e extorted from these luckless "tributaries," as they are
described in Moorish legal documents.

When he found that ordinary means of persuasion failed, he had resort
to more drastic measures. He could not imagine fresh feasts and public
occasions, auspicious or otherwise, on which to collect "presents"
from them, so he satisfied himself by bringing specious charges
against the more wealthy Jews and fining them, as well as by
encouraging Moors to accuse them in various ways. Many of the payments
to the governor being in small and mutilated coin, every Friday he
sent to the Jews what he had received during the week, demanding a
round sum in Spanish dollars, far more than their fair value.
Then when he had forced upon them a considerable quantity of this
depreciated stuff, he would send a crier round notifying the public
that it was out of circulation and no longer legal tender, moreover
giving warning that the "Jew's money" was not to be trusted, as it was
known that they had counterfeit coins in their possession. It was then
time to offer them half price for it, which they had no option but
to accept, though some while later he would re-issue it at its full
value, and having permitted its circulation, would force it upon them
again.

The repairs which it was found necessary to effect in the kasbah, the
equipment of troops, the contributions to the expenses of the Sultan's
expeditions, or the payment of indemnities to foreign nations, were
constantly recurring pretexts for levying fresh sums from the Jews as
well as from the Moors, and these were the legal ones. The illegal
were too harrowing for description. Young children and old men were
brutally thrashed and then imprisoned till they or their friends paid
heavy ransoms, and even the women occasionally suffered in this
way. On Sabbaths and fast days orders would be issued to the Jews,
irrespective of age or rank, to perform heavy work for the governor,
perhaps to drag some heavy load or block of stone. Those who could
buy themselves off were fortunate: those who could not do so were
harnessed and driven like cattle under the lashes of yard-long whips,
being compelled when their work was done to pay their taskmasters.
Indeed, it was Egypt over again, but there was no Moses. Men or women
found with shoes on were bastinadoed and heavily fined, and on more
than one occasion the sons of the best-off Israelites were arrested in
school on the charge of having used disrespe