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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Morocco, by S.L. Bensusan
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Morocco
+
+Author: S.L. Bensusan
+
+Illustrator: A.S. Forrest
+
+Release Date: August 13, 2005 [EBook #16526]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MOROCCO ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Melissa Er-Raqabi and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net.
+
+
+
+
+
+MOROCCO
+
+PAINTED BY
+A.S. FORREST
+
+DESCRIBED BY
+S.L. BENSUSAN
+
+[Illustration: Stamp]
+
+LONDON
+ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK
+1904
+
+[Illustration: IN DJEDIDA]
+
+Transcriber's Note:
+
+The following apparent printer's errors were changed:
+  from appearonce to appearance
+  from everthing to everything
+  from kindgom to kingdom
+  from "Tuesday market. to "Tuesday market."
+Other inconsistencies in spelling have been left as in the original.
+
+
+
+
+"As I have felt, so I have written."
+
+EOTHEN.
+
+
+
+
+Preface
+
+
+It has been a pleasant task to recall the little journey set out in the
+following pages, but the writer can hardly escape the thought that the
+title of the book promises more than he has been able to perform. While
+the real Morocco remains a half-known land to-day, this book does not take
+the traveller from the highroad. The mere idler, the wayfarer to whom
+Morocco is no more than one of many places of pilgrimage, must needs deal
+modestly with his task, even though modesty be an unfashionable virtue;
+and the painstaking folk who pass through this world pelting one another
+with hard facts will find here but little to add to their store of
+ammunition. This appeal is of set purpose a limited one, made to the few
+who are content to travel for the sake of the pleasures of the road, free
+from the comforts that beset them at home, and free also from the popular
+belief that their city, religion, morals, and social laws are the best in
+the world. The qualifications that fit a man to make money and acquire the
+means for modern travel are often fatal to proper appreciation of the
+unfamiliar world he proposes to visit. To restore the balance of things,
+travel agents and other far-seeing folks have contrived to inflict upon
+most countries within the tourist's reach all the modern conveniences by
+which he lives and thrives. So soon as civilising missions and
+missionaries have pegged out their claims, even the desert is deemed
+incomplete without a modern hotel or two, fitted with electric light,
+monstrous tariff, and served by a crowd of debased guides. In the wake of
+these improvements the tourist follows, finds all the essentials of the
+life he left at home, and, knowing nothing of the life he came to see, has
+no regrets. So from Algiers, Tunis, Cairo--ay, even from Jerusalem itself,
+all suggestion of great history has passed, and one hears among ruins,
+once venerable, the globe-trotter's cry of praise. "Hail Cook," he cries,
+as he seizes the coupons that unveil Isis and read the riddle of the
+Sphinx, "those about to tour salute thee."
+
+But of the great procession that steams past Gibraltar, heavily armed with
+assurance and circular tickets, few favour Morocco at all, and the most of
+these few go no farther than Tangier. Once there, they descend upon some
+modern hotel, often with no more than twenty-four hours in which to master
+the secrets of Sunset Land.
+
+After dinner a few of the bolder spirits among the men take counsel of a
+guide, who leads them to the Moorish coffee-house by the great Mosque.
+There they listen to the music of ghaitah and gimbri, pay a peseta for a
+cup of indifferent coffee, and buy an unmusical instrument or two for many
+times the proper price. Thereafter they retire to their hotel to consider
+how fancy can best embellish the bare facts of the evening's amusement,
+while the True Believers of the coffee-house (debased in the eyes of all
+other Believers, and, somewhat, too, in fact, by reason of their contact
+with the Infidel) gather up the pesetas, curse the Unbeliever and his
+shameless relations, and praise Allah the One who, even in these
+degenerate days, sends them a profit.
+
+On the following morning the tourists ride on mules or donkeys to the
+showplaces of Tangier, followed by scores of beggar boys. The ladies are
+shown over some hareem that they would enter less eagerly did they but
+know the exact status of the odalisques hired to meet them. One and all
+troop to the bazaars, where crafty men sit in receipt of custom and
+relieve the Nazarene of the money whose value he does not know. Lunch
+follows, and then the ship's siren summons the travellers away from
+Morocco, to speak and write with authority for all time of the country and
+its problems.
+
+With these facts well in mind, it seemed best for me to let the pictures
+suffice for Tangier, and to choose for the text one road and one city. For
+if the truth be told there is little more than a single path to all the
+goals that the undisguised European may reach.
+
+Morocco does not change save by compulsion, and there is no area of
+European influence below Tangier. Knowing one highway well you know
+something of all; consequently whether Fez, Mequinez, Wazzan, or Marrakesh
+be the objective, the travel story does not vary greatly. But to-day,
+Marrakusha-al-Hamra, Red Marrakesh, is the most African of all cities in
+Morocco, and seemed therefore best suited to the purpose of this book.
+Moreover, at the time when this journey was made, Bu Hamara was holding
+the approaches to Fez, and neither Mequinez nor Wazzan was in a mood to
+receive strangers.
+
+So it falls out that the record of some two or three hundred miles of
+inland travel is all that awaits the reader here. In time to come, when
+Morocco has been purged of its offences of simplicity and primitiveness,
+the tourist shall accomplish in forty-eight hours the journey that
+demanded more than a month of last year's spring. For Sunset Land has no
+railway lines, nor can it boast--beyond the narrow limits of
+Tangier--telegraphs, telephones, electric light, modern hotels, or any of
+the other delights upon which the pampered traveller depends. It is as a
+primeval forest in the hour before the dawn. When the sun of France
+penetrates pacifically to all its hidden places, the forest will wake to a
+new life. Strange birds of bright plumage, called in Europe _gens
+d'armes_, will displace the storks upon the battlements of its ancient
+towns, the _commis voyageur_ will appear where wild boar and hy�na now
+travel in comparative peace, the wild cat (_felis Throgmortonensis_) will
+arise from all mineralised districts. Arab and Berber will disappear
+slowly from the Moroccan forest as the lions have done before them, and in
+the place of their _douars_ and _ksor_ there shall be a multitude of small
+towns laid out with mathematical precision, reached by rail, afflicted
+with modern improvements, and partly filled with Frenchmen who strive to
+drown in the caf� their sorrow at being so far away from home. The real
+Morocco is so lacking in all the conveniences that would commend it to
+wealthy travellers that the writer feels some apology is due for the
+appearance of his short story of an almost unknown country in so fine a
+setting. Surely a simple tale of Sunset Land was never seen in such
+splendid guise before, and will not be seen again until, with past
+redeemed and forgotten, future assured, and civilisation modernised,
+Morocco ceases to be what it is to-day.
+
+S.L. BENSUSAN.
+
+_July 1904._
+
+
+
+
+Contents
+
+CHAPTER I                                 page
+By Cape Spartel                              3
+
+CHAPTER II
+From Tangier to Djedida                     21
+
+CHAPTER III
+On the Moorish Road                         41
+
+CHAPTER IV
+To the Gates of Marrakesh                   57
+
+CHAPTER V
+In Red Marrakesh                            77
+
+CHAPTER VI
+Round about Marrakesh                      101
+
+CHAPTER VII
+The Slave Market at Marrakesh              121
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+Green Tea and Politics                     139
+
+CHAPTER IX
+Through a Southern Province                159
+
+CHAPTER X
+"Sons of Lions"                            179
+
+CHAPTER XI
+In the Argan Forest                        199
+
+CHAPTER XII
+To the Gate of the Picture City            217
+
+
+
+
+List of Illustrations
+
+ 1. In Djedida                           _Frontispiece_
+                                            FACING PAGE
+ 2. A Shepherd, Cape Spartel                          2
+ 3. The Courtyard of the Lighthouse, Cape Spartel     4
+ 4. A Street, Tangier                                 6
+ 5. In Tangier                                        8
+ 6. A Street in Tangier                              10
+ 7. A Guide, Tangier                                 12
+ 8. The Road to the Kasbah, Tangier                  14
+ 9. Head of a Boy from Mediunah                      16
+10. The Goatherd from Mediunah                       18
+11. Old Buildings, Tangier                           20
+12. Moorish House, Cape Spartel                      22
+13. A Patriarch                                      24
+14. Pilgrims on a Steamer                            26
+15. The Hour of Sale                                 28
+16. Evening, Magazan                                 30
+17. Sunset off the Coast                             32
+18. A Veranda at Magazan                             34
+19. A Blacksmith's Shop                              36
+20. A Saint's Tomb                                   40
+21. Near a Well in the Country                       42
+22. Near a Well in the Town                          44
+23. Moorish Woman and Child                          46
+24. Evening on the Plains                            48
+25. Travellers by Night                              52
+26. The R'Kass                                       56
+27. A Traveller on the Plains                        58
+28. The Mid-day Halt                                 60
+29. On Guard                                         64
+30. A Village at Dukala                              68
+31. The Approach to Marrakesh                        72
+32. Date Palms near Marrakesh                        76
+33. On the Road to Marrakesh                         80
+34. A Minstrel                                       84
+35. One of the City Gates                            86
+36. A Blind Beggar                                   90
+37. A Wandering Minstrel                             94
+38. The Roofs of Marrakesh                          100
+39. A Gateway, Marrakesh                            104
+40. A Courtyard, Marrakesh                          108
+41. A Well in Marrakesh                             112
+42. A Bazaar, Marrakesh                             114
+43. A Brickfield, Marrakesh                         116
+44. A Mosque, Marrakesh                             120
+45. A Water Seller, Marrakesh                       124
+46. On the Road to the S�k el Abeed                 126
+47. The Slave Market                                128
+48. Dilals in the Slave Market                      132
+49. On the House-top, Marrakesh                     138
+50. A House Interior, Marrakesh                     142
+51. A Glimpse of the Atlas Mountains                146
+52. A Marrakshi                                     150
+53. Street in Marrakesh                             154
+54. An Arab Steed                                   158
+55. A Young Marrakshi                               162
+56. Fruit Market, Marrakesh                         164
+57. In the Fandak                                   166
+58. The Jama'a Effina                               170
+59. Evening in Camp                                 178
+60. Preparing Supper                                182
+61. A Goatherd                                      186
+62. Coming from the Mosque, Hanchen                 190
+63. Evening at Hanchen                              198
+64. On the Road to Argan Forest                     202
+65. The Snake Charmer                               204
+66. In Camp                                         206
+67. A Countryman                                    208
+68. Moonlight                                       212
+69. A Moorish Girl                                  216
+70. A Narrow Street in Mogador                      218
+71. Night Scene, Mogador                            220
+72. House Tops, Mogador                             222
+73. Selling Grain in Mogador                        224
+74. Selling Oranges                                 226
+
+_The Illustrations in this volume have been engraved in England by the
+Hentschel Colourtype Process._
+
+
+
+
+BY CAPE SPARTEL
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: A SHEPHERD, CAPE SPARTEL]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+BY CAPE SPARTEL
+
+    Over the meadows that blossom and wither
+      Rings but the note of a sea-bird's song,
+    Only the sun and the rain come hither
+          All year long.
+
+    _The Deserted Garden._
+
+
+Before us the Atlantic rolls to the verge of the "tideless, dolorous
+inland sea." In the little bay lying between Morocco's solitary lighthouse
+and the famous Caves of Spartel, the waters shine in colours that recall
+in turn the emerald, the sapphire, and the opal. There is just enough
+breeze to raise a fine spray as the baby waves reach the rocks, and to
+fill the sails of one or two tiny vessels speeding toward the coast of
+Spain. There is just enough sun to warm the water in the pools to a point
+that makes bathing the most desirable mid-day pastime, and over land and
+sea a solemn sense of peace is brooding. From where the tents are set no
+other human habitation is in sight. A great spur of rock, with the green
+and scarlet of cactus sprawling over it at will, shuts off lighthouse and
+telegraph station, while the towering hills above hide the village of
+Mediunah, whence our supplies are brought each day at dawn and
+sun-setting.
+
+Two fishermen, clinging to the steep side of the rock, cast their lines
+into the water. They are from the hills, and as far removed from our
+twentieth century as their prototypes who were fishing in the sparkling
+blue not so very far away when, the world being young, Theocritus passed
+and gave them immortality. In the valley to the right, the atmosphere of
+the Sicilian Idylls is preserved by two half-clad goatherds who have
+brought their flock to pasture from hillside Mediunah, in whose pens they
+are kept safe from thieves at night. As though he were a reincarnation of
+Daphnis or Menalcas, one of the brown-skinned boys leans over a little
+promontory and plays a tuneless ghaitah, while his companion, a younger
+lad, gives his eyes to the flock and his ears to the music. The last rains
+of this favoured land's brief winter have passed; beyond the plateau the
+sun has called flowers to life in every nook and cranny. Soon the light
+will grow too strong and blinding, the flowers will fade beneath it, the
+shepherds will seek the shade, but in these glad March days there is no
+suggestion of the intolerable heat to come.
+
+[Illustration: THE COURT-YARD OF THE LIGHTHOUSE, CAPE SPARTEL]
+
+On the plot of level ground that Nature herself has set in position for a
+camp, the tents are pitched. Two hold the impedimenta of travel; in the
+third Salam and his assistant work in leisurely fashion, as befits the
+time and place. Tangier lies no more than twelve miles away, over a
+road that must be deemed uncommonly good for Morocco, but I have chosen to
+live in camp for a week or two in this remote place, in preparation for a
+journey to the southern country. At first the tents were the cynosure of
+native eyes. Mediunah came down from its fastness among the hilltops to
+investigate discreetly from secure corners, prepared for flight so soon as
+occasion demanded it, if not before. Happily Salam's keen glance pierced
+the cover of the advance-guard and reassured one and all. Confidence
+established, the village agreed after much solemn debate to supply eggs,
+chickens, milk, and vegetables at prices doubtless in excess of those
+prevailing in the country markets, but quite low enough for Europeans.
+
+This little corner of the world, close to the meeting of the Atlantic and
+Mediterranean waters, epitomises in its own quiet fashion the story of the
+land's decay. Now it is a place of wild bees and wilder birds, of flowers
+and bushes that live fragrant untended lives, seen by few and appreciated
+by none. It is a spot so far removed from human care that I have seen, a
+few yards from the tents, fresh tracks made by the wild boar as he has
+rooted o' nights; and once, as I sat looking out over the water when the
+rest of the camp was asleep, a dark shadow passed, not fifty yards
+distant, going head to wind up the hill, and I knew it for "tusker"
+wending his way to the village gardens, where the maize was green.
+
+Yet the district has not always been solitary. Where now the tents are
+pitched, there was an orange grove in the days when Mulai Abd er Rahman
+ruled at Fez and Marrakesh, and then Mediunah boasted quite a thriving
+connection with the coasts of Portugal and Spain. The little bay wherein
+one is accustomed to swim or plash about at noonday, then sheltered
+furtive sailing-boats from the sleepy eyes of Moorish authority, and a
+profitable smuggling connection was maintained with the Spanish villages
+between Algeciras and Tarifa Point. Beyond the rocky caverns, where
+patient countrymen still quarry for millstones, a bare coast-line leads to
+the spot where legend places the Gardens of the Hesperides; indeed, the
+millstone quarries are said to be the original Caves of Hercules, and the
+golden fruit the hero won flourished, we are assured, not far away. Small
+wonder then that the place has an indefinable quality of enchantment that
+even the twentieth century cannot quite efface.
+
+[Illustration: A STREET, TANGIER]
+
+Life in camp is exquisitely simple. We rise with the sun. If in the raw
+morning hours a donkey brays, the men are very much perturbed, for they
+know that the poor beast has seen a djin. They will remain ill-at-ease
+until, somewhere in the heights where Mediunah is preparing for another
+day, a cock crows. This is a satisfactory omen, atoning for the donkey's
+performance. A cock only crows when he sees an angel, and, if there are
+angels abroad, the ill intentions of the djinoon will be upset. When I was
+travelling in the country some few years ago, it chanced one night that
+the heavens were full of shooting stars. My camp attendants ceased work at
+once. Satan and all his host were assailing Paradise, they said, and we
+were spectators of heaven's artillery making counter-attack upon the
+djinoon.[1] The wandering meteors passed, the fixed stars shone out with
+such a splendour as we may not hope to see in these western islands, and
+the followers of the great Camel Driver gave thanks and praise to His
+Master Allah, who had conquered the powers of darkness once again.
+
+While I enjoy a morning stroll over the hills, or a plunge in the sea,
+Salam, squatting at the edge of the cooking tent behind two small charcoal
+fires, prepares the breakfast. He has the true wayfarer's gift that
+enables a man to cook his food in defiance of wind or weather. Some wisps
+of straw and charcoal are arranged in a little hole scooped out of the
+ground, a match is struck, the bellows are called into play, and the fire
+is an accomplished fact. The kettle sings as cheerfully as the cicadas in
+the tree tops, eggs are made into what Salam calls a "marmalade," in spite
+of my oft-repeated assurance that he means omelette, porridge is cooked
+and served with new milk that has been carefully strained and boiled. For
+bread we have the flat brown loaves of Mediunah, and they are better than
+they look--ill-made indeed, but vastly more nutritious than the pretty
+emasculated products of our modern bakeries.
+
+Bargain and sale are concluded before the morning walk is over. The
+village folk send a deputation carrying baskets of eggs and charcoal, with
+earthen jars of milk or butter, fresh vegetables, and live chickens. I
+stayed one morning to watch the procedure.
+
+The eldest of the party, a woman who seems to be eighty and is probably
+still on the sunny side of fifty, comes slowly forward to where Salam sits
+aloof, dignified and difficult to approach. He has been watching her out
+of one corner of an eye, but feigns to be quite unconscious of her
+presence. He and she know that we want supplies and must have them from
+the village, but the facts of the case have nothing to do with the
+conventions of trading in Sunset Land.
+
+"The Peace of the Prophet on all True Believers. I have brought food from
+Mediunah," says the elderly advance-guard, by way of opening the campaign.
+
+"Allah is indeed merciful, O my Aunt," responds Salam with lofty
+irrelevance. Then follows a prolonged pause, somewhat trying, I apprehend,
+to Aunt, and struggling with a yawn Salam says at length, "I will see what
+you would sell."
+
+She beckons the others, and they lay their goods at our steward's feet.
+Salam turns his head away meanwhile, and looks out across the Atlantic as
+though anxious to assure himself about the state of agriculture in Spain.
+At last he wheels about, and with a rapid glance full of contempt surveys
+the village produce. He has a cheapening eye.
+
+"How much?" he asks sternly.
+
+[Illustration: IN TANGIER]
+
+Item by item the old dame prices the goods. The little group of young
+married women, with babies tied in a bundle behind them, or half-naked
+children clinging to their loin-cloths, nods approval. But Salam's face is
+a study. In place of contemptuous indifference there is now rising anger,
+terrible to behold. His brows are knitted, his eyes flame, his beard seems
+to bristle with rage. The tale of prices is hardly told before, with a
+series of rapid movements, he has tied every bundle up, and is thrusting
+the good things back into the hands of their owners. His vocabulary is
+strained to its fullest extent; he stands up, and with outspread hands
+denounces Mediunah and all its ways. The men of the village are cowards;
+the women have no shame. Their parents were outcasts. They have no fear of
+the Prophet who bade True Believers deal fairly with the stranger within
+their gates. In a year at most, perhaps sooner, "Our Master the Sultan"
+will assuredly be among these people who shame Al Moghreb,[2] he will eat
+them up, dogs will make merry among their graves, and their souls will go
+down to the pit. In short, everything is too dear.
+
+Only the little children are frightened by this outburst, which is no more
+than a prelude to bargaining. The women extol and Salam decries the goods
+on offer; both praise Allah. Salam assures them that the country of the
+"Ingliz" would be ruined if its inhabitants had to pay the prices they ask
+for such goods as they have to sell. He will see his master starve by
+inches, he will urge him to return to Tangier and eat there at a fair
+price, before he will agree to sacrifices hitherto unheard of in Sunset
+Land. This bargaining proceeds for a quarter of an hour without
+intermission, and by then the natives have brought their prices down and
+Salam has brought his up. Finally the money is paid in Spanish pesetas or
+Moorish quarters, and carefully examined by the simple folk, who retire to
+their ancestral hills, once more praising Allah who sends custom. Salam,
+his task accomplished, complains that the villagers have robbed us
+shamefully, but a faint twinkle in his eye suggests that he means less
+than he says.
+
+Breakfast over, I seek a hillside cave where there is a double gift of
+shade and a wonderful view, content to watch the pageantry of the morning
+hours and dream of hard work. Only the goatherds and their charges suggest
+that the district is inhabited, unless some vessel passing on its way to
+or from the southern coast can be seen communicating with the signal
+station round the bend of the rocks. There a kindly old Scot lives, with
+his Spanish wife and little children, in comparative isolation, from the
+beginning to the end of the year.
+
+"I've almost forgotten my own tongue," he said to me one evening when he
+came down to the camp to smoke the pipe of peace and tell of the fur and
+feather that pass in winter time. It was on a day when a great flight of
+wild geese had been seen winging its way to the unknown South, and the
+procession had fired the sporting instinct in one of us at least.
+
+[Illustration: A STREET IN TANGIER]
+
+Mid-day, or a little later, finds Salam in charge of a light meal, and,
+that discussed, one may idle in the shade until the sun is well on the way
+to the West. Then books and papers are laid aside. We set out for a tramp,
+or saddle the horses and ride for an hour or so in the direction of the
+mountain, an unexplored Riviera of bewildering and varied loveliness. The
+way lies through an avenue of cork trees, past which the great hills slope
+seaward, clothed with evergreen oak and heath, and a species of sundew,
+with here and there yellow broom, gum cistus, and an unfamiliar plant with
+blue flowers. Trees and shrubs fight for light and air, the fittest
+survive and thrive, sheltering little birds from the keen-eyed, quivering
+hawks above them. The road makes me think of what the French Mediterranean
+littoral must have been before it was dotted over with countless vulgar
+villas, covered with trees and shrubs that are not indigenous to the soil,
+and tortured into trim gardens that might have strayed from a prosperous
+suburb of London or Paris. Save a few charcoal burners, or stray women
+bent almost double beneath the load of wood they have gathered for some
+village on the hills, we see nobody. These evening rides are made into a
+country as deserted as the plateau that holds the camp, for the mountain
+houses of wealthy residents are half a dozen miles nearer Tangier.[3]
+
+On other evenings the road chosen lies in the direction of the Caves of
+Hercules, where the samphire grows neglected, and wild ferns thrive in
+unexpected places. I remember once scaring noisy seabirds from what seemed
+to be a corpse, and how angrily the gorged, reluctant creatures rose from
+what proved to be the body of a stranded porpoise, that tainted the air
+for fifty yards around. On another evening a storm broke suddenly.
