well as in the abstract sense. This use occurs at a very early date. In the "Poem of Alexander", in the "Milagros de Nuestra Señora", and in the "Duelo de la Virgen" of Gonzalo de Berceo, all of the 13th century, Aljama or Alfama is employed to designate the people of ancient Jerusalem; and the historian of the 16th century, Mariana, uses Aljama for the synagogue: "they devastated their houses and their aljamas." Tecana of Valladolid A good example of how much self-government was granted to the Jewish Aljamas is afforded by the "resolution of the meeting", in Spanish called (from takkanah, תקנה, a Hebrew word that, like sanedrín, has been incorporated into the Spanish language) arrived at by the Aljama of Valladolid in 1432. This report is written partly in Hebrew, and partly in Spanish with Hebrew characters, and is preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale at Paris ("Fonds Hébreux," No. 585). From this document it is learned that, at Valladolid, electoral meetings were held by the community every ten years, and that the particular meeting of which an account is given in the document took place in the latter part of Iyar (end of May) and lasted for ten days. The following were some of the matters decided or discussed: The necessity of the Talmud Torah, or Hebrew school, and the rate of taxation for the maintenance of the same, which was decided upon as follows: five maravedis for each of the cattle killed, and one for each sheep; five maravedis for every flask of wine. Five maravedis were also to be paid by a married couple on the day of their wedding, and by a boy on the day of his bar mitzvah. A certain tax was also laid upon inheritances, and various other means of revenue were devised. In connection with this question the employment and salary of private or itinerant teachers were discussed. The election of the judges and of the rab de la corte (rabbi of the court), to which much space is accorded in this . The attitude of the individual Jew in his relations with the state. This was by far the most important question discussed. Since permission to decide civil and criminal cases before Jewish judges had been granted by the Spanish government, and since "the Christians, though they be well versed in law, know nothing of Jewish laws," no Jew might