There were brown-skinned Berbers in black goat-hair cloaks that were
made in one piece with a cowl and decorated by a lozenge of red or
orange colour on the back, their shaven heads encased in skull-caps or
simply bound in a cord of plaited camel-hair; there were black Saharowi
who went almost naked, and stately Arabs who seemed overmuffled in their
flowing robes of white with the cowls overshadowing their swarthy,
finely featured faces; there were dignified and prosperous-looking Moors
in brightly coloured selhams astride of sleek mules that were richly
caparisoned; and there were Tagareenes, the banished Moors of Andalusia,
most of whom followed the trade of slave-dealers; there were native Jews
in sombre black djellabas, and Christian-Jews--so-called because bred in
Christian countries, whose garments they still wore; there were
Levantine Turks, splendid of dress and arrogant of demeanour, and there
were humble Cololies, Kabyles and Biscaries. Here a water-seller, laden
with his goatskin vessel, tinkled his little bell; there an
orange-hawker, balancing a basket of the golden fruit upon his ragged
turban, bawled his wares. There were men on foot and men on mules, men
on donkeys and men on slim Arab horses, an ever-shifting medley of
colours, all jostling, laughing, cursing in the ardent African sunshine
under the blue sky where pigeons circled. In the shadow of the yellow
tapia wall squatted a line of whining beggars and cripples soliciting
alms; near the gates a little space had been cleared and an audience had
gathered in a ring about a Meddah--a beggar-troubadour--who, to the
accompaniment of gimbri and gaitah from two acolytes, chanted a doleful
ballad in a thin, nasal voice.
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