His Long Muscular And Hairy Arms
Were Naked From The Elbow, Where The Sleeves Of The Ferioul
Terminate; His Under
Limbs were short in comparison with his body
and arms; his legs were bare, but he wore blue kandrisa as
Far as
the knee; every features of his face was ugly, exceedingly and
bitterly ugly, and one of his eyes was sightless, being covered
with a white film. By his side on the ground was a large barrel,
seemingly a water-cask, which he occasionally seized with a finger
and thumb, and waved over his head as if it had been a quart pot.
Such was the trio who now occupied the wustuddur of Joanna Correa:
and I had scarcely time to remark what I have just recorded, when
that good lady entered from a back court with her handmaid Johar,
or the pearl, an ugly fat Jewish girl with an immense mole on her
cheek.
"Que Dios remate tu nombre," exclaimed the Mulatto; "may Allah blot
out your name, Joanna, and may he likewise blot out that of your
maid Johar. It is more than fifteen minutes that I have been
seated here, after having poured out into the tinaja the water
which I brought from the fountain, and during all that time I have
waited in vain for one single word of civility from yourself or
from Johar. Usted no tiene modo, you have no manner with you, nor
more has Johar. This is the only house in Tangier where I am not
received with fitting love and respect, and yet I have done more
for you than for any other person. Have I not filled your tinaja
with water when other people have gone without a drop? When even
the consul and the interpreter of the consul had no water to slake
their thirst, have you not had enough to wash your wustuddur? And
what is my return? When I arrive in the heat of the day, I have
not one kind word spoken to me, nor so much as a glass of makhiah
offered to me; must I tell you all that I do for you, Joanna?
Truly I must, for you have no manner with you. Do I not come every
morning just at the third hour; and do I not knock at your door;
and do you not arise and let me in, and then do I not knead your
bread in your presence, whilst you lie in bed, and because I knead
it, is not yours the best bread in Tangier? For am I not the
strongest man in Tangier, and the most noble also?" Here he
brandished his barrel over his head, and his face looked almost
demoniacal. "Hear me, Joanna," he continued, "you know that I am
the strongest man in Tangier, and I tell you again, for the
thousandth time, that I am the most noble. Who are the consuls?
Who is the Pasha? They are pashas and consuls now, but who were
their fathers? I know not, nor do they. But do I not know who my
fathers were? Were they not Moors of Garnata (Granada), and is it
not on that account that I am the strongest man in Tangier? Yes, I
am of the old Moors of Garnata, and my family has lived here, as is
well known, since Garnata was lost to the Nazarenes, and now I am
the only one of my family of the blood of the old Moors in all this
land, and on that account I am of nobler blood than the sultan, for
the sultan is not of the blood of the Moors of Garnata. Do you
laugh, Joanna? Does your maid Johar laugh? Am I not Hammin
Widdir, el hombre mas valido de Tanger? And is it not true that I
am of the blood of the Moors of Garnata? Deny it, and I will kill
you both, you and your maid Johar."
"You have been eating hashish and majoon, Hammin," said Joanna
Correa, "and the Shaitan has entered into you, as he but too
frequently does. I have been busy, and so has Johar, or we should
have spoken to you before; however, mai doorshee (it does not
signify), I know how to pacify you now and at all times, will you
take some gin-bitters, or a glass of common makhiah?"
"May you burst, O Joanna," said the Mulatto, "and may Johar also
burst; I mean, may you both live many years, and know neither pain
nor sorrow. I will take the gin-bitters, O Joanna, because they
are stronger than the makhiah, which always appears to me like
water; and I like not water, though I carry it. Many thanks to
you, Joanna, here is health to you, Joanna, and to this good
company."
She had handed him a large tumbler filled to the brim; he put it to
his nostrils, snuffled in the flavour, and then applying it to his
mouth, removed it not whilst one drop of the fluid remained. His
features gradually relaxed from their former angry expression, and
looking particularly amiable at Joanna, he at last said:
"I hope that within a little time, O Joanna, you will be persuaded
that I am the strongest man in Tangier, and that I am sprung from
the blood of the Moors of Garnata, as then you will no longer
refuse to take me for a husband, you and your maid Johar, and to
become Moors. What a glory to you, after having been married to a
Genoui, and given birth to Genouillos, to receive for a husband a
Moor like me, and to bear him children of the blood of Garnata.
What a glory too for Johar, how much better than to marry a vile
Jew, even like Hayim Ben Atar, or your cook Sabia, both of whom I
could strangle with two fingers, for am I not Hammin Widdir Moro de
Garnata, el hombre mas valido be Tanger?" He then shouldered his
barrel and departed.
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