Q. His profits then consisted in the corrupt administration of justice?
A. Yes.
Q. A Caïd in Rabat may then be guilty of corruption, but not of violence?
A. Of corruption and violence too.
He then related to me the following story:—
“Four months ago, the boy now cooking in the patio rushed in dressed as a Moor, and throwing his cap on the ground called out, “I am a Jew. I claim the protection of France and England.” Soldiers followed him, but I would not let them take him from under my roof. His father was a renegade. His property (3000 dollars) was placed, on his death, in the hands of an executor, who—the children under nine years of age being held to be of their father’s faith—forced him from his mother. Refusing to profess Islamism, the mother and the boy were confined apart, and she was beaten to induce her to influence her son. The boy at last did pronounce the words “La Illah,” &c.; his head was shaved; the Mussulman dress put on him, and he was about, as is the custom, to be paraded on horseback through the town, but he recanted. This is death by the Mussulman law. Those who were present describe the child’s acts and words as wonderful. He said to the Caïd, “Mahomet has not had power to convert me, and your acts make me hate his faith.” After this, he made his escape to the consulate, and the door has been besieged by persons seeking either to force, or to seduce him away. Frequently the governor sent me messages about him. On one of these occasions, the soldiers while sitting in the court, kept constantly calling to him by the name of “Abdallah,” which they had given him. For some time he took no notice, and returned no answer. At last he said, “Why do you call Abdallah? The boy with that name is dead. There is only here Meshod.”
At my request the boy was sent for: he seemed dogged and stupid, and made very light of his trials. It was with difficulty that I extracted from him a bare corroboration of the story. On being repeatedly urged by questions, he said he had answered the Caïd, “I won’t be a Mussulman; for your religion has no strength. I forgive you my money that I may be a Jew.” I said to him he ought to be very grateful to the Consul for having befriended him: his answer was, “I am thankful to God.”
This was one of the occasions on which the religious feelings of the people were liable to the extremest excitement. In no Mussulman country have the Jews been subjected, as in Europe, to processes for compelling conversion; but, on the other hand, to relapse after pronouncing the fatal words is a crime for which there is no forgiveness in the Law, and no power of mercy in the State. The whole case here rested upon the boy’s having uttered the profession of faith; yet in the official correspondence which I have perused, this fact is suppressed.
The persecution in this case arose from the guardian, who would have been remunerated for the management of the funds by one-third of the property, had the boy been a Mussulman; but, being a Jew, he could not inherit from his Mussulman father, and the whole of the property would go to the Sultan. The Caïd’s profit was out of the counter-bribery of the guardian and the mother. The circumstances becoming known, general indignation was aroused against the Caïd. Immediately afterward the application was made to the Sultan for his removal; and this was one of the charges preferred against him.
A parallel incident, which occurred five or six years ago, has been introduced and falsified on the Spanish stage. I repeat it as it was narrated to me by the Jew, who detailed it to the Spanish Dramatists:—