assive, Sid'Omar still smiling on. The Jew stands up and backs
towards the door, trembling and scared, and babbles on about his
everlasting, _Joustees of the Peas, Joustees of the Peas_.... He
leaves. The Spaniard, furious, is at his heels and meets up with him in
the road before hitting him; twice; full in the face.... the Jew falls
to his knees, with his arms covering his face. The Spaniard, a little
ashamed of himself, comes back into the shop.... As soon as he is
safely inside, the Jew gets up with a shifty look at the motley crowd
surrounding him. There were people of many races and colours
there--Maltese, Minorcans, Negroes, and Arabs, all united--for once--in
hating the Jew and loving to see him so maltreated.... The Jew
hesitates a while, then grabs an Arab by his burnous:

--You saw him ... Achmed, you saw him ... you were there!... The
Christian hit me ... you shall be a witness ... yes ... yes ... you
shall be a witness.

The Arab frees his burnous and pushes the Jew away.... He knows
nothing; he's seen nothing; he was looking the other way....

--How about you, Kaddour, you saw him.... You saw the Christian strike
me ... shouts my unfortunate Jew to a big Negro who is impassively
peeling a Barbary fig....

The Negro spits his contempt and moves away, he hasn't seen a thing.
Neither has the little Maltese, whose coal-black eyes glisten viciously
under his biretta; nor the rust-coloured girl from Mahon who, placing a
basket of pomegranates on her head, laughs it all, and him, off....

No matter how much the Jew shouts, pleads, demeans himself ... no
witnesses! Nobody saw anything.... By chance, just then a couple of
fellow Zionists pass by. They are humiliated, and cower by a wall. The
Jew spots them:

--Quick, quick, brothers. Quick, to the consultant! Quick to the
_Joustees of the Peas_!... The rest of you, you saw him.... you saw him
beat the old man up!

As if they'd seen him!... I don't think so.

... Things are getting lively in old Sid'Omar's shop.... The proprietor
refills their cups, and relights their pipes. They chat on, and they
laugh fit to burst. It's such a pleasure to see a Jew beaten up!... In
the middle of the hubbub and smoke, I slip out quietly; I want to
wander in the Jewish quarter, to see how my Jew's coreligionists, are
taking their brother's outrage....

--Come to dinner tonight, m'sier, the good old Sid'Omar shouted....

I agree and thank him. I go outside. In the Jewish q