The Bible in Spain

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It will be as well to observe here, that within a week from this
time all the locusts had disappeared, no one knew how, only a few
stragglers remained. But for this providential deliverance, the
fields and gardens in the vicinity of Tangier would have been
totally devastated. These insects were of an immense size, and of
a loathly aspect.

We now passed over the see to the opposite side, where stand the
huts of the guardians. Here a species of lane presents itself,
which descends to the sea-shore; it is deep and precipitous, and
resembles a gully or ravine. The banks on either side are covered
with the tree which bears the prickly fig, called in Moorish,
Kermous del Inde. There is something wild and grotesque in the
appearance of this tree or plant, for I know not which to call it.
Its stem, though frequently of the thickness of a man's body, has
no head, but divides itself, at a short distance from the ground,
into many crooked branches, which shoot in all directions, and bear
green and uncouth leaves, about half an inch in thickness, and
which, if they resemble anything, present the appearance of the
fore fins of a seal, and consist of multitudinous fibres. The
fruit, which somewhat resembles a pear, has a rough tegument
covered with minute prickles, which instantly enter the hand which
touches them, however slightly, and are very difficult to extract.
I never remember to have seen vegetation in ranker luxuriance than
that which these fig-trees exhibited, nor upon the whole a more
singular spot. "Follow me," said the Mahasni, "and I will show you
something which you will like to see." So he turned to the left,
leading the way by a narrow path up the steep bank, till we reached
the summit of a hillock, separated by a deep ditch from the wall of
Tangier. The ground was thickly covered with the trees already
described, which spread their strange arms along the surface, and
whose thick leaves crushed beneath our feet as we walked along.
Amongst them I observed a large number of stone slabs lying
horizontally; they were rudely scrawled over with odd characters,
which I stooped down to inspect. "Are you Talib enough to read
those signs?" exclaimed the old Moor. "They are letters of the
accursed Jews; this is their mearrah, as they call it, and here
they inter their dead. Fools, they trust in Muza, when they might
believe in Mohammed, and therefore their dead shall burn
everlastingly in Jehinnim. See, my sultan, how fat is the soil of
this mearrah of the Jews; see what kermous grow here. When I was a
boy I often came to the mearrah of the Jews to eat kermous in the
season of their ripeness. The Moslem boys of Tangier love the
kermous of the mearrah of the Jews; but the Jews will not gather
them. They say that the waters of the springs which nourish the
roots of these trees, pass among the bodies of their dead, and for
that reason it is an abomination to taste of these fruits. Be this
true, or be it not, one thing is certain, in whatever manner
nourished, good are the kermous which grow in the mearrah of the
Jews."

We returned to the lane by the same path by which we had come: as
we were descending it he said, "Know, my sultan, that the name of
the place where we now are, and which you say you like much, is Dar
Sinah (the house of the trades). You will ask me why it bears that
name, as you see neither house nor man, neither Moslem, Nazarene,
nor Jew, only our two selves; I will tell you, my sultan, for who
can tell you better than myself? Learn, I pray you, that Tangier
was not always what it is now, nor did it occupy always the place
which it does now. It stood yonder (pointing to the east) on those
hills above the shore, and ruins of houses are still to be seen
there, and the spot is called Old Tangier. So in the old time, as
I have heard say, this Dar Sinah was a street, whether without or
within the wall matters not, and there resided men of all trades;
smiths of gold and silver, and iron, and tin, and artificers of all
kinds: you had only to go to the Dar Sinah if you wished for
anything wrought, and there instantly you would find a master of
the particular craft. My sultan tells me he likes the look of Dar
Sinah at the present day; truly I know not why, especially as the
kermous are not yet in their ripeness nor fit to eat. If he likes
Dar Sinah now, how would my sultan have liked it in the olden time,
when it was filled with gold and silver, and iron and tin, and was
noisy with the hammers, and the masters and the cunning men? We
are now arrived at the Chali del Bahar (sea-shore). Take care, my
sultan, we tread upon bones."

We had emerged from the Dar Sinah, and the sea-shore was before us;
on a sudden we found ourselves amongst a multitude of bones of all
kinds of animals, and seemingly of all dates; some being blanched
with time and exposure to sun and wind, whilst to others the flesh
still partly clung; whole carcases were here, horses, asses, and
even the uncouth remains of a camel. Gaunt dogs were busy here,
growling, tearing, and gnawing; amongst whom, unintimidated,
stalked the carrion vulture, fiercely battening and even disputing
with the brutes the garbage; whilst the crow hovered overhead and
croaked wistfully, or occasionally perched upon some upturned rib
bone. "See," said the Mahasni, "the kawar of the animals. My
sultan has seen the kawar of the Moslems and the mearrah of the
Jews; and he sees here the kawar of the animals. All the animals
which die in Tangier by the hand of God, horse, dog, or camel, are
brought to this spot, and here they putrefy or are devoured by the
birds of the heaven or the wild creatures that prowl on the chali.
Come, my sultan, it is not good to remain long in this place."

