He pushed the slave gently aside, built up a good fire, hung the cauldron over it, and flung in all the bits of meat and fat he could find. The unhappy deaf-mute, seeing Andy pile on the fire all the twigs and dried dung that had been so slowly and painfully collected, was appalled; but when Andy began cutting up half a sheep to fill the pot the man grasped his wrist, and his eyes swam in tears.
Just then I heard my dog yelping outside in the yard, and I found him running madly round and round, pursued by two black hens. Rael took refuge between my feet and I saw that his muzzle was bleeding. Greatly incensed-for Rael was a peaceable creature, and never chased fowls-I seized a stake and wrathfully attacked the aggressors. The dog helped me as well as he could, and Andy appeared in the doorway, to encourage us with joyous shouts until at last I was able to catch the birds and wring their necks.
The commotion had brought a crowd of neighbors to the gate, but Andy quickly snatched up the fowls and threw them to the slave for him to pluck. The poor wretch, being now out of his wits, meekly obeyed and his tears fell among the feathers. I pitied him, but felt that he might as well accustom himself to the new circumstances without delay.
When the sun was setting and the melancholy cry of the muezzin reached us from the minaret of the mosque, Abu el-Kasim dipped his fingers into a bowl of water and splashed a few drops over his feet, wrists, and face. He then unrolled a mat and recited the prayers, while I knelt too and pressed my forehead to the ground in time with him. When our prayer was ended Abu el-Kasim sniffed the air and said, “Let us bless the food in the name of Allah, and eat!”
We sat down in a ring on the floor. Here Giulia joined us, rubbing the sleep from her eyes and stretching her slender limbs. But when Andy carried in the great cooking pot, Abu el-Kasim grimaced as if he had bitten into a sour fruit, and said, “I don’t intend to feed all the poor of the quarter, nor are we a platoon of janissaries. Who’s to blame for this terrible mistake? Let it be the last. Were it not that I wish our first evening to be harmonious I could fly into a passion.”
Dipping his hand into the pot he drew forth the leg of a fowl, which he gazed at in wonder, shifting it from hand to hand and blowing on his fingers.
“Allah is indeed great,” he said. “Here is a miracle. A piece of mutton seems to have turned into a drumstick.”
The deaf-mute began waving his arms, opening his mouth and pointing at Andy, me, and the dog, which sat meekly awaiting its scraps. And when at last Abu el-Kasim grasped what had happened he quite lost his appetite, and wept.
“The curse of Allah upon you for killing both my hens, Mirmah and Fatima. Alas, my hens, my little hens, that laid me such round, brown eggs!”
Tears poured down his cheeks and his sparse beard, and Andy looked uncomfortable. But I flared up, “Don’t swear at us, Abu el- Kasim, but at your wicked hens that tore my dog’s nose. It was I who wrung their necks, and if you don’t want to eat, you can fast.”
Abu el-Kasim continued to sigh and wipe the tears from his beard, but when he saw how the food was disappearing he forgot his sorrow and helped himself. Afterward he patted his stomach contentedly, but warned us that at this rate we should eat him out of house and home.
Andy retorted, “Of what use are starving servants? I’m content with plain food so long as there’s plenty of it. Give us half a sheep and a bag of meal daily, and neither you nor I need complain.”
Abu el-Kasim’s only response was to tear his beard, and shortly afterward we retired to rest.
Next day, after the morning prayer, Abu el-Kasim took us out and showed us objects of interest in the town. Many close-packed buildings stood within its walls, and in the narrow alleys it was difficult to push past those whom we met. Here were representatives of every Christian and Moslem nation, as well as Jews and Greeks. I saw also desert horsemen, who kept their faces covered.
There were many fine houses surrounded by walls, and public bathhouses open to all, irrespective of faith, color, or means. The rich paid most for their baths, while the poorest might bathe for nothing, in the name of the Compassionate. At the highest point of the town stood the kasbah of Selim ben-Hafs, with its countless buildings, and on either side of its main entrance iron hooks were to be seen, on which were impaled human heads and limbs. The finest building of all, however, was the great mosque by the harbor. The Spanish island fortress commanded the harbor mouth, and Spaniards armed with swords and harquebuses rowed freely to and fro, or stalked haughtily among the populace, whom they compelled to make way for them. This offended many a devout Moslem, for by the law of the Koran no believer ought to step aside for an unbeliever, but should crowd him and jostle him out into the street.
On our way about the city, Abu el-Kasim gathered together with many blessings the jars which, hidden in peasants’ grain baskets, had arrived at the houses of his merchant friends, and we carried them back to his house. The city was divided in a very sensible and practical manner into different quarters, in which each kind of merchandise and craft had its own street. Thus the coppersmiths kept to one alley, while tailors, tanners, dyers, and all other artisans each had theirs. Our own house was in the street of the spice merchants and dealers in drugs. It was one of the more respectable thoroughfares, since wealthy merchants as well as poor ones lived there, as could be seen by the crowd of beggars and cripples who squatted all day at rich men’s doors in the hope of alms.
At noon Abu el-Kasim took us to the mosque, in whose forecourt was a marble basin supplied with fresh running water. We performed the prescribed ablutions and entered the mosque, carrying our slippers in our hands. There were costly carpets on the floor, many lamps hung from the roof by copper and silver chains, and columns of different colors supported the great dome. We murmured our purpose in coming and imitated the actions of the reader, kneeling when he knelt and bowing down as he did. After the prayers Abu el-Kasim took us to the madrasseh, or mosque school, where youths under the direction of gray-bearded teachers were studying the Koran, the duty of man, the traditions, and the law. Abu el-Kasim had given us clean clothes, and he now presented us to an elderly man with a white beard, saying, “Venerable Ibrahim ben Adam el-Mausili! In the name of the Compassionate I bring you two men who have found the faith and desire to follow the true path.”
From that day forward, after the evening prayer, we attended the school for converts, to learn Arabic and the seven pillars, roots, and branches of Islam. Not even Fridays were excepted; for although Moslems leave their labor or their business to attend the noon service on that day, yet they count no day as a day of rest. In their opinion the Christian and Jewish manner of honoring the Sabbath is blasphemous, because it is based on the idea that God, after creating heaven and earth, rested upon the seventh day. Moslems acknowledge that God created heaven and earth, but being omnipotent He must have done it without effort; the very notion that He could be in need of rest is blasphemy to them.
When the old teacher Ibrahim ben-Adam observed my genuine desire for knowledge he conceived a liking for me and expounded the Koran to the best of his ability, and often I stayed on after the others had left until late in the evening. He was very devout and never wearied of reading the sacred writings. It was from him I learned that Islam has room in it for many paths whose followers dispute among themselves. But these questions did not disturb my peace of mind, for I studied the Koran with intellectual detachment, and solely from a desire for knowledge. I soon perceived that Christians had little to be proud of in their supposedly superior religion, for dogmatic disputes, sanctimoniousness, hypocrisy, and the nonobservance of fasts were features common to both persuasions.