[223] The Mussulman is indeed enjoined by the Koran to eat without asking questions whatever is offered to him by _a Christian_, as well as a Jew, but this they do not always practise. [224] “In Terjgient there is a people called the Medjehrahs, of Jewish extraction, who, to escape death (?) embraced Islamism. They have the peculiar Jewish features, and the Arabs say, their houses have the Jewish smell. They live in quarters set apart for themselves, but they do not intermarry: they are scribes and merchants, but are never raised to the office of Caïd or Imaum. They do not observe Friday as the Sabbath.”--DAVIDSON’S _Journal_. [225] Whence the Greek Δεἴπνον. CHAPTER IV. THE BAÏRAM. December 10th. This morning Mustafa Ducaly sent me, by his man Selam, a “Dollond,” and a ladder, telling me to run to Hassan to see the Baïram, which was to be held on the downs to the south of the city, without the Caïd’s permission, and a guard was enjoined not to cross the threshold. Authorities and soldiers had all deserted the city. Selam sallied out in search of some one who should pass for a guard, and found a soldier belonging to Tangier who was familiar with Europeans. After passing the gate, I found myself for the first time at liberty to roam, and could not resist the temptation; so, instead of turning to the left towards the tower, we turned through the gardens to the right, hoping to get through the second wall, or to see the Baïram from it. We made for a huge gate, but on reaching it found it barred. The wall was about forty feet high, and in good repair: there were no staircases. All chance of getting a glimpse of the ceremony was now lost, and we rambled along through the gardens; but the ignorance of our elected guards, strangers, like ourselves, as to what was or was not _taboo_, was worse than the severity of our regular keepers. They were at every turn, doubting, fearing, warning, objecting. Our course was like that of a vessel feeling her way over sand-banks: one moment it was “starboard,” the next “hard-a-port.” “There it is bad,” would our pilot exclaim, and ever and anon we were laid all aback, with the “breakers ahead” of “Saint’s Tomb.” We worked on till we came to a gate in the wall facing the east, and issuing forth, beheld another city. This could be no other than the Shallah, of which we had heard so often, and from which spring-water was daily brought. Neither Christian nor Jew is allowed so much as to approach it. Profiting by the occasion, I hastened on before my companions’ fears could rally, or their remonstrances be urged. The gate, or rather barbican (for the Moorish word is required to convey the Moorish thing), is peculiarly constructed and ornamented. The arch is the horse-shoe, pointed like the Gothic. The vivid colours and stuccos which elsewhere adorn the interiors here, as of Babylon and Ecbatana, are displayed outside;--the style is quaint and rich.