We were preparing to leave the spot, when we heard a galloping down
the Dar Sinah, and presently a horse and rider darted at full speed
from the mouth of the lane and appeared upon the strand; the
horseman, when he saw us, pulled up his steed with much difficulty,
and joined us. The horse was small but beautiful, a sorrel with
long mane and tail; had he been hoodwinked he might perhaps have
been mistaken for a Cordovese jaca; he was broad-chested, and
rotund in his hind quarters, and possessed much of the plumpness
and sleekness which distinguish that breed, but looking in his eyes
you would have been undeceived in a moment; a wild savage fire
darted from the restless orbs, and so far from exhibiting the
docility of the other noble and loyal animal, he occasionally
plunged desperately, and could scarcely be restrained by a strong
curb and powerful arm from resuming his former headlong course.
The rider was a youth, apparently about eighteen, dressed as a
European, with a Montero cap on his head: he was athletically
built, but with lengthy limbs, his feet, for he rode without
stirrups or saddle, reaching almost to the ground; his complexion
was almost as dark as that of a Mulatto; his features very
handsome, the eyes particularly so, but filled with an expression
which was bold and bad; and there was a disgusting look of
sensuality about the mouth. He addressed a few words to the
Mahasni, with whom he seemed to be well acquainted, inquiring who I
was. The old man answered, "O Jew, my sultan understands our
speech, thou hadst better address thyself to him." The lad then
spoke to me in Arabic, but almost instantly dropping that language
proceeded to discourse in tolerable French. "I suppose you are
French," said he with much familiarity, "shall you stay long in
Tangier?" Having received an answer, he proceeded, "as you are an
Englishman, you are doubtless fond of horses, know, therefore,
whenever you are disposed for a ride, I will accompany you, and
procure you horses. My name is Ephraim Fragey: I am stable-boy to
the Neapolitan consul, who prizes himself upon possessing the best
horses in Tangier; you shall mount any you please. Would you like
to try this little aoud (stallion)?" I thanked him, but declined
his offer for the present, asking him at the same time how he had
acquired the French language, and why he, a Jew, did not appear in
the dress of his brethren? "I am in the service of a consul," said
he, "and my master obtained permission that I might dress myself in
this manner; and as to speaking French, I have been to Marseilles
and Naples, to which last place I conveyed horses, presents from
the Sultan. Besides French, I can speak Italian." He then
dismounted, and holding the horse firmly by the bridle with one
hand, proceeded to undress himself, which having accomplished, he
mounted the animal and rode into the water. The skin of his body
was much akin in colour to that of a frog or toad, but the frame
was that of a young Titan. The horse took to the water with great
unwillingness, and at a small distance from the shore commenced
struggling with his rider, whom he twice dashed from his back; the
lad, however, clung to the bridle, and detained the animal. All
his efforts, however, being unavailing to ride him deeper in, he
fell to washing him strenuously with his hands, then leading him
out, he dressed himself and returned by the way he came.

"Good are the horses of the Moslems," said my old friend, "where
will you find such? They will descend rocky mountains at full
speed and neither trip nor fall, but you must be cautious with the
horses of the Moslems, and treat them with kindness, for the horses
of the Moslems are proud, and they like not being slaves. When
they are young and first mounted, jerk not their mouths with your
bit, for be sure if you do they will kill you; sooner or later, you
will perish beneath their feet. Good are our horses; and good our
riders, yea, very good are the Moslems at mounting the horse; who
are like them? I once saw a Frank rider compete with a Moslem on
this beach, and at first the Frank rider had it all his own way,
and he passed the Moslem, but the course was long, very long, and
the horse of the Frank rider, which was a Frank also, panted; but
the horse of the Moslem panted not, for he was a Moslem also, and
the Moslem rider at last gave a cry and the horse sprang forward
and he overtook the Frank horse, and then the Moslem rider stood up
in his saddle. How did he stand? Truly he stood on his head, and
these eyes saw him; he stood on his head in the saddle as he passed
the Frank rider; and he cried ha! ha! as he passed the Frank rider;
and the Moslem horse cried ha! ha! as he passed the Frank breed,
and the Frank lost by a far distance. Good are the Franks; good
their horses; but better are the Moslems, and better the horses of
the Moslems."

We now directed our steps towards the town, but not by the path we
came: turning to the left under the hill of the mearrah, and along
the strand, we soon came to a rudely paved way with a steep ascent,
which wound beneath the wall of the town to a gate, before which,
on one side, were various little pits like graves, filled with
water or lime. "This is Dar Dwag," said the Mahasni; "this is the
house of the bark, and to this house are brought the hides; all
those which are prepared for use in Tangier are brought to this
house, and here they are cured with lime, and bran, and bark, and
herbs. And in this Dar Dwag there are one hundred and forty pits;
I have counted them myself; and there were more which have now
ceased to be, for the place is very ancient. And these pits are
hired not by one, nor by two, but by many people, and whosoever
list can rent one of these pits and cure the hides which he may
need; but the owner of all is one man, and his name is Cado
Ableque. And now my sultan has seen the house of the bark, and I
will show him nothing more this day; for to-day is Youm al Jumal
(Friday), and the gates will be presently shut whilst the Moslems
perform their devotions. So I will accompany my sultan to the
guest house, and there I will leave him for the present."

We accordingly passed through a gate, and ascending a street found
ourselves before the mosque where I had stood in the morning; in
another minute or two we were at the door of Joanna Correa. I now
offered my kind guide a piece of silver as a remuneration for his
trouble, whereupon he drew himself up and said:-

"The silver of my sultan I will not take, for I consider that I
have done nothing to deserve it. We have not yet visited all the
wonderful things of this blessed town. On a future day I will
conduct my sultan to the castle of the governor, and to other
places which my sultan will be glad to see; and when we have seen
all we can, and my sultan is content with me, if at any time he see
me in the soc of a morning, with my basket in my hand, and he see
nothing in that basket, then is my sultan at liberty as a friend to
put grapes in my basket, or bread in my basket, or fish or meat in
my basket. That will I not refuse of my sultan, when I shall have
done more for him than I have now. But the silver of my sultan
will I not take now nor at any time." He then waved his hand
gently and departed.

CHAPTER LVII

Strange Trio--The Mulatto--The Peace-offering--Moors of Granada--
Vive la Guadeloupo--The Moors--Pascual Fava--Blind Algerine--The
Retreat.

Three men were seated in the wustuddur of Joanna Correa, when I
entered; singular-looking men they all were, though perhaps three
were never gathered together more unlike to each other in all
points. The first on whom I cast my eye was a man about sixty,
dressed in a grey kerseymere coat with short lappets, yellow
waistcoat, and wide coarse canvas trousers; upon his head was a
very broad dirty straw hat, and in his hand he held a thick cane
with ivory handle; his eyes were bleared and squinting, his face
rubicund, and his nose much carbuncled. Beside him sat a good-
looking black, who perhaps appeared more negro than he really was,
from the circumstance of his being dressed in spotless white jean--
jerkin, waistcoat, and pantaloons being all of that material: his
head gear consisted of a blue Montero cap. His eyes sparkled like
diamonds, and there was an indescribable expression of good humour
and fun upon his countenance. The third man was a Mulatto, and by
far the most remarkable personage of the group: he might be
between thirty and forty; his body was very long, and though
uncouthly put together, exhibited every mark of strength and
vigour; it was cased in a ferioul of red wool, a kind of garment
which descends below the hips. His long muscular and hairy arms
were naked from the elbow, where the sleeves of the ferioul
terminate; his under limbs were short in comparison with his body
and arms; his legs were bare, but he wore blue kandrisa as far as
the knee; every features of his face was ugly, exceedingly and
bitterly ugly, and one of his eyes was sightless, being covered
with a white film. By his side on the ground was a large barrel,
seemingly a water-cask, which he occasionally seized with a finger
and thumb, and waved over his head as if it had been a quart pot.
Such was the trio who now occupied the wustuddur of Joanna Correa:
and I had scarcely time to remark what I have just recorded, when
that good lady entered from a back court with her handmaid Johar,
or the pearl, an ugly fat Jewish girl with an immense mole on her
cheek.

