Ibid., fol. 151, col. 2; fol. 152, col. 1.

Six things are said respecting the illiterate:—­No testimony is to be borne to them, none is to be accepted from them; no secret is to be disclosed to them; they are not to be appointed guardians over orphans, nor keepers of the charity-box, and there should be no fellowship with them when on a journey.  Some say also no public notice is to be given of their lost property.

P’sachim, fol. 49, col. 2.

The expression here rendered “illiterate” means literally “people of the land,” and was, there is reason to believe, originally applied to the primitive inhabitants of Canaan, traces of whom may still be found among the fellahin of Syria.  They appear, like the aboriginal races in many countries of Christendom in relation to Christianity, to have remained generation after generation obdurately inaccessible to Jewish ideas, and so to have given name to the ignorant and untaught generally.  This circumstance may account for the harshness of some of the quotations which are appended in reference to them.

He who aspires to be a fellow of the learned must not sell fruit, either green or dry, to an illiterate man, nor may he buy fresh fruit of him.  He must not be the guest of an ignorant man, nor receive such an one as his guest.

Demai, chap. 2, mish. 2.

Our Rabbis teach, Let a man sell all that he has and marry the daughter of a learned man.  If he cannot find the daughter of a learned man, let him marry the daughter of one of the great men of his day.  If he does not find such a one, let him marry the daughter of one of the heads of the congregation, or, failing this, the daughter of a charity collector, or even the daughter of a schoolmaster; but let him not marry the daughter of an illiterate man, for the unlearned are an abomination, as also their wives and their daughters.

P’sachim, fol. 49, col. 2.

It is said that Rabbi (the Holy) teaches that it is illegal for an unlearned man to eat animal food, for it is said (Lev. xi. 46), “This is the law of the beast and the fowl;” therefore he who studies the law may eat animal food, but he who does not study the law may not.  Rabbi Eliezar said, “It is lawful to split open the nostrils of an unlearned man, even on the Day of Atonement which happens to fall on a Sabbath.”  To which his disciples responded, “Rabbi, say rather to slaughter him.”  He replied, “Nay, that would require the repetition of the usual benediction; but in tearing open his nostrils no benedictory formula is needed.”  Rabbi Eliezar has also said, “It is unlawful to travel with such a one, for it is said (Deut. xxx. 30), ’For it is thy life and the length of thy days.’  The unlearned does not ensure his own life (since he has no desire to study the law, which would prolong life), how much less then will he regard the life of his neighbor?” Rabbi Samuel, son of Nachman, says on behalf of Rabbi Yochanan, that it is lawful to split open an unlearned man like a fish.  “Aye,” adds Rabbi Samuel, “and that from his back.”