A curious incident took place during David’s visit to the Uzir. I sent with him my soldier Abd-el-Kerim and a servant, Hadj Abd Selam, who is a Sheríf and the grandson of the patron saint of Tangier, Sid Mohammed-el-Hadj. The Uzir, on hearing who the latter was, went forward and kissed the hem of his garment, asking for his blessing; yet this holy man serves me in the double capacity of housemaid and valet.
Whilst writing this, the Sheríf and my servant Kaddor have come to tell me they have just seen the Sultan returning from the mosque. When His Majesty approached they prostrated themselves on the ground. The Sultan reined in his horse and sent an usher to ask who they were and from whence they came. They replied, ‘We are servants of the Roman’ (meaning me). His Majesty sent them a civil message and rode on. We are living indeed in a country where there is a strange mixture of patriarchal and tyrannical government.
April 11. Rode out at three o’clock, accompanied by the Lieutenant-Governor, the Kaid of the town-guards, and a dozen of foot-soldiers, also some of my own escort. I requested to be shown round the outside of the town. After riding through dilapidated streets, in which there were no signs of present or past opulence either in the buildings or in anything else (Ben Yáhia calls this town the ‘Mother of Villages,’ meaning that it is composed of poor buildings), we sallied out of one of the gates of the town and commenced the circuit.
On our left were several picturesque tombs: here the great saint, Sid Bel-Abbas, is interred, also many of the Sultans; amongst others, Mulai Yazid, whose mother was an Irishwoman.
It is said that formerly the Moors erected busts or effigies over the tombs of the Sultans in this city, typical of their good or bad qualities. Thus the liberal Sultan was depicted with a hand extended; the sordid one with his hand closed; the warrior with a sword. Mulai Yazid, being both a warrior and liberal, was represented with one hand open and a sword in the other.
Mulai Soliman, in a fit of fanaticism, destroyed all these effigies as being impious and against the interpretation of the law of the Prophet Mohammed, and ordered inscriptions to be written in their places.
As we passed near this spot a negro saint, or holy maniac, brandished a club at us. But the Lieutenant-Governor, beckoning him to his side, kissed his garment, and the saint, patting his Excellency on the back, satisfied his diseased brain by pointing his stick, as a gun, at our cursed Nazareneships. The Lieutenant-Governor was not communicative and seemed to dislike the evening’s jaunt; so, I suppose, he accompanied me malgré lui. He rode the whole way muttering his prayers, and every now and then, holding his hand in the manner that is called ‘fatha’ towards some distant saint’s tomb, he appeared to pray; but perhaps called down imprecations on our doomed heads. God bless the old fool! If I had an hour’s talk with him, I would leave him some doubts as to which of us is the most fit for Jehannum.
We rode for an hour-and-a-half round the walls, and yet, as I am told, had not got half way. As sunset was nigh, I proposed to finish our ride round the town another day.
We entered a gate near the Kutubía mosque, and passing by a very handsome archway, now blocked up, but formerly, I am told, leading to a Governor’s house, we rode past ruins and through gardens in the midst of them. This town was once very extensive. It is said to have had formerly four hundred thousand inhabitants. I don’t give it now a hundred thousand. The ancient mosques, which are numerous and very handsome, show what it must have been; and the inside of the Kutubía, of which we had a glance in passing, is quite a maze of columns. An old soldier of the Second Guards, in writing of this capital, described its numerous but narrow streets in ancient times thus: ‘When the traveller entered the city gates he did not see sunshine again until he left the town.’ In speaking of the value of the land, which is now worthless and sold at the lowest price for gardens, he said, ‘Ground was formerly purchased by covering the surface to be bought with coins laid close to one another.’ He spoke also of the denseness of the population, the wealth of the inhabitants, and facility of making money in those times, and records a tradition that a vendor of sugar-plums made five hundred ducats in one day by hawking his goods at Bab-el-Khemés—or Thursday-gate—which is now closed.
I should have mentioned that we passed, outside the town, the Hara, or village of lepers; it is close to the walls of the city.