+Somewhere in the centre rose a sand column that seemed to tell, in its
+brief moment of existence, the secret of the origin of the djinoon that
+roam at will through Eastern legendary lore.
+
+It is always necessary to keep a careful eye upon the sun during these
+excursions past the caves. The light fails with the rapidity associated
+with all the African countries, tropical and semi-tropical alike. A sudden
+sinking, as though the sun had fallen over the edge of the world, a brief
+after-glow, a change from gold to violet, and violet to grey, a chill in
+the air, and the night has fallen. Then there is a hurried scamper across
+sand, over rocks and past boulders, before the path that stretches in a
+faint fading line becomes wholly obliterated. In such a place as this one
+might wander for hours within a quarter of a mile of camp, and then only
+find the road by lucky accident, particularly if the senses have been
+blunted by very long residence in the heart of European civilisation.
+
+[Illustration: A GUIDE, TANGIER]
+
+I think that dinner brings the most enjoyable hour of the day. Work is
+over, the sights of sea and shore have been enjoyed, we have taken
+exercise in plenty. Salam and his helpers having dined, the kitchen tent
+becomes the scene of an animated conversation that one hears without
+understanding. Two or three old headmen, finding their way in the dark
+like cats, have come down from Mediunah to chat with Salam and the town
+Moor. The social instinct pervades Morocco. On the plains of R'hamna,
+where fandaks are unknown and even the n'zalas[4] are few and far between;
+in the fertile lands of Dukala, Shiadma, and Haha; in M'touga, on whose
+broad plains the finest Arab horses are reared and thrive,--I have found
+this instinct predominant. As soon as the evening meal is over, the
+headmen of the nearest village come to the edge of the tent, remove their
+slippers, praise God, and ask for news of the world without. It may be
+that they are going to rob the strangers in the price of food for mules
+and horses, or even over the tent supplies. It may be that they would cut
+the throats of all foreign wayfarers quite cheerfully, if the job could be
+accomplished without fear of reprisals. It is certain that they despise
+them for Unbelievers, _i.e._ Christians or Jews, condemned to the pit; but
+in spite of all considerations they must have news of the outer world.
+
+When the moon comes out and the Great Bear constellation is shining above
+our heads as though its sole duty in heaven were to light the camp, there
+is a strong temptation to ramble. I am always sure that I can find the
+track, or that Salam will be within hail should it be lost. How quickly
+the tents pass out of sight. The path to the hills lies by way of little
+pools where the frogs have a croaking chorus that Aristophanes might have
+envied. On the approach of strange footsteps they hurry off the flat rocks
+by the pool, and one hears a musical plash as they reach water. Very soon
+the silence is resumed, and presently becomes so oppressive that it is a
+relief to turn again and see our modest lights twinkling as though in
+welcome.
+
+It is hopeless to wait for wild boar now. One or two pariah dogs, hailing
+from nowhere, have been attracted to the camp, Salam has given them the
+waste food, and they have installed themselves as our protectors, whether
+out of a feeling of gratitude or in hope of favours to come I cannot tell,
+but probably from a mixture of wise motives. They are alert, savage
+beasts, of a hopelessly mixed breed, but no wild boar will come rooting
+near the camp now, nor will any thief, however light-footed, yield to the
+temptation our tents afford.
+
+[Illustration: THE ROAD TO THE KASBAH, TANGIER]
+
+We have but one visitor after the last curtain has been drawn, a strange
+bird with a harsh yet melancholy note, that reminds me of the night-jar of
+the fen lands in our own country. The hills make a semicircle round the
+camp, and the visitor seems to arrive at the corner nearest Spartel about
+one o'clock in the morning. It cries persistently awhile, and then flies
+to the middle of the semicircle, just at the back of the tents, where the
+note is very weird and distinct. Finally it goes to the other horn of the
+crescent and resumes the call--this time, happily, a much more subdued
+affair. What is it? Why does it come to complain to the silence night
+after night? One of the men says it is a djin, and wants to go back to
+Tangier, but Salam, whose loyalty outweighs his fears, declares that
+even though it be indeed a devil and eager to devour us, it cannot come
+within the charmed range of my revolver. Hence its regret, expressed so
+unpleasantly. I have had to confess to Salam that I have no proof that he
+is wrong.
+
+Now and again in the afternoon the tribesmen call to one another from the
+hill tops. They possess an extraordinary power of carrying their voices
+over a space that no European could span. I wonder whether the real secret
+of the powers ascribed to the half-civilised tribes of Africa has its
+origin in this gift. Certain it is that news passes from village to
+village across the hills, and that no courier can keep pace with it. In
+this way rumours of great events travel from one end of the Dark Continent
+to the other, and if the tales told me of the passage of news from South
+to North Africa during the recent war were not so extravagant as they seem
+at first hearing, I would set them down here, well assured that they would
+startle if they could not convince. In the south of Morocco, during the
+latter days of my journey, men spoke with quiet conviction of the doings
+of Sultan and Pretender in the North, just as though Morocco possessed a
+train or telegraph service, or a native newspaper. It does not seem
+unreasonable that, while the deserts and great rolling plains have
+extended men's vision to a point quite outside the comprehension of
+Europe, other senses may be at least equally stimulated by a life we
+Europeans shall: never know intimately. Perhaps the fear of believing too
+readily makes us unduly sceptical, and inclined to forget that our
+philosophy cannot compass one of the many mysteries that lie at our door.
+
+If any proof were required that Morocco in all its internal disputes is
+strictly tribal, our safe residence here would supply one. On the other
+side of Tangier, over in the direction of Tetuan, the tribes are out and
+the roads are impassable. Europeans are forbidden to ride by way of Angera
+to Tetuan. Even a Minister, the representative of a great European Power,
+was warned by old Hadj Mohammed Torres, the resident Secretary for Foreign
+Affairs, that the Moorish Administration would not hold itself responsible
+for his safety if he persisted in his intention to go hunting among the
+hills. And here we remain unmolested day after day, while the headmen of
+the Mediunah tribe discuss with perfect tranquillity the future of the
+Pretender's rebellion, or allude cheerfully to the time when, the Jehad
+(Holy War) being proclaimed, the Moslems will be permitted to cut the
+throats of all the Unbelievers who trouble the Moghreb. In the fatalism of
+our neighbours lies our safety. If Allah so wills, never a Nazarene will
+escape the more painful road to eternal fire; if it is written otherwise,
+Nazarene torment will be posthumous. They do not know, nor, in times when
+the land is preparing for early harvest, do they greatly care, what or
+when the end may be. Your wise Moor waits to gather in his corn and see it
+safely hoarded in the clay-lined and covered pits called mat'moras. That
+work over, he is ready and willing, nay, he is even anxious, to fight, and
+if no cause of quarrel is to be found he will make one.
+
+[Illustration: HEAD OF A BOY FROM MEDIUNA]
+
+Every year or two a party of travellers settles on this plateau, says
+the headman of Mediunah. From him I hear of a fellow writer from England
+who was camped here six years ago.[5] Travellers stay sometimes for three
+or four days, sometimes for as many weeks, and he has been told by men who
+have come many miles from distant markets, that the Nazarenes are to be
+found here and there throughout the Moroccan highlands towards the close
+of the season of the winter rains. Clearly their own land is not a very
+desirable abiding place, or they have sinned against the law, or their
+Sultan has confiscated their worldly goods, remarks the headman. My
+suggestion that other causes than these may have been at work, yields no
+more than an assertion that all things are possible, if Allah wills them.
+It is his polite method of expressing reluctance to believe everything he
+is told.
+
+From time to time, when we are taking our meals in the open air, I see the
+shepherd boys staring at us from a respectful distance. To them we must
+seem no better than savages. In the first place, we sit on chairs and not
+on the ground. We cut our bread, which, as every True Believer knows, is a
+wicked act and defies Providence, since bread is from Allah and may be
+broken with the hand but never touched with a knife. Then we do not know
+how to eat with our fingers, but use knives and forks and spoons that,
+after mere washing, are common property. We do not have water poured out
+over our fingers before the meal begins,--the preliminary wash in the tent
+is invisible and does not count,--and we do not say "Bismillah" before we
+start eating. We are just heathens, they must say to themselves. Our daily
+bathing seems to puzzle them greatly. I do not notice that little Larbi or
+his brother Kasem ever tempt the sea to wash or drown them. Yet they look
+healthy enough, and are full of dignity. You may offer them fruit or
+sweetmeats or anything tempting that may be on the table, and they will
+refuse it. I fancy they regard the invitation to partake of Nazarene's
+food as a piece of impertinence, only excusable because Nazarenes are mad.
+
+The days slip away from the plateau below Mediunah. March has yielded
+place to April. To-morrow the pack-mules will be here at sunrise. In the
+afternoon, when the cool hours approach, camp will be struck, and we shall
+ride down the avenue of cork trees for the last time on the way to "Tanjah
+of the Nazarenes," whence, at the week end, the boat will carry us to some
+Atlantic port, there to begin a longer journey.
+
+[Illustration: THE GOATHERD FROM MEDIUNA]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] "Moreover, we have decked the lower heaven with lamps, and have made
+them for pelting the devils."--Al Koran; Sura, "The Kingdom."
+
+[2] "The Far West", the native name for Morocco.
+
+[3] One of the most charming of these houses is "Aidonia," belonging to
+Mr. Ion Perdicaris. He was seized there by the brigand Rais Uli in May
+last.
+
+[4] Shelters provided by the Government for travellers.
+
+[5] A.J. Dawson, whose novels dealing with Morocco are full of rare charm
+and distinction.
+
+
+
+
+FROM TANGIER TO DJEDIDA
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: OLD BUILDINGS, TANGIER]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+FROM TANGIER TO DJEDIDA
+
+    Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote
+    The droghte of March hath perced to the roote
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+    Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages.
+
+    _The Canterbury Tales._
+
+We have rounded the north-west corner of Africa, exchanged farewell
+signals with our friend on Lloyd's station,--who must now return to his
+Spanish and Arabic or live a silent life,--and I have taken a last look
+through field-glasses at the plateau that held our little camp. Since then
+we have raced the light for a glimpse of El Araish, where the Gardens of
+the Hesperides were set by people of old time. The sun was too swift in
+its decline; one caught little more than an outline of the white city,
+with the minarets of its mosques that seemed to pierce the sky, and flags
+flying in the breeze on the flat roofs of its Consuls' houses. The river
+Lekkus showed up whitely on the eastern side, a rising wind having whipped
+its waters into foam, and driven the light coasting vessels out to sea. So
+much I saw from the good ship _Zweena's_ upper deck, and then evening
+fell, as though to hide from me the secret of the gardens where the
+Golden Apples grew.
+
+Alas, that modern knowledge should have destroyed all faith in old legend!
+The fabled fruits of the Hesperides turn to oranges in the hands of our
+wise men, the death-dealing dragon becomes Wad Lekkus itself, so ready
+even to-day to snarl and roar at the bidding of the wind that comes up out
+of the south-west, and the dusky maidens of surpassing loveliness are no
+more than simple Berber girls, who, whilst doubtless dusky, and possibly
+maidenly as ever, have not inherited much of the storied beauty of their
+forbears. In spite of this modern perversion of the old tale I find that
+the oranges of the dining-table have a quite rare charm for me
+to-night,--such an attraction as they have had hitherto only when I have
+picked them in the gardens of Andalusia, or in the groves that perfume the
+ancient town of Jaffa at the far eastern end of the Mediterranean. Now I
+have one more impression to cherish, and the scent of a blossoming orange
+tree will recall for me El Araish as I saw it at the moment when the
+shroud of evening made the mosques and the kasbah of Mulai al Yazeed melt,
+with the great white spaces between them, into a blurred pearly mass
+without salient feature.
+
+[Illustration: MOORISH HOUSE, CAPE SPARTEL]
+
+You shall still enjoy the sense of being in touch with past times and
+forgotten people, if you will walk the deck of a ship late at night. Your
+fellow-passengers are abed, the watch, if watch there be, is invisible,
+the steady throbbing movement of the screw resolves itself into a
+pleasing rhythmic melody. So far as the senses can tell, the world is your
+closet, a silent pleasaunce for your waking dreams. The coast-line has no
+lights, nor is any other vessel passing over the waters within range of
+eye or glass. The hosts of heaven beam down upon a silent universe in
+which you are the only waking soul. On a sudden eight bells rings out
+sharply from the forecastle head, and you spring back from your world of
+fancy as hurriedly as Cinderella returned to her rags when long-shore
+midnight chimed. The officer of the middle watch and a hand for the wheel
+come aft to relieve their companions, the illusion has passed, and you go
+below to turn in, feeling uncomfortably sure that your pretty thoughts
+will appear foolish and commonplace enough when regarded in the
+matter-of-fact light of the coming day.
+
+D�r el Baida, most Moorish of seaports, received us in the early morning.
+The wind had fallen, and the heavy surf-boats of the port could land us
+easily. We went on shore past the water-gate and the custom-house that
+stands on the site of the stores erected by the society of the Gremios
+Majores when Charles V. ruled Spain. D�r el Baida seemed to have straggled
+over as much ground as Tangier, but the ground itself was flat and full of
+refuse. The streets were muddy and unpaved, cobble stones strove
+ineffectually to disguise drains, and one felt that the sea breezes alone
+stood between the city and some such virulent epidemic as that which smote
+Tangier less than ten years ago. But withal there was a certain
+picturesque quality about D�r el Baida that atoned for more obvious
+faults, and the market-place afforded a picture as Eastern in its main
+features as the tired Western eye could seek. Camel caravans had come in
+from the interior for the Monday market. They had tramped from the
+villages of the Zair and the Beni Hassan tribes, bringing ripe barley for
+sale, though the spring months had not yet passed. From places near at
+hand the husbandmen had brought all the vegetables that flourish after the
+March rains,--peas and beans and lettuces; pumpkins, carrots and turnips,
+and the tender leaves of the date-palm. The first fruits of the year and
+the dried roses of a forgotten season were sold by weight, and charcoal
+was set in tiny piles at prices within the reach of the poorest customers.
+
+Wealthy merchants had brought their horses within the shadow of the
+sok's[6] high walls and loosened the many-clothed saddles. Slaves walked
+behind their masters or trafficked on their behalf. The snake-charmer, the
+story-teller, the beggar, the water-carrier, the incense seller, whose
+task in life is to fumigate True Believers, all who go to make the typical
+Moorish crowd, were to be seen indolently plying their trade. But
+inquiries for mules, horses, and servants for the inland journey met with
+no ready response. D�r el Baida, I was assured, had nothing to offer;
+Djedida, lower down along the coast, might serve, or Saffi, if Allah
+should send weather of a sort that would permit the boat to land.
+
+[Illustration: A PATRIARCH]
+
+As it happened, Djedida was the steamer's next port of call, so we made
+haste to return to her hospitable decks. I carried with me a vivid
+impression of D�r el Baida, of the market-place with its varied goods, and
+yet more varied people, the white Arabs, the darker Berbers, the black
+slaves from the Soudan and the Draa. Noticeable in the market were the
+sweet stores, where every man sat behind his goods armed with a feather
+brush, and waged ceaseless war with the flies, while a corner of his eye
+was kept for small boys, who were well nigh as dangerous. I remember the
+gardens, one particularly well. It belongs to the French Consul, and has
+bananas growing on the trees that face the road; from beyond the hedge one
+caught delightful glimpses of colour and faint breaths of exquisite
+perfume.
+
+I remember, too, the covered shed containing the mill that grinds the
+flour for the town, and the curious little bakehouse to which D�r el Baida
+takes its flat loaves, giving the master of the establishment one loaf in
+ten by way of payment. I recall the sale of horses, at which a fine raking
+mare with her foal at foot fetched fifty-four dollars in Moorish silver, a
+sum less than nine English pounds.
+
+And I seem to see, even now as I write, the Spanish woman with cruel
+painted face, sitting at the open casement of an old house near the
+Spanish church, thrumming her guitar, and beneath her, by the roadside, a
+beggar clad, like the patriarch of old, in a garment of many colours, that
+made his black face seem blacker than any I have seen in Africa. Then D�r
+el Baida sinks behind the water-port gate, the strong Moorish rowers bend
+to their oars, their boat laps through the dark-blue water, and we are
+back aboard the ship again, in another atmosphere, another world.
+Passengers are talking as it might be they had just returned from their
+first visit to a Zoological Garden. Most of them have seen no more than
+the dirt and ugliness--their vision noted no other aspect--of the
+old-world port. The life that has not altered for centuries, the things
+that make it worth living to all the folk we leave behind,--these are
+matters in which casual visitors to Morocco have no concern. They resent
+suggestion that the affairs of "niggers" can call for serious
+consideration, far less for appreciation or interest of any sort.
+
+Happily Djedida is not far away. At daybreak we are securely anchored
+before the town whose possession by the Portuguese is recorded to this
+hour by the fine fortifications and walls round the port. We slip over the
+smooth water in haste, that we may land before the sun is too high in the
+heavens. It is not without a thrill of pleasure that I hear the ship's
+shrill summons and see the rest of the passengers returning.
+
+[Illustration: PILGRIMS ON A STEAMER]
+
+By this time it is afternoon, but the intervening hours have not been
+wasted. I have found the Maalem, master of a bakehouse, a short,
+olive-skinned, wild, and wiry little man, whose yellowed eyes and
+contracting pupils tell a tale of haschisch and kief that his twitching
+fingers confirm. But he knows the great track stretching some hundred and
+twenty miles into the interior up to Red Marrakesh; he is "the father
+and mother" of mules and horses, animals that brighten the face of man by
+reason of their superlative qualities, and he is prepared to undertake the
+charge of all matters pertaining to a journey over this roadless country.
+His beasts are fit to journey to Tindouf in the country of the Draa, so
+fine is their condition; their saddles and accoutrements would delight the
+Sultan's own ministers. By Allah, the inland journey will be a picnic!
+Quite gravely, I have professed to believe all he says, and my
+reservations, though many, are all mental.
+
+In the days that precede departure--and in Morocco they are always apt to
+be numerous--I seek to enter into the life of Djedida. Sometimes we stroll
+to the custom-house, where grave and dignified Moors sit in the bare,
+barnlike office that opens upon the waste ground beyond the port. There
+they deliver my shot guns after long and dubious scrutiny of the order
+from the British Consulate at Tangier. They also pass certain boxes of
+stores upon production of a certificate testifying that they paid duty on
+arrival at the Diplomatic Capital. These matters, trivial enough to the
+Western mind, are of weight and moment here, not to be settled lightly or
+without much consultation.
+
+Rotting in the stores of this same custom-house are two grand pianos and
+an electric omnibus. The Sultan ordered them, the country paid for
+them,--so much was achieved by the commercial energy of the infidel,--and
+native energy sufficed to land them; it was exhausted by the effort. If
+Mulai Abd-el-Aziz wants his dearly purchased treasure, the ordering and
+existence of which he has probably forgotten, he must come to Mazagan for
+it, I am afraid, and unless he makes haste it will not be worth much. But
+there are many more such shipments in other ports, not to mention the
+unopened and forgotten packing cases at Court.
+
+[Illustration: THE HOUR OF SALE]
+
+The Basha of Djedida is a little old man, very rich indeed, and the terror
+of the entire Dukala province. I like to watch him as he sits day by day
+under the wall of the Kasbah by the side of his own palace, administering
+what he is pleased to call justice. Soldiers and slaves stand by to
+enforce his decree if need be, plaintiff and defendant lie like tombstones
+or advertisements of patent medicines, or telegrams from the seat of war,
+but no sign of an emotion lights the old man's face. He tempers justice
+with--let us say, diplomacy. The other afternoon a French-protected
+subject was charged with sheep-stealing, and I went to the trial. Salam
+acted as interpreter for me. The case was simple enough. The defendant had
+received some hundred sheep from plaintiff to feed and tend at an agreed
+price. From time to time he sent plaintiff the sad news of the death of
+certain rams, always among the finest in the flock. Plaintiff, a farmer in
+good circumstances, testified to the Unity of Allah and was content to
+pray for better luck, until news was brought to him that most of the sheep
+reported dead were to be seen in the Friday market fetching good prices.
+The news proved true, the report of their death was no more than the
+defendant's intelligent anticipation of events, and the action arose
+out of it. To be sure, the plaintiff had presented a fine sheep to the
+Basha, but the defendant was a French subject by protection, and the
+Vice-Consul of his adopted nation was there to see fair play. Under these
+circumstances the defendant lied with an assurance that must have helped
+to convince himself; his friends arrived in the full number required by
+the law, and testified with cheerful mendacity in their companion's
+favour. The Basha listened with attention while the litigants swore
+strange oaths and abused each other very thoroughly. Then he silenced both
+parties with a word, and gave judgment for the defendant. There was no
+appeal, though, had the defendant been an unprotected subject, the
+plaintiff's knife had assuredly entered into the final settlement of this
+little matter. But the plaintiff knew that an attack upon a French prot�g�
+would lead to his own indefinite imprisonment and occasional torture, to
+the confiscation of his goods, and to sundry other penalties that may be
+left unrecorded, as they would not look well in cold print. He knew,
+moreover, that everything is predestined, that no man may avoid Allah's
+decree. These matters of faith are real, not pale abstractions, in
+Morocco. So he was less discontented with the decision than one of his
+European brethren would have been in similar case--and far more
+philosophic regarding it.
