Being swooped down upon

Walking very briskly through the Medina two nights ago I was startled by a slender woman in black with a haggard pointy face swooping down on me very close, nearly soundlessly, like a prowling owl, and then running along in small, busy steps, talking to me urgently in a rasping voice. She was asking for a handout. I was startled, but kept walking on, shaking my head. She persisted through several turns of the walkway – walking through the Medina is essentially like walking through Venice – but then was chased away by a passerby. Don't give her anything, he said. She will just use it for drugs. She was once a beautiful woman with her own house. She smoked it all.