impossible to give either of them the advantage of price.  And
Cherneh used to complain bitterly: "Would to God I had begun with beigle
instead of pancakes.  But too late now.  I am known as Cherneh the pancake
maker, and I daren't experiment."

Pg. 151:  The gorgeous three-cornered little cakes, stuffed with nuts and
poppy seed, which are called Haman's ears, (Pg. 152--ed.) had been prepared
in vast numbers for us.
(OED has 1846 for "Haman's fritters," then 1949 for "Haman's ears"--ed.)

Pg. 156:  ...the Sabbath _goy_ (the gentile hired to make fire on the Sabbath
and perform other duties forbidden us on that day)...

Pg. 171:  ...Afikomen (a specially dedicated Matzoh)...
(OED has 1891 for "afikomen"--ed.)

Pg. 177:  The girls played at Pots and Pans.  Among the boys the favourite
game was Odds and Evens.  All you had to do was guess whether your opponent
held an odd or an even number of nuts in his hand.

Pg. 236:
My King can swim
And yours will sink;
My king is a hero
And yours is a --.
(Fink?  OED has that from 1903.  This was said in the 1870s, in Russia, in
English??  One prior verse is here--ed.)

Pg. 238:  ..."Doctor" Schwartz, a _feldsher_ or half-trained village
doctor...

Pg. 261:  In his house it is customary to hand out on Friday some of the
blintzes (small hot cheese pies) which are left to warm in the oven for the
Sabbath meal.  (Pg. 262--ed.)  Hot _blintzes_ in sour cream.  And now
imagine, gentlemen, I had to pick up one of these luscious _blintzes_, I roll
it over and over in thick cream, and I put it in my mouth.  To swallow such a
blintze is not one of the most painful sensations in life. ...
(OED has 1903 for "blintze."  Again, the date referred to is the 1870s--ed.)