Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1897-11-19
the poison Of his thought drank

Tangier. Our ship was the Jackal,
little old iron steam tug, battered by
time and tempest, clamped and stayed
at every side, and just holding together
as by the grace of God. The storm
which we had OUTRAGED from Finisterre
had now doubled Cape st. Vincent, and
the sea was rolling heavily in the
Straits We saw nothing of this until
we had left the bay and were standing
out from Tarife; nor would it be
worthy Of mention now but that it
gave me my first real understanding
of the tremendous hold that the faith
or the fanaticism of the Moorish people
call it what you will-has upon their
characters and lives.
The channel at that point is less
than twenty miles wide, but we were
more than five hours crossing it. Our
little crazy craft lal cred terribly in
the huge breakers that swept inwards
from the Atlantic. Pitching until the
foredeck was covered rolling until her
boats dipped in the water, creaking,
shuddering, leaping, she had enough to
do to keep afloat.
With the American I occupied the
bridge between the paddle-boxes, which
served as saloon for first-class passen-
gers; and below us in the open hold Of
the after-deck a number of Moors sat
huddled together among cattle and
sheep and baskets of fowls. They were
pilgrims, Hadjis, returning from Mecca
by way of Gibraltar, and their behavior
during the passage was marvellous
in it's callousness to the sense OF peril.
They wrangled, quarreled, snarled at
each other, made peace, embraced,
kissed, laughed together, made futile
attempts to smoke their keef-pipes, and
quarrelled, parked and bleated again.
Surely" 1 said, these people are
either wondrously brave or they have
no sense of the solemnity of DEATH
Neither" said the American; "they
are merely fatalists by virtue of their
faith. If it is now it is to come; if it
is not to come then it is now"
There is a sort of bravery in that"
1 answered.
''And cowardice, too" said the Amer
lean.
The night had closed in when we
dropped anchor by the ruins of the
mole at Tangier, and l saw no more
of the white town than l had seen of it
from the Straits But if my eyes failed
in the darkness my other senses served
me only too well. The shrieking and
yelling of the boatloads of Moors and
negroes who clambered aboard to re-
lieve US of our luggage, the stencil of
the town sewers that emptied into the
bay-these were my first impressions cf
the gateway to the home of Islam.
The American went through the tur-
MOL with composure and an air of COM
mand, and having seen to my belong
ings as we'll as his own, passing them
through the open office at the
water-gate, where two solemn Moors in
white sat by the light of candles in the
receipt of customs, he parted from me
at the foot of the street that begins
with the Grand Mosque and is the main
artery of the town, for he had written
for rooms to the hotel called the Villa
de France, and I, before leaving Eng
land, had done the same to the hotel
called the Continental.
Thither l was led by barefooted
courier in white jellab and red tarboosh,
amid sights and sounds of fascinating
strangeness: the low drone of mems
voices singing their evening prayers in
the mosques, the tinkling of the bells of
men selling water out of goats Ikins,
the allah" Of blind beggars crouching
at the gates, the "Arrah" of the mule
drivers, and the hooded shapes going
by in the gloom or squatting in the
red glare of the cafes without windows
or doors and open to the streets.
l met the American in the Sok--the
market place--the following day, and
he took me up to his hotel to see some
native costumes which he had bought
by way of preparation for his enter
prise They were haiks and selhams,
jellabs, kaftans, slippers, rosaries, ko-
rams sashes, satchels, turbans sd tar
booshes--blue, white, yellow and red
all right and none too new, for he had
purchased them, not at the bazaars, but
from the son of a learned Moor
Taleb. who had been cast into prison
by usurer Jew.
Gin these" said he, 81 mean to go
everywhere, and I'll defy the devil him
self to detect me-"
"Take care" l said, take care"
He laughed, and asked me what my
own plans were. l told him that l
would remain in Tangier until received
letters from home, and then push on
towards Fee.
''Tll see you there" he said; "but if
do not hail you, please do not know