Chapter Eighty One.
The Jews’ Leap.
The road followed by Rais Mourad on the day after leaving Santa Cruz was through a country of very uneven surface.
Part of the time the kafila would be traversing a narrow valley by the seashore, and in the next hour following a zigzag path up the side of some precipitous mountain.
In such places the animals would have to proceed in single file, while the Moor kept constantly cautioning his slaves against falling from the backs of their horses.
While stopping for an hour at noon for the animals to be rested, the Krooman turned over a flat stone, and underneath it discovered a large scorpion.
After making a hole in the sand about six inches deep, and five or six in diameter, he “chucked” the reptile into it.
He then went in search of a few more scorpions to keep the prisoner company. Under nearly every stone turned over, one or more of these reptiles were found; all of which the Krooman cast into the hole where he had placed the first.
When he had secured about a dozen within the walls of a prison from which they could not escape, he began teasing them with a stick.
Enraged at this treatment, the reptiles commenced a mortal combat among themselves, a spectacle which was witnessed by the white slaves with about the same interest as that between the two Arabs in the morning. In other words, they did not care who got the worst of it.