I Was So Occupied In Inspecting The House Of Joanna Correa, That At
First I Paid Little Attention To That Lady Herself.
She now,
however, came up upon the terrace where my guide and myself were
standing.
She was a woman about five and forty, with regular
features, which had once been handsome, but had received
considerable injury from time, and perhaps more from trouble. Two
of her front teeth had disappeared, but she still had fine black
hair. As I looked upon her countenance, I said within myself, if
there be truth in physiognomy, thou art good and gentle, O Joanna;
and, indeed, the kindness I experienced from her during the six
weeks which I spent beneath her roof would have made me a convert
to that science had I doubted in it before. I believe no warmer
and more affectionate heart ever beat in human bosom than in that
of Joanna Correa, the Mahonese widow, and it was indexed by
features beaming with benevolence and good nature, though somewhat
clouded with melancholy.
She informed me that she had been married to a Genoese, the master
of a felouk which passed between Gibraltar and Tangier, who had
been dead about four years, leaving her with a family of four
children, the eldest of which was a lad of thirteen; that she had
experienced great difficulty in providing for her family and
herself since the death of her husband, but that Providence had
raised her up a few excellent friends, especially the British
consul; that besides letting lodgings to such travellers as myself,
she made bread which was in high esteem with the Moors, and that
she was likewise in partnership in the sale of liquors with an old
Genoese. She added, that this last person lived below in one of
the apartments; that he was a man of great ability and much
learning, but that she believed he was occasionally somewhat
touched here, pointing with her finger to her forehead, and she
therefore hoped that I would not be offended at anything
extraordinary in his language or behaviour. She then left me, as
she said, to give orders for my breakfast; whereupon the Jewish
domestic, who had accompanied me from the consul, finding that I
was established in the house, departed.
I speedily sat down to breakfast in an apartment on the left side
of the little wustuddur, the fare was excellent; tea, fried fish,
eggs, and grapes, not forgetting the celebrated bread of Joanna
Correa. I was waited upon by a tall Jewish youth of about twenty
years, who informed me that his name was Haim Ben Atar, that he was
a native of Fez, from whence his parents brought him at a very
early age to Tangier, where he had passed the greater part of his
life principally in the service of Joanna Correa, waiting upon
those who, like myself, lodged in the house. I had completed my
meal, and was seated in the little court, when I heard in the
apartment opposite to that in which I had breakfasted several
sighs, which were succeeded by as many groans, and then came "Ave
Maria, gratia plena, ora pro me," and finally a croaking voice
chanted:-
"Gentem auferte perfidam
Credentium de finibus,
Ut Christo laudes debitas
Persolvamus alacriter."
"That is the old Genoese," whispered Haim Ben Atar, "praying to his
God, which he always does with particular devotion when he happens
to have gone to bed the preceding evening rather in liquor.
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