"Que Dios remate tu nombre," exclaimed the Mulatto; "may Allah blot
out your name, Joanna, and may he likewise blot out that of your
maid Johar. It is more than fifteen minutes that I have been
seated here, after having poured out into the tinaja the water
which I brought from the fountain, and during all that time I have
waited in vain for one single word of civility from yourself or
from Johar. Usted no tiene modo, you have no manner with you, nor
more has Johar. This is the only house in Tangier where I am not
received with fitting love and respect, and yet I have done more
for you than for any other person. Have I not filled your tinaja
with water when other people have gone without a drop? When even
the consul and the interpreter of the consul had no water to slake
their thirst, have you not had enough to wash your wustuddur? And
what is my return? When I arrive in the heat of the day, I have
not one kind word spoken to me, nor so much as a glass of makhiah
offered to me; must I tell you all that I do for you, Joanna?
Truly I must, for you have no manner with you. Do I not come every
morning just at the third hour; and do I not knock at your door;
and do you not arise and let me in, and then do I not knead your
bread in your presence, whilst you lie in bed, and because I knead
it, is not yours the best bread in Tangier? For am I not the
strongest man in Tangier, and the most noble also?" Here he
brandished his barrel over his head, and his face looked almost
demoniacal. "Hear me, Joanna," he continued, "you know that I am
the strongest man in Tangier, and I tell you again, for the
thousandth time, that I am the most noble. Who are the consuls?
Who is the Pasha? They are pashas and consuls now, but who were
their fathers? I know not, nor do they. But do I not know who my
fathers were? Were they not Moors of Garnata (Granada), and is it
not on that account that I am the strongest man in Tangier? Yes, I
am of the old Moors of Garnata, and my family has lived here, as is
well known, since Garnata was lost to the Nazarenes, and now I am
the only one of my family of the blood of the old Moors in all this
land, and on that account I am of nobler blood than the sultan, for
the sultan is not of the blood of the Moors of Garnata. Do you
laugh, Joanna? Does your maid Johar laugh? Am I not Hammin
Widdir, el hombre mas valido de Tanger? And is it not true that I
am of the blood of the Moors of Garnata? Deny it, and I will kill
you both, you and your maid Johar."

"You have been eating hashish and majoon, Hammin," said Joanna
Correa, "and the Shaitan has entered into you, as he but too
frequently does. I have been busy, and so has Johar, or we should
have spoken to you before; however, mai doorshee (it does not
signify), I know how to pacify you now and at all times, will you
take some gin-bitters, or a glass of common makhiah?"

"May you burst, O Joanna," said the Mulatto, "and may Johar also
burst; I mean, may you both live many years, and know neither pain
nor sorrow. I will take the gin-bitters, O Joanna, because they
are stronger than the makhiah, which always appears to me like
water; and I like not water, though I carry it. Many thanks to
you, Joanna, here is health to you, Joanna, and to this good
company."

She had handed him a large tumbler filled to the brim; he put it to
his nostrils, snuffled in the flavour, and then applying it to his
mouth, removed it not whilst one drop of the fluid remained. His
features gradually relaxed from their former angry expression, and
looking particularly amiable at Joanna, he at last said:

"I hope that within a little time, O Joanna, you will be persuaded
that I am the strongest man in Tangier, and that I am sprung from
the blood of the Moors of Garnata, as then you will no longer
refuse to take me for a husband, you and your maid Johar, and to
become Moors. What a glory to you, after having been married to a
Genoui, and given birth to Genouillos, to receive for a husband a
Moor like me, and to bear him children of the blood of Garnata.
What a glory too for Johar, how much better than to marry a vile
Jew, even like Hayim Ben Atar, or your cook Sabia, both of whom I
could strangle with two fingers, for am I not Hammin Widdir Moro de
Garnata, el hombre mas valido be Tanger?" He then shouldered his
barrel and departed.

"Is that Mulatto really what he pretends to be?" said I to Joanna;
"is he a descendant of the Moors of Granada?"

"He always talks about the Moors of Granada when he is mad with
majoon or aguardiente," interrupted, in bad French, the old man
whom I have before described, and in the same croaking voice which
I had heard chanting in the morning. "Nevertheless it may be true,
and if he had not heard something of the kind from his parents, he
would never have imagined such a thing, for he is too stupid. As I
said before, it is by no means impossible: many of the families of
Granada settled down here when their town was taken by the
Christians, but the greater part went to Tunis. When I was there,
I lodged in the house of a Moor who called himself Zegri, and was
always talking of Granada and the things which his forefathers had
done there. He would moreover sit for hours singing romances of
which I understood not one word, praised be the mother of God, but
which he said all related to his family; there were hundreds of
that name in Tunis, therefore why should not this Hammin, this
drunken water-carrier, be a Moor of Granada also? He is ugly
enough to be emperor of all the Moors. O the accursed canaille, I
have lived amongst them for my sins these eight years, at Oran and
here. Monsieur, do you not consider it to be a hard case for an
old man like myself, who am a Christian, to live amongst a race who
know not God, nor Christ, nor anything holy?"

