Page:Sixteen years of an artist's life in Morocco, Spain and the Canary Islands.djvu/73

62 was observed at last, however, and the effect was instantaneous. They all suddenly pulled up at once, and fixing their little eyes upon me, began to manifest the feelings with which I was regarded by them, by making all sorts of wry, contemptuous, and ill-natured faces at me. The master neither checked them in this strange manifestation of their breeding, nor made any attempt to do so. He probably rather thought it a very natural and commendable display of the irrepressible aversion which the sight of one who rejects the Prophet should excite in their young hearts. He himself gaped with undisguised amazement at the unbelieving Nazarene, at the strange woman, who, with uncovered face, ventured to look boldly on so many "lords of the creation." Their feelings at length found vent in a general shout of execration. "The Jew to the dog, and the Christian to the fire," they all exclaimed at once; and having received this characteristic blessing, I turned my back upon them, and proceeded on my way.

I now went on until I reached the gate of the town, passing, on my way, several Moors here and there squatted on the ground, and, as we occasionally see in Spain and Portugal, deeply engaged in entomological investigations. Not being anxious to stay long near such votaries of science, I hastened