+
+[Illustration: EVENING, MAZAGAN]
+
+Quite slowly we completed our outfit for the inland journey. Heaven aid
+the misguided Nazarene who seeks to accomplish such matters swiftly in
+this land of eternal afternoon. I bought an extraordinary assortment of
+what our American friends call "dry-goods" in the Jewish stores, from the
+very business-like gentlemen in charge of them. These all wore black
+gaberdines, black slippers, stockings that were once white, and black
+skull-caps over suspiciously shining love-locks. Most of the Jewish men
+seemed to have had smallpox; in their speech they relied upon a very base
+Arabic, together with worse Spanish or quite barbarous French. Djedida
+having no Mellah, as the Moorish ghetto is called, they were free to trade
+all over the town, and for rather less than a pound sterling I bought
+quite an imposing collection of cutlery, plate, and dishes for use on the
+road. It is true, as I discovered subsequently, that the spoons and forks
+might be crushed out of shape with one hand, that the knives would cut
+nothing rougher than Danish butter, and were imported from Germany with a
+Sheffield mark on them to deceive the natives, and that the plates and
+dishes were not too good to go with the cutlery. But nothing had been
+bought without bargaining of a more or less exciting and interesting sort,
+and for the bargaining no extra charge whatever was made. The little
+boxlike shops, with flaps that served as shutters, were ill-adapted for
+private purchase; there was no room for more than the owner inside, and
+before we had been at one for five minutes the roadway became impassable.
+All the idlers and beggars in that district gathered to watch the
+strangers, and the Maalem was the only one who could keep them at bay.
+Salam would merely threaten to cuff an importunate rogue who pestered
+us, but the Maalem would curse him so fluently and comprehensively, and
+extend the anathema so far in either direction, from forgotten ancestors
+to unborn descendants, that no native could stand up for long against the
+flashing eye, the quivering forefinger, the foul and bitter tongue of him.
+There were times, then and later on, when the Maalem seemed to be some
+Moorish connection of Captain Kettle's family, and after reflecting upon
+my experience among hard-swearing men of many nations, seafarers,
+land-sharks, beach-combers and the rest, I award the Maalem pride of
+place. You will find him to-day in Djedida, baking his bread with the aid
+of the small apprentice who looks after the shop when he goes abroad, or
+enjoying the dreams of the haschisch eater when his work is done. He is no
+man's enemy, and the penalty of his shortcomings will probably fall upon
+no body or soul save his own. A picturesque figure, passionate yet a
+philosopher, patiently tolerant of blinding heat, bad roads, uncomfortable
+sleeping quarters and short commons, the Maalem will remain alive and real
+in my memory long after the kaids and wazeers and other high dignitaries
+of his country are no more than dimly splendid shadows, lacking altogether
+in individuality.
+
+I learned to enjoy Djedida by night. Then the town was almost as silent as
+our camp below Mediunah had been. The ramparts left by the Portuguese and
+the white walls of the city itself became all of a piece, indistinct and
+mysterious as the darkness blended them. Late camels coming into the town
+to seek the security of some fandak would pad noiselessly past me; weird
+creatures from the under-world they seemed, on whom the ghostlike Arabs in
+their white djellabas were ordered to attend. Children would flit to and
+fro like shadows, strangely quiet, as though held in thrall even in the
+season of their play by the solemn aspect of the surroundings. The
+market-place and road to the landing-stage would be deserted, the gates of
+the city barred, and there was never a light to be seen save where some
+wealthy Moor attended by lantern-bearing slaves passed to and from his
+house. One night by the Kasbah the voice of a watchman broke upon the
+city's silence, at a time when the mueddin was at rest, and it was not
+incumbent upon the faithful to pray. "Be vigilant, O guardians," he
+cried,--"be vigilant and do not sleep." Below, by my side, on the ground,
+the guardians, wrapped warm in their djellabas, dreamed on, all
+undisturbed.
+
+By night, too, the pariah dogs, scavengers of all Mohammedan cities,
+roamed at their ease and leisure through Djedida, so hungry and so free
+from daintiness that no garbage would be left on the morrow. Moorish
+houses have no windows fronting the road--decency forbids, and though
+there might have been ample light within, the bare walls helped to darken
+the pathway, and it was wise to walk warily lest one should tumble over
+some beggar asleep on the ground.
+
+[Illustration: SUNSET OFF THE COAST]
+
+On nights like these and through streets not greatly different, Harun
+al Raschid fared abroad in Baghdad and lighted upon the wonderful folk who
+live for all time in the pages of the _Arabian Nights_. Doubtless I passed
+some twentieth-century descendants of the fisher-folk, the Calendars, the
+slaves, and the merchants who move in their wonderful pageantry along the
+glittering road of the "Thousand Nights and a Night,"--the type is
+marvellously unchanging in Al Moghreb; but, alas, they spoke, if at all,
+to deaf ears, and Salam was ever more anxious to see me safely home than
+to set out in search of adventure. By day I knew that Djedida had little
+of the charm associated even in this year of grace with the famous city on
+the Tigris, but, all over the world that proclaims the inspiration of
+Mohammed, the old times come back by night, and then "a thousand years are
+but as yesterday."
+
+Happily we were right below the area of rebellion. In the north, round Fez
+and Taza, there was severe fighting, spreading thence to the Riff country.
+Here, people did no more than curse the Pretender in public or the Sultan
+in private, according to the state of their personal feelings.
+Communication with the south, said the Maalem, was uninterrupted; only in
+the north were the sons of the Illegitimate, the rebels against Allah,
+troubling Our Lord the Sultan. From Djedida down to the Atlas the tribes
+were peaceful, and would remain at rest unless Our Master should attempt
+to collect his taxes, in which case, without doubt, there would be
+trouble.
+
+[Illustration: A VERANDAH AT MAZAGAN]
+
+He was a busy man in these days, was the Maalem. When he was not baking
+bread or smoking kief he was securing mules and bringing them for our
+inspection. To Mr. T. Spinney, son of the British Vice-Consul in Mazagan,
+we owed our salvation. A master of Moghrebbin Arabic, on intimate terms
+with the Moors, and thoroughly conversant with the road and its
+requirements, he stood between me and the fiery-tongued Maalem. This mule
+was rejected, that saddle was returned, stirrups tied with string were
+disqualified, the little man's claim to have all "the money in the hand"
+was overruled, and the Maalem, red-hot sputtering iron in my hands, was as
+wax in Mr. Spinney's. My good friend and host also found Kaid M'Barak,[7]
+the soldier, a tall, scorched, imperturbable warrior, who rode a brave
+horse, and carried a gun done up in a very tattered, old, flannel case
+tied with half a dozen pieces of string. The kaid's business was to strike
+terror into the hearts of evil men in return for a Moorish dollar a day,
+and to help with tent setting and striking, or anything else that might be
+required, in return for his food. He was a lean, gaunt, taciturn man, to
+whom twelve hours in the saddle brought no discomfort, and though he
+strove earnestly to rob me, it was only at the journey's end, when he had
+done his work faithfully and well. His gun seemed to be a constant source
+of danger to somebody, for he carried it at right angles to his horse
+across the saddle, and often on the road I would start to consciousness
+that the kaid was covering me with his be-frocked weapon. After a time
+one grew accustomed and indifferent to the danger, but when I went
+shooting in the Argan forest I left the blessed one in camp. He was
+convinced that he carried his gun in proper fashion, and that his duty was
+well done. And really he may have been right, for upon a day, when a hint
+of possible danger threatened, I learned to my amusement and relief that
+the valiant man carried no ammunition of any sort, and that the barrel of
+his gun was stuffed full of red calico.
+
+Our inland tramp over, he took one day's rest at Mogador, then gathered
+the well-earned store of dollars into his belt and started off to follow
+the coast road back to Djedida. Perhaps by now the Basha has had his
+dollars, or the Sultan has summoned him to help fight Bu Hamara. In any
+case I like to think that his few weeks with us will rank among the
+pleasant times of his life, for he proved a patient, enduring man, and
+though silent, a not unedifying companion.
+
+Among the strange stories I heard in Djedida while preparing for the
+journey was one relating to the then War Minister, Kaid Mahedi el Menebhi,
+some-time envoy to the Court of St. James's. In his early days Menebhi,
+though a member of the great Atlas Kabyle of that name, had been a poor
+lad running about Djedida's streets, ready and willing to earn a handful
+of _floos_[8] by hard work of any description. Then he set up in business
+as a mender of old shoes and became notorious, not because of his skill as
+a cobbler, but on account of his quick wit and clever ideas. In all
+Mohammedan countries a Believer may rise without any handicap on account
+of lowly origin, and so it fell out that the late Grand Wazeer, Ba Ahmad,
+during a visit to Djedida heard of the young cobbler's gifts, and
+straightway gave him a place in his household. Thereafter promotion was
+rapid and easy for Menebhi, and the lad who had loafed about the streets
+with the outcasts of the city became, under the Sultan, the first man in
+Morocco. "To-day," concluded my informant, "he has palaces and slaves and
+a great hareem, he is a Chief Wazeer and head of the Sultan's forces, but
+he still owes a merchant in Djedida some few dollars on account of leather
+he had bought and forgot to pay for when Ba Ahmad took him to
+Marrakesh."[9]
+
+[Illustration: A BLACKSMITH'S SHOP]
+
+In the R'hamna country, on the way to the southern capital, we pitched our
+tents one night in a Government n'zala, or guarded camping-ground, one of
+many that are spread about the country for the safety of travellers. The
+price of corn, eggs, and chickens was amazingly high, and the Maalem
+explained that the n'zala was kept by some of the immediate family of
+Mahedi el Menebhi, who had put them there, presumably to make what profit
+they could. I looked very carefully at our greedy hosts. They were a rough
+unprepossessing crowd, but their wealth in sheep and goats alone was
+remarkable, and their stock was safe from molestation, for they were
+known to be relatives of the Sultan's chief minister, a man whose arm is
+long and hard-hitting. Since last autumn Menebhi has resigned his high
+office, reduced his household, manumitted many slaves, and gone on the
+great pilgrimage to Mecca, so it may be presumed that his relatives in the
+forsaken R'hamna country have lowered their prices. Yet, 'tis something to
+have a great wazeer for relative even though, for the time being, loss of
+favour has given him leisure for pious observances.
+
+At length the evening came, when the last mule was selected, the last
+package made up, and nothing lay between us and the open road. Sleep was
+hard to woo. I woke before daylight, and was in the patio before the first
+animal arrived, or the sleepy porter had fumbled at the door of the
+warehouse where the luggage was stacked.
+
+    Morn in the white wake of the morning star
+    Came furrowing all the orient into gold,
+
+and gave to the tops of walls and battlements a momentary tinge of rose
+colour, a sight well worth the effort demanded by early rising.
+Sparrow-hawks and pigeons were fluttering over their nests on the deserted
+battlements, a stork eyed me with solemn curiosity from the minaret of a
+near mosque, and only the earliest wayfarers were astir. How slowly the
+men seemed to do their work, and how rapidly the morning wore on. Ropes
+and palmetto baskets refused to fit at the last moment, two mules were
+restive until their "father," the Maalem, very wide awake and energetic,
+cursed their religion, and reminded them that they were the children of
+asses renowned throughout the Moghreb for baseness and immorality. One
+animal was found at the last moment to be saddle-galled, and was rejected
+summarily, despite its "father's" frenzied assurances. Though I had been
+astir shortly before three, and at work soon after four, it was nearly
+seven o'clock when the last crooked way had been made straight, the last
+shwarri[10] balanced, and the luggage mules were moving to the Dukala
+gate.
+
+The crowd of curious onlookers then gave way, some few wishing us well on
+the journey. I daresay there were many among them, tied by their daily
+toil to the town, who thought with longing of the pleasant road before us,
+through fertile lands where all the orchards were aflower and the peasants
+were gathering the ripe barley, though April had yet some days to revel
+in. Small boys waved their hands to us, the water-carrier carrying his
+tight goat-skin from the wells set his cups a-tinkling, as though by way
+of a God-speed, and then M'Barak touched his horse with the spur to induce
+the bravery of a caracole, and led us away from Djedida. I drew a long
+breath of pleasure and relief; we were upon the road.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[6] The sok is the market-place.
+
+[7] Kaid is a complimentary title--he was a common soldier. M'Barak means
+"the blessed one," and is one of the names usually set apart for slaves.
+
+[8] Base copper coins, of which a penny will purchase a score.
+
+[9] It is fair to say that this is no more than one of many stories
+relating to the great Wazeer's early days. Another says that he started
+life as a soldier. There is no doubt that he is a man of extraordinary
+talent.
+
+[10] A pannier made of palmetto.
+
+
+
+
+ON THE MOORISH ROAD
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: A SAINT'S TOMB]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+ON THE MOORISH ROAD
+
+    With the brief gladness of the Palms,
+        that tower and sway o'er seething plain,
+    Fraught with the thoughts of rustling shade,
+        and welling spring, and rushing rain;
+    'Tis their's to pass with joy and hope,
+        whose souls shall ever thrill and fill
+    Dreams of the Birthplace and the Tomb,--
+        visions of Allah's Holy Hill.
+
+    _The Kasidah._
+
+
+We travel slowly, for the Maalem "father" of the pack-mules--guide,
+philosopher, and trusted companion--says that haste kills strong men, and
+often repeats a Moorish proverb which tells us that walking is better than
+running, and that of all things sitting still is best. If Salam and I,
+reaching a piece of level sward by the side of some orchard or arable land
+when the heat of the day has passed, venture to indulge in a brisk canter,
+the Maalem's face grows black as his eyes.
+
+"Have a care," he said to me one evening, "for this place is peopled by
+djinoon, and if they are disturbed they will at least kill the horses and
+mules, and leave us to every robber among the hills." Doubtless the
+Maalem prophesied worse things than this, but I have no Arabic worth
+mention, and Salam, who acts as interpreter, possesses a very fair amount
+of tact. I own to a vulgar curiosity that urges me to see a djin if I can,
+so, after this warning, Salam and I go cantering every late afternoon when
+the Enemy, as some Moors call the sun, is moving down towards the west,
+and the air gets its first faint touch of evening cool. Fortunately or
+unfortunately, the evil spirits never appear however, unless unnoticed by
+me in the harmless forms of storks, stock-doves, or sparrow-hawks.
+
+[Illustration: NEAR A WELL IN THE COUNTRY]
+
+In this fertile province of the Dukala, in the little-known kingdom of the
+victorious Sultan, Mulai Abd-el-Aziz, there are delightful stretches of
+level country, and the husbandman's simplest toil suffices to bring about
+an abundant harvest. Unhappily a great part of the province is not in
+permanent cultivation at all. For miles and miles, often as far as the eye
+can see, the land lies fallow, never a farmhouse or village to be seen,
+nothing save some zowia or saint's tomb, with white dome rising within
+four white walls to stare undaunted at the fierce African sun, while the
+saint's descendants in the shelter of the house live by begging from pious
+visitors. Away from the fertility that marks the neighbourhood of the
+douars, one finds a few spare bushes, suddra, retam, or colocynth, a few
+lizards darting here and there, and over all a supreme silence that may be
+felt, even as the darkness that troubled Egypt in days of old. The main
+track, not to be dignified by the name of road, is always to be discerned
+clearly enough, at least the Maalem is never in doubt when stray paths,
+leading from nowhere to the back of beyond, intersect it.
+
+At long intervals we pass a n'zala, a square empty space surrounded by a
+zariba of thorn and prickly pear. The village, a few wattled huts with
+conical roofs, stands by its side. Every n'zala is a Government shelter
+for travellers; you may pitch your tent within the four walls, and even if
+you remain outside and hire guards the owners of the huts are responsible
+for your safety, with their worldly goods, perhaps with their lives. I
+have tried the interior of the Moorish n'zalas, where all too frequently
+you must lie on unimagined filth, often almost within reach of
+camel-drivers and muleteers, who are so godly that they have no time to be
+clean, and I have concluded that the drawbacks outweigh the advantages.
+Now I pitch my tent on some cleaner spot, and pay guards from the village
+to stretch their blankets under its lee and go to sleep. If there are
+thieves abroad the zariba will not keep them out, and if there are no
+thieves a tired traveller may forget his fatigue.
+
+On the road we meet few wayfarers, and those we encounter are full of
+suspicion. Now and again we pass some country kaid or khalifa out on
+business. As many as a dozen well-armed slaves and retainers may follow
+him, and, as a rule, he rides a well-fed Barb with a fine crimson saddle
+and many saddle cloths. Over his white djellaba is a blue selham that
+came probably from Manchester; his stirrups are silver or plated. He
+travels unarmed and seldom uses spurs--a packing needle serves as an
+effective substitute. When he has spurs they are simply spear-heads--sharp
+prongs without rowels. The presence of Unbelievers in the country of the
+True Faith is clearly displeasing to him, but he is nearly always diplomat
+enough to return my laboured greeting, though doubtless he curses me
+heartily enough under his breath. His road lies from village to village,
+his duty to watch the progress of the harvest for his overlord. Even the
+locusts are kinder than the country kaids. But so soon as the kaid has
+amassed sufficient wealth, the governor of his province, or one of the
+high wazeers in the Sultan's capital, will despoil him and sell his place
+to the highest bidder, and in the fulness of time the Sultan will send for
+that wazeer or governor, and treat him in similar fashion. "Mektub," it is
+written, and who shall avoid destiny?[11]
+
+[Illustration: NEAR A WELL IN THE TOWN]
+
+When the way is long and the sun hot, pack and saddle animals come
+together, keeping a level pace of some five miles an hour, and Salam or
+the Maalem beguiles the tedium of the way with song or legend. The Maalem
+has a song that was taught him by one of his grandfather's slaves, in the
+far-off days when Mulai Mohammed reigned in Red Marrakesh. In this chant,
+with its weird monotonous refrain, the slaves sing of their journey
+from the lands of the South, the terrors of the way, the lack of food and
+water. It is a dismal affair enough, but the Maalem likes it, and Salam,
+riding under a huge Tetuan hat, carrying my shot gun, in case some fresh
+meat should come along, and keeping watchful eye on the mules, joins
+lustily in the refrain. Salam has few songs of his own, and does not care
+to sing them, lest his importance should suffer in the native eyes, but he
+possesses a stock of Arabian Nights' legends, and quotes them as though
+they were part of Al Koran.
+
+Now and again, in some of the waste and stony places beyond Dukala's
+boundaries, we come across a well, literally a well in the desert, with
+husbandmen gathered about it and drawing water in their goat-skin buckets,
+that are tied to long palmetto ropes made by the men of the neighbouring
+villages. The water is poured into flat, puddled troughs, and the thirsty
+flocks and herds drink in turn, before they march away to hunt for such
+scanty herbage as the land affords. The scene round these wells is
+wonderfully reminiscent of earliest Bible times, particularly so where the
+wandering Bedouins bring their flocks to water from the inhospitable
+territory of the Wad Nun and deserts below the Sus.
+
+I note with pleasure the surprising dignity of the herdsmen, who make far
+less comment upon the appearance of the stranger in these wild places than
+we should make upon the appearance of a Moor or Berber in a London street.
+
+The most unmistakable tribute to the value of the water is paid by the
+skeletons of camels, mules, sheep and goats that mark the road to the
+well. They tell the tale of animals beaten by the Enemy in their last
+stride. It is not easy for a European to realise the suffering these
+strange lands must see when the summer drought is upon the face of the
+earth. Perhaps they are lessened among the human sufferers by the very
+real fatalism that accepts evil as it accepts good, without grief and
+without gladness, but always with philosophic calm; at least we should
+call it philosophic in a European; superstitious fatalism, of course, in a
+Moor.
+
+[Illustration: MOORISH WOMAN AND CHILD]
+
+The earliest and latest hours of our daily journey are, I think, the best.
+When afternoon turns toward evening in the fertile lands, and the great
+heat begins to pass, countless larks resume their song, while from every
+orchard one hears the subdued murmur of doves or the mellow notes of the
+nightingale. Storks sweep in wide circles overhead or teach their awkward
+young the arts of flight, or wade solemnly in search of supper to some
+marsh where the bull-frogs betray their presence by croaking as loudly as
+they can. The decline of the sun is quite rapid--very often the afterglow
+lights us to our destination. It is part of the Maalem's duty to decide
+upon the place of our nightly sojourn, and so to regulate the time of
+starting, the pace, and the mid-day rest, that he may bring us to the
+village or n'zala in time to get the tent up before darkness has fallen.
+The little man is master of every turn in the road, and has only failed
+once--when he brought us to a large village, where the bulk of the
+inhabitants of outlying douars had attacked the Governor's house, with
+very little success, on the previous day, and were now about to be
+attacked in their turn by the Governor and his bodyguard. There had been
+much firing and more shouting, but nobody was badly hurt. Prudence
+demanded that the journey be resumed forthwith, and for three hours the
+Maalem kept his eyes upon the stars and cursed the disturbers of the
+land's peace. Then we reached the desired haven, and passed unscathed
+through the attacks of the native dogs that guarded its approaches.
+
+The procedure when we approach a n'zala in the evening is highly
+interesting. Some aged headman, who has seen our little company
+approaching, stands by the edge of the road and declares we are
+welcome.[12] Salam or the Maalem responds and presents me, a traveller
+from the far country of the Ingliz, carrying letters to the great sheikhs
+of the South. The headman repeats his welcome and is closely questioned
+concerning the existing supplies of water, corn, milk, eggs, and poultry.
+These points being settled, Salam asks abouts guards. The strangers would
+sleep outside the n'zala: Can they have guards at a fair price? Three are
+promised for a payment of about sevenpence apiece, and then the headman
+precedes us and we turn from the main track to the place of shelter.
+
+Instantly the village is astir. The dogs are driven off. Every wattled
+hut yields its quota of men, women, and children, spectral in their white
+djellabas and all eager to see the strangers and their equipment. The men
+collect in one group and talk seriously of the visit, well assured that it
+has some significance, probably unpleasant; the women, nervous by nature
+and training, do not venture far from their homes and remain veiled to the
+eyes. But the children--dark, picturesque, half-naked boys and girls--are
+nearly free from fear if not from doubt. The tattoo marks on their chins
+keep them safe from the evil eye; so they do not run much risk from chance
+encounter with a European. They approach in a constantly shifting group,
+no detail of the unpacking is lost to them, they are delighted with the
+tent and amazed at the number of articles required to furnish it, they
+refuse biscuits and sugar, though Salam assures them that both are good to
+eat, and indeed sugar is one of the few luxuries of their simple lives.