"What do you mean," said I, "by asserting that the Moors know not
God? There is no people in the world who entertain sublimer
notions of the uncreated eternal God than the Moors, and no people
have ever shown themselves more zealous for his honour and glory;
their very zeal for the glory of God has been and is the chief
obstacle to their becoming Christians. They are afraid of
compromising his dignity by supposing that he ever condescended to
become man. And with respect to Christ, their ideas even of him
are much more just than those of the Papists, they say he is a
mighty prophet, whilst, according to the others, he is either a
piece of bread or a helpless infant. In many points of religion
the Moors are wrong, dreadfully wrong, but are the Papists less so?
And one of their practices sets them immeasurably below the Moors
in the eyes of any unprejudiced person: they bow down to idols,
Christian idols if you like, but idols still, things graven of wood
and stone and brass, and from these things, which can neither hear,
nor speak, nor feel, they ask and expect to obtain favours."

"Vive la France, Vive la Guadeloupe," said the black, with a good
French accent. "In France and in Guadeloupe there is no
superstition, and they pay as much regard to the Bible as to the
Koran; I am now learning to read in order that I may understand the
writings of Voltaire, who, as I am told, has proved that both the
one and the other were written with the sole intention of deceiving
mankind. O vive la France! where will you find such an enlightened
country as France; and where will you find such a plentiful country
as France? Only one in the world, and that is Guadeloupe. Is it
not so, Monsieur Pascual? Were you ever at Marseilles? Ah quel
bon pays est celui-la pour les vivres, pour les petits poulets,
pour les poulardes, pour les perdrix, pour les perdreaux, pour les
alouettes, pour les becasses, pour les becassines, enfin, pour
tout."

"Pray, sir, are you a cook?" demanded I.

"Monsieur, je le suis pour vous rendre service, mon nom c'est
Gerard, et j'ai l'honneur d'etre chef de cuisine chez monsieur le
consul Hollandois. A present je prie permission de vous saluer; il
faut que j'aille a la maison pour faire le diner de mon maitre."

At four I went to dine with the British consul. Two other English
gentlemen were present, who had arrived at Tangier from Gibraltar
about ten days previously for a short excursion, and were now
detained longer than they wished by the Levant wind. They had
already visited the principal towns in Spain, and proposed spending
the winter either at Cadiz or Seville. One of them, Mr. -, struck
me as being one of the most remarkable men I had ever conversed
with; he travelled not for diversion nor instigated by curiosity,
but merely with the hope of doing spiritual good, chiefly by
conversation. The consul soon asked me what I thought of the Moors
and their country. I told him that what I had hitherto seen of
both highly pleased me. He said that were I to live amongst them
ten years, as he had done, he believed I should entertain a very
different opinion; that no people in the world were more false and
cruel; that their government was one of the vilest description,
with which it was next to an impossibility for any foreign power to
hold amicable relations, as it invariably acted with bad faith, and
set at nought the most solemn treaties. That British property and
interests were every day subjected to ruin and spoliation, and
British subjects exposed to unheard-of vexations, without the
slightest hope of redress being afforded, save recourse was had to
force, the only argument to which the Moors were accessible. He
added, that towards the end of the preceding year an atrocious
murder had been perpetrated in Tangier: a Genoese family of three
individuals had perished, all of whom were British subjects, and
entitled to the protection of the British flag. The murderers were
known, and the principal one was even now in prison for the fact,
yet all attempts to bring him to condign punishment had hitherto
proved abortive, as he was a Moor, and his victims Christians.
Finally he cautioned me, not to take walks beyond the wall
unaccompanied by a soldier, whom he offered to provide for me
should I desire it, as otherwise I incurred great risk of being
ill-treated by the Moors of the interior whom I might meet, or
perhaps murdered, and he instanced the case of a British officer
who not long since had been murdered on the beach for no other
reason than being a Nazarene, and appearing in a Nazarene dress.
He at length introduced the subject of the Gospel, and I was
pleased to learn that, during his residence in Tangier, he had
distributed a considerable quantity of Bibles amongst the natives
in the Arabic language, and that many of the learned men, or
Talibs, had read the holy volume with great interest, and that by
this distribution, which, it is true, was effected with much
caution, no angry or unpleasant feeling had been excited. He
finally asked whether I had come with the intention of circulating
the Scripture amongst the Moors.