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getting the hundred-pound cross to the top. Finally the priest had put up a small reward for anyone who could figure out a way to raise the cross. Knowing the inventiveness of the Roma, he made sure that the news of the reward would reach them, and that is how Miksa heard of the problem.
    He immediately volunteered for the job, telling the priest that all he would require was a strong rope twice the length needed to reach the top of the steeple. The priest was puzzled, wondering how he hoped to climb the steeple, but Miksa remained tight-lipped. He told the priest he would have to wait and see and that he would come the following day to do the job.
    A crowd of about forty people had gathered to watch, not all of them happy about the prospect of a Rom being the one to restore the cross. As he and his father edged through the crowd, Salvo heard the mutterings of an old Bible legend, often told by people who saw the Roma as descendants of Cain, and told by Roma who appreciated it as a good story. Salvo remembered his father telling it to him and his elder brother, András.
    “When it came that the Romans decided they would crucify Jesus, they sent two soldiers to buy nails to do the job. The soldiers were given money to buy four nails. But instead of going out and buying the nails, they spent some of the money on drink and food and women. After they had had their fill, they realized that they must have nails for that morning’s work, so they went and found a blacksmith, a Jew.
    “ ‘Make us four nails, quickly, man,’ they said to him, and they lit his beard on fire to make him hurry.
    “The man screamed from his beard being on fire, and the soldiers stuck his head in a water trough. ‘Hurry! We must have four strong nails so that we can crucify Jesus this morning,’ they said.
    “The man, knowing who Jesus was and not wanting to have a part in killing him, refused to make the nails. The soldiers stuck their swords into him and spilled out his guts. Then they went to another blacksmith, a Serb, and they said the same thing to him, and he refused, and they killed him.
    “Then they came to a Rom, who was hard at work in his forge. ‘Make us four nails,’ they said, ‘or you are dead where you stand.’ The Rom hesitated, and one of the soldiers took out a little money, a very small amount, the little that was left in his pocket from the night before. ‘I will give you this coin for the nails.’
    “Well, the Rom did not want to be killed, so he took the money and put it into his pocket and set about making the nails. When thefirst nail was finished, the soldiers took it and put it in their bag. When the second was finished they did the same, and again they took the third nail as soon as it was finished. The Rom had just started to forge the fourth nail when the soldiers said to him, ‘Thank you, gypsy, for soon we’ll have four nails with which to crucify Jesus.’
    “At that moment the souls of the men the soldiers had killed appeared and began to plead with the Rom not to make nails that would kill Jesus. The soldiers became afraid and they ran off, leaving the Rom with the fourth nail still hot in his forge. Not wanting to waste good iron, the Rom finished the nail, but when he poured water on it, the metal would not cool; it remained glowing hot. All day long he poured water on it, but the nail never ceased to glow red, like a burning body with fire for blood.
    “Terrified, the Rom packed his wagon and moved on. He pitched his tent again only after he had travelled several days, but when he did a man brought in a wagon’s wheel for mending. The Rom took the fourth nail and fixed the wheel with it, and the man took the wheel away with the nail imbedded within it. The Rom again moved on, fearful that the man with the nail would return.
    Months later, he was many miles away when a different man brought him a sword to be repaired, and when he touched the sword he saw the nail in the hilt, glowing red. He fled