第227章

Again on Board - The Strange Visage - The Hadji - Setting Sail -The Two Jews - American Vessel - Tangier - Adun Oulem -The Struggle - The Forbidden Thing.

On Thursday, the 8th of August, I was again on board the Genoese bark, at as early an hour as on the previous morning.

After waiting, however, two or three hours without any preparation being made for departing, I was about to return to the shore once more, but the old Genoese mate advised me to stay, assuring me that he had no doubt of our sailing speedily, as all the cargo was on board, and we had nothing further to detain us.I was reposing myself in the little cabin, when Iheard a boat strike against the side of the vessel, and some people come on board.Presently a face peered in at the opening, strange and wild.I was half asleep, and at first imagined I was dreaming, for the face seemed more like that of a goat or an orge than of a human being; its long beard almost touching my face as I lay extended in a kind of berth.

Starting up, however, I recognised the singular-looking Jew whom I had seen in the company of Judah Lib.He recognised me also, and nodding, bent his huge features into a smile.Iarose and went upon deck, where I found him in company with another Jew, a young man in the dress of Barbary.They had just arrived in the boat.I asked my friend of the beard who he was, from whence he came, and where he was going? He answered, in broken Portuguese, that he was returning from Lisbon, where he had been on business, to Mogadore, of which place he was a native.He then looked me in the face and smiled, and taking out a book from his pocket, in Hebrew characters, fell to reading it; whereupon a Spanish sailor on board observed that with such a beard and book he must needs be a sabio, or sage.His companion was from Mequinez, and spoke only Arabic.

A large boat now drew nigh, the stern of which was filled with Moors; there might be about twelve, and the greater part evidently consisted of persons of distinction, as they were dressed in all the pomp and gallantry of the East, with snow-white turbans, jabadores of green silk or scarlet cloth, and bedeyas rich with gold galloon.Some of them were exceedingly fine men, and two amongst them, youths, were strikingly handsome, and so far from exhibiting the dark swarthy countenance of Moors in general, their complexions were of a delicate red and white.The principal personage, and to whom all the rest paid much deference, was a tall athletic man of about forty.He wore a vest of white quilted cotton, and white kandrisa, whilst gracefully wound round his body, and swathing the upper part of his head, was the balk, or white flannel wrapping plaid always held in so much estimation by the Moors from the earliest period of their history.His legs were bare and his feet only protected from the ground by yellow slippers.

He displayed no farther ornament than one large gold ear-ring, from which depended a pearl, evidently of great price.A noble black beard, about a foot in length, touched his muscular breast.His features were good, with the exception of the eyes, which were somewhat small; their expression, however, was, evil; their glances were sullen; and malignity and ill-nature were painted in every lineament of his countenance, which seemed never to have been brightened with a smile.The Spanish sailor, of whom I have already had occasion to speak, informed me in a whisper, that he was a santuron, or big saint, and was so far back on his way from Mecca; adding, that he was a merchant of immense wealth.It soon appeared that the other Moors had merely attended him on board through friendly politeness, as they all successively came to bid him adieu, with the exception of two blacks, who were his attendants.Iobserved that these blacks, when the Moors presented them their hands at departing, invariably made an effort to press them to their lips, which effort was as uniformly foiled, the Moors in every instance, by a speedy and graceful movement, drawing back their hand locked in that of the black, which they pressed against their own heart; as much as to say, "though a negro and a slave you are a Moslem, and being so, you art our brother -Allah knows no distinctions." The boatman now went up to the hadji, demanding payment, stating, at the same time, that he had been on board three times on his account, conveying his luggage.The sum which he demanded appeared exorbitant to the hadji, who, forgetting that he was a saint, and fresh from Mecca, fumed outrageously, and in broken Spanish called the boatman thief.If there be any term of reproach which stings a Spaniard (and such was the boatman) more than another, it is that one; and the fellow no sooner heard it applied to himself, than with eyes sparkling with fury, he put his fist to the hadji's nose, and repaid the one opprobrious name by at least ten others equally bad or worse.He would perhaps have proceeded to acts of violence had he not been pulled away by the other Moors, who led him aside, and I suppose either said or gave him something which pacified him, as he soon got into his boat, and returned with them on shore.The captain now arrived with his Jewish secretary, and orders were given for setting sail.

At a little past twelve we were steering out of the bay of Gibraltar; the wind was in the right quarter, but for some time we did not make much progress, lying almost becalmed beneath the lee of the hill; by degrees, however, our progress became brisker, and in about an hour we found ourselves careering smartly towards Tarifa.