+
+[Illustration: EVENING ON THE PLAINS]
+
+By the headman's direction our wants are supplied. The patriarch, with his
+long white beard and clear far-seeing eyes, receives the respect and
+obedience of all the village, settles all disputes, and is personally
+responsible to the kaid of the district for the order and safety of the
+n'zala. Three men come from the well, each bearing a big clay amphora of
+water that must be boiled before we drink it. One brings an ample measure
+of barley, costing about four shillings or a little more in English money,
+another bends under a great load of straw. Closely-veiled women carry
+small jars of milk and hand them to their lord, who brings them up to
+Salam and states the price demanded. Milk is dear throughout Morocco in
+the late spring and summer, for, herbage being scanty, cows are small and
+poor. Eggs, on the other hand, are cheap; we can buy a dozen for twopence
+or its equivalent in Spanish or Moorish money, and chickens cost about
+fivepence apiece. If Salam, M'Barak and the Maalem were travelling alone
+they would pay less, but a European is rarely seen, and his visit must be
+made memorable.
+
+Provisions purchased, the tent up, mules and horses tethered together in
+full view of the tent, a great peace falls upon our little party. I am
+permitted to lie at full length on a horse rug and stare up at the dark,
+star-spangled sky; Salam has dug a little hole in the ground, made a
+charcoal fire, and begun to prepare soup and boil the water for coffee.
+The Maalem smokes kief in furtive manner, as though orthodox enough to be
+ashamed of the practice, while M'Barak prepares plates and dishes for the
+evening meal. Around, in a semicircle, some ten yards away, the men and
+boys of the village sit observing us solemnly. They have little to say,
+but their surprise and interest are expressed quite adequately by their
+keen unfailing regard. The afterglow passes and charcoal fires are lighted
+at the edge of most of the native huts, in preparation for the evening
+meal, for the young shepherds have come from the fields and the flocks are
+safely penned. In the gathering dusk the native women, passing through the
+smoke or by the flame of their fire, present a most weird picture, as it
+might be they were participating in a Witches' Sabbath. Darkness envelops
+all the surrounding country, hiding the road by which we came, sealing up
+the track we have to follow, striking a note of loneliness that is awesome
+without being unpleasant. With what we call civilisation hundreds of miles
+away, in a country where law and order are to be regarded more as names
+than facts, one has a great joy in mere living, intensified doubtless by
+long hours spent in the saddle, by occasional hard work and curtailed
+rest, and by the daily sight of the rising sun.
+
+The evening meal is a simple affair of soup, a chicken, and some coffee to
+follow, and when it is over I make my way to the kitchen tent, where the
+men have supped, and send M'Barak with an invitation to the headman and
+his sons. The blessed one makes his way to the headman's hut, while Salam
+clears up the debris of the meal, and the Maalem, conscious that no more
+work will be expected of him, devotes his leisure to the combustion of
+hemp, openly and unashamed. With many compliments the headman arrives, and
+I stand up to greet and bid him welcome--an effort that makes heavy call
+upon my scanty store of Arabic. The visitors remove their slippers and sit
+at ease, while Salam makes a savoury mess of green tea, heavily sweetened
+and flavoured with mint. My visitors are too simply pious to smoke, and
+regard the Maalem with displeasure and surprise, but he is quite beyond
+the reach of their reproaches now. His eyes are staring glassily, his lips
+have a curious ashen colour, his hands are twitching--the hemp god has
+him by the throat. The village men turn their backs upon this degraded
+Believer, and return thanks to Allah the One for sending an infidel who
+gives them tea. Broadly speaking, it is only coast Moors, who have
+suffered what is to them the contamination of European influences, that
+smoke in Morocco.
+
+Like the Walrus and the Carpenter, we talk of many things, Salam acting as
+interpreter. The interests of my guests are simple: good harvests,
+abundant rain, and open roads are all they desire. They have never seen
+the sea or even a big Moorish town, but they have heard of these things
+from travellers and traders who have passed their nights in the n'zala in
+times recent or remote, and sometimes they appeal to me to say if these
+tales are true. Are there great waters of which no man may drink--waters
+that are never at rest? Do houses with devils (? steam engines) in them go
+to and fro upon the face of these waters? Are there great cities so big
+that a man cannot walk from end to end in half a day? I testify to the
+truth of these things, and the headman praises Allah, who has done what
+seemed good to him in lands both near and far. It is, I fear, the
+headman's polite way of saying that Saul is among the prophets. My
+revolver, carefully unloaded, is passed from hand to hand, its uses and
+capacities are known even to these wild people, and the weapon creates
+more interest than the tent and all its varied equipment. Naturally
+enough, it turns the talk to war and slaughter, and I learn that the local
+kaid has an endless appetite for thieves and other children of shameless
+women, that guns are fired very often within his jurisdiction, and baskets
+full of heads have been collected after a purely local fight. All this is
+said with a quiet dignity, as though to remind me that I have fallen among
+people of some distinction, and the effect is only spoilt by the
+recollection that nearly every headman has the same tale to tell. Sultans,
+pretenders, wazeers, and high court functionaries are passed in critical
+review, their faults and failings noted. I cannot avoid the conclusion
+that the popular respect is for the strong hand--that civilised government
+would take long to clear itself of the imputation of cowardice. The local
+kaid is always a tyrant, but he is above all things a man, keen-witted,
+adventurous, prompt to strike, and determined to bleed his subjects white.
+So the men of the village, while suffering so keenly from his arbitrary
+methods, look with fear and wonder at their master, respect him secretly,
+and hope the day will come when by Allah's grace they too will be allowed
+to have mastery over their fellows and to punish others as they have been
+punished. Strength is the first and greatest of all virtues, so far as
+they can see, and cunning and ferocity are necessary gifts in a land where
+every man's hand is against his neighbour.
+
+[Illustration: TRAVELLERS BY NIGHT]
+
+The last cup of green tea has been taken, the charcoal, no longer
+refreshed by the bellows, has ceased to glow, around us the native fires
+are out. The hour of repose is upon the night, and the great athletic
+villagers rise, resume their slippers, and pass with civil salutation
+to their homes. Beyond the tent our guards are sleeping soundly in their
+blankets; the surrounding silence is overwhelming. The grave itself could
+hardly be more still. Even the hobbled animals are at rest, and we enter
+into the enveloping silence for five or six dreamless hours.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The horses stir and wake me; I open the tent and call the men. Our guards
+rouse themselves and retire to their huts. The Maalem, no worse, to
+outward seeming, for the night's debauch, lights the charcoal. It is about
+half-past three, the darkness has past but the sun has not risen, the land
+seems plunged in heavy sleep, the air is damp and chill. Few pleasures
+attach to this early rising, but it is necessary to be on the road before
+six o'clock in order to make good progress before the vertical rays of the
+sun bid us pause and seek what shelter we can find. Two hours is not a
+long time in which to strike tents, prepare breakfast,--a solid affair of
+porridge, omelette, coffee, marmalade and biscuits,--pack everything, and
+load the mules. We must work with a will, or the multi-coloured pageant in
+the eastern sky will have passed before we are on the road again.
+
+Early as it is we are not astir much before the village. Almost as soon as
+I am dressed the shepherd boys and girls are abroad, playing on their reed
+flutes as they drive the flocks to pasture from the pens to which they
+were brought at sundown. They go far afield for food if not for water, but
+evening must see their animals safely secured once more, for if left out
+overnight the nearest predatory tribesmen would carry them off. There is
+no security outside the village, and no village is safe from attack when
+there is unrest in the province. A cattle raid is a favourite form of
+amusement among the warlike tribes of the Moorish country, being
+profitable, exciting, and calculated to provoke a small fight.
+
+A group of interested observers assembles once more, reinforced by the
+smallest children, who were too frightened to venture out of doors last
+night. Nothing disturbs the little company before we leave the camp. The
+headman, grave and dignified as ever, receives payment for corn, straw,
+chickens, milk, eggs, water, and guards, a matter of about ten shillings
+in English money, and a very large sum indeed for such a tiny village to
+receive. The last burden is fastened on the patient mules, girths and
+straps and belts are examined, and we pass down the incline to the main
+road and turn the horses' heads to the Atlas Mountains.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[11] "There happeneth no misfortune on the earth or to yourselves, but it
+is written in the Book before we created it: verily that is easy to
+Allah."--Al Koran; Sura, "The Tree."
+
+[12] This courtesy is truly Eastern, and has many variants. I remember
+meeting two aged rabbis who were seated on stones by the roadside half a
+mile from the city of Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee. They rose as I
+approached, and said in Hebrew, "Blessed be he who cometh."
+
+
+
+
+TO THE GATES OF MARRAKESH
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THE R'KASS]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+TO THE GATES OF MARRAKESH
+
+    In hawthorn-time the heart grows bright,
+    The world is sweet in sound and sight,
+    Glad thoughts and birds take flower and flight,
+    The heather kindles toward the light,
+    The whin is frankincense and flame.
+
+    _The Tale of Balen._
+
+
+If you would savour the true sense of Morocco, and enjoy glimpses of a
+life that belongs properly to the era of Genesis, journey through Dukala,
+Shiadma, or Haha in April. Rise early, fare simply, and travel far enough
+to appreciate whatever offers for a camping-ground, though it be no more
+than the grudging shadow of a wall at mid-day, or a n'zala not overclean,
+when from north, south, east, and west the shepherd boys and girls are
+herding their flocks along the homeward way. You will find the natives
+kind and leisured enough to take interest in your progress, and, their
+confidence gained, you shall gather, if you will, some knowledge of the
+curious, alluring point of view that belongs to fatalists. I have been
+struck by the dignity, the patience, and the endurance of the Moor, by
+whom I mean here the Arab who lives in Morocco, and not the aboriginal
+Berber, or the man with black blood preponderating in his veins. To the
+Moor all is for the best. He knows that Allah has bound the fate of each
+man about his neck, so he moves fearlessly and with dignity to his
+appointed end, conscious that his God has allotted the palace or the
+prison for his portion, and that fellow-men can no more than fulfil the
+divine decree. Here lies the secret of the bravery that, when disciplined,
+may yet shake the foundations of Western civilisation. How many men pass
+me on the road bound on missions of life or death, yet serene and placid
+as the medi�val saints who stand in their niches in some cathedral at
+home. Let me recall a few fellow-wayfarers and pass along the roadless way
+in their company once again.
+
+[Illustration: A TRAVELLER ON THE PLAINS]
+
+First and foremost stands out a khalifa, lieutenant of a great country
+kaid, met midmost Dukala, in a place of level barley fields new cut with
+the _media luna_. Brilliant poppies and irises stained the meadows on all
+sides, and orchards whose cactus hedges, planted for defence, were now
+aflame with blood-red flowers, became a girdle of beauty as well as
+strength. The khalifa rode a swiftly-ambling mule, a beast of price, his
+yellow slippers were ostentatiously new, and his ample girth proclaimed
+the wealthy man in a land where all the poor are thin. "Peace," was his
+salutation to M'Barak, who led the way, and when he reached us he again
+invoked the Peace of Allah upon Our Lord Mohammed and the Faithful of
+the Prophet's House, thereby and with malice aforethought excluding the
+infidel. Like others of his class who passed us he was but ill-pleased to
+see the stranger in the land; unlike the rest he did not conceal his
+convictions. Behind him came three black slaves, sleek, armed, proud in
+the pride of their lord, and with this simple retinue the khalifa was on
+his way to tithe the newly-harvested produce of the farmers who lived in
+that district. Dangerous work, I thought, to venture thus within the
+circle of the native douars and claim the lion's share of the hard-won
+produce of the husbandmen. He and his little company would be outnumbered
+in the proportion of thirty or forty to one, they had no military
+following, and yet went boldly forth to rob on the kaid's behalf. I
+remembered how, beyond Tangier, the men of the hills round Anjera had
+risen against an unpopular khalifa, had tortured him in atrocious fashion,
+and left him blind and hideously maimed, to be a warning to all tyrants.
+Doubtless our prosperous fellow-traveller knew all about it, doubtless he
+realised that the Sultan's authority was only nominal, but he knew that
+his immediate master, the Basha, still held his people in an iron grip
+while, above and beyond all else, he knew by the living faith that
+directed his every step in life, that his own fate, whether good or evil,
+was already assigned to him. I heard the faint echo of the greeting
+offered by the dogs of the great douar into which he passed, and felt well
+assured that the protests of the village folk, if they ventured to
+protest, would move him no more than the barking of those pariahs. The
+hawks we saw poised in the blue above our heads when small birds sang at
+sunsetting, were not more cheerfully devoid of sentiment than our khalifa,
+though it may be they had more excuse than he.
+
+On another afternoon we sat at lunch in the grateful sombre shade of a
+fig-tree. Beyond the little stone dyke that cut the meadow from the arable
+land a negro ploughed with an ox and an ass, in flat defiance of Biblical
+injunction. The beasts were weary or lazy, or both, and the slave cursed
+them with an energy that was wonderful for the time of day. Even the birds
+had ceased to sing, the cicadas were silent in the tree tops, and when one
+of the mules rolled on the ground and scattered its pack upon all sides,
+the Maalem was too exhausted to do more than call it the "son of a
+Christian and a Jew."
+
+[Illustration: THE MID-DAY HALT]
+
+Down the track we had followed came a fair man, of slight build, riding a
+good mule. He dismounted by the tree to adjust his saddle, tighten a
+stirrup thong, and say a brief prayer. Then, indifferent to the heat, he
+hurried on, and Salam, who had held short converse with him, announced
+that he was an emissary of Bu Hamara the Pretender, speeding southward to
+preach the rising to the Atlas tribes. He carried his life in his hands
+through the indifferently loyal southern country, but the burden was not
+heavy enough to trouble him. Bu Hamara, the man no bullets could injure,
+the divinely directed one, who could call the dead from their pavilion in
+Paradise to encourage the living, had bade him go rouse the sleeping
+southerners, and so he went, riding fearlessly into the strong glare that
+wrapt and hid him. His work was for faith or for love: it was not for
+gain. If he succeeded he would not be rewarded, if he failed he would be
+forgotten.
+
+Very often, at morning, noon, and sunset, we would meet the r'kass or
+native letter-carrier, a wiry man from the Sus country, more often than
+not, with naked legs and arms. In his hand he would carry the long pole
+that served as an aid to his tired limbs when he passed it behind his
+shoulders, and at other times helped him to ford rivers or defend himself
+against thieves. An eager, hurrying fellow was the r'kass, with rarely
+enough breath to respond to a salutation as he passed along, his letters
+tied in a parcel on his back, a lamp at his girdle to guide him through
+the night, and in his wallet a little bread or parched flour, a tiny pipe,
+and some kief. Only if travelling in our direction would he talk, repaying
+himself for the expenditure of breath by holding the stirrup of mule or
+horse. Resting for three to five hours in the twenty-four, sustaining
+himself more with kief than with bread, hardened to a point of endurance
+we cannot realise, the r'kass is to be met with on every Moorish road that
+leads to a big city--a solitary, brave, industrious man, who runs many
+risks for little pay. His letters delivered, he goes to the nearest house
+of public service, there to sleep, to eat sparingly and smoke incessantly,
+until he is summoned to the road again. No matter if the tribes are out on
+the warpath, so that the caravans and merchants may not pass,--no matter
+if the powder "speaks" from every hill,--the r'kass slips through with
+his precious charge, passing lightly as a cloud over a summer meadow,
+often within a few yards of angry tribesmen who would shoot him at sight
+for the mere pleasure of killing. If the luck is against him he must pay
+the heaviest penalty, but this seldom occurs unless the whole country-side
+is aflame. At other times, when there is peace in the land, and the wet
+season has made the unbridged rivers impassable, whole companies of
+travellers camp on either side of some river--a silver thread in the dry
+season, a rushing torrent now. But the r'kass knows every ford, and, his
+long pole aiding him, manages to reach his destination. It is his business
+to defy Nature if necessary, just as he defies man in the pursuit of his
+task. He is a living proof of the capacity and dogged endurance still
+surviving in a race Europeans affect to despise.
+
+We met slaves-dealers too from time to time, carrying women and children
+on mules, while the men slaves walked along at a good pace. And the
+dealers by no means wore the villainous aspect that conventional observers
+look to see, but were plainly men bent upon business, travelling to make
+money. They regarded the slaves as merchandise, to be kept in tolerably
+fair condition for the sake of good sales, and unless Ruskin was right
+when he said that all who are not actively kind are cruel, there seemed
+small ground on which to condemn them. To be sure, they were taking slaves
+from market to market, and not bringing Soudanese captives from the
+extreme South, so we saw no trace of the trouble that comes of forced
+travel in the desert, but even that is equally shared by dealers and slave
+alike.
+
+The villages of Morocco are no more than collections of conical huts built
+of mud and wattle and palmetto, or goat and camel skins. These huts are
+set in a circle all opening to the centre, where the live-stock and
+agricultural implements are kept at night. The furniture of a tent is
+simple enough. Handloom and handmill, earthenware jars, clay lamps, a
+mattress, and perhaps a tea-kettle fulfil all requirements.
+
+A dazzling, white-domed saint's shrine within four square walls lights the
+landscape here and there, and gives to some douar such glory as a holy man
+can yield when he has been dead so long that none can tell the special
+direction his holiness took. The zowia serves several useful purposes. The
+storks love to build upon it, and perhaps the influence of its rightful
+owner has something to do with the good character of the interesting young
+birds that we see plashing about in the marshes, and trying to catch fish
+or frogs with something of their parents' skill. Then, again, the zowia
+shelters the descendants of the holy man, who prey upon passers in the
+name of Allah and of the departed.
+
+Beyond one of the villages graced with the shrine of a forgotten saint, I
+chanced upon a poor Moorish woman washing clothes at the edge of a pool.
+She used a native grass-seed in place of soap, and made the linen very
+white with it. On a great stone by the water's edge sat a very old and
+very black slave, and I tried with Salam's aid to chat with him. But he
+had no more than one sentence. "I have seen many Sultans," he cried
+feebly, and to every question he responded with these same words. Two tiny
+village boys stood hand in hand before him and repeated his words,
+wondering. It was a curious picture and set in striking colour, for the
+fields all round us were full of rioting irises, poppies, and convolvuli;
+the sun that gilded them was blazing down upon the old fellow's
+unprotected head. Gnats were assailing him in legions, singing their
+flattering song as they sought to draw his blood.[13] Before us on a hill
+two meadows away stood the douar, its conical huts thatched with black
+straw and striped palmetto, its zowia with minaret points at each corner
+of the protecting walls, and a stork on one leg in the foreground. It cost
+me some effort to tear myself away from the place, and as I remounted and
+prepared to ride off the veteran cried once more, "I have seen many
+Sultans." Then the stork left his perch on the zowia's walls, and settled
+by the marsh, clapping his mandibles as though to confirm the old man's
+statement, and the little boys took up the cry, not knowing what they
+said. He had seen many Sultans. The Praise to Allah, so had not I.
+
+[Illustration: ON GUARD]
+
+By another douar, this time on the outskirts of the R'hamna country, we
+paused for a mid-day rest, and entered the village in search of milk and
+eggs. All the men save one were at work on the land, and he, the
+guardian of the village, an old fellow and feeble, stood on a sandy
+mound within the zariba. He carried a very antiquated flint-lock, that may
+have been own brother to Kaid M'Barak's trusted weapon. I am sure he could
+not have had the strength to fire, even had he enjoyed the knowledge and
+possessed the material to load it. It was his business to mount guard over
+the village treasure. The mound he stood upon was at once the mat'mora
+that hid the corn store, and the bank that sheltered the silver dollars
+for whose protection every man of the village would have risked his life
+cheerfully. The veteran took no notice of our arrival: had we been thieves
+he could have offered no resistance. He remained silent and stationary,
+unconscious that the years in which he might have fulfilled his trust had
+gone for ever. All along the way the boundaries of arable land were marked
+by little piles of stones and I looked anxiously for some sign of the
+curious festival that greets the coming of the new corn, a ceremony in
+which a figure is made for worship by day and sacrifice by night; we were
+just too late for it. For the origin of this sacrifice the inquirer must
+go back to the time of nature worship. It was an old practice, of course,
+in the heyday of Grecian civilisation, and might have been seen in
+England, I believe, little more than twenty years ago.
+
+Claims for protection are made very frequently upon the road. There are
+few of the dramatic moments in which a man rushes up, seizes your stirrup
+and puts himself "beneath the hem of your garment," but there are
+numerous claims for protection of another sort. In Morocco all the Powers
+that signed the Treaty of Madrid are empowered to grant the privilege.
+France has protected subjects by the thousand. They pay no taxes, they are
+not to be punished by the native authorities until their Vice-Consul has
+been cited to appear in their defence, and, in short, they are put above
+the law of their own country and enabled to amass considerable wealth. The
+fact that the foreigner who protects them is often a knave and a thief is
+a draw-back, but the popularity of protection is immense, for the
+protector may possibly not combine cunning with his greed, while the
+native Basha or his khalifa quite invariably does. British subjects may
+not give protection,--happily the British ideals of justice and fair-play
+have forbidden the much-abused practice,--and the most the Englishman can
+do is to enter into a trading partnership with a Moor and secure for him a
+certificate of limited protection called "mukhalat," from the name of the
+person who holds it. Great Britain has never abused the Protection system,
+and there are fewer protected Moors in the service or partnership of
+Britons throughout all Morocco than France has in any single town of
+importance.
+
+If I had held the power and the will to give protection, I might have been
+in Morocco to-day, master of a house and a household, drawing half the
+produce of many fields and half the price of flocks of sheep and herds of
+goats. Few mornings passed without bringing some persecuted farmer to the
+camp, generally in the heat of the day, when we rested on his land. He
+would be a tall, vigorous man, burnt brown by the sun, and he would point
+to his fields and flocks, "I have so many sheep and goats, so many oxen
+for the plough, so many mules and horses, so much grain unharvested, so
+much in store. Give me protection, that I may live without fear of my
+kaid, and half of all I own shall be yours." Then I had to explain through
+Salam that I had no power to help him, that my Government would do no more
+than protect me. It was hard for the applicants to learn that they must go
+unaided. The harvest was newly gathered, it had survived rain and blight
+and locusts, and now they had to wait the arrival of their kaid or his
+khalifa, who would seize all they could not conceal,--hawk, locust, and
+blight in one.
