He Must Have Counted Eleven Lustres, Which
Cast An Air Of Mature Dignity Over A Countenance Which Seemed To
Have Been Chiseled By Some Grecian Sculptor, And Yet His Hair Was
Black As The Plume Of The Norwegian Raven, And So Was The Moustache
Which Curled Above His Well-Formed Lip.
In the garb of Greece, and
in the camp before Troy, I should have taken him for Agamemnon.
"Is that man a general?" said I to a short queer-looking personage,
who sat by my side, intently studying a newspaper.
"That
gentleman," he whispered in a lisping accent, "is, sir, the
Lieutenant-Governor of Gibraltar."
On either side outside the door, squatting on the ground, or
leaning indolently against the walls, were some half dozen men of
very singular appearance. Their principal garment was a kind of
blue gown, something resembling the blouse worn by the peasants of
the north of France, but not so long; it was compressed around
their waists by a leathern girdle, and depended about half way down
their thighs. Their legs were bare, so that I had an opportunity
of observing the calves, which appeared unnaturally large. Upon
the head they wore small skull-caps of black wool. I asked the
most athletic of these men, a dark-visaged fellow of forty, who
they were. He answered, "hamalos." This word I knew to be Arabic,
in which tongue it signifies a porter; and, indeed, the next
moment, I saw a similar fellow staggering across the square under
an immense burden, almost sufficient to have broken the back of a
camel. On again addressing my swarthy friend, and enquiring whence
he came, he replied, that he was born at Mogadore, in Barbary, but
had passed the greatest part of his life at Gibraltar. He added,
that he was the "capitaz," or head man of the "hamalos" near the
door. I now addressed him in the Arabic of the East, though with
scarcely the hope of being understood, more especially as he had
been so long from his own country. He however answered very
pertinently, his lips quivering with eagerness, and his eyes
sparkling with joy, though it was easy to perceive that the Arabic,
or rather the Moorish, was not the language in which he was
accustomed either to think or speak. His companions all gathered
round and listened with avidity, occasionally exclaiming, when
anything was said which they approved of: "Wakhud rajil shereef
hada, min beled bel scharki." (A holy man this from the kingdoms
of the East.) At last I produced the shekel, which I invariably
carry about me as a pocket-piece, and asked the capitaz whether he
had ever seen that money before. He surveyed the censer and olive-
branch for a considerable time, and evidently knew not what to make
of it. At length he fell to inspecting the characters round about
it on both sides, and giving a cry, exclaimed to the other hamalos:
"Brothers, brothers, these are the letters of Solomon. This silver
is blessed. We must kiss this money." He then put it upon his
head, pressed it to his eyes, and finally kissed it with enthusiasm
as did successively all his brethren. Then regaining it, he
returned it to me, with a low reverence. Griffiths subsequently
informed me, that the fellow refused to work during all the rest of
the day, and did nothing but smile, laugh, and talk to himself.
"Allow me to offer you a glass of bitters, sir," said the queer-
looking personage before mentioned; he was a corpulent man, very
short, and his legs particularly so. His dress consisted of a
greasy snuff-coloured coat, dirty white trousers, and dirtier
stockings. On his head he wore a rusty silk hat, the eaves of
which had a tendency to turn up before and behind. I had observed
that, during my conversation with the hamalos, he had several times
uplifted his eyes from the newspaper, and on the production of the
shekel had grinned very significantly, and had inspected it when in
the hand of the capitaz. "Allow me to offer you a glass of
bitters," said he; "I guessed you was one of our people before you
spoke to the hamalos. Sir, it does my heart good to see a
gentleman of your appearance not above speaking to his poor
brethren. It is what I do myself not unfrequently, and I hope God
will blot out my name, and that is Solomons, when I despise them.
I do not pretend to much Arabic myself, yet I understood you
tolerably well, and I liked your discourse much. You must have a
great deal of shillam eidri, nevertheless you startled me when you
asked the hamalo if he ever read the Torah; of course you meant
with the meforshim; poor as he is, I do not believe him becoresh
enough to read the Torah without the commentators. So help me,
sir, I believe you to be a Salamancan Jew; I am told there are
still some of the old families to be found there. Ever at Tudela,
sir? not very far from Salamanca, I believe; one of my own kindred
once lived there: a great traveller, sir, like yourself; went over
all the world to look for the Jews, - went to the top of Sinai.
Anything that I can do for you at Gibraltar, sir? Any commission;
will execute it as reasonably, and more expeditiously than any one
else. My name is Solomons. I am tolerably well known at
Gibraltar; yes, sir, and in the Crooked Friars, and, for that
matter, in the Neuen Stein Steg, at Hamburgh; so help me, sir, I
think I once saw your face at the fair at Bremen. Speak German,
sir? though of course you do. Allow me, sir, to offer you a glass
of bitters. I wish, sir, they were mayim, hayim for your sake, I
do indeed, sir, I wish they were living waters. Now, sir, do give
me your opinion as to this matter (lowering his voice and striking
the newspaper). Do you not think it is very hard that one Yudken
should betray the other?
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