With an hysterical laugh the Uzir, seeing the man hesitate, said, ‘The Bashador is right: go and fetch another chair.’ I rose and saluted the Uzir, saying, ‘We will converse standing until the other chair is brought.’
I had an object in all this, for I knew that by pricking the wind-bag of vanity and fanaticism of the Uzir I should better prepare him to treat with me upon business and obtain satisfactory results; and thus it proved.
In a private conversation with the Sultan one day, I alluded in delicate language to the stupidity and unfitness of Uzir Mokhta. His Majesty replied, smiling at my remark, that Alarbi Mokhta being the chief of a powerful tribe, the ‘Jarmai,’ he had placed him in an influential position, adding, ‘he is yet an unbroken “tsaur” (ox), who in due time will be tamed by the yoke and will improve.’
The palace built by Mokhta since his appointment as Uzir is worthy of his ancestors the Moors of Spain, who erected the splendid monuments of architecture at Granada and Seville.
The arches, the designs in stucco, the wooden ceilings, all carved and painted in elaborate arabesque, are as beautiful as those of the ancient palaces I have seen in Andalusia.
The Uzir is said to have spent on this building upwards of $100,000, money obtained by peculation, extortion, and other corrupt practices; for, though the Sultan’s Ministers are not paid, the emoluments derived from his official position by the Uzir far exceed the salary of our Prime Minister at home.
Though Mokhta did not, and never could, like me, yet, as a proof that my action and language took the nonsense out of him, the morning I left the Court, when about to call on the Uzir to take leave, I met him, and having mentioned my intention, he begged me not to take the trouble to call, saying that he would have the pleasure of accompanying me to the gates of the town (a mile distant). This he did, and we parted apparently the best of friends.
Poison is said to be frequently employed at the Court to get rid of obnoxious persons of rank. A cup of coffee is a dangerous beverage when offered by a Moorish host, with whom you may not happen to be on friendly terms. The effect of the subtle poison which can thus be administered is rarely immediate; but weeks or months after, the victim’s hair commences to fall off, and he dies gradually in a state of emaciation.
On one occasion, after an angry discussion with Mokhta, coffee was brought. I noticed that he took the cup intended for me, put it to his lips, making a noise as if sipping,—but which I thought sounded suspiciously like blowing into the liquid,—and then offered it to me. Not fancying the bubbled coffee, I declined, saying to the Uzir, ‘I could not drink before you; pray keep that cup yourself’—helping myself, while speaking, to the other, which I drank.
The Uzir put down the cup he had offered me, without drinking it. This, after all, he may have done from tiff, and not because there was really any poison in it.