erant.

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