The Library Magazine of Select Foreign Literature: All volumesVarious
History
The Library Magazine of Select Foreign Literature: All volumes
Various
Periodicals
As I passed along the narrow lane wherein the soldiers of the Kaid or
Governor, in the snowiest of _haiks_ and tallest and reddest of
_tarbooshes_, squatted against the wall, chatting blithely as they awaited
the advent of their master, a grave and venerable-looking Moorish
grandpapa, hurrying along with a great armful of cakes in one of the folds
of his _haik_, stumbled against a loose stone and dropped several of the
cakes.
I hastily stooped and picked them up; the old man muttered a few words of
blessing upon me, insisted on my accepting the dainties I had rescued from
the dust, utterly refused to receive them back, pressed my hand, and
hurried on, leaving me in a state of embarrassment, from which I was
opportunely relieved by the arrival of a bright-eyed little Moor of seven
or eight summers, who was perfectly willing to relieve me from all trouble
connected with the handful of cakes. Passing into the busy streets of the
Moorish quarter, I found the population coming out of the various mosques,
where they had been to morning service, and now going in for a systematic
course of "greetings in the market-place," and purchasing of presents. O,
for an artist's pencil and colours to depict the gorgeous costumes of the
town Moors, the quaint, wild garb of their country cousins; the gauzy
cream-tinted _haiks_ from Morocco; the rich silken _caftans_ of purple, or
crimson, or yellow, or green, or azure, or pink, sweetly half-veiled by a
fold or two of snowy gauze thrown over them; the bright red fez caps, and
voluminous snowy turbans of the patriarchal-looking old men; the broad
silken sashes from Fez, heavy and stiff with rich embroidery of gold; the
great curved daggers in their richly chased silver or brass sheaths,
suspended amid the folds of the _haik_ by thick woolen cords of gay
colours; the handsome brown faces, the flashing black eyes, the wonderful
white teeth, the sinewy brown bare legs, the brand-new yellow slippers of
the merry Moors of Mogador!
And the negroes, or, as old Fuller would quaintly have called them, "the
images of God cut in ebony," how their honest black features glistened,
and how their bright teeth grinned beneath turban or fez, or gaudy
handkerchief of many colours!
The negro servant of one of the European residents, a good-humoured giant
of nearly seven feet, whom his master is wont to describe as "his nigger
and a half," came stalking down amongst the little shops and stalls with a
flaunting bandanna round his head, a purple jacket, a most gorgeous sash,
a pair of green baggy breeches, a glittering silver-sheathed dagger, and a
most imposing _haik_, thrown in toga-like folds over all.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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