Page:Sixteen years of an artist's life in Morocco, Spain and the Canary Islands.djvu/21

interchange of blows and scratches. But this was not all. The hands were not their only weapons of offence. Another unruly member was called in to add its zest to the bitterness of the fray, and the achievements of the tongue afforded by far the greatest amusement to the stranger who was the object of this pretty quarrel, which seemed to have been got up for the express purpose of giving her an insight into one of the varieties of low life in Morocco. Oh! the eloquence of their mutual abuse, as the two poured out, from the abundance of the heart, curses on their respective great-grandfathers. Nor was I allowed to escape without my share of what they were so liberally bestowing upon each other. As I could not be divided between the two rivals, as one must win me and for the time wear me, the rejected suitor for the honour of carrying me ashore, gave vent to his disappointment in a volley of curses against me and my progenitors, while I was carried to the beach in the arms of his triumphant rival. But, alas, for the reputation of Jewish gallantry, how did the fellow treat me as soon as he had discharged the duty for which he considered himself engaged? Before I was aware of what he was about to do, or could anticipate the fate reserved for me, he plumped me down on my hands and face in the sand; and after thus