t to lash him again!"

* * * * *

Next day as we pass the gaol we stop to inquire after the prisoner,
but the poor fellow is still too weak to receive the balance due, and
so it is for several days. Then they tell us that he has been freed
from them by God, who has summoned his spirit, though meanwhile the
kindly attentions of a doctor have been secured, and everything
possible under the circumstances has been done to relieve his
sufferings. After all, he was "only a Moor!"

* * * * *

The Greek consul reported that the condition of the Moorish prisons
was a disgrace to the age, and that he had himself known prisoners who
had succumbed to their evil state after receiving a few strokes from
the lash.

A statement of claim for a thousand dollars, alleged to have been
robbed from his house, was forwarded by courier to his chief, then at
Court, and was promptly added to the demands that it was part of His
Excellency's errand to enforce.

XXVII

THE PROTECTION SYSTEM

"My heart burns, but my lips will not give utterance."

_Moorish Proverb._

I. THE NEED

Crouched at the foreigner's feet lay what appeared but a bundle of
rags, in reality a suppliant Moor, once a man of wealth and position.
Hugging a pot of butter brought as an offering, clutching convulsively
at the leg of the chair, his furrowed face bespoke past suffering and
present earnestness.

"God bless thee, Bashador, and all the Christians, and give me grace
in thy sight!"

"Oh, indeed, so you like the Christians?"

"Yes, Bashador, I must love the Christians; they have justice, we have
none. I wish they had rule over the country."

"Then you are not a good Muslim!"

"Oh yes, I am, I am a haj (pilgrim to Mekka), and I love my own
religion, certainly I do, but none of our officials follow our
religion nowadays: they have no religion. They forget God and worship
money; their delight is in plunder and oppression."

"You appear to have known better days. What is your trouble?"

"Trouble enough," replies the Moor, with a sigh. "I am Hamed Zirari.
I was rich once, and powerful in my tribe, but now I have only this
sheep and two goats. I and my wife live alone with our children in a
nuallah (hut), but after all we are happier now when they leave us
alone, than when we were rich. I have plenty of land left, it is true,
but we dare not for our lives cultivate more than a small