Appeared beneath the doorway; one was that of
a bare-headed and bare-legged Moorish boy of about ten years of
age, dressed in a gelaba; he guided by the hand an old man, whom I
at once recognised as one of the Algerines, the good Moslems of
whom the old Mahasni had spoken in terms of praise in the morning
whilst we ascended the street of the Siarrin. He was very short of
stature and dirty in his dress; the lower part of his face was
covered with a stubbly white beard; before his eyes he wore a large
pair of spectacles, from which he evidently received but little
benefit, as he required the assistance of the guide at every step.
The two advanced a little way into the wustuddur and there stopped.
Pascual Fava no sooner beheld them, than assuming a jovial air he
started nimbly up, and leaning on his stick, for he had a bent leg,
limped to a cupboard, out of which he took a bottle and poured out
a glass of wine, singing in the broken kind of Spanish used by the
Moors of the coast:
"Argelino,
Moro fino,
No beber vino,
Ni comer tocino."
(Algerine,
Moor so keen,
No drink wine,
No taste swine.)
He then handed the wine to the old Moor, who drank it off, and
then, led by the boy, made for the door without saying a word.
"Hade mushe halal," (that is not lawful,) said I to him with a loud
voice.
"Cul shee halal," (everything is lawful,) said the old Moor,
turning his sightless and spectacled eyes in the direction from
which my voice reached him. "Of everything which God has given, it
is lawful for the children of God to partake."
"Who is that old man?" said I to Pascual Fava, after the blind and
the leader of the blind had departed. "Who is he!" said Pascual;
"who is he! He is a merchant now, and keeps a shop in the Siarrin,
but there was a time when no bloodier pirate sailed out of Algier.
That old blind wretch has cut more throats than he has hairs in his
beard. Before the French took the place he was the rais or captain
of a frigate, and many was the poor Sardinian vessel which fell
into his hands. After that affair he fled to Tangier, and it is
said that he brought with him a great part of the booty which he
had amassed in former times. Many other Algerines came hither
also, or to Tetuan, but he is the strangest guest of them all. He
keeps occasionally very extraordinary company for a Moor, and is
rather over intimate with the Jews. Well, that's no business of
mine; only let him look to himself.
