slippery Dealing 



he had better and cheaper slippers at his shop. I thought, 

 perhaps, he was no greater rogue than others, and so I went 

 with him, and found a very smart estabHshment upstairs, 

 with a great variety of shawls and scarfs, and jillabiahs, and 

 Moorish cushions, and daggers, and every sort of curiosity ; 

 the only thing which appeared to be deficient were yellow 

 slippers. In the court of the house there was a plasterer or 

 whitewasher. While I was looking over the things, he had 

 slipped out, and when I came into the street, he fell upon 

 me with strong entreaties to inspect his shop somewhere 

 else, but I told him he was a whited sepulchre, and went 

 back to breakfast. 



Wandering about the town, we came to the foot of the 

 castle hill. At the top there was a gateless and dilapidated 

 arch, amenable to pacific entry ; and within, a picturesque, 

 irregular court-yard, partially in ruins, with horse-shoe 

 arches, and slender arabesque columns. Sauntering in 

 through the archway, we had been passed by a handsome 

 maiden, bearing a basket, whom we knew, by being 

 unveiled, to be a Jewess. At a modest distance we followed 

 the fair Susannah among the winding angles and corners of 

 the ruin. She went in at a low broad arch. Here we 

 were received by a grizzly-bearded old man in a turban, 

 with a couple of large keys in his belt. Him we saluted 

 with " essaldm aleykom " and a bow. 



" Waleykom essaldm" he replied. " Ye, oh caballeros, 

 are apparently Spanish," he continued, in slow strangely- 

 accented Castilian, " and are doubtless come to see the 



prison." 



We are come to see the prison, truly, but we are not 

 Spanish, being, shokr Allah^ of the family of the Inkleez." 

 " Thrice welcome, sons of the Inkleez ; I am the father 



' Thanks be to God ! 

 176 



