That Will I Not Refuse Of My Sultan, When I Shall Have
Done More For Him Than I Have Now.
But the silver of my sultan
will I not take now nor at any time." He then waved his hand
gently and departed.
CHAPTER LVII
Strange Trio - The Mulatto - The Peace-offering - Moors of Granada -
Vive la Guadeloupo - The Moors - Pascual Fava - Blind Algerine - The
Retreat.
Three men were seated in the wustuddur of Joanna Correa, when I
entered; singular-looking men they all were, though perhaps three
were never gathered together more unlike to each other in all
points. The first on whom I cast my eye was a man about sixty,
dressed in a grey kerseymere coat with short lappets, yellow
waistcoat, and wide coarse canvas trousers; upon his head was a
very broad dirty straw hat, and in his hand he held a thick cane
with ivory handle; his eyes were bleared and squinting, his face
rubicund, and his nose much carbuncled. Beside him sat a good-
looking black, who perhaps appeared more negro than he really was,
from the circumstance of his being dressed in spotless white jean -
jerkin, waistcoat, and pantaloons being all of that material: his
head gear consisted of a blue Montero cap. His eyes sparkled like
diamonds, and there was an indescribable expression of good humour
and fun upon his countenance. The third man was a Mulatto, and by
far the most remarkable personage of the group: he might be
between thirty and forty; his body was very long, and though
uncouthly put together, exhibited every mark of strength and
vigour; it was cased in a ferioul of red wool, a kind of garment
which descends below the hips. 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.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 417 of 424
Words from 218949 to 219465
of 222596