第239章

Strange Trio - The Mulatto - The Peace-offering -Moors of Granada - Vive la Guadeloupo - The Moors -Pascual Fava - Blind Algerine - The Retreat.

Three men were seated in the wustuddur of Joanna Correa, when I entered; singular-looking men they all were, though perhaps three were never gathered together more unlike to each other in all points.The first on whom I cast my eye was a man about sixty, dressed in a grey kerseymere coat with short lappets, yellow waistcoat, and wide coarse canvas trousers;upon his head was a very broad dirty straw hat, and in his hand he held a thick cane with ivory handle; his eyes were bleared and squinting, his face rubicund, and his nose much carbuncled.

Beside him sat a good-looking black, who perhaps appeared more negro than he really was, from the circumstance of his being dressed in spotless white jean - jerkin, waistcoat, and pantaloons being all of that material: his head gear consisted of a blue Montero cap.His eyes sparkled like diamonds, and there was an indescribable expression of good humour and fun upon his countenance.The third man was a Mulatto, and by far the most remarkable personage of the group: he might be between thirty and forty; his body was very long, and though uncouthly put together, exhibited every mark of strength and vigour; it was cased in a ferioul of red wool, a kind of garment which descends below the hips.His long muscular and hairy arms were naked from the elbow, where the sleeves of the ferioul terminate; his under limbs were short in comparison with his body and arms; his legs were bare, but he wore blue kandrisa as far as the knee; every features of his face was ugly, exceedingly and bitterly ugly, and one of his eyes was sightless, being covered with a white film.By his side on the ground was a large barrel, seemingly a water-cask, which he occasionally seized with a finger and thumb, and waved over his head as if it had been a quart pot.Such was the trio who now occupied the wustuddur of Joanna Correa: and I had scarcely time to remark what I have just recorded, when that good lady entered from a back court with her handmaid Johar, or the pearl, an ugly fat Jewish girl with an immense mole on her cheek.

"QUE DIOS REMATE TU NOMBRE," exclaimed the Mulatto; "may Allah blot out your name, Joanna, and may he likewise blot out that of your maid Johar.It is more than fifteen minutes that I have been seated here, after having poured out into the tinaja the water which I brought from the fountain, and during all that time I have waited in vain for one single word of civility from yourself or from Johar.USTED NO TIENE MODO, you have no manner with you, nor more has Johar.This is the only house in Tangier where I am not received with fitting love and respect, and yet I have done more for you than for any other person.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 Inot 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? Yes, I am of the old Moors of Garnata, and my family has lived here, as is well known, since Garnata was lost to the Nazarenes, and now Iam the only one of my family of the blood of the old Moors in all this land, and on that account I am of nobler blood than the sultan, for the sultan is not of the blood of the Moors of Garnata.Do you laugh, Joanna? Does your maid Johar laugh?

Am I not Hammin Widdir, EL HOMBRE MAS VALIDO DE TANGER? And is it not true that I am of the blood of the Moors of Garnata?

Deny it, and I will kill you both, you and your maid Johar.""You have been eating hashish and majoon, Hammin," said Joanna Correa, "and the Shaitan has entered into you, as he but too frequently does.I have been busy, and so has Johar, or we should have spoken to you before; however, mai doorshee (ITDOES NOT SIGNIFY), I know how to pacify you now and at all times, will you take some gin-bitters, or a glass of common makhiah?""May you burst, O Joanna," said the Mulatto, "and may Johar also burst; I mean, may you both live many years, and know neither pain nor sorrow.I will take the gin-bitters, OJoanna, because they are stronger than the makhiah, which always appears to me like water; and I like not water, though Icarry it.Many thanks to you, Joanna, here is health to you, Joanna, and to this good company."She had handed him a large tumbler filled to the brim; he put it to his nostrils, snuffled in the flavour, and then applying it to his mouth, removed it not whilst one drop of the fluid remained.His features gradually relaxed from their former angry expression, and looking particularly amiable at Joanna, he at last said: