Have I Not Filled Your Tinaja
With Water When Other People Have Gone Without A Drop?
When even
the consul and the interpreter of the consul had no water to slake
their thirst, have you not had enough to wash your wustuddur?
And
what is my return? When I arrive in the heat of the day, I have
not one kind word spoken to me, nor so much as a glass of makhiah
offered to me; must I tell you all that I do for you, Joanna?
Truly I must, for you have no manner with you. Do I not come every
morning just at the third hour; and do I not knock at your door;
and do you not arise and let me in, and then do I not knead your
bread in your presence, whilst you lie in bed, and because I knead
it, is not yours the best bread in Tangier? For am I not the
strongest man in Tangier, and the most noble also?" Here he
brandished his barrel over his head, and his face looked almost
demoniacal. "Hear me, Joanna," he continued, "you know that I am
the strongest man in Tangier, and I tell you again, for the
thousandth time, that I am the most noble. Who are the consuls?
Who is the Pasha? They are pashas and consuls now, but who were
their fathers? I know not, nor do they. But do I not know who my
fathers were? Were they not Moors of Garnata (Granada), and is it
not on that account that I am the strongest man in Tangier?
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