Judas, the Purse-Holder 



exercise their calling on the British sympathies and pockets 

 of Gibraltar. He had kept their purse, and was now 

 distributing the proceeds of their respective earnings, after 

 deducting their passage and keep on the Rock, with, no 

 doubt, a moderate per-centage to remunerate himself for 

 the risk and trouble of the undertaking. The man's 

 hypocritical smooth oily face, with twinkling sharp grey 

 eyes, under a sloping, wicked cast of brow, would have 

 made a good study for a Judas ; whom I imagine always as 

 a smiling, plausible rogue, not the scowling, perspicuous 

 traitor he is usually painted. 



Among the others, too, there was a great number of 

 picturesque heads, with a variety of beards ; but the nobly- 

 cut features were generally disfigured by a mean, servile 

 expression. Our sketch-books were brought out of the 

 faithful alforjas^ which still accompanied us ; but the 

 Israelites seemed to entertain a strong objection to having 

 their likeness, which they considered as part of themselves, 

 taken from them. The victim usually covered up his head 

 in the cowl of his jillabiah (a sort of grey striped coarse 

 woollen shirt, with a peak and tasselled hood), and it was 

 only from stolen glances, when his curiosity to see what 

 was going on overcame his horror of being drawn, that we 

 could gather a few faint resemblances. These, however, 

 were immediately recognised as exact portraits by the 

 bystanders, who, as long as they were not pitched upon 

 themselves, were much amused and delighted. 



The sketch-books were soon shut up by a sharp shower, 

 and all the company huddled together under bits of 

 tarpaulin and bits of board, which four or five would prop 

 on the tops of their heads. The Moor and his family 

 crept into some empty wooden boxes, in which they had 

 probably brought merchandise to Gibraltar. We in the 



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