A young gentleman has just arrived from Gibraltar, who had
been previously six weeks on his passage from Holland to that place,
with his legs infixed in a pair of three-league boots. He says he has
come from Holland on purpose to sport and hunt in Morocco. Several of
the consuls, when they go out sporting, metamorphose themselves into
veteran Numidian sportsmen. You would imagine they were going to hunt
lions for months in the ravines of the Atlas, whereas it is only to
shoot a stray partridge or a limping hare, or perchance they may meet
with a boar. And this they do for a couple of days, or twenty-four
hours, sleeping during the night very snugly under tents, and fed and
feasted with milk, fowls, and sheep by the Arabs.
Morocco, like all despotic countries, furnishes some severe examples of
the degrading of high functionaries. There is an old man,
Sidi-El-Arby-Es-Said, living there, who is a marked victim of imperial
tyranny. Some years ago, the conqueror despoiled him of all his wealth,
and threw him into prison, after he had been twenty years bashaw of this
district. He was in prison one year with his two sons. The object of the
Emperor was to extort the last filse of his money; and he entirely
succeeded. The oppressor, however, relented a little on the death of one
of his victim's sons; released him from confinement, and gave the
ex-bashaw two houses, one for himself and the other for his surviving
son. The old captain of the port has been no less than a dozen times in
prison, under the exhausting pressure of the Emperor. After the imperial
miser has copiously bled his captain, he lets him out to fill his skin
again. The old gentleman is always merry and loyal, in spite of the
treatment from his imperial taskmaster.
Very funny stories are told by the masters of the small craft, who
transport the bullocks from hence to Gibraltar. The government of that
place are only allowed to export, at a low duty per annum, a certain
number of bullocks. The contractor's agents come over; and at the moment
of embarking the cattle, something like the following dialogue
frequently ensues.
_Agent of Contractor_. - "Count away!"
_Captain of the Port_. - "One, two, three, &c. Thirty, forty. Ah! stop!
stop! too many."
_Agent of Contractor_. - "No, you fool, there are only thirty."
_Captain of the Port_. - "You lie! there are forty."
_Agent of Contractor_. - "Only thirty, I tell you," (putting three or
four dollars into his hand).
_Captain of the Port_. - "Well, well, there are only thirty."
And, in this way, the garrison of Gibraltar often gets 500 or 1,000 head
of cattle more than the stipulated number, at five dollars per head duty
instead of ten. Who derives the benefit of peculation I am unable to
state. An anecdote recurs to me of old Youssef, Bashaw of Tripoli,
illustrative of the phlebotomizing system now under consideration.
Colonel Warrington one day seriously represented to the bashaw how his
functionaries robbed him, and took the liberty of mentioning the name of
one person. "Yes, yes," observed the bashaw, "I know all about him; I
don't want to catch him yet; he's not fat enough. When he has gorged a
little more, I'll have his head off."
The Emperor of Morocco, however, usually treats his bashaws of the coast
with greater consideration than those of the interior cities, the former
being more in contact with Europeans, his Highness not wishing his
reputation to suffer in the eyes of Christians.
CHAPTER III.
The Posada. - Ingles and Benoliel. - Amulets for successful
parturition. - Visits of a Moorish Taleb and a Berber. - Three Sundays
during a week in Barbary. - M. Rey's account of the Empire of
Morocco. - The Government Auctioneer gives an account of Slavery and the
Slave Trade in Morocco. - Benoliel as English Cicerone. - Departure from
Tangier to Gibraltar. - How I lost my fine green broadcloth. - Mr.
Frenerry's opinion of Maroquine Affairs.
I took up my stay at the "English Hotel" (posada Ingles), kept by
Benoliel, a Morocco Jew, who spoke tolerable English. A Jerusalemitish
rabbi came in one day to write charms for his wife, she being near her
confinement. The superstition of charms and other cognate matters, are
shared alike by all the native inhabitants of Barbary. It often happens
that a Marabout shrine will be visited by Moor and Jew, each investing
the departed saint with his own peculiar sanctity. So contagious is this
species of superstition, that Romish Christians, long resident in
Barbary, assisted by the inventive monks, at last discover the Moorish
or Jewish to be a Christian saint. The Jewesses brought our Oriental
rabbi, declaring him to know everything, and that his garments smelt of
the Holy City. Benoliel, or Ben, as the English called him, protested to
me that he did not believe in charms; he only allowed the rabbi to write
them to please the women. But I have found, during my travels in the
Mediterranean, many persons of education, who pretended they did not
believe this or that superstition of their church, whilst they were at
heart great cowards, having no courage to reject a popular falsehood,
and quite as superstitious as those who never doubt the excrescent
dogmas or traditionary fables of their religion. The paper amulets,
however, operated favourably on Mrs. Benoliel. She was delivered of a
fine child; and received the congratulations of her neighbours. The
child was named Sultana; [9] and the people were all as merry as if a
princess had been born in Israel.
I received a visit from a Moorish taleb, to whom I read some portions of
my journal, as also the Arabic Testament:
_Taleb_. - "The English read Arabic because they are the friends of
Mussulmans. For this reason, God gives them wit to understand the
language of the Koran."
_Traveller_. - "We wish to study all languages, and to know all people."
_Taleb_. - "Now, as you have become so wise in our country, and read
Arabic, where next are you going?
