After Our Excursion, Which Lasted At
Least Two Hours, I Made Him A Small Present, And Took Leave With A
Hearty Shake Of The Hand.
In the evening I prepared to go on board the vessel bound for
Tangier, trusting in what the Jewish secretary had told me as to
its sailing.
Meeting him, however, accidentally in the street, he
informed me that it would not start until the following morning,
advising me at the same time to be on board at an early hour. I
now roamed about the streets until night was beginning to set in,
and becoming weary, I was just about to direct my steps to the inn,
when I felt myself gently pulled by the skirt. I was amidst a
concourse of people who were gathered around some Irish soldiers
who were disputing, and I paid no attention; but I was pulled again
more forcibly than before, and I heard myself addressed in a
language which I had half forgotten, and which I scarcely expected
ever to hear again. I looked round, and lo! a tall figure stood
close to me and gazed in my face with anxious inquiring eyes. On
its head was the kauk or furred cap of Jerusalem; depending from
its shoulders, and almost trailing on the ground, was a broad blue
mantle, whilst kandrisa or Turkish trousers enveloped its nether
limbs. I gazed on the figure as wistfully as it gazed upon me. At
first the features appeared perfectly strange, and I was about to
exclaim, I know you not, when one or two lineaments struck me, and
I cried, though somewhat hesitatingly, "Surely this is Judah Lib."
I was in a steamer in the Baltic in the year '34, if I mistake not.
There was a drizzling rain and a high sea, when I observed a young
man of about two and twenty leaning in a melancholy attitude
against the side of the vessel.
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