Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - VI. Tangiers
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
TANGIERS III
is very complicated. Twice a week Pasha sits on his
heels outside the great gate of his splendid palace and
administers justice according to the good Old Testa-
ment method. The adversaries in litigation approach,
each from his own side of the road, and depart side
by side, conciliated, along the center of the thorough-
fare. If the case is particularly complicated, Pasha
will angrily pull his long white beard, “and then the
question is always cleared up.”
If you are willing to pay a small gratuity for the
guard, you may secure permission to view, from the
outside, the treasure-chamber of the province, a mas-
sive stone structure with a solid door guarded by seven
great padlocks. The seven keys to these seven locks
are held by seven different men of excellent reputation
in the city, and thus it is possible to feel secure from
any theft of public funds. Not even Pasha himself
may hold these keys, for his monthly salary amounts
to barely more than twenty-five dollars.
One day Hadji and I undertook to visit all the pub-
lic institutions, one after the other, on which occasion
we also had a view of the municipal hospital and the
prison. The former is in a narrow street with houses
built over it, running along the rear wall of the mosque.
After going for some distance along this street, Hadji
himself poked open a door and we entered a dark
space from which I was driven out forthwith by a
stifling stench. But I had seen enough. It was a long
apartment, one side of which was divided into sections
resembling stable stalls. In each stall there was a
bundle of straw or of ragged matting—it was too dark
to distinguish which—and lying on this heap I could
make out the shapes of naked human bodies writhing
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
