Note 250 — Chapter III
Reading edition
An oven-keeper of Tangier, from whom I sought the verification of this story, told me that it was not an oven-keeper who had received the sultan, but a worker in iron named Mallem Hamet. Mallem designates his calling, an honourable one here, but so despicable among the wandering Arabs, that a conquered foe has his life spared if he stretches out his arm as if beating with a hammer: degraded by the act, his enemy will not condescend to shed his blood.