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.
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