‘An altercation now broke out between the soldiers and the executioner about the reward promised for the decapitation of the two poor creatures, who stood by and listened to the dispute over the blood-money. The executioner insisted, declaring that he had been promised twenty francs a head, and must have forty for the two. The officer at last agreed, but with a very ill grace. Then the butcher seized one of the condemned men, already half dead with terror, threw him on the ground, kneeled on his chest, and put the knife into his throat. The Englishman turned away his face. He heard the sounds of the violent struggle. The executioner cried out: “Give me another knife; mine does not cut!” Another knife was brought, and the head separated from the body. The soldiers cried in a faint voice: “God prolong the life of our lord and master!” but many of them were stupefied.

‘Then came the other victim, the handsome and amiable-looking young man. Again they wrangled over his blood. The officer, denying his promise, declared that he would give but twenty francs for both heads. The butcher was forced to yield. The condemned man asked that his hands might be unbound. Being loosed, he took his cloak and gave it to the soldier who had unbound him, saying: “Accept this; we shall meet in a better world.” He threw his turban to another, who had been looking at him with compassion; and stepping to the place where lay the bloody corpse of his companion, he said in a clear, firm voice: “There is no God but God, and Mohammed is His prophet!” Then, taking off his belt, he gave it to the executioner, saying: “Take it; but for the love of God cut my head off more quickly than you did my brother’s.” He stretched himself upon the earth, in the blood, and the executioner kneeled upon his chest....

‘A few minutes after, two bleeding heads were held up by the soldiers. Then the gates of the city were opened and there came forth a crowd of boys who pursued the executioner with stones for three miles, when he fell fainting to the ground covered with wounds. The next day it was known that he had been shot by a relation of one of the victims.... The authorities of Tangier apparently did not trouble themselves about the matter, since the assassin came back into the city and remained unmolested. After having been exposed three days the heads were sent to the Sultan, in order that his Imperial Majesty might recognise the promptitude with which his orders had been fulfilled.’

Since this incident of thirty years ago Tangier has changed. No longer may a man be flogged in public in the Sok; no longer may the slave be sold at auction; no longer may the heads of the Sultan’s enemies hang upon the gates; for the place is dominated now by foreign ministers. Though still in name within the empire of the Sultan, it is defiled for ever, gone over to the Christian.

CHAPTER IX
RAISULI PROTECTED BY GREAT BRITAIN

Two years ago Tangier and the surrounding districts were governed by one Mulai Hamid ben Raisul, better known as Raisuli, a villainous blackguard who was finally deposed through the interference of the foreign legations. To-day this same Raisuli enjoys the interest on £15,000 (£5,000 having been given him in cash) and the protection ordinarily accorded to a British subject; and these favours are his because he deprived of liberty for seven months Kaid Sir Harry Maclean, a British subject in the employ of the Sultan Abdul Aziz. According to the terms of the ransom, which permit Raisuli, if he conducts himself in honourable fashion, to receive the sum invested for him at the end of three years, it is probable that the world will hear no more of him in his popular rôle; and, therefore, it might be interesting—also because of the light the story will throw on the ways of the Moorish Government and of diplomacy at Tangier—to sum up the exploits of this notorious brigand.

A RIFF TRIBESMAN. A MAGHZEN SOLDIER.

Raisuli, as his title Mulai implies, is a Shereef or descendant of the Prophet, and partly for that distinction, aside from personal power, he holds a certain influence over the K’mass and other tribes about Tangier. Being a shrewder villain than the others of his race who aspire to govern districts, he adopted early in his career other methods than that which is the custom—of purchasing positions from the Maghzen. The system of buying a governorship, to hold it only till some other Moor bought it over the head of the first and sent him to prison, did not appeal to Raisuli. The mountains of the Riff were impregnable against the feeble forces of the Sultan, and for a rifle and a little not-too-dangerous fighting all his tribesfolk could be got to serve him as their leader. So Raisuli started out for power—a thing the Moor loves—in a manner new to Morocco.

It was in 1903 that he captured his first European, the Times correspondent, W. B. Harris, who, speaking Arabic, negotiated his own surrender, and within three weeks left the mountains of the Riff on the release of a number of Raisuli’s men from Moorish prisons. For a year thereafter there prevailed intense fear in the suburbs, outside the walls of Tangier, where the better class of Europeans live. Raisuli had many followers, and the Maghzen was powerless against him, while raids about Tangier and robberies were of almost nightly occurrence. Yet some of the Europeans, those who felt a sentimental interest in the independence of Morocco and wanted to see the good old Moorish ways survive, seemed ready to welcome ‘the really strong man who was coming to the fore.’ It fell to the lot of an American of Greek descent, a Mr. Perdicaris, to receive the next pressing invitation to the interior. Raisuli and a band of followers entered the Perdicaris home one evening, and after breaking up many things, packing off others, and maltreating his wife, they escorted the American himself to their mountain fastnesses. As is the usual way of Western governments in these matters—I do not intend to suggest another method—the State Department at Washington demanded from the Sultan the release of the captive, pressing the demand with the visit of a warship. The Maghzen, seeing no other way, met Raisuli’s terms, again releasing many tribesmen, and paying the brigand £11,000, besides establishing him as governor of Tangier.