Part 15 (2/2)

From the prison to the Soco, the crowds every minute augmented, though the square formed by the troops prevented their penetrating to the scaffold. Every alley and lane was crowded, and amid the most extreme confusion the executioner arrived with Sol at the appointed spot. The pen refuses to describe the incidents of the few succeeding moments.

Some few, even amongst the Moors, were moved, and wept freely and bitterly. The executioner[17] unsheathed his sharp scimetar, and whirled it twice or thrice in the air, as a signal for silence, when the uproar of the Moors was hushed. The beautiful Sol was then directed to kneel down,--at which moment she begged for a little water to wash her hands.

It was immediately brought, when she performed the ablution required by the Jewish custom before engaging in prayer. The spectators were anxiously observant of all the actions of the victim. Lifting her eyes to heaven, and amid many tears, she recited the Sema (the prayer offered by those of her nation before death), and then, turning to the executioners, ”I have finished,” said she, ”dispose of my life;” and, fixing her gaze upon the earth, she knelt to receive the fatal stroke.

The scene had by this time begun to change its aspect. The vast concourse of people, seeing Sol's meek gentleness, could not but be moved; many wept, and all felt a degree of compa.s.sion for her faith. The executioner, then, seizing the arms of the victim, and twisting them behind her back, bound them with a rope, and whirling his sword in the air, laid hold of the long hair of Sol's head, and wounded her slightly, as he had been commanded, yet so that the blood flowed instantly from the wound, dyeing her breast and garments.

But Sol, turning her face to the cruel executioner, replied--

”There is yet time,” said they to her; ”be converted, your life may yet be spared.”

”Slay me, and let me not linger in my sufferings; dying innocently, as I do, the G.o.d of Abraham will judge my cause.”

These were her last words, at the close of them the scimetar descended upon her fair neck, and the courageous maiden was no more.

The Jews had paid six Moors to deliver to them the corpse with the blood-stained earth on which it lay, immediately after the execution of the sentence. This was accordingly done, and the remains, wrapped in a fine linen cloth, were deposited in a deep sepulchre of the Jewish cemetery by the side of those of a learned and honored sage of the law of Moses. Amidst tears and sighs was the Hebrew martyr buried. Even some of the Moors followed her, mourning to her grave, and still visit her tomb, and venerate her resting place as that of a true and faithful martyr to the creed she held.

FOOTNOTES:

[9] Or ”captain of a hundred,” centurion. From the Arabic _kaid_, a leader or chief, _mia_, a hundred. The Kaidmia is adjutant of the empire.

[10] A kind of sweetmeat prepared for the emperor and persons of high rank, composed of milk, sugar, b.u.t.ter, and cinnamon.

[11] A herb like sweet marjoram, usually accompanying tea in Morocco.

[12] A learned professor of the law. It is the common practice in Arabia to have whispering-galleries and watch-rooms in most houses, so that what pa.s.ses in one apartment may be overheard in another.

[13] It may here be mentioned, that the Moorish law cannot _force_ a Jew to change his religion; this conversion must be voluntary. The cadi could not, therefore, condemn Sol to death, because she refused to become a Mahometan, unless she had made use of some expressions impugning the law of Mahomet. This will be seen by the sequel.

[14] The Jajamins or Hajamins are Jews invested with certain dignities--_Anglice_, ”wise men,” and respected as such.

[15] On these words was the sentence of Sol framed, impeaching, as they did, the Mahometan creed.

[16] The _haque_, a sort of bonded cloak, is worn in Africa by the Jews as well as the Moors.

[17] All Moorish executions are performed with a sword.

From Chambers's Edinburgh Journal.

ADVENTURES OF AN ARMY PHYSICIAN.

A REMINISCENCE OF THE BRITISH RULE IN NEW-YORK.

Robert Jackson, the son of a small landed proprietor of limited income but respectable character in Lanarks.h.i.+re, was born in 1750, at Stonebyres, in that county. He received his education first at the barony school of Wandon, and afterwards under the care of Mr. Wilson, a teacher of considerable local celebrity at Crawford, one of the wildest spots in the Southern Highlands. He was subsequently apprenticed to Mr.

William Baillie, in Biggar; and in 1766 proceeded, for the completion of his professional training, to the university of Edinburgh, at that time ill.u.s.trated and adorned by the genius and learning of such men as the Monros, the Cullens, and the Blacks.

In pursuing his studies at this favored abode of science and literature, young Jackson is said to have evinced all that purity of morals and singleness of heart which characterised him in after-life, and to have resisted the allurements of dissipation by which, in those days especially, the youthful student was tempted to wander from the paths of virtuous industry. His circ.u.mstances were, however, distressingly narrow; and not only was he forced to forego the means of professional improvement open only to the more opulent student; but in order to meet the expenses of the winter-sessions, he was obliged to employ the summer, not in the study but in the practice of his profession. He engaged himself as medical officer to a Greenland whaler, and in two successive summers visited, in that capacity, ”the thrilling regions of thick-ribbed ice;” returning on each occasion with a recruited purse and a frame strengthened and invigorated by exposure and exercise. During these expeditions he occupied his leisure with the study of the Greek and Roman languages, and the careful and repeated perusal of the best authors in both.

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