Muley Suleiman was a great admirer of the European character, and was much attached to a Mr. Leyton, an English merchant.  This merchant was one day riding out of the city of Mogador, when an old woman rushed at him, seized the bridle of his horse, and demanded alms.  The merchant pushed her away with his whip.  The ancient dame seeing herself so rudely nonsuited, went off screaming revenge; and although she had not had a tooth in her head for twenty long years, she noised about town that Mr. Leyton had knocked two of her teeth out, and importuned the Governor to obtain her some pecuniary indemnification.

His Excellency advised Mr. Leyton to comply, and get rid of the annoyance of the old woman.  He resolutely refused, and the Governor was obliged to report the case to the Emperor, as the old lady had made so many partisans in Mogador as to threaten a disturbance.  His Imperial Highness wrote a letter to the merchant, condescendingly begging him to supply the old woman with “two silver teeth,” meaning thereby to give her a trifling present in money.  Mr. Leyton, being as obstinate as ever, was ordered to appear before the Emperor at Morocco.  Here the resolute merchant declared that he had not knocked the teeth out of the old woman’s head, she had had none for years, and he would not be maligned even in so small a matter.

The Emperor was at his wits’ end, and endeavoured to smooth down the contumacious Leyton, to save his capital from insurrection; imploring him to comply with the Lex talionis, [19] and have two of his teeth drawn if he was inflexibly determined not to pay.  The poor Emperor was in hourly dread of a revolution about this tooth business, and at the same time he knew the merchant had spoken the truth.  Strange to say, Mr. Leyton at last consented to lose his teeth rather than his money.  However, on the merchant’s return from the capital to Mogador, to his surprise, and no doubt to his satisfaction, he found that two ship-loads of grain had been ordered to be delivered to him by the Emperor, in compensation for the two teeth which he had had punched out to satisfy the exigencies of the Empire.

CHAPTER V.

Several visits from the Moors; their ideas on soldiers and payment of public functionaries.—­Mr. Cohen and his opinion on Maroquine Affairs.—­ Phlebotomising of Governors, and Ministerial responsibility.—­Border Travels of the Shedma and Hhaha tribes.—­How the Emperor enriches himself by the quarrels of his subjects.—­Message from the Emperor respecting the Anti-Slavery Address.—­Difficulties of travelling through or residing in the Interior.—­Use of Knives, and Forks, and Chairs are signs of Social Progress.—­Account of the periodic visit of the Mogador Merchants to the Emperor in the Southern Capital.