He Then Looked Me In The Face And
Smiled, And Taking Out A Book From His Pocket, In Hebrew
Characters, Fell To Reading It; Whereupon A Spanish Sailor On Board
Observed That With Such A Beard And Book He Must Needs Be A Sabio,
Or Sage.
His companion was from Mequinez, and spoke only Arabic.
A large boat now drew nigh, the stern of which was filled with
Moors; there might be about twelve, and the greater part evidently
consisted of persons of distinction, as they were dressed in all
the pomp and gallantry of the East, with snow-white turbans,
jabadores of green silk or scarlet cloth, and bedeyas rich with
gold galloon. Some of them were exceedingly fine men, and two
amongst them, youths, were strikingly handsome, and so far from
exhibiting the dark swarthy countenance of Moors in general, their
complexions were of a delicate red and white. The principal
personage, and to whom all the rest paid much deference, was a tall
athletic man of about forty. He wore a vest of white quilted
cotton, and white kandrisa, whilst gracefully wound round his body,
and swathing the upper part of his head, was the balk, or white
flannel wrapping plaid always held in so much estimation by the
Moors from the earliest period of their history. His legs were
bare and his feet only protected from the ground by yellow
slippers. He displayed no farther ornament than one large gold
ear-ring, from which depended a pearl, evidently of great price.
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