he people
bowed their heads, and our poor governor bowed his head, and the sweet
young ladies bowed their heads, and the sharking priests, whilst the
idiotical parson Platitude tried to fling himself down; and then there
were various evolutions withinside the pale, and the scarlet figures got
up and sat down, and this kind of thing continued for some time. At
length the figure which I had seen in the principal stall came forth and
advanced towards the people; an awful figure he was, a huge old man with
a sugar-loaf hat, with a sulphur-coloured dress, and holding a crook in
his hand like that of a shepherd; and as he advanced the people fell on
their knees, our poor old governor amongst them; the sweet young ladies,
the sharking priests, the idiotical parson Platitude, all fell on their
knees, and somebody or other tried to pull me on my knees; but by this
time I had become outrageous, all that my poor brother used to tell me of
the superstitions of the high Barbary shore rushed into my mind, and I
thought they were acting them over here; above all, the idea that the
sweet young ladies, to say nothing of my poor old governor, were, after
the conclusion of all this mummery, going to deliver themselves up body
and soul into the power of that horrid-looking old man, maddened me, and,
rushing forward into the open space, I confronted the horrible-looking
old figure with the sugar-loaf hat, the sulphur-coloured garments, and
shepherd's crook, and shaking my fist at his nose, I bellowed out in
English--

"'I don't care for you, old Mumbo Jumbo, though you have fetish!'

"I can scarcely tell you what occurred for some time. I have a dim
recollection that hands were laid upon me, and that I struck out
violently left and right. On coming to myself, I was seated on a stone
bench in a large room, something like a guard-room, in the custody of
certain fellows dressed like Merry Andrews; they were bluff,
good-looking, wholesome fellows, very different from the sallow Italians;
they were looking at me attentively, and occasionally talking to each
other in a language which sounded very like the cracking of walnuts in
the mouth, very different from cooing Italian. At last one of them asked
me in Italian what had ailed me, to which I replied, in an incoherent
manner, something about Mumbo Jumbo; whereupon the fellow, one of the
bluffest of the lot, a jovial rosy-faced rascal, lifted up his right
hand, placing it in such a manner tha