"To His Friend, Cohen," He Says, "I'll Take You
Back To My Country With Me, And Make You Rich; We
Are of the same
country." To Phillips, "You shall have a ship of your own soon." To the
merchants, "The
Sultan shall lend you money whenever you want it." To
the Moors in general, "You shall have your taxes reduced." In this way,
his Excellency promises and flatters all, but takes very good care to
compromise himself with none.
The frequented as well as the unfrequented spots are centres of
superstition. In the Sahara, by a lonely well, in the midst of boundless
sterility, where the curse on earth seems to have burnt blackest, a
camel passes every night groaning piteously, and wandering about in
search of its murdered master, so the tale was told me. Now, about two
day's journey from Mogador, there is also a well, containing within its
dank and dark hollow a perpetual apparition. At its bottom is seen the
motionless statue of a negress, with a variety of wearing materials
placed beside her, all made of fine burnished gold, and so bright, that
the dreary cavern of the deep well is illuminated. Whoever presumes to
look down the well at her, and covets her shining property, is
instantaneously seized with thirst and fever; and, if he does not expire
at once, he never recovers from the fatal effects of his combined
curiosity and avarice. People draw water daily from this well, but no
one dare look down it.
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