+
+At the village called after its patron saint, Sidi B'noor, a little
+deputation of tribesmen brought grievances for an airing. We sat in the
+scanty shade of the zowia wall. M'Barak, wise man, remained by the side of
+a little pool born of the winter rains; he had tethered his horse and was
+sleeping patiently in the shadow cast by this long-suffering animal. The
+headman, who had seen my sporting guns, introduced himself by sending a
+polite message to beg that none of the birds that fluttered or brooded by
+the shrine might be shot, for that they were all sacred. Needless perhaps
+to say that the idea of shooting at noonday in Southern Morocco was far
+enough from my thoughts, and I sent back an assurance that brought half a
+dozen of the village notables round us as soon as lunch was over.
+Strangely enough, they wanted protection--but it was sought on account of
+the Sultan's protected subjects. "The men who have protection between
+this place and Djedida," declared their spokesman, sorrowfully, "have no
+fear of Allah or His Prophet. They brawl in our markets and rob us of our
+goods. They insult our houses,[14] they are without shame, and because of
+their protection our lives have become very bitter."
+
+"Have you been to your Basha?" I asked the headman.
+
+"I went bearing a gift in my hand, O Highly Favoured," replied the
+headman, "and he answered me, 'Foolish farmer, shall I bring the Sultan to
+visit me by interfering with these rebels against Allah who have taken the
+protection from Nazarenes?' And then he cursed me and drove me forth from
+his presence. But if you will give protection to us also we will face
+these misbegotten ones, and there shall be none to come between us."
+
+[Illustration: A VILLAGE AT DUKALA]
+
+I could do no more than deliver messages of consolation to the poor
+tribesmen, who sat in a semicircle, patient in the quivering heat. The old
+story of goodwill and inability had to be told again, and I never saw men
+more dejected. At the moment of leave-taking, however, I remembered that
+we had some empty mineral-water bottles and a large collection of
+gunmaker's circulars, that had been used as padding for a case of
+cartridges. So I distributed the circulars and empty bottles among the
+protection hunters, and they received them with wonder and delight. When I
+turned to take a last look round, the pages that had pictures of guns
+were being passed reverently from hand to hand; to outward seeming the
+farmers had forgotten their trouble. Thus easily may kindnesses be wrought
+among the truly simple of this world.
+
+The market of Sidi B'noor is famous for its sales of slaves and
+horses,[15] but I remember it best by its swarm of blue rock-pigeons and
+sparrow-hawks, that seemed to live side by side in the walls surrounding
+the saint's white tomb. For reasons best known to themselves they lived
+without quarrelling, perhaps because the saint was a man of peace. Surely
+a sparrow-hawk in our island would not build his nest and live in perfect
+amity with pigeons. But, as is well known, the influence of the saintly
+endures after the flesh of the saint has returned to the dust whence it
+came.
+
+The difference between Dukala and R'hamna, two adjacent provinces, is very
+marked. All that the first enjoys the second lacks. We left the fertile
+lands for great stony plains, wind-swept, bare and dry. Skeletons of
+camels, mules, and donkeys told their story of past sufferings, and the
+water supply was as scanty as the herbage upon which the R'hamna flocks
+fare so poorly. In place of prosperous douars, set in orchards amid rich
+arable land, there were Government n'zalas at long intervals in the waste,
+with wattled huts, and lean, hungry tribesmen, whose poverty was as plain
+to see as their ribs. Neither Basha nor Kaid could well grow fat now in
+such a place, and yet there was a time when R'hamna was a thriving
+province after its kind. But it had a warlike people and fierce, to whom
+the temptation of plundering the caravans that made their way to the
+Southern capital was irresistible. So the Court Elevated by Allah, taking
+advantage of a brief interval of peace, turned its forces loose against
+R'hamna early in the last decade of the nineteenth century. From end to
+end of its plains the powder "spoke," and the burning douars lighted the
+roads that their owners had plundered so often. Neither old nor young were
+spared, and great basketsful of human heads were sent to Red Marrakesh, to
+be spiked upon the wall by the J'maa Effina. When the desolation was
+complete from end to end of the province, the Shareefian troops were
+withdrawn, the few remaining folk of R'hamna were sent north and south to
+other provinces, the n'zalas were established in place of the forgotten
+douars, and the Elevated Court knew that there would be no more
+complaints. That was Mulai el Hassan's method of ruling--may Allah have
+pardoned him--and his grand wazeer's after him. It is perhaps the only
+method that is truly understood by the people in Morocco. R'hamna reminded
+me of the wildest and bleakest parts of Palestine, and when the Maalem
+said solemnly it was tenanted by djinoon since the insurrection, I felt he
+must certainly be right.
+
+One evening we met an interesting procession. An old farmer was making his
+way from the jurisdiction of the local kaid. His "house" consisted of two
+wives and three children. A camel, whose sneering contempt for mankind
+was very noticeable, shuffled cumbrously beneath a very heavy load of
+mattresses, looms, rugs, copper kettles, sacks of corn, and other
+impedimenta. The wives, veiled to the eyes, rode on mules, each carrying a
+young child; the third child, a boy, walked by his father's side. The
+barley harvest had not been good in their part of the country, so after
+selling what he could, the old man had packed his goods on to the camel's
+back and was flying from the tax-gatherer. To be sure, he might meet
+robbers on the way to the province of M'touga, which was his destination,
+but they would do no more than the kaid of his own district; they might
+even do less. He had been many days upon the road, and was quaintly
+hopeful. I could not help thinking of prosperous men one meets at home,
+who declare, in the intervals of a costly dinner, that the Income Tax is
+an imposition that justifies the strongest protest, even to the point of
+repudiating the Government that puts it up by twopence in the pound. Had
+anybody been able to assure this old wanderer that his kaid or khalifa
+would be content with half the produce of his land, how cheerfully would
+he have returned to his native douar, how readily he would have--devised
+plans to avoid payment. A little later the track would be trodden by other
+families, moving, like the true Bedouins, in search of fresh pasture. It
+is the habit of the country to leave land to lie fallow when it has
+yielded a few crops.
+
+There were days when the mirage did for the plain the work that man had
+neglected. It set great cities on the waste land as though for our sole
+benefit. I saw walls and battlements, stately mosques, cool gardens, and
+rivers where caravans of camels halted for rest and water. Several times
+we were deceived and hurried on, only to find that the wonder city, like
+the _ignis fatuus_ of our own marshlands, receded as we approached and
+finally melted away altogether. Then the Maalem, after taking refuge with
+Allah from Satan the Stoned, who set false cities before the eyes of tired
+travellers, would revile the mules and horses for needing a mirage to urge
+them on the way; he would insult the fair fame of their mothers and swear
+that their sires were such beasts as no Believer would bestride. It is a
+fact that when the Maalem lashed our animals with his tongue they made
+haste to improve their pace, if only for a few minutes, and Salam,
+listening with an expression of some concern at the sad family history of
+the beasts--he had a stinging tongue for oaths himself--assured me that
+their sense of shame hurried them on. Certainly no sense of shame, or
+duty, or even compassion, ever moved the Maalem. By night he would repair
+to the kitchen tent and smoke kief or eat haschisch, but the troubles of
+preparing beds and supper did not worry him.
+
+[Illustration: THE APPROACH TO MARRAKESH]
+
+"Until the feast is prepared, why summon the guest," he said on a night
+when the worthy M'Barak, opening his lips for once, remonstrated with him.
+That evening the feast consisted of some soup made from meat tablets, and
+two chickens purchased for elevenpence the pair, of a market woman we met
+on the road. Yet if it was not the feast the Maalem's fancy painted it,
+our long hours in the open air had served to make it more pleasant than
+many a more elaborate meal.
+
+We rode one morning through the valley of the Little Hills, once a place
+of unrest notorious by reason of several murders committed there, and
+deserted now by everything save a few birds of prey. There were gloomy
+rocks on all sides, the dry bed of a forgotten river offered us an
+uncomfortable and often perilous path, and we passed several cairns of
+small stones. The Maalem left his mule in order to pick up stones and add
+one to each cairn, and as he did so he cursed Satan with great
+fluency.[16]
+
+It was a great relief to leave the Little Hills and emerge on to the
+plains of Hillreeli beyond. We had not far to go then before the view
+opened out, the haze in the far distance took faint shape of a city
+surrounded by a forest of palms on the western side, a great town with the
+minarets of many mosques rising from it. At this first view of Red
+Marrakesh, Salam, the Maalem, and M'Barak extolled Allah, who had renewed
+to them the sight of Yusuf ibn Tachfin's thousand-year-old city. Then they
+praised Sidi bel Abbas, the city's patron saint, who by reason of his love
+for righteous deeds stood on one leg for forty years, praying diligently
+all the time.
+
+We each and all rendered praise and thanks after our separate fashions,
+and for me, I lit my last cigarette, careless of the future and well
+pleased.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[13] As the gnat settles he cries, "Habibi," _i.e._ "O my beloved." His,
+one fears, is but a carnal affection.
+
+[14] _I.e._ Wives and children, to whom no Moor refers by name.
+
+[15] It is said to be the largest market in the Sultan's dominions. As
+many as two thousand camels have been counted at one of the weekly
+gatherings here.
+
+[16] The cairns are met frequently in Morocco. Some mark the place from
+which the traveller may obtain his first view of a near city; others are
+raised to show where a murder was committed. The cairns in the Little
+Hills are of the former kind.
+
+
+
+
+IN RED MARRAKESH
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: DATE PALMS NEAR MARRAKESH]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+IN RED MARRAKESH
+
+    Think, in this batter'd Caravanserai,
+    Whose portals are alternate Night and Day,
+    How Sult�n after Sult�n with his pomp
+    Abode his destined hour and went his way.
+
+    _The Rub�iy�t of Omar Khayy�m._
+
+
+There are certain cities that cannot be approached for the first time by
+any sympathetic traveller without a sense of solemnity and reverence that
+is not far removed from awe. Athens, Rome, Constantinople, Damascus, and
+Jerusalem may be cited as examples; each in its turn has filled me with
+great wonder and deep joy. But all of these are to be reached nowadays by
+the railway, that great modern purge of sensibility. Even Jerusalem is not
+exempt. A single line stretches from Jaffa by the sea to the very gates of
+the Holy City, playing hide-and-seek among the mountains of Jud�a by the
+way, because the Turk was too poor to tunnel a direct path.
+
+In Morocco, on the other hand, the railway is still unknown. He who seeks
+any of the country's inland cities must take horse or mule, camel or
+donkey, or, as a last resource, be content with a staff to aid him, and
+walk. Whether he fare to Fez, the city of Mulai Idrees, in which, an old
+writer assures us, "all the beauties of the earth are united"; or to
+Mequinez, where great Mulai Ismail kept a stream of human blood flowing
+constantly from his palace that all might know he ruled; or to Red
+Marrakesh, which Yusuf ibn Tachfin built nine hundred years ago,--his own
+exertion must convoy him. There must be days and nights of scant fare and
+small comfort, with all those hundred and one happenings of the road that
+make for pleasant memories. So far as I have been able to gather in the
+nine years that have passed since I first visited Morocco, one road is
+like another road, unless you have the Moghrebbin Arabic at your command
+and can go off the beaten track in Moorish dress. Walter Harris, the
+resourceful traveller and _Times_ correspondent, did this when he sought
+the oases of Tafilalt, so also, in his fashion, did R.B. Cunninghame
+Graham when he tried in vain to reach Tarudant, and set out the record of
+his failure in one of the most fascinating travel books published since
+_Eothen_.[17]
+
+For the rank and file of us the Government roads and the harmless
+necessary soldier must suffice, until the Gordian knot of Morocco's future
+has been untied or cut. Then perhaps, as a result of French pacific
+penetration, flying railway trains loaded with tourists, guide-book in
+hand and camera at the ready, will pierce the secret places of the land,
+and men will speak of "doing" Morocco, as they "do" other countries in
+their rush across the world, seeing all the stereotyped sights and
+appreciating none. For the present, by Allah's grace, matters are quite
+otherwise.
+
+Marrakesh unfolded its beauties to us slowly and one by one as we pushed
+horses and mules into a canter over the level plains of Hillreeli. Forests
+of date-palm took definite shape; certain mosques, those of Sidi ben Yusuf
+and Bab Dukala, stood out clearly before us without the aid of glasses,
+but the Library mosque dominated the landscape by reason of the Kutubia
+tower by its side. The Atlas Mountains came out of the clouds and revealed
+the snows that would soon melt and set every southern river aflood, and
+then the town began to show limits to the east and west where, at first,
+there was nothing but haze. One or two caravans passed us, northward
+bound, their leaders hoping against hope that the Pretender, the
+"dog-descended," as a Susi trader called him, would not stand between them
+and the Sultan's camp, where the profits of the journey lay. By this time
+we could see the old grey wall of Marrakesh more plainly, with towers here
+and there, ruinous as the wall itself, and storks' nests on the
+battlements, their red-legged inhabitants fulfilling the duty of sentries.
+To the right, beyond the town, the great rock of Djebel Geelez suggested
+infinite possibilities in days to come, when some conqueror armed with
+modern weapons and a pacific mission should wish to bombard the walls in
+the sacred cause of civilisation. Then the view was lost in the date-palm
+forest, through which tiny tributaries of the Tensift run babbling over
+the red earth, while the kingfisher or dragon-fly, "a ray of living
+light," flashes over the shallow water, and young storks take their first
+lessons in the art of looking after themselves.
+
+When a Moor has amassed wealth he praises God, builds a palace, and plants
+a garden; or, is suspected, accused--despotic authority is not
+particular--and cast into prison! In and round Marrakesh many Moors have
+gained riches and some have held them. The gardens stretch for miles.
+There are the far-spreading Augdal plantations of the Sultans of Morocco,
+in part public and elsewhere so private that to intrude would be to court
+death. The name signifies "the Maze," and they are said to justify it. In
+the outer or public grounds of this vast pleasaunce the fruit is sold by
+auction to the merchants of the city in late spring, when blossoming time
+is over, and, after the sale, buyers must watch and guard the trees until
+harvest brings them their reward.
+
+[Illustration: ON THE ROAD TO MARRAKESH]
+
+We rode past the low-walled gardens, where pomegranate and apricot trees
+were flowering, and strange birds I did not know sang in the deep shade.
+Doves flitted from branch to branch, bee-eaters darted about among
+mulberry and almond trees. There was an overpowering fragrance from the
+orange groves, where blossom and unplucked fruit showed side by side; the
+jessamine bushes were scarcely less fragrant. Spreading fig-trees called
+every passer to enjoy their shade, and the little rivulets, born of the
+Tensift's winter floods to sparkle through the spring and die in June,
+were fringed with willows. It was delightful to draw rein and listen to
+the plashing of water and the cooing of doves, while trying in vain to
+recognise the most exquisite among many sweet scents.
+
+Under one of the fig-trees in a garden three Moors sat at tea. A carpet
+was spread, and I caught a glimpse of the copper kettle, the squat
+charcoal brazier tended by a slave, the quaint little coffer filled no
+doubt with fine green tea, the porcelain dish of cakes. It was a quite
+pleasing picture, at which, had courtesy permitted, I would have enjoyed
+more than a brief glance.
+
+The claim of the Moors upon our sympathy and admiration is made greater by
+reason of their love for gardens. As a matter of fact, their devotion may
+be due in part to the profit yielded by the fruit, but one could afford to
+forget that fact for the time being, when Nature seemed to be giving
+praise to the Master of all seasons for the goodly gifts of the spring.
+
+We crossed the Tensift by the bridge, one of the very few to be found in
+Southern Morocco. It has nearly thirty arches, all dilapidated as the city
+walls themselves, yet possessing their curious gift of endurance. Even the
+natives realise that their bridge is crumbling into uselessness, after
+nearly eight centuries of service, but they do no more than shrug their
+shoulders, as though to cast off the burden of responsibility and give it
+to destiny. On the outskirts of the town, where gardens end and open
+market-squares lead to the gates, a small group of children gathered to
+watch the strangers with an interest in which fear played its part. We
+waited now to see the baggage animals before us, and then M'Barak led the
+way past the mosque at the side of the Bab el Khamees and through the
+brass-covered doors that were brought by the Moors from Spain. Within the
+Khamees gate, narrow streets with windowless walls frowning on either side
+shut out all view, save that which lay immediately before us.
+
+[Illustration: A MINSTREL]
+
+No untrained eye can follow the winding maze of streets in Marrakesh, and
+it is from the Moors we learn that the town, like ancient Gaul of C�sar's
+_Commentaries_, has three well defined divisions. The Kasbah is the
+official quarter, where the soldiers and governing officials have their
+home, and the prison called Hib Misbah receives all evil-doers, and men
+whose luck is ill. The Madinah is the general Moorish quarter, and
+embraces the Kaisariyah or bazaar district, where the streets are
+parallel, well cleaned, thatched with palm and palmetto against the light,
+and barred with a chain at either end to keep the animals from entering.
+The Mellah (literally "salted place") is the third great division of
+Marrakesh, and is the Jewish quarter. In this district, or just beyond it,
+are a few streets that seem reserved to the descendants of Mulai Ismail's
+black guards, from whom our word "blackguard" should have come to us, but
+did not. Within these divisions streets, irregular and without a name,
+turn and twist in manner most bewildering, until none save old residents
+may hope to know their way about. Pavements are unknown, drainage is in
+its most dangerous infancy, the rainy season piles mud in every
+direction, and, as though to test the principle embodied in the
+homoeopathic theory, the Marrakshis heap rubbish and refuse in every
+street, where it decomposes until the enlightened authorities who dwell in
+the Kasbah think to give orders for its removal. Then certain men set out
+with donkeys and carry the sweepings of the gutters beyond the gates.[18]
+This work is taken seriously in the Madinah, but in the Mellah it is
+shamefully neglected, and I have ridden through whole streets in the
+last-named quarter searching vainly for a place clean enough to permit of
+dismounting. Happily, or unhappily, as you will, the inhabitants are
+inured from birth to a state of things that must cause the weaklings to
+pay heavy toll to Death, the Lord who rules even Sultans.
+
+I had little thought to spare for such matters as we rode into Marrakesh
+for the first time. The spell of the city was overmastering. It is
+certainly the most African city in Morocco to-day, almost the last
+survivor of the changes that began in the latter half of the nineteenth
+century, and have brought the Dark Continent from end to end within the
+sphere of European influence. Fez and Mequinez are cities of fair men,
+while here on every side one recognised the influence of the Soudan and
+the country beyond the great desert. Not only have the wives and
+concubines brought from beyond the great sand sea darkened the skin of the
+present generation of the Marrakshis, but they have given to most if not
+to all a suggestion of relationship to the negro races that is not to be
+seen in any other Moorish city I have visited. It is not a suggestion of
+fanaticism or intolerance. By their action as well as their appearance one
+knew most of the passers for friends rather than enemies. They would
+gratify their curiosity at our expense as we gratified ours at theirs,
+convinced that all Europeans are harmless, uncivilised folk from a far
+land, where people smoke tobacco, drink wine, suffer their women-folk to
+go unveiled, and live without the True Faith.
+
+Marrakesh, like all other inland cities of Morocco, has neither hotel nor
+guest-house. It boasts some large fandaks, notably that of Hadj Larbi,
+where the caravans from the desert send their merchandise and chief
+merchants, but no sane European will choose to seek shelter in a fandak in
+Morocco unless there is no better place available. There are clean fandaks
+in Sunset Land, but they are few and you must travel far to find them. I
+had letters to the chief civilian resident of Marrakesh, Sidi Boubikir,
+British Political Agent, millionaire, land-owner, financier, builder of
+palaces, politician, statesman, and friend of all Englishmen who are well
+recommended to his care. I had heard much of the clever old Moor, who was
+born in very poor surroundings, started life as a camel driver, and is now
+the wealthiest and most powerful unofficial resident in Southern Morocco,
+if not in all the Moghreb, so I bade M'Barak find him without delay. The
+first person questioned directed us to one of Boubikir's fandaks, and by
+its gate, in a narrow lane, where camels jostled the camp-mules until they
+nearly foundered in the underlying filth, we found the celebrated man
+sitting within the porch, on an old packing-case.
+
+He looked up for a brief moment when the kaid dismounted and handed him my
+letter, and I saw a long, closely-shaven face, lighted by a pair of grey
+eyes that seemed much younger than the head in which they were set, and
+perfectly inscrutable. He read the letter, which was in Arabic, from end
+to end, and then gave me stately greeting.
+
+"You are very welcome," he said. "My house and all it holds are yours."
+
+I replied that we wanted nothing more than a modest shelter for the days
+of our sojourn in the city. He nodded.
+
+"Had you advised me of your visit in time," he said, "my best house should
+have been prepared. Now I will send with you my steward, who has the keys
+of all my houses. Choose which you will have." I thanked him, the steward
+appeared, a stout, well-favoured man, whose djellaba was finer than his
+master's. Sidi Boubikir pointed to certain keys, and at a word several
+servants gathered about us. The old man said that he rejoiced to serve the
+friend of his friends, and would look forward to seeing me during our
+stay. Then we followed into an ill-seeming lane, now growing dark with the
+fall of evening.
+
+We turned down an alley more muddy than the one just left behind, passed
+under an arch by a fruit stall with a covering of tattered palmetto,
+caught a brief glimpse of a mosque minaret, and heard the mueddin calling
+the Faithful to evening prayer. In the shadow of the mosque, at the corner
+of the high-walled lane, there was a heavy metal-studded door. The steward
+thrust a key into its lock, turned it, and we passed down a passage into
+an open patio. It was a silent place, beyond the reach of the street
+echoes; there were four rooms built round the patio on the ground floor,
+and three or four above. One side of the tower of the minaret was visible
+from the courtyard, but apart from that the place was nowhere overlooked.
+To be sure, it was very dirty, but I had an idea that the steward had
+brought his men out for business, not for an evening stroll, so I bade
+Salam assure him that this place, known to the Marrakshis as Dar al
+Kasdir,[19] would serve our purposes.
