Get the Emperor first to move in the question,
adding, "what he makes free, we will make free;" for he says in another
place, "We act as he acts, according to the _treek_ (ordinance) of God
and his Prophet."
Sheikh Barook also protests that he has but little power in these
matters, living as he does in the Desert. As I did not seek for any
thing beyond an answer to my letters, and was only anxious that he
should know the sentiments of the Anti-Slavery Society, I was not all
disappointed. I knew too much of the pro-slavery feeling once existing
in a strong party in England, and the mighty struggles which we had
passed through to obtain British Abolition, to expect anything more than
a respectful answer to antislavery letters from a Prince of the Desert,
whose revenues were raised chiefly from the duties levied upon
slave-caravans passing through his territory. I only attempted to
scatter the seeds of liberty over the slave-tracks of the Desert,
leaving the budding forth and the growth to the irrigating influences of
that merciful and wise God, who has made all men of one flesh and blood.
I visited the families of Jewish merchants during the Passover, in
company with Mr. and Mrs. Elton. Christians here visit the Jews twice a
year, at the feast of the Passover and Tabernacles. In return, Jews
visit Christians on New Year's day. This laudable practice promotes
social harmony between the Jews and Christians.
In the house of one of our Jewish friends (Mr. Levi's) I assisted at the
celebration of the evening of the Passover. There is nothing very
particular in this ceremony, except a great deal of reading. The
drinking of the four cups [37] of wine, and the eating of the bitter
herbs, emblems of the joys and the sorrows attending the deliverance
from Egyptian bondage, are the more difficult parts of the ceremony. The
children naturally feel most the disagreeableness of eating the bitter
herbs, and several times, as soon as they put them into their mouths,
they spat them out again under the table. The drinking of an excessive
quantity of wine, is also attended with not a little inconvenience, and
one would think Bacchus was the deity worshipped, and not the God of the
Jews and Christians. When will mankind learn that violation of the
physical economy of their nature can never be acceptable to the Great
Creator?
I do not say that European Israelites indulge so much in these excesses
as Barbary Jews, but I imagine that the germ of the debauch is found in
the Talmudical religion of both classes. But, since I should be very
sorry were a Jew to hold up to me the mummeries of Popery or of the
Greek Church, as the mirror of my own religion, I am not disposed to
animadvert upon the generally decorous worship of European Israelites.
It requires three full days to get through this business of visiting. In
truth, it is a very serious affair, for we were obliged to eat cake, and
sip sherbet, or white brandy, at every house we went to, otherwise we
should confer an affront upon our friends. At all times, a great
quantity of white brandy, which the Jews distil themselves, is drunk,
but especially on these occasions.
The Governor of Mogador gave orders, not long ago, that no Mussulman
should enter the Jewish quarter, to prevent the faithful from being
seduced into drinking this insidious spirit. I shall just mention what a
Christian is obliged to conform to, whilst visiting the Barbary Jews on
these high days and holidays.
1st. You must eat a piece of cake, at least of _one_ sort, if not of
several kinds, and drink a little brandy, wine somets, or boiled juice
of the grape, or sherbet. In many of the houses, they give nothing but
brandy, which is tastefully placed out on small round tables, as at a
pastrycook's shop.
2nd. You must admire the new dresses of the ladies, who are radiantly
and sumptuously attired "in flaming purple and refulgent gold," their
ornaments likewise of gold, silver, and all manner of precious stones;
for the daughters of Israel are, as on bridal days, all begemmed,
bejewelled, and diamonded, stuck over with gems as thick as stars "seen
in the galaxy or milky-way." On these festivals, it is absolutely a
matter of orthodox observance that the Jews and Jewesses should wear
something new. Some have entirely new dresses.
3rd. Any thing new or remarkable in the house, or household furniture,
must be noticed or admired.
4th. You must carry with you in your memorandum-book, or at the tip of
your tongue, a good assortment of first-rate compliments of the season.
If these are spiced with a little scandal of your neighbours, or the
party you have just left, so much the better; they are more relished.
Now you are obliged to visit twenty or thirty families per diem; and you
are literally passing through doors, square-courts, and corridors,
crossing patios and quadrangles, walking up and down stairs, getting up
and sitting down from morning to night, during these three mortal days.
It will be seen then, that these Passover and Tabernacle visits are
tremendous affairs, and require Herculean strength to get through their
polite duties. They may be days of jovial festivity to Jews, but
certainly they are days of labour and annoyance to Gentiles.
But I must now give an account of one or two remarkable personages whom
we visited. The first was Madame Bousac, a Jewess of this country. Her
father was a grandee at Court in the days of former emperors, and the
greatest merchant of his time, and she represented as an aristocrat
among her people, a modern Esther, standing and pleading between the
Sultan and her nation.
