The Greater Part Were On Horseback,
The Governor Being Most Conspicuous.
This troop of individuals ascended
a small hill of the market-place, where they remained half an hour in
solemn prayer.
No Jew or Christian was allowed to approach the magic or sacred circle
which enclosed them. This being concluded, down ran a butcher with a
sheep on his back; just slaughtered, and bleeding profusely. A troop of
boys followed quickly at his heels pelting him with stones. The butcher
ran through the town to the seashore, and thence to the house of the
Kady - the boys still in hot and breathless pursuit, hard after him,
pelting him and the bleeding sheep. The Moors believe, if the man can
arrive at the house of the judge before the sheep dies, that the people
of Tangier will have good luck; but, if the sheep should be quite dead,
and not moving a muscle, then it will bring them bad luck, and the
Christians are likely to come and take away their country from them. The
drollest part of the ceremony is, that the boys should scamper after the
butcher, pelting the sheep, and trying to kill it outright, thus
endeavouring to bring ill-luck upon their city and themselves. But how
many of us really and knowingly seek our misfortunes? On the occasion of
this annual feast, every Moor, or head of a family, kills a sheep. The
rich give to the poor, but the poor usually save up their earnings to be
able to purchase a sheep to kill on this day.
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