+
+A thundering knock at the gate announced a visitor, one of Sidi Boubikir's
+elder sons, a civil, kindly-looking Moor, whose face inspired confidence.
+Advised of our choice he suggested we should take a stroll while the men
+cleaned and prepared the patio and the rooms opening upon it. Then the
+mules, resting for the time in his father's fandak, would bring their
+burdens home, and we could enjoy our well-earned rest.
+
+[Illustration: ONE OF THE CITY GATES]
+
+We took this good counsel, and on our return an hour later, a very
+complete transformation had been effected. Palmetto brooms, and water
+brought from an adjacent well, had made the floor look clean and clear.
+The warmth of the air had dried everything, the pack-mules had been
+relieved of their load and sent back to the stable. Two little earthen
+braziers full of charcoal were glowing merrily under the influence of the
+bellows that M'Barak wielded skilfully, and two earthen jars of water with
+palm leaves for corks had been brought in by our host's servants. In
+another hour the camp beds were unpacked and made up, a rug was set on the
+bedroom floor, and the little table and chairs were put in the middle of
+the patio. From the alcove where Salam squatted behind the twin fires came
+the pleasant scent of supper; M'Barak, his well-beloved gun at his side,
+sat silent and thoughtful in another corner, and the tiny clay bowl of the
+Maalem's long wooden kief pipe was comfortably aglow.
+
+There was a timid knock at the door, the soldier opened it and admitted
+the shareef. I do not know his name nor whence he came, but he walked up
+to Salam, greeted him affectionately, and offered his services while we
+were in the city. Twenty years old perhaps, at an outside estimate, very
+tall and thin and poorly clad, the shareef was not the least interesting
+figure I met in Marrakesh. A shareef is a saint in Morocco as in every
+other country of Islam, and his title implies descent from Mohammed. He
+may be very poor indeed, but he is more or less holy, devout men kiss the
+hem of his djellaba, no matter how dirty or ragged it may be, and none may
+curse a shareef's ancestors, for the Prophet was one of them. His youthful
+holiness had known Salam in Fez, and had caught sight of him by Boubikir's
+fandak in the early afternoon. Salam, himself a chief in his own land,
+though fallen on evil days then and on worse ones since, welcomed the
+newcomer and brought his offer to me, adding the significant information
+that the young shareef, who was too proud to beg, had not tasted food in
+the past forty-eight hours. He had then owed a meal to some Moor, who,
+following a well-known custom, had set a bowl of food outside his house to
+conciliate devils. I accepted the proffered service, and had no occasion
+to regret my action. The young Moor was never in the way and never out of
+the way, he went cheerfully on errands to all parts of the city, fetched
+and carried without complaint, and yet never lost the splendid dignity
+that seemed to justify his claim to saintship.
+
+So we took our ease in the open patio, and the shareef's long fast was
+broken, and the stars came to the aid of our lanterns, and when supper was
+over I was well content to sit and smoke, while Salam, M'Barak, the
+Maalem, and the shareef sat silent round the glowing charcoal, perhaps too
+tired to talk. It was very pleasant to feel at home after two or three
+weeks under canvas below Mediunah and along the southern road.
+
+The Maalem rose at last, somewhat unsteadily after his debauch of kief. He
+moved to where our provisions were stocked and took oil and bread from the
+store. Then he sought the corner of the wall by the doorway and poured out
+a little oil and scattered crumbs, repeating the performance at the far
+end of the patio. This duty done, he bade Salam tell me that it was a
+peace-offering to the souls of the departed who had inhabited this house
+before we came to it. I apprehend they might have resented the presence of
+the Infidel had they not been soothed by the Maalem's little attention. He
+was ever a firm believer in djinoon, and exorcised them with unfailing
+regularity. The abuse he heaped on Satan must have added largely to the
+burden of sorrows under which we are assured the fallen angel carries out
+his appointed work. He had been profuse in his prayers and curses when we
+entered the barren pathway of the Little Hills behind the plains of
+Hillreeli, and there were times when I had felt quite sorry for Satan.
+Oblation offered to the house spirits, the Maalem asked for his money, the
+half due at the journey's end, sober enough, despite the kief, to count
+the dollars carefully, and make his farewell with courteous eloquence. I
+parted with him with no little regret, and look forward with keen pleasure
+to the day when I shall summon him once again from the bakehouse of
+Djedida to bring his mules and guide me over the open road, perchance to
+some destination more remote. I think he will come willingly, and that the
+journey will be a happy one. The shareef drew the heavy bolt behind the
+Maalem, and we sought our beds.
+
+It was a brief night's rest. The voice of the mueddin, chanting the call
+to prayer and the Shehad,[20] roused me again, refreshed. The night was
+passing; even as the sonorous voice of the unseen chanted his inspiring
+"Allah Akbar," it was yielding place to the moments when "the
+Wolf-tail[21] sweeps the paling east."
+
+I looked out of my little room that opened on to the patio. The arch of
+heaven was swept and garnished, and from "depths blown clear of cloud"
+great stars were shining whitely. The breeze of early morning stirred,
+penetrating our barred outer gates, and bringing a subtle fragrance from
+the beflowered groves that lie beyond the city. It had a freshness that
+demanded from one, in tones too seductive for denial, prompt action.
+Moreover, we had been rising before daylight for some days past in order
+that we might cover a respectable distance before the Enemy should begin
+to blaze intolerably above our heads, commanding us to seek the shade of
+some chance fig-tree or saint's tomb.
+
+So I roused Salam, and together we drew the creaking bolts, bringing the
+kaid to his feet with a jump. There was plenty of time for explanation,
+because he always carried his gun, at best a harmless weapon, in the old
+flannel case secured by half a dozen pieces of string, with knots that
+defied haste. He warned us not to go out, since the djinoon were always
+abroad in the streets before daylight; but, seeing our minds set, he
+bolted the door upon us, as though to keep them from the Dar al Kasdir,
+and probably returned to his slumbers.
+
+[Illustration: A BLIND BEGGAR]
+
+Beyond the house, in a faint glow that was already paling the stars, the
+African city, well-nigh a thousand years old, assumed its most mysterious
+aspect. The high walls on either side of the roads, innocent of casements
+as of glass, seemed, in the uncertain light, to be tinted with violet amid
+their dull grey. The silence was complete and weird. Never a cry from
+man or beast removed the first impression that this was a city of the
+dead. The entrances of the bazaars in the Kaisariyah, to which we turned,
+were barred and bolted, their guardians sat motionless, covered in white
+djellabas, that looked like shrouds. The city's seven gates were fast
+closed, though doubtless there were long files of camels and market men
+waiting patiently without. The great mansions of the wazeers and the
+green-tiled palace of Mulai Abd-el-Aziz--Our Victorious Master the
+Sultan--seemed unsubstantial as one of those cities that the mirage had
+set before us in the heart of the R'hamna plains. Salam, the untutored man
+from the far Riff country, felt the spell of the silent morning hour. It
+was a primitive appeal, to which he responded instantly, moving quietly by
+my side without a word.
+
+"O my masters, give charity; Allah helps helpers!" A blind beggar, sitting
+by the gate, like Bartim�us of old, thrust his withered hand before me.
+Lightly though we had walked, his keen ear had known the difference in
+sound between the native slipper and the European boot. It had roused him
+from his slumbers, and he had calculated the distance so nicely that the
+hand, suddenly shot out, was well within reach of mine. Salam, my almoner,
+gave him a handful of the copper money, called _floos_, of which a score
+may be worth a penny, and he sank back in his uneasy seat with voluble
+thanks, not to us, but to Allah the One, who had been pleased to move us
+to work his will. To me no thanks were due. I was no more than Allah's
+unworthy medium, condemned to burn in fires seven times heated, for
+unbelief.
+
+From their home on the flat house-tops two storks rose suddenly, as though
+to herald the dawn; the sun became visible above the city's time-worn
+walls, and turned their colouring from violet to gold. We heard the guards
+drawing the bars of the gate that is called Bab al Khamees, and knew that
+the daily life of Marrakesh had begun. The great birds might have given
+the signal that woke the town to activity.
+
+Straightway men and beasts made their way through the narrow cobbled
+lanes. Sneering camels, so bulked out by their burdens that a
+foot-passenger must shrink against the wall to avoid a bad bruising;
+well-fed horses, carrying some early-rising Moor of rank on the top of
+seven saddle-cloths; half-starved donkeys, all sores and bruises; one
+encountered every variety of Moorish traffic here, and the thoroughfare,
+that had been deserted a moment before, was soon thronged. In addition to
+the Moors and Susi traders, there were many slaves, black as coal, brought
+in times past from the Soudan. From garden and orchard beyond the city the
+fruit and flowers and vegetables were being carried into their respective
+markets, and as they passed the air grew suddenly fragrant with a scent
+that was almost intoxicating. The garbage that lay strewn over the cobbles
+had no more power to offend, and the fresh scents added in some queer
+fashion of their own to the unreality of the whole scene.
+
+To avoid the crush we turned to another quarter of the city, noting that
+the gates of the bazaars were opened, and that only the chains were left
+across the entrance. But the tiny shops, mere overgrown packing-cases,
+were still locked up; the merchants, who are of higher rank than the
+dealers in food-stuffs, seldom appear before the day is aired, and their
+busiest hours are in the afternoon, when the auction is held. "Custom is
+from Allah," they say, and, strong in this belief, they hold that time is
+only valuable as leisure. And, God wot, they may well be wiser herein than
+we are.
+
+A demented countryman, respected as a saint by reason of his madness, a
+thing of rags and tatters and woefully unkempt hair, a quite wild
+creature, more than six feet high, and gaunt as a lightning-smitten pine,
+came down the deserted bazaar of the brass-workers. He carried a long
+staff in one hand, a bright tin bowl in the other. The sight of a European
+heightened his usual frenzy--
+
+        Across his sea of mind
+    A thought came streaming like a blazing ship
+        Upon a mighty wind.
+
+I saw the sinews stand out on the bare arm that gripped the staff, and his
+bright eyes were soon fixed upon me. "You do not say words to him, sir,"
+whispered Salam; "he do'n know what he do--he very holy man."
+
+The madman spat on my shadow, and cursed profoundly, while his passion was
+mastering him. I noted with interest in that uncomfortable moment the
+clear signs of his epileptic tendencies, the twitching of the thumb that
+grasped the stick, the rigidity of the body, the curious working of
+certain facial muscles. I stood perfectly still, though my right hand
+involuntarily sought the pocket of my coat where my revolver lay, the use
+of which save in direst necessity had been a mad and wicked act; and then
+two peace-loving Moors, whose blue selhams of fine Manchester cloth
+proclaimed their wealth and station, came forward and drew the frenzied
+creature away, very gently and persuasively. He, poor wretch, did not know
+what was taking place, but moved helplessly to the door of the bazaar and
+then fell, his fit upon him. I hurried on. Moors are kindly, as well as
+respectful, to those afflicted of Allah.
+
+We passed on our way to the Bab Dukala, the gate that opens out upon
+Elhara, the leper quarter. There we caught our morning view of the forest
+of date-palm that girdles the town. Moors say that in centuries long past
+Marrakesh was besieged by the men of Tafilalt, who brought dates for food,
+and cast the stones on the ground. The rain buried them, the Tensift
+nourished them, and to-day they crowd round Ibn Tachfin's ruinous city,
+'their feet in water and their heads in fire.' 'Tis an agreeable legend.
+
+[Illustration: A WANDERING MINSTREL]
+
+Market men, half naked and very lean, were coming in from Tamsloht and
+Amsmiz, guiding their heavy-laden donkeys past the crumbling walls and the
+steep valley that separates Elhara from the town. Some scores of lepers
+had left their quarters, a few hiding terrible disfigurement under
+great straw hats, others quite careless of their deplorable disease.
+Beggars all, they were going on their daily journey to the shrine of Sidi
+bel Abbas, patron of the destitute, to sit there beneath the zowia's ample
+walls, hide their heads in their rags, and cry upon the passers to
+remember them for the sake of the saint who had their welfare so much at
+heart. And with the closing of the day they would be driven out of the
+city, and back into walled Elhara, to such of the mud huts as they called
+home. Long acquaintance with misery had made them careless of it. They
+shuffled along as though they were going to work, but from my shaded
+corner, where I could see without being seen, I noted no sign of converse
+between them, and every face that could be studied was stamped with the
+impress of unending misery.
+
+The scene around us was exquisite. Far away one saw the snow-capped peaks
+of the Atlas; hawks and swallows sailed to and from Elhara's walls; doves
+were cooing in the orchards, bee-eaters flitted lightly amid the palms. I
+found myself wondering if the lepers ever thought to contrast their lives
+with their surroundings, and I trusted they did not. Some few, probably,
+had not been lepers, but criminals, who preferred the horrid liberty of
+Elhara to the chance of detection and the living death of the Hib Misbah.
+Other beggars were not really lepers, but suffered from one or other of
+the kindred diseases that waste Morocco. In Marrakesh the native doctors
+are not on any terms with skilled diagnosis, and once a man ventures into
+Elhara, he acquires a reputation for leprosy that serves his purpose. I
+remember inquiring of a Moorish doctor the treatment of a certain native's
+case. "Who shall arrest Allah's decree?" he began modestly. And he went on
+to say that the best way to treat an open wound was to put powdered
+sulphur upon it, and apply a light.[22] Horrible as this remedy seems, the
+worthy doctor believed in it, and had sent many a True Believer
+to--Paradise, I hope--by treating him on these lines. Meanwhile his
+profound confidence in himself, together with his knowledge and free use
+of the Koran, kept hostile criticism at bay.[23]
+
+We turned back into the city, to see it in another aspect. The rapid rise
+of the sun had called the poorer workers to their daily tasks; buyers were
+congregating round the market stalls of the dealers in meat, bread,
+vegetables, and fruit. With perpetual grace to Allah for his gift of
+custom, the stall-keepers were parting with their wares at prices far
+below anything that rules even in the coast towns of the Sultan's country.
+The absence of my Lord Abd-el-Aziz and his court had tended to lower rates
+considerably. It was hard to realise that, while food cost so little,
+there were hundreds of men, women, and children within the city to whom
+one good meal a day was something almost unknown. Yet this was certainly
+the case.
+
+Towering above the other buyers were the trusted slaves of the wazeers in
+residence--tall negroes from the far South for the most part--hideous men,
+whose black faces were made the more black by contrast with their white
+robes. They moved with a certain sense of dignity and pride through the
+ranks of the hungry freemen round them; clearly they were well contented
+with their lot--a curious commentary upon the European notions of
+slavery--based, to be sure, upon European methods in regard to it. The
+whole formed a marvellous picture, and how the pink roses, the fresh,
+green mint and thyme, the orange flowers and other blossoms, sweetened the
+narrow ways, garbage-strewn under foot and roofed overhead with dried
+leaves of the palm!
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[17] "Moghreb-al-Acksa."
+
+[18] Street cleaners are paid out of the proceeds of a tax derived from
+the slaughter of cattle, and the tax is known to Moorish butchers by a
+term signifying "_floos_ of the throat."
+
+[19] _I.e._ The Tin House.
+
+[20] Declaration of Faith.
+
+[21] The false dawn.
+
+[22] The Sultan Mulaz-Abd-el-Aziz was once treated for persistent headache
+by a Moorish practitioner. The wise man's medicine exploded suddenly, and
+His Majesty had a narrow escape. I do not know whether the practitioner
+was equally fortunate.
+
+[23] The doctors and magicians of Morocco have always been famous
+throughout the East. Nearly all the medicine men of the _Thousand Nights
+and a Night_ including the uncle of Aladdin, are from the Moghreb.
+
+
+
+
+ROUND ABOUT MARRAKESH
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THE ROOFS OF MARRAKESH]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+ROUND ABOUT MARRAKESH
+
+    "Speaking of thee comforts me, and thinking of thee makes me glad."
+
+    --_R�od el Kartas._
+
+
+The charm of Marrakesh comes slowly to the traveller, but it stays with
+him always, and colours his impressions of such other cities as may
+attract his wandering footsteps. So soon as he has left the plains behind
+on his way to the coast, the town's defects are relegated to the
+background of the picture his memory paints. He forgets the dirty lanes
+that serve for roads, the heaps of refuse at every corner, the pariah curs
+that howled or snapped at his horse's heels when he rode abroad, the
+roughness and discomfort of the accommodation, the poverty and disease
+that everywhere went hand in hand around him.
+
+But he remembers and always will remember the city in its picturesque
+aspects. How can he forget Moorish hospitality, so lavishly exercised in
+patios where the hands of architect and gardener meet--those delightful
+gatherings of friends whose surroundings are recalled when he sees, even
+in the world of the West--
+
+    Groups under the dreaming garden trees,
+    And the full moon, and the white evening star.
+
+He will never forget the Kutubia tower flanking the mosque of the Library,
+with its three glittering balls that are solid gold, if you care to
+believe the Moors (and who should know better!), though the European
+authorities declare they are but gilded copper. He will hear, across all
+intervening sea and lands, the sonorous voices of the three blind mueddins
+who call True Believers to prayer from the adjacent minarets. By the side
+of the tower, that is a landmark almost from R'hamna's far corner to the
+Atlas Mountains, Yusuf ibn Tachfin, who built Marrakesh, enjoys his long,
+last sleep in a grave unnoticed and unhonoured by the crowds of men from
+strange, far-off lands, who pass it every day. Yet, if the conqueror of
+Fez and troubler of Spain could rise from nine centuries of rest, he would
+find but little change in the city he set on the red plain in the shadow
+of the mountains. The walls of his creation remain: even the broken bridge
+over the river dates, men say, from his time, and certainly the faith and
+works of the people have not altered greatly. Caravans still fetch and
+carry from Fez in the north to Timbuctoo and the banks of the Niger, or
+reach the Bab-er-rubb with gold and ivory and slaves from the eastern
+oases, that France has almost sealed up. The saints' houses are there
+still, though the old have yielded to the new. Storks are privileged, as
+from earliest times, to build on the flat roofs of the city houses, and,
+therefore, are still besought by amorous natives to carry love's greeting
+to the women who take their airing on the house-tops in the afternoon.
+Berber from the highlands; black man from the Draa; wiry, lean, enduring
+trader from Tarudant and other cities of the Sus; patient frugal Saharowi
+from the sea of sand,--no one of them has altered greatly since the days
+of the renowned Yusuf. And who but he among the men who built great cities
+in days before Saxon and Norman had met at Senlac, could look to find his
+work so little scarred by time, or disguised by change? Twelve miles of
+rampart surround the city still, if we include the walls that guard the
+Sultan's maze garden, and seven of the many gates Ibn Tachfin knew are
+swung open to the dawn of each day now.
+
+After the Library mosque, with its commanding tower and modest yet
+memorable tomb, the traveller remembers the Sultan's palace, white-walled,
+green-tiled, vast, imposing; and the lesser mosque of Sidi bel Abbas, to
+whom the beggars pray, for it is said of him that he knew God. The city's
+hospital stands beside this good man's grave. And here one pays tribute
+also to great Mulai Abd el Kader Ijjilalli, yet another saint whose name
+is very piously invoked among the poor. The mosque by the Dukala gate is
+worthy of note, and earns the salutation of all who come by way of R'hamna
+to Marrakesh. The Kaisariyah lingers in the memory, and on hot days in the
+plains, when shade is far to seek, one recalls a fine fountain with the
+legend "drink and admire," where the water-carriers fill their goat-skins
+and all beggars congregate during the hours of fire.
+
+The Mellah, in which the town Jews live, is reached by way of the Olive
+Garden. It is the dirtiest part of Marrakesh, and, all things considered,
+the least interesting. The lanes that run between its high walls are full
+of indescribable filth; comparison with them makes the streets of Madinah
+and Kasbah almost clean. One result of the dirt is seen in the prevalence
+of a very virulent ophthalmia, from which three out of four of the
+Mellah's inhabitants seem to suffer, slightly or seriously. Few adults
+appear to take exercise, unless they are called abroad to trade, and when
+business is in a bad way the misery is very real indeed. A skilled workman
+is pleased to earn the native equivalent of fourteenpence for a day's
+labour, beginning at sunrise, and on this miserable pittance he can
+support a wife and family. Low wages and poor living, added to centuries
+of oppression, have made the Morocco Jew of the towns a pitiable creature;
+but on the hills, particularly among the Atlas villages, the People of the
+Book are healthy, athletic, and resourceful, able to use hands as well as
+head, and the trusted intermediary between Berber hillman and town Moor.
+
+[Illustration: A GATEWAY, MARRAKESH]
+
+Being of the ancient race myself, I was received in several of the
+show-houses of the Mellah--places whose splendid interiors were not at all
+suggested by the squalid surroundings in which they were set. This is
+typical to some extent of all houses in Morocco, even in the coast towns,
+and greatly misleads the globe-trotter. There was a fine carving and
+colouring in many rooms, but the European furniture was, for the most
+part, wrongly used, and at best grotesquely out of place. Hygiene has
+not passed within the Mellah's walls, but a certain amount of Western
+tawdriness has. Patriarchal Jews of good stature and commanding presence
+had their dignity hopelessly spoilt by the big blue spotted handkerchief
+worn over the head and tied under the chin; Jewesses in rich apparel
+seemed quite content with the fineness within their houses, and
+indifferent to the mire of the streets.
+
+I visited three synagogues, one in a private house. The approaches were in
+every case disgusting, but the synagogues themselves were well kept, very
+old, and decorated with rare and curious memorial lamps, kept alight for
+the dead through the year of mourning. The benches were of wood, with
+straw mats for cover; there was no place for women, and the seats
+themselves seemed to be set down without attempt at arrangement. The
+brasswork was old and fine, the scrolls of the Law were very ancient, but
+there was no sign of wealth, and little decoration. In the courtyard of
+the chief synagogue I found school-work in progress. Half a hundred
+intelligent youngsters were repeating the master's words, just as
+Mohammedan boys were doing in the Madinah, but even among these little
+ones ophthalmia was playing havoc, and doubtless the disease would pass
+from the unsound to the sound. Cleanliness would stamp out this trouble in
+a very little time, and preserve healthy children from infection.
+Unfortunately, the administration of this Mellah is exceedingly bad, and
+there is no reason to believe that it will improve.
+
+When the Elevated Court is at Marrakesh the demand for work helps the
+Jewish quarter to thrive, but since the Sultan went to Fez the heads of
+the Mellah seem to be reluctant to lay out even a few shillings daily to
+have the place kept clean. There are no statistics to tell the price that
+is paid in human life for this shocking neglect of the elementary
+decencies, but it must be a heavy one.
+
+Business premises seem clean enough, though the approach to them could
+hardly be less inviting. You enter a big courtyard, and, if wise, remain
+on your horse until well clear of the street. The courtyard is wide and
+cared for, an enlarged edition of a patio, with big store-rooms on either
+side and stabling or a granary. Here also is a bureau, in which the master
+sits in receipt of custom, and deals in green tea that has come from India
+via England, and white sugar in big loaves, and coffee and other
+merchandise. He is buyer and seller at once, now dealing with a native who
+wants tea, and now with an Atlas Jew who has an ouadad skin or a rug to
+sell; now talking Shilha, the language of the Berbers, now the Moghrebbin
+Arabic of the Moors, and again debased Spanish or Hebrew with his own
+brethren. He has a watchful eye for all the developments that the day may
+bring, and while attending to buyer or seller can take note of all his
+servants are doing at the stores, and what is going out or coming in. Your
+merchant of the better class has commercial relations with Manchester or
+Liverpool; he has visited England and France; perhaps some olive-skinned,
+black-eyed boy of his has been sent to an English school to get the wider
+views of life and faith, and return to the Mellah to shock his father with
+both, and to be shocked in turn by much in the home life that passed
+uncriticised before. These things lead to domestic tragedies at times, and
+yet neither son nor father is quite to blame.
+
+The best class of Jew in the Mellah has ideas and ideals, but outside the
+conduct of his business he lacks initiative. He believes most firmly in
+the future of the Jewish race, the ultimate return to Palestine, the
+advent of the Messiah. Immersed in these beliefs, he does not see dirt
+collecting in the streets and killing little children with the diseases it
+engenders. Gradually the grime settles on his faith too, and he loses
+sight of everything save commercial ends and the observances that
+orthodoxy demands. His, one fears, is a quite hopeless case. The attention
+of philanthropy might well turn to the little ones, however. For their
+sake some of the material benefits of modern knowledge should be brought
+to Jewry in Marrakesh. Schools are excellent, but children cannot live by
+school learning alone.
+
+Going from the Mellah one morning I saw a strange sight. By the entrance
+to the salted place there is a piece of bare ground stretching to the
+wall. Here sundry young Jews in black djellabas sat at their ease, their
+long hair curled over their ears, and black caps on their heads in place
+of the handkerchiefs favoured by the elders of the community. One or two
+women were coming from the Jewish market, their bright dresses and
+uncovered faces a pleasing contrast to the white robes and featureless
+aspect of the Moorish women. A little Moorish boy, seeing me regard them
+with interest, remarked solemnly, "There go those who will never look upon
+the face of God's prophet," and then a shareef, whose portion in Paradise
+was of course reserved to him by reason of his high descent, rode into the
+open ground from the Madinah. I regret to record the fact that the holy
+man was drunk, whether upon haschisch or the strong waters of the infidel,
+I know not, and to all outward seeming his holiness alone sufficed to keep
+him on the back of the spirited horse he bestrode. He went very near to
+upsetting a store of fresh vegetables belonging to a True Believer, and
+then nearly crushed an old man against the wall. He raised his voice, but
+not to pray, and the people round him were in sore perplexity. He was too
+holy to remove by force and too drunk to persuade, so the crowd, realising
+that he was divinely directed, raised a sudden shout. This served. The
+hot-blooded Barb made a rush for the arcade leading to the Madinah and
+carried the drunken saint with him, cursing at the top of his voice, but
+sticking to his unwieldy saddle in manner that was admirable and truly
+Moorish. If he had not been holy he would have been torn from his horse,
+and, in native speech, would have "eaten the stick," for drunkenness is a
+grave offence in orthodox Morocco.
+
+[Illustration: A COURTYARD, MARRAKESH]
+
+They have a short way with offenders in Moorish cities. I remember
+seeing a man brought to the Kasbah of a northern town on a charge of using
+false measures. The case was held proven by the khalifa; the culprit was
+stripped to the waist, mounted on a lame donkey, and driven through the
+streets, while two stalwart soldiers, armed with sticks, beat him until he
+dropped to the ground. He was picked up more dead than alive, and thrown
+into prison.
+
+There are two sorts of market in Marrakesh--the open market outside the
+walls, and the auction market in the Kaisariyah. The latter opens in the
+afternoon, by which time every little boxlike shop is tenanted by its
+proprietor. How he climbs into his place without upsetting his stores, and
+how, arrived there, he can sit for hours without cramp, are questions I
+have never been able to answer, though I have watched him scores of times.
+He comes late in the day to his shop, lets down one of the covering flaps,
+and takes his seat by the step inside it. The other flap has been raised
+and is kept up by a stick. Seated comfortably, he looks with dispassionate
+eye upon the gathering stream of life before him, and waits contentedly
+until it shall please Allah the One to send custom. Sometimes he occupies
+his time by reading in the Perspicuous Book; on rare occasions he will
+leave his little nest and make dignified way to the shop of an adool or
+scribe, who reads pious writings to a select company of devotees. In this
+way the morning passes, and in the afternoon the mart becomes crowded,
+country Moors riding right up to the entrance chains, and leaving their
+mules in the charge of slaves who have accompanied them on foot. Town
+buyers and country buyers, with a miscellaneous gathering of tribesmen
+from far-off districts, fill the bazaar, and then the merchants hand
+certain goods to dilals, as the auctioneers are called. The crowd divides
+on either side of the bazaar, leaving a narrow lane down the centre, and
+the dilals rush up and down with their wares,--linen, cotton and silk
+goods, carpets, skins or brassware, native daggers and pistols, saddles
+and saddle-cloths. The goods vary in every bazaar. The dilal announces the
+last price offered; a man who wishes to buy must raise it, and, if none
+will go better, he secures the bargain. A commission on all goods sold is
+taken at the door of the market by the municipal authorities. I notice on
+these afternoons the different aspects of the three classes represented in
+the bazaar. Shopkeepers and the officials by the gate display no interest
+at all in the proceedings: they might be miles from the scene, so far as
+their attitude is a clue. The dilals, on the other hand, are in furious
+earnest. They run up and down the narrow gangway proclaiming the last
+price at the top of their voices, thrusting the goods eagerly into the
+hands of possible purchasers, and always remembering the face and position
+of the man who made the last bid. They have a small commission on the
+price of everything sold, and assuredly they earn their wage. In contrast
+with the attitudes of both shopkeepers and auctioneers, the general public
+is inclined to regard the bazaar as a place of entertainment. Beggar lads,
+whose scanty rags constitute their sole possession, chaff the excited
+dilals, keeping carefully out of harm's way the while. Three-fourths of
+the people present are there to idle the afternoon hours, with no
+intention of making a purchase unless some unexpected bargain crosses
+their path. I notice that the dilals secure several of these doubtful
+purchasers by dint of fluent and eloquent appeals. When the last article
+has been sold and the crowd is dispersing, merchants arise, praise Allah,
+who in his wisdom sends good days and bad, step out of their shop, let
+down one flap and raise the other, lock the two with a huge key and retire
+to their homes.
+
+I remember asking a Moor to explain why the Jews were so ill-treated and
+despised all over Morocco. The worthy man explained that the Koran
+declares that no True Believer might take Jew or Christian to be his
+friend, that the Veracious Book also assures the Faithful that Jews will
+be turned to pigs or monkeys for their unbelief, and that the
+metamorphosis will be painful. "Moreover," said the True Believer, who did
+not know that I was of the despised race, "do you not know that one of
+these cursed people tried to seize the throne in the time of the great
+Tafilatta?"
+
+I pleaded ignorance.
+
+"Do you not know the Feast of Scribes, that is held in Marrakesh and Fez?"
+he asked.
+
+Again I had to make confession that, though I had heard about the Feast, I
+had never witnessed it.
+
+"Only Allah is omniscient," he said by way of consolation. "Doubtless
+there are some small matters known to Nazarenes and withheld from
+us--strange though that may seem to the thoughtful.
+
+"In the name of the Most Merciful--know that there was a ruler in Taza
+before Mulai Ismail--Prince of the Faithful, he who overcame in the name
+of God--reigned in the land. Now this ruler[24] had a Jew for wazeer. When
+it pleased Allah to take the Sultan and set him in the pavilion of Mother
+of Pearl appointed for him in Paradise, in the shadow of the Tuba tree,
+this Jew hid his death from the people until he could seize the throne of
+Taza for himself and ride out under the M'dhal.[25] Then Mulai Ismail
+protested to the people, and the Tolba (scribes) arranged to remove the
+reproach from the land. So they collected forty of their bravest men and
+packed them in boxes--one man in a box. They put two boxes on a mule and
+drove the twenty mules to the courtyard of the palace that the Jew had
+taken for himself. The man in charge of the mules declared he had a
+present for the Sultan, and the Unbeliever, whose grave was to be the
+meeting-place of all the dogs of Taza, gave orders that the boxes should
+be brought in and set before him. This was done, and the cursed Jew
+prepared to gloat over rich treasure. But as each box was opened a talib
+rose suddenly, a naked sword in his hand, and falling bravely upon the
+unbelieving one, cut his body to pieces, while Shaitan hurried his soul to
+the furnace that is seven times heated and shall never cool.
+
+[Illustration: WELL IN MARRAKESH]
+
+"Then the Father of the Faithful, the Ever Victorious," continued the True
+Believer, "decreed that the tolba should have a festival. And every year
+they meet in Marrakesh and Fez, and choose a talib who is to rule over
+them. The post is put up to auction; he who bids highest is Sultan for a
+week. He rides abroad on a fine horse or mule, under a M'dhal, as though
+he were indeed My Lord Abd-el-Aziz himself. Black slaves on either side
+brush away the flies with their white clothes, soldiers await to do his
+bidding, he is permitted to make a request to the true Sultan, and our
+Master has open ear and full hand for the tolba, who kept the Moghreb from
+the Unbelievers, the inheritors of the Fire, against whom Sidna Mohammed
+has turned his face."
+
+I arrived in Marrakesh just too late to witness the reign of the talib,
+but I heard that the successful candidate had paid thirty-two dollars for
+the post--a trifle less than five pounds in our money, at the rate of
+exchange then current. This money had been divided among the tolba. The
+governor of Marrakesh had given the lucky king one hundred dollars in
+cash, thirty sheep, twenty-five cones of sugar, forty jars of butter, and
+several sacks of flour. This procedure is peculiar to the Southern
+capital. In Fez the tolba kings collect taxes in person from every
+householder.
+
+The talib's petition to the Sultan had been framed on a very liberal
+scale. He asked for a home in Saffi, exemption from taxes, and a place in
+the custom-house. The Sultan had not responded to the petition when I left
+the city; he was closely beleaguered in Fez, and Bu Hamara was occupying
+Taza, the ancient city where the deed of the tolba had first instituted
+the quaint custom. My informant said there was little doubt but that his
+Shareefian majesty would grant all the requests, so the talib's investment
+of thirty-two dollars must be deemed highly profitable. At the same time I
+cannot find the story I was told confirmed by Moorish historians. No
+record to which I have had access tells of a Jewish king of Taza, though
+there was a Hebrew in high favour there in the time of Rasheed II. The
+details of the story told me are, as the American scribe said, probably
+attributable to Mr. Benjamin Trovato.
+
+When the attractions of Kaisariyah palled, the markets beyond the walls
+never failed to revive interest in the city's life. The Thursday market
+outside the Bab al Khamees brought together a very wonderful crowd of men
+and goods. All the city's trade in horses, camels, and cattle was done
+here. The caravan traders bought or hired their camels, and there were
+fine animals for sale with one fore and one hind leg hobbled, to keep them
+from straying. The camels were always the most interesting beasts on view.
+For the most part their attendants were Saharowi, who could control them
+seemingly by voice or movement of the hand; but a camel needs no little
+care, particularly at feeding time, when he is apt to turn spiteful if
+precedence be given to an animal he does not like. They are marvellously
+touchy and fastidious creatures--quite childlike in many of their
+peculiarities.
+
+[Illustration: A BAZAAR, MARRAKESH]
+
+The desert caravan trade is not what it was since the French occupied
+Timbuctoo and closed the oases of Tuat; but I saw some caravans arrive
+from the interior--one of them from the sandy region where Mons. Lebaudy
+has set up his kingdom. How happy men and beasts seemed to be. I never saw
+camels looking so contented: the customary sneer had passed from their
+faces--or accumulated dust had blotted it out. On the day when the market
+is held in the open place beyond the Bab al Khamees, there is another big
+gathering within the city walls by the Jam�a Effina. Here acrobats and
+snake-charmers and story-tellers ply their trade, and never fail to find
+an audience. The acrobats come from Tarudant and another large city of the
+Sus that is not marked in the British War Office Map of Morocco dated
+1889! Occasionally one of these clever tumblers finds his way to London,
+and is seen at the music halls there.
+
+I remember calling on one Hadj Abdullah when I was in the North, and to my
+surprise he told me he spoke English, French, German, Spanish, Turkish,
+Moghrebbin Arabic, and Shilha. "I know London well," he said; "I have an
+engagement to bring my troupe of acrobats to the _Canterbury_ and the
+_Oxford_. I am a member of a Masonic Lodge in Camberwell." Commonplace
+enough all this, but when you have ridden out of town to a little Moorish
+house on the hillside overlooking the Mediterranean, and are drinking
+green tea flavoured with mint, on a diwan that must be used with crossed
+legs, you hardly expect the discussion to be turned to London music-halls.
+
+Snake-charmers make a strong appeal to the untutored Moorish crowd. Black
+cobras and spotted leffa snakes from the Sus are used for the performance.
+When the charmer allows the snakes to dart at him or even to bite, the
+onlookers put their hands to their foreheads and praise Sidi ben Aissa, a
+saint who lived in Mequinez when Mulai Ismail ruled, a pious magician
+whose power stands even to-day between snake-charmers and sudden death.
+The musician who accompanies the chief performer, and collects the _floos_
+offered by spectators, works his companion into a condition of frenzy
+until he does not seem to feel the teeth of the snakes; but as people who
+should be well informed declare that the poison bags are always removed
+before the snakes are used for exhibition, it is hard for the mere
+Unbeliever to render to Sidi ben Aissa the exact amount of credit that may
+be due to him.
+
+[Illustration: A BRICKFIELD, MARRAKESH]
+
+The story-teller, whose legends are to be found in the "Thousand Nights
+and a Night," is generally a merry rogue with ready wit. His tales are
+told with a wealth of detail that would place them upon the index
+expurgatorius of the Western world, but men, women, and children crowd
+round to hear them, and if his tale lacks the ingredients most desired
+they do not hesitate to tell him so, whereupon he will respond at once to
+his critics, and add love or war in accordance with their instructions.
+One has heard of something like this in the serial market at home. His
+reward is scanty, like that of his fellow-workers, the acrobat and the
+snake charmer, but he has quite a professional manner, and stops at the
+most exciting points in his narrative for his companion to make a tour of
+the circle to collect fees. The quality of the adventures he retails is
+settled always by the price paid for them.
+
+It is a strange sight, and unpleasant to the European, who believes that
+his morality, like his faith, is the only genuine article, to see young
+girls with antimony on their eyelids and henna on their nails, listening
+to stories that only the late Sir Richard Burton dared to render literally
+into the English tongue. While these children are young and impressionable
+they are allowed to run wild, but from the day when they become
+self-conscious they are strictly secluded.
+
+Throughout Marrakesh one notes a spirit of industry. If a man has work, he
+seems to be happy and well content. Most traders are very courteous and
+gentle in their dealings, and many have a sense of humour that cannot fail
+to please. While in the city I ordered one or two lamps from a workman who
+had a little shop in the Madinah. He asked for three days, and on the
+evening of the third day I went to fetch them, in company with Salam. The
+workman, who had made them himself, drew the lamps one by one from a dark
+corner, and Salam, who has a hawk's eye, noticed that the glass of one was
+slightly cracked.
+
+"Have a care, O Father of Lamps," he said; "the Englishman will not take a
+cracked glass."
+
+"What is this," cried the Lamps' Father in great anger, "who sells cracked
+lamps? If there is a flaw in one of mine, ask me for two dollars."
+
+Salam held the lamp with cracked glass up against the light. "Two
+dollars," he said briefly. The tradesman's face fell. He put his tongue
+out and smote it with his open hand.
+
+"Ah," he said mournfully, when he had admonished the unruly member, "who
+can set a curb upon the tongue?"[26]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[24] Mulai Rashed II.
+
+[25] The royal umbrella.
+
+[26] Cf. James iii. 8. But for a mere matter of dates, one would imagine
+that Luther detected the taint of Islam in James when he rejected his
+Epistle.
+
+
+
+
+THE SLAVE MARKET AT MARRAKESH
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: A MOSQUE, MARRAKESH]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE SLAVE MARKET AT MARRAKESH
+
+    As to your slaves, see that ye feed them with such food as ye eat
+    yourselves, and clothe them with the stuff ye wear. And if they commit
+    a fault which ye are not willing to forgive, then sell them, for they
+    are the servants of Allah, and are not to be tormented.
+
+    --_Mohammed's last Address._
+
+
+In the bazaars of the brass-workers and dealers in cotton goods, in the
+bazaars of the saddlers and of the leather-sellers,--in short, throughout
+the Kaisariyah, where the most important trade of Marrakesh is carried
+on,--the auctions of the afternoon are drawing to a close. The dilals have
+carried goods to and fro in a narrow path between two lines of True
+Believers, obtaining the best prices possible on behalf of the dignified
+merchants, who sit gravely in their boxlike shops beyond the reach of
+toil. No merchant seeks custom: he leaves the auctioneers to sell for him
+on commission, while he sits at ease, a stranger to elation or
+disappointment, in the knowledge that the success or failure of the day's
+market is decreed. Many articles have changed hands, but there is now a
+greater attraction for men with money outside the limited area of the
+Kaisariyah, and I think the traffic here passes before its time.
+
+The hour of the sunset prayer is approaching. The wealthier members of the
+community leave many attractive bargains unpursued, and, heedless of the
+dilals' frenzied cries, set out for the Sok el Abeed. Wool market in the
+morning and afternoon, it becomes the slave market on three days of the
+week, in the two hours that precede the setting of the sun and the closing
+of the city gates; this is the rule that holds in Red Marrakesh.
+
+I follow the business leaders through a very labyrinth of narrow, unpaved
+streets, roofed here and there with frayed and tattered palmetto-leaves
+that offer some protection, albeit a scanty one, against the blazing sun.
+At one of the corners where the beggars congregate and call for alms in
+the name of Mulai Abd el Kader Ijjilalli, I catch a glimpse of the great
+Kutubia tower, with pigeons circling round its glittering dome, and then
+the maze of streets, shutting out the view, claims me again. The path is
+by way of shops containing every sort of merchandise known to Moors, and
+of stalls of fruit and vegetables, grateful "as water-grass to herds in
+the June days." Past a turning in the crowded thoroughfare, where many
+Southern tribesmen are assembled, and heavily-laden camels compel
+pedestrians to go warily, the gate of the slave market looms portentous.
+
+A crowd of penniless idlers, to whom admittance is denied, clamours
+outside the heavy door, while the city urchins fight for the privilege of
+holding the mules of wealthy Moors, who are arriving in large numbers in
+response to the report that the household of a great wazeer, recently
+disgraced, will be offered for sale. One sees portly men of the city
+wearing the blue cloth selhams that bespeak wealth, country Moors who
+boast less costly garments, but ride mules of easy pace and heavy price,
+and one or two high officials of the Dar el Makhzan. All classes of the
+wealthy are arriving rapidly, for the sale will open in a quarter of an
+hour.
+
+The portals passed, unchallenged, the market stands revealed--an open
+space of bare, dry ground, hemmed round with tapia walls, dust-coloured,
+crumbling, ruinous. Something like an arcade stretches across the centre
+of the ground from one side to the other of the market. Roofless now and
+broken down, as is the outer wall itself, and the sheds, like cattle pens,
+that are built all round, it was doubtless an imposing structure in days
+of old. Behind the outer walls the town rises on every side. I see mules
+and donkeys feeding, apparently on the ramparts, but really in a fandak
+overlooking the market. The minaret of a mosque rises nobly beside the
+mules' feeding-ground, and beyond there is the white tomb of a saint, with
+swaying palm trees round it. Doubtless this zowia gives the Sok el Abeed a
+sanctity that no procedure within its walls can besmirch; and, to be sure,
+the laws of the saint's religion are not so much outraged here as in the
+daily life of many places more sanctified by popular opinion.
+
+On the ground, by the side of the human cattle pens, the wealthy patrons
+of the market seat themselves at their ease, arrange their djellabas and
+selhams in leisurely fashion, and begin to chat, as though the place were
+the smoking-room of a club. Water-carriers--lean, half-naked men from the
+Sus--sprinkle the thirsty ground, that the tramp of slaves and auctioneers
+may not raise too much dust. Watching them as they go about their work,
+with the apathy born of custom and experience, I have a sudden reminder of
+the Spanish bull-ring, to which the slave market bears some remote
+resemblance. The gathering of spectators, the watering of the ground, the
+sense of excitement, all strengthen the impression. There are no bulls in
+the _torils_, but there are slaves in the pens. It may be that the bulls
+have the better time. Their sufferings in life are certainly brief, and
+their careless days are very long drawn out. But I would not give the
+impression that the spectators here are assembled for amusement, or that
+my view of some of their proceedings would be comprehensible to them.
+However I may feel, the other occupants of this place are here in the
+ordinary course of business, and are certainly animated by no such fierce
+passions as thrill through the air of a plaza de toros. I am in the East
+but of the West, and "never the twain shall meet."
+
+[Illustration: A WATER-SELLER, MARRAKESH]
+
+Within their sheds the slaves are huddled together. They will not face the
+light until the market opens. I catch a glimpse of bright colouring now
+and again, as some woman or child moves in the dim recesses of the
+retreats, but there is no suggestion of the number or quality of the
+penned.
+
+Two storks sail leisurely from their nest on the saint's tomb, and a
+little company of white ospreys passes over the burning market-place with
+such a wild, free flight, that the contrast between the birds and the
+human beings forces itself upon me. Now, however, there is no time for
+such thoughts; the crowd at the entrance parts to the right and left, to
+admit twelve grave men wearing white turbans and spotless djellabas. They
+are the dilals, in whose hands is the conduct of the sale.
+
+Slowly and impressively these men advance in a line almost to the centre
+of the slave market, within two or three yards of the arcade, where the
+wealthy buyers sit expectant. Then the head auctioneer lifts up his voice,
+and prays, with downcast eyes and outspread hands. He recites the glory of
+Allah, the One, who made the heaven above and the earth beneath, the sea
+and all that is therein; his brethren and the buyers say Amen. He thanks
+Allah for his mercy to men in sending Mohammed the Prophet, who gave the
+world the True Belief, and he curses Shaitan, who wages war against Allah
+and his children. Then he calls upon Sidi bel Abbas, patron saint of
+Marrakesh, friend of buyers and sellers, who praised Allah so assiduously
+in days remote, and asks the saint to bless the market and all who buy and
+sell therein, granting them prosperity and length of days. And to these
+prayers, uttered with an intensity of devotion quite Mohammedan, all the
+listeners say Amen. Only to Unbelievers like myself,--to men who have
+never known, or knowing, have rejected Islam,--is there aught repellent in
+the approaching business; and Unbelievers may well pass unnoticed. In life
+the man who has the True Faith despises them; in death they become
+children of the Fire. Is it not so set down?
+
+Throughout this strange ceremony of prayer I seem to see the bull-ring
+again, and in place of the dilals the cuadrillas of the Matadors coming
+out to salute, before the alguazils open the gates of the toril and the
+slaying begins. The dramatic intensity of either scene connects for me
+this slave market in Marrakesh with the plaza de toros in the shadow of
+the Giralda tower in Sevilla. Strange to remember now and here, that the
+man who built the Kutubia tower for this thousand-year-old-city of Yusuf
+ben Tachfin, gave the Giralda to Andalusia.
+
+Prayers are over--the last Amen is said. The dilals separate, each one
+going to the pens he presides over, and calling upon their tenants to come
+forth. These selling men move with a dignity that is quite Eastern, and
+speak in calm and impressive tones. They lack the frenzied energy of their
+brethren who traffic in the bazaars.
+
+[Illustration: ON THE ROAD TO THE S�K EL ABEED]
+
+Obedient to the summons, the slaves face the light, the sheds yield up
+their freight, and there are a few noisy moments, bewildering to the
+novice, in which the auctioneers place their goods in line, rearrange
+dresses, give children to the charge of adults, sort out men and women
+according to their age and value, and prepare for the promenade. The
+slaves will march round and round the circle of the buyers, led by the
+auctioneers, who will proclaim the latest bid and hand over any one of
+their charges to an intending purchaser, that he may make his examination
+before raising the price. In the procession now forming for the first
+parade, five, if not six, of the seven ages set out by the melancholy
+Jaques are represented. There are men and women who can no longer walk
+upright, however the dilal may insist; there are others of middle age,
+with years of active service before them; there are young men full of
+vigour and youth, fit for the fields, and young women, moving for once
+unveiled yet unrebuked, who will pass at once to the hareem. And there are
+children of every age, from babies who will be sold with their mothers to
+girls and boys upon the threshold of manhood and womanhood. All are
+dressed in bright colours and displayed to the best advantage, that the
+hearts of bidders may be moved and their purses opened widely.
+
+"It will be a fine sale," says my neighbour, a handsome middle-aged Moor
+from one of the Atlas villages, who had chosen his place before I reached
+the market. "There must be well nigh forty slaves, and this is good,
+seeing that the Elevated Court is at Fez. It is because our Master--Allah
+send him more victories!--has been pleased to 'visit' Sidi Abdeslam, and
+send him to the prison of Mequinez. All the wealth he has extorted has
+been taken away from him by our Master, and he will see no more light.
+Twenty or more of these women are of his house."
+
+Now each dilal has his people sorted out, and the procession begins.
+Followed by their bargains the dilals march round and round the market,
+and I understand why the dust was laid before the procession commenced.
+
+Most of the slaves are absolutely free from emotion of any sort: they move
+round as stolidly as the blind-folded horses that work the water-wheels in
+gardens beyond the town, or the corn mills within its gates. I think the
+sensitive ones--and there are a few--must come from the household of the
+unfortunate Sidi Abdeslam, who was reputed to be a good master. Small
+wonder if the younger women shrink, and if the black visage seems to take
+on a tint of ashen grey, when a buyer, whose face is an open defiance of
+the ten commandments, calls upon the dilal to halt, and, picking one out
+as though she had been one of a flock of sheep, handles her as a butcher
+would, examining teeth and muscles, and questioning her and the dilal very
+closely about past history and present health. And yet the European
+observer must beware lest he read into incidents of this kind something
+that neither buyer nor seller would recognise. Novelty may create an
+emotion that facts and custom cannot justify.
+
+[Illustration: THE SLAVE MARKET]
+
+"Ah, Tsamanni," says my gossip from the Atlas to the big dilal who led the
+prayers, and is in special charge of the children for sale, "I will speak
+to this one," and Tsamanni pushes a tiny little girl into his arms. The
+child kisses the speaker's hand. Not at all unkindly the Moor takes his
+critical survey, and Tsamanni enlarges upon her merits.
+
+"She does not come from the town at all," he says glibly, "but from
+Timbuctoo. It is more difficult than ever to get children from there. The
+accursed Nazarenes have taken the town, and the slave market droops. But
+this one is desirable: she understands needlework, she will be a companion
+for your house, and thirty-five dollars is the last price bid."
+
+"One more dollar, Tsamanni. She is not ill-favoured, but she is poor and
+thin. Nevertheless say one dollar more," says the Moor.
+
+"The praise to Allah, who made the world," says the dilal piously, and
+hurries round the ring, saying that the price of the child is now
+thirty-six dollars, and calling upon the buyers to go higher.
+
+I learn that the dilal's commission is two and a half per cent on the
+purchase price, and there is a Government tax of five per cent. Slaves are
+sold under a warranty, and are returned if they are not properly described
+by the auctioneer. Bids must not be advanced by less than a Moorish dollar
+(about three shillings) at a time, and when a sale is concluded a deposit
+must be paid at once, and the balance on or shortly after the following
+day. Thin slaves will not fetch as much money as fat ones, for corpulence
+is regarded as the outward and visible sign of health as well as wealth by
+the Moor.
+
+"I have a son of my house," says the Moor from the Atlas, with a burst of
+confidence quite surprising. "He is my only one, and must have a
+playfellow, so I am here to buy. In these days it is not easy to get what
+one wants. Everywhere the French. The caravans come no longer from
+Tuat--because of the French. From Timbuctoo it is the same thing. Surely
+Allah will burn these people in a fire of more than ordinary heat--a
+furnace that shall never cool. Ah, listen to the prices," The little
+girl's market-value has gone to forty-four dollars--say seven pounds ten
+shillings in English money at the current rate of exchange. It has risen
+two dollars at a time, and Tsamanni cannot quite cover his satisfaction.
+One girl, aged fourteen, has been sold for no less than ninety dollars
+after spirited bidding from two country kaids; another, two years older,
+has gone for seventy-six.
+
+"There is no moderation in all this," says the Atlas Moor, angrily. "But
+prices will rise until our Lord the Sultan ceases to listen to the
+Nazarenes, and purges the land. Because of their Bashadors we can no
+longer have the markets at the towns on the coasts. If we do have one
+there, it must be held secretly, and a slave must be carried in the
+darkness from house to house. This is shameful for an unconquered people."
+
+I am only faintly conscious of my companion's talk and action, as he bids
+for child after child, never going beyond forty dollars. Interest centres
+in the diminishing crowd of slaves who still follow the dilals round the
+market in monotonous procession.
+
+The attractive women and strong men have been sold, and have realised
+good prices. The old people are in little or no demand; but the
+auctioneers will persist until closing time. Up and down tramp the people
+nobody wants, burdens to themselves and their owners, the useless, or
+nearly useless men and women whose lives have been slavery for so long as
+they can remember. Even the water-carrier from the Sus country, who has
+been jingling his bright bowls together since the market opened, is moved
+to compassion, for while two old women are standing behind their dilal,
+who is talking to a client about their reserve price, I see him give them
+a free draught from his goat-skin water-barrel, and this kind action seems
+to do something to freshen the place, just as the mint and the roses of
+the gardeners freshen the alleys near the Kaisariyah in the heart of the
+city. To me, this journey round and round the market seems to be the
+saddest of the slaves' lives--worse than their pilgrimage across the
+deserts of the Wad Nun, or the Draa, in the days when they were carried
+captive from their homes, packed in panniers upon mules, forced to travel
+by night, and half starved. For then at least they were valued and had
+their lives before them, now they are counted as little more than the
+broken-down mules and donkeys left to rot by the roadside. And yet this,
+of course, is a purely Western opinion, and must be discounted
+accordingly.
+
+It is fair to say that auctioneers and buyers treat the slaves in a manner
+that is not unkind. They handle them just as though they were animals
+with a market value that ill-treatment will diminish, and a few of the
+women are brazen, shameless creatures--obviously, and perhaps not
+unwisely, determined to do the best they can for themselves in any
+surroundings. These women are the first to find purchasers. The unsold
+adults and little children seem painfully tired; some of the latter can
+hardly keep pace with the auctioneer, until he takes them by the hand and
+leads them along with him. Moors, as a people, are wonderfully kind to
+children.
+
+The procedure never varies. As a client beckons and points out a slave,
+the one selected is pushed forward for inspection, the history is briefly
+told, and if the bidding is raised the auctioneer, thanking Allah, who
+sends good prices, hurries on his way to find one who will bid a little
+more. On approaching an intending purchaser the slave seizes and kisses
+his hand, then releases it and stands still, generally indifferent to the
+rest of the proceedings.
+
+[Illustration: DILALS IN THE SLAVE MARKET]
+
+"It is well for the slaves," says the Atlas Moor, rather bitterly, for the
+fifth and last girl child has gone up beyond his limit. "In the Mellah or
+the Madinah you can get labour for nothing, now the Sultan is in Fez.
+There is hunger in many a house, and it is hard for a free man to find
+food. But slaves are well fed. In times of famine and war free men die;
+slaves are in comfort. Why then do the Nazarenes talk of freeing slaves,
+as though they were prisoners, and seek to put barriers against the
+market, until at last the prices become foolish? Has not the Prophet
+said, 'He who behaveth ill to his slave shall not enter into Paradise'?
+Does that not suffice believing people? Clearly it was written, that my
+little Mohammed, my first born, my only one, shall have no playmate this
+day. No, Tsamanni: I will bid no more. Have I such store of dollars that I
+can buy a child for its weight in silver?"
+
+The crowd is thinning now. Less than ten slaves remain to be sold, and I
+do not like to think how many times they must have tramped round the
+market. Men and women--bold, brazen, merry, indifferent--have passed to
+their several masters; all the children have gone; the remaining oldsters
+move round and round, their shuffling gait, downcast eyes, and melancholy
+looks in pitiful contrast to the bright clothes in which they are dressed
+for the sale, in order that their own rags may not prejudice purchasers.
+
+Once again the storks from the saint's tomb pass over the market in large
+wide flight, as though to tell the story of the joy of freedom. It is the
+time of the evening promenade. The sun is setting rapidly and the sale is
+nearly at an end.
+
+"Forty-one dollars--forty-one," cries the dilal at whose heels the one
+young and pretty woman who has not found a buyer limps painfully. She is
+from the Western Soudan, and her big eyes have a look that reminds me of
+the hare that was run down by the hounds a few yards from me on the
+marshes at home in the coursing season.
+
+"Why is the price so low?" I ask.
+
+"She is sick," said the Moor coolly: "she cannot work--perhaps she will
+not live. Who will give more in such a case? She is of kaid Abdeslam's
+household, though he bought her a few weeks before his fall, and she must
+be sold. But the dilal can give no warranty, for nobody knows her
+sickness. She is one of the slaves who are bought by the dealers for the
+rock salt of El Djouf."
+
+Happily the woman seems too dull or too ill to feel her own position. She
+moves as though in a dream--a dream undisturbed, for the buyers have
+almost ceased to regard her. Finally she is sold for forty-three dollars
+to a very old and infirm man.
+
+"No slaves, no slaves," says the Atlas Moor impatiently: "and in the town
+they are slow to raise them." I want an explanation of this strange
+complaint.
+
+"What do you mean when you say they are slow to raise them," I ask.
+
+"In Marrakesh now," he explains, "dealers buy the healthiest slaves they
+can find, and raise as many children by them as is possible. Then, so soon
+as the children are old enough to sell, they are sold, and when the
+mothers grow old and have no more children, they too are sold, but they do
+not fetch much then."
+
+This statement takes all words from me, but my informant sees nothing
+startling in the case, and continues gravely: "From six years old they are
+sold to be companions, and from twelve they go to the hareems. Prices are
+good--too high indeed; fifty-four dollars I must have paid this afternoon
+to purchase one, and when Mulai Mohammed reigned the price would have
+been twenty, or less, and for that one would have bought fat slaves. Where
+there is one caravan now, there were ten of old times."
+
+Only three slaves now, and they must go back to their masters to be sent
+to the market on another day, for the sun is below the horizon, the market
+almost empty, and the guards will be gathering at the city gates. Two
+dilals make a last despairing promenade, while their companions are busy
+recording prices and other details in connection with the afternoon's
+business. The purchased slaves, the auctioneer's gaudy clothing changed
+for their own, are being taken to the houses of their masters. We who live
+within the city walls must hasten now, for the time of gate-closing is
+upon us, and one may not stay outside.
+
+It has been a great day. Many rich men have attended personally, or by
+their agents, to compete for the best favoured women of the household of
+the fallen kaid, and prices in one or two special cases ran beyond forty
+pounds (English money), so brisk was the bidding.
+
+Outside the market-place a country Moor of the middle class is in charge
+of four young boy slaves, and is telling a friend what he paid for them. I
+learn that their price averaged eleven pounds apiece in English
+currency--two hundred and eighty dollars altogether in Moorish money, that
+they were all bred in Marrakesh by a dealer who keeps a large
+establishment of slaves, as one in England might keep a stud farm, and
+sells the children as they grow up. The purchaser of the quartette is
+going to take them to the North. He will pass the coming night in a
+fandak, and leave as soon after daybreak as the gates are opened. Some ten
+days' travel on foot will bring him to a certain city, where his
+merchandise should fetch four hundred dollars. The lads do not seem to be
+disturbed by the sale, or by thoughts of their future, and the dealer
+himself seems to be as near an approach to a commercial traveller as I
+have seen in Morocco. To him the whole transaction is on a par with
+selling eggs or fruit, and while he does not resent my interest, he does
+not pretend to understand it.
+
+From the minaret that overlooks the mosque the mueddin calls for the
+evening prayer; from the side of the Kutubia Tower and the minaret of Sidi
+bel Abbas, as from all the lesser mosques, the cry is taken up. Lepers
+pass out of the city on their way to Elhara; beggars shuffle off to their
+dens; storks standing on the flat house-tops survey the familiar scene
+gravely but with interest. Doubtless the dilals and all who sent their
+slaves to the market to be sold this afternoon will respond to the
+mueddins' summons with grateful hearts, and Sidi bel Abbas, patron saint
+of Red Marrakesh, will hardly go unthanked.
+
+
+
+
+GREEN TEA AND POLITICS
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: ON THE HOUSE-TOP, MARRAKESH]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+GREEN TEA AND POLITICS
+
+    Whither resorting from the vernal Heat
+    Shall Old Acquaintance Old Acquaintance greet,
+      Under the Branch that leans above the Wall
+    To shed his Blossom over head and feet.
+
+    _The Rub�iy�t of Omar Khayy�m._
+
+
+He was a grave personable Moor of middle age, and full of the dignity that
+would seem to be the birthright of his race. His official position gave
+him a certain knowledge of political developments without affecting his
+serene outlook upon life. Whether he sat outside the Kasbah of his native
+town and administered the law according to his lights, or, summoned to the
+capital, rode attended so far as the Dar el Makhzan, there to take his
+part in a council of the Sultan's advisers, or whether, removed for a time
+from cares of office, he rested at ease among his cushions as he was doing
+now, this Moorish gentleman's placid and unruffled features would lead the
+Western observer to suppose that he was a very simple person with no sort
+of interest in affairs. I had occasion to know him, however, for a
+statesman, after the Moorish fashion--a keen if resigned observer of the
+tragic-comedy of his country's politics, and a pious man withal, who had
+visited Mecca in the month that is called Shawall, and had cast stones on
+the hill of Arafat, as the custom is among True Believers. Some years had
+passed since our first meeting, when I was the bearer of a letter of
+introduction written by a high official in the intricate Arabic character.
+It began: "Praise be to God! The blessing of Allah on our Lord Mohammed,
+and his peace upon Friends and Followers." Irrelevant perhaps all this,
+but the letter had opened the portals of his house to me, and had let
+loose for my benefit thoughts not lightly to be expressed.
+
+Now we sat side by side on cushions in his patio, partly shaded by a rose
+tree that climbed over trellis-work and rioted in bud and blossom. We
+drank green tea flavoured with mint from tiny glasses that were floridly
+embossed in gilt. Beyond the patio there was a glimpse of garden ablaze
+with colour; we could hear slaves singing by the great Persian
+water-wheel, and the cooing of doves from the shaded heart of trees that
+screened a granary.
+
+"Since Mulai el Hasan died," said the Hadj quietly, "since that Prince of
+Believers went to his Pavilion in Paradise, set among rivers in an orchard
+of never-failing fruit, as is explained in the Most Perspicuous Book,[27]
+troubles have swept over this land, even as El Jerad, the locust, comes
+upon it before the west wind has risen to blow him out to sea."
+
+He mused awhile, as though the music of the garden pleased him.
+
+"Even before the time of my Lord el Hasan," he went on, "there had been
+troubles enough. I can remember the war with Spain, though I was but a
+boy. My father was among those who fell at Wad Ras on the way to Tanjah of
+the Nazarenes. But then your country would not permit these Spanish dogs
+to steal our land, and even lent the money to satisfy and keep them away.
+This was a kindly deed, and Mulai Mohammed, our Victorious Master, opened
+his heart to your Bashador[28] and took him to his innermost councils. And
+I can remember that great Bashador of yours when he came to this city and
+was received in the square by the Augdal gardens. Our Master the Sultan
+came before him on a white horse[29] to speak gracious words under the
+M'dhal, that shades the ruling House.
+
+"A strong man was our Master the Sultan, and he listened carefully to all
+your Bashador said, still knowing in his heart that this country is not as
+the land of the Nazarenes, and could not be made like it in haste. His
+wazeers feared change, the Ulema[30] opposed it so far as they dared, and
+that you know is very far, and nothing could be done rapidly after the
+fashion of the West. My Lord understood this well.
+
+"Then that King of the Age and Prince of True Believers fulfilled his
+destiny and died, and my Lord el Hasan, who was in the South, reigned in
+his stead.[31] And the troubles that now cover the land began to grow and
+spread."
+
+He sipped his tea with grave pleasure. Two female slaves were peering at
+the Infidel through the branches of a lemon tree, just beyond the patio,
+but when their master dropped his voice the heads disappeared suddenly, as
+though his words had kept them in place. In the depths of the garden
+close, Oom el Hasan, the nightingale, awoke and trilled softly. We
+listened awhile to hear the notes "ring like a golden jewel down a golden
+stair."
+
+[Illustration: A HOUSE INTERIOR, MARRAKESH]
+
+"My Lord el Hasan," continued the Hadj, "was ever on horseback; with him
+the powder was always speaking. First Fez rejected him, and he carried
+fire and sword to that rebellious city. Then Er-Riff refused to pay
+tribute and he enforced it--Allah make his kingdom eternal. Then this
+ungrateful city rebelled against his rule and the army came south and fed
+the spikes of the city gate with the heads of the unfaithful. Before he
+had rested, Fez was insolent once again, and on the road north our Master,
+the Ever Victorious, was (so to say, as the irreligious see it) defeated
+by the Illegitimate men from Ghaita, rebels against Allah, all, and his
+house[32] was carried away. There were more campaigns in the North and in
+the South, and the Shareefian army ate up the land, so that there was a
+famine more fatal than war. After that came more fighting, and again more
+fighting. My lord sought soldiers from your people and from the French,
+and he went south to the Sus and smote the rebellious kaids from Tarudant
+to High. So it fell out that my Lord was never at peace with his servants,
+but the country went on as before, with fighting in the north and the
+south and the east and the west. The devil ships of the Nazarene nations
+came again and again to the bay of Tanjah to see if the Prince of the
+Faithful were indeed dead, as rumour so often stated. But he was strong,
+my Lord el Hasan, and not easy to kill. In the time of a brief sickness
+that visited him the French took the oases of Tuat, which belongs to the
+country just so surely as does this our Marrakesh. They have been from
+times remote a place of resting for the camels, like Tindouf in the Sus.
+But our Master recovered his lordship with his health, and the French went
+back from our land. After that my Lord el Hasan went to Tafilalt over the
+Atlas, never sparing himself. And when he returned to this city, weary and
+very sick, at the head of an army that lacked even food and clothing, the
+Spaniards were at the gates of Er-Riff once more, and the tribes were out
+like a fire of thorns over the northern roads. But because the span
+allotted him by destiny was fulfilled, and also because he was worn out
+and would not rest, my Lord Hasan died near Tadla; and Ba Ahmad, his
+chief wazeer, hid his death from the soldiers until his son Abd-el-Aziz
+was proclaimed."
+
+There was a pause here, as though my host were overwhelmed with
+reflections and was hard driven to give sequence to his narrative. "Our
+present Lord was young