Shedma man.—"Dog! you have put your hands of the devil into my bag of barley."
Hhaha man.—"Dog and Jew, you lie!"
Shedma man.—"Jew and Frenchman! there's some one now in your wife's tent."
Hhaha man.—"Religion of the Frenchman! your mother has been dishonoured a thousand times."
The maternal honour is the dearest of things amongst these semi-barbarians. At the mention of this libel on his mother, the Shedma fellow rushed at the Hhaha man, seizing him by the throat, and unsheathed a dirk to plunge into his bowels. The scuffle fortunately excited the instant attention of a group of Arabs close by, who, securing both, carried them before the Shiekh; who, without hearing the subject of the quarrel, bastinadoed them both with his own hand. But he was the Hhaha Sheikh, and the Shedma Sheikh complained to the Governor of his man having been bastinadoed by the other Sheikh. The Governor dismissed them, each threatening the other with due vengeance.
It is time to give some account of Mogador. We sometimes spell the name with an e, Mogadore, the inhabitants call their town Shweerah. Square, [30] in allusion to its beauty, for it is the only town constructed altogether on geometrical principles throughout Morocco. Its form, however, is really a triangle. Mogador is a modern city, having been built in the year 1760 of our era, by the Sultan Sidi Mohammed, under the direction of a French engineer of the name of Cornut, who was assisted by Spanish renegades.
The object of Sidi Mahommed was to found a central emporium of the commerce of the Empire, and a port for the southern capital (Morocco). This town belongs to the province of Hhaha, whose Berber tribes are its natural defenders.
The site is a sandy beach with a rocky foundation or a base on the sea, forming a peninsula, and is supposed to be the ancient Erythraea. The houses are regularly built, with streets in direct lines, extremely convenient though somewhat narrow. The residences of the consuls and European merchants are elegant and spacious. There is a large market-place, which, on days when the market is not held, furnishes a splendid parade, or "corso" for exercising cavalry.
The city is divided into two parts; one division contains the citadel, the public offices, the residence of the governor, and several houses occupied by European consuls and merchants, which are all the property of the Sultan; and the other is the space occupied by the houses of the Moors and Jews.
The Jews have a quarter or willah to themselves, which is locked up during the night, the key being kept by the police. Nevertheless, several Jews, especially Imperial traders, are allowed to occupy houses in the Moorish quarter or citadel portion of Mogador, with the Christian merchants.