When he found that ordinary means of persuasion failed, he had resort to more drastic measures. He could not imagine fresh feasts and public occasions, auspicious or otherwise, on which to collect "presents" from them, so he satisfied himself by bringing specious charges against the more wealthy Jews and fining them, as well as by encouraging Moors to accuse them in various ways. Many of the payments to the governor being in small and mutilated coin, every Friday he sent to the Jews what he had received during the week, demanding a round sum in Spanish dollars, far more than their fair value. Then when he had forced upon them a considerable quantity of this depreciated stuff, he would send a crier round notifying the public that it was out of circulation and no longer legal tender, moreover giving warning that the "Jew's money" was not to be trusted, as it was known that they had counterfeit coins in their possession. It was then time to offer them half price for it, which they had no option but to accept, though some while later he would re-issue it at its full value, and having permitted its circulation, would force it upon them again.
The repairs which it was found necessary to effect in the kasbah, the equipment of troops, the contributions to the expenses of the Sultan's[page 260] expeditions, or the payment of indemnities to foreign nations, were constantly recurring pretexts for levying fresh sums from the Jews as well as from the Moors, and these were the legal ones. The illegal were too harrowing for description. Young children and old men were brutally thrashed and then imprisoned till they or their friends paid heavy ransoms, and even the women occasionally suffered in this way. On Sabbaths and fast days orders would be issued to the Jews, irrespective of age or rank, to perform heavy work for the governor, perhaps to drag some heavy load or block of stone. Those who could buy themselves off were fortunate: those who could not do so were harnessed and driven like cattle under the lashes of yard-long whips, being compelled when their work was done to pay their taskmasters. Indeed, it was Egypt over again, but there was no Moses. Men or women found with shoes on were bastinadoed and heavily fined, and on more than one occasion the sons of the best-off Israelites were arrested in school on the charge of having used disrespectful language regarding the Sultan, and thrown into prison chained head and feet, in such a manner that it was impossible to stretch their bodies. Thus they were left for days without food, all but dead, in spite of the desire of their relatives to support them, till ransoms of two hundred dollars apiece could be raised to obtain their release, in some cases three months after their incarceration.
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XXIX
CIVIL WAR IN MOROCCO
"Wound of speech is worse than wound of sword."
Moorish Proverb.
Spies were already afield when the sun rose this morning, and while their return with the required information was eagerly expected, those of Asni who would be warriors took a hasty breakfast and looked to their horses and guns.
Directly intelligence as to the whereabouts of the Aït Mîzán arrived, the cavalcade set forth, perforce in Indian file, on account of the narrow single track, but wherever it was possible those behind pressed forward and passed their comrades in their eagerness to reach the scene of action. No idea of order or military display crossed their minds, and but for the skirmishers who scoured the country round as they advanced, it would have been easy for a concealed foe to have picked them off one by one. Nevertheless they made a gallant show in the morning sun, which glinted on their ornamented stirrups and their flint-locks, held like lances, with the butts upon the pummels before them. The varied colours of their trappings, though old and worn, looked gay by the side of the red cloth-covered saddles and the gun-cases of similar material used by many as turbans. But for the[page 262] serious expression on the faces of the majority, and the eager scanning of each knoll and shrub, the party might have been intent on powder-play instead of powder-business.