Truly he stood on his head, and
these eyes saw him; he stood on his head in the saddle as he passed
the Frank rider; and he cried ha!
Ha! as he passed the Frank rider;
and the Moslem horse cried ha! ha! as he passed the Frank breed,
and the Frank lost by a far distance. Good are the Franks; good
their horses; but better are the Moslems, and better the horses of
the Moslems."
We now directed our steps towards the town, but not by the path we
came: turning to the left under the hill of the mearrah, and along
the strand, we soon came to a rudely paved way with a steep ascent,
which wound beneath the wall of the town to a gate, before which,
on one side, were various little pits like graves, filled with
water or lime. "This is Dar Dwag," said the Mahasni; "this is the
house of the bark, and to this house are brought the hides; all
those which are prepared for use in Tangier are brought to this
house, and here they are cured with lime, and bran, and bark, and
herbs. And in this Dar Dwag there are one hundred and forty pits;
I have counted them myself; and there were more which have now
ceased to be, for the place is very ancient. And these pits are
hired not by one, nor by two, but by many people, and whosoever
list can rent one of these pits and cure the hides which he may
need; but the owner of all is one man, and his name is Cado
Ableque. And now my sultan has seen the house of the bark, and I
will show him nothing more this day; for to-day is Youm al Jumal
(Friday), and the gates will be presently shut whilst the Moslems
perform their devotions. So I will accompany my sultan to the
guest house, and there I will leave him for the present."
We accordingly passed through a gate, and ascending a street found
ourselves before the mosque where I had stood in the morning; in
another minute or two we were at the door of Joanna Correa. I now
offered my kind guide a piece of silver as a remuneration for his
trouble, whereupon he drew himself up and said:-
"The silver of my sultan I will not take, for I consider that I
have done nothing to deserve it. We have not yet visited all the
wonderful things of this blessed town. On a future day I will
conduct my sultan to the castle of the governor, and to other
places which my sultan will be glad to see; and when we have seen
all we can, and my sultan is content with me, if at any time he see
me in the soc of a morning, with my basket in my hand, and he see
nothing in that basket, then is my sultan at liberty as a friend to
put grapes in my basket, or bread in my basket, or fish or meat in
my basket.
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