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So the people whom he came upon by the way either ignored him or jeered at him, and not one that on his coming had run to do him honour now stepped aside that he might pass. Two days after leaving Fez he came again to Wazzan. Women were going home from market by the side of their camels, and charcoal-burners were riding back to the country on the empty burdas of their mules.
Then Israel remembered the presents with which the Kaid of El Kasar and the Shereef of Wazzan had burdened him.
An instance is that of the late Shareef, or Noble, of Wazzán, a feudal "saint" of great influence. His father, on his deathbed, appointed as successor to his title, his holiness, and the estates connected therewith, the son who should be found playing with a certain stick, a common toy of his favourite.
That was all the answer he got out of his journey, and if any man had come to him in Tetuan with no newer story, it must have been an idle and a foolish errand; but after El Kasar, after Wazzan, after Mequinez, and now after Fez, it seemed to be the sum of all wisdom. "I'll do it," he said; "at all risks and all costs, I'll do it."
The full name of this redoubtable leader is Mulai Ahmad bin Mohammed bin Abd Allah er-Raïsûli, and he is a shareef of Beni Arôs, connected therefore with the Wazzán shareefs; but his prestige as such is low, both on account of his past career, and because of his acceptance of a civil post.
In case it may be found advisable to set up a dummy sultan under a protectorate, the French have an able and powerful man to hand in the young Idreesi Shareef of Wazzán, whom the English refused to protect, and who, with his brother, received a French education.
Israel was half a year absent in the town and province of Wazzan, and, having finished the work which he came to do, he was sent back to Tetuan loaded with presents from the Shereef, and surrounded by soldiers and attendants, who did not leave him until they had brought him to the door of his own house.
One question he asked of all. "Where from?" If they answered from Fez, from Wazzan, from Mequinez, or from Marrakesh, Israel turned aside and left them without more words. Then to his fellows they might pour out their woes in loud wails and curses, but Israel would hear no more.
The gate was closed, and the night police that kept it were snoring in their rags under the arch of the wall within. "Selam! M'barak! Abd el Kader! Abd el Kareem!" shouted the Shereef's black guard to the sleepy gate-keepers. They had come thus far in Israel's honour, and would not return to Wazzan until they had seen him housed within.
The house was a mean one, but jasmine and marjoram and pinks and roses grew outside of it, and love grew inside. And Naomi! How bright were her eyes, for they could see! Yes, and her ears could hear, and her tongue could speak! Two days after Israel left Wazzan he was back in the bashalic of Tetuan.
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