All his efforts, however, being unavailing to ride him deeper in, he fell to washing him strenuously with his hands, then leading him out, he dressed himself and returned by the way he came.
"Good are the horses of the Moslems," said my old friend, "where will you find such? They will descend rocky mountains at full speed and neither trip nor fall, but you must be cautious with the horses of the Moslems, and treat them with kindness, for the horses of the Moslems are proud, and they like not being slaves.When they are young and first mounted, jerk not their mouths with your bit, for be sure if you do they will kill you; sooner or later, you will perish beneath their feet.Good are our horses; and good our riders, yea, very good are the Moslems at mounting the horse; who are like them? Ionce saw a Frank rider compete with a Moslem on this beach, and at first the Frank rider had it all his own way, and he passed the Moslem, but the course was long, very long, and the horse of the Frank rider, which was a Frank also, panted; but the horse of the Moslem panted not, for he was a Moslem also, and the Moslem rider at last gave a cry and the horse sprang forward and he overtook the Frank horse, and then the Moslem rider stood up in his saddle.How did he stand? Truly he stood on his head, and these eyes saw him; he stood on his head in the saddle as he passed the Frank rider; and he cried ha!
ha! as he passed the Frank rider; and the Moslem horse cried ha! ha! as he passed the Frank breed, and the Frank lost by a far distance.Good are the Franks; good their horses; but better are the Moslems, and better the horses of the Moslems."We now directed our steps towards the town, but not by the path we came: turning to the left under the hill of the mearrah, and along the strand, we soon came to a rudely paved way with a steep ascent, which wound beneath the wall of the town to a gate, before which, on one side, were various little pits like graves, filled with water or lime."This is Dar Dwag," said the Mahasni; "this is the house of the bark, and to this house are brought the hides; all those which are prepared for use in Tangier are brought to this house, and here they are cured with lime, and bran, and bark, and herbs.And in this Dar Dwag there are one hundred and forty pits; I have counted them myself; and there were more which have now ceased to be, for the place is very ancient.And these pits are hired not by one, nor by two, but by many people, and whosoever list can rent one of these pits and cure the hides which he may need;but the owner of all is one man, and his name is Cado Ableque.
And now my sultan has seen the house of the bark, and I will show him nothing more this day; for to-day is Youm al Jumal (FRIDAY), and the gates will be presently shut whilst the Moslems perform their devotions.So I will accompany my sultan to the guest house, and there I will leave him for the present."We accordingly passed through a gate, and ascending a street found ourselves before the mosque where I had stood in the morning; in another minute or two we were at the door of Joanna Correa.I now offered my kind guide a piece of silver as a remuneration for his trouble, whereupon he drew himself up and said:-"The silver of my sultan I will not take, for I consider that I have done nothing to deserve it.We have not yet visited all the wonderful things of this blessed town.On a future day I will conduct my sultan to the castle of the governor, and to other places which my sultan will be glad to see; and when we have seen all we can, and my sultan is content with me, if at any time he see me in the soc of a morning, with my basket in my hand, and he see nothing in that basket, then is my sultan at liberty as a friend to put grapes in my basket, or bread in my basket, or fish or meat in my basket.That will I not refuse of my sultan, when I shall have done more for him than I have now.But the silver of my sultan will I not take now nor at any time." He then waved his hand gently and departed.
