xxii
the university of Jena, and was the first student whose ac-
quaintance Biernatzki made. Festivals like this no doubt
contributed much to heighten both Sand's enthusiasm, and
that of the political associations among the students, and
thus in some measure to stimulate him to the commission
of the crime, which cost his life as well as that of his vic-
tim. At Jena, Biernatzki continued his oriental studies
under the direction of Kosegarten. He occupied himself
with the careful perusal of the Hebrew Scriptures, es-
pecially the prophets ; and his Arabic partialities went so
far, that he wrote a defense of Mohammed against the im-
putation of feigning the performance of miracles. This
essay was afterward submitted to his examiners, as one of
the two dissertations required on such occasions. After a
year at Jena he went to Halle, attended the lectures of
Gesenius, and sedulously practiced disputation in Latin, in
the Anhaltina, a club which met for that purpose, and he
attained such facility in this exercise, that he was able to
give plausibility to the most palpable paradoxes, and to dis-
concert if not to confute his opponent by sportive repartee
and verbal wit.
Early in 1821 he returned to Kiel, but left that univer-
sity after a few months' residence, and then devoted him-
self for some time to special preparation for his theological
examination. At the commencement of the year 1822, he
entered upon his professional career as pastor of the church
on the Hallig of Nordstrandischmoor (a congregation of
about fifty souls), and teacher of a school on the island of
Nordstrand, which lies about a German mile to the south
of the hallig. The discharge of this double duty required
frequent passages between the hallig and the island proper.
These were made by water, on foot across the flats, or upon
the ice, according to the tide and the season, and were
often performed under circumstances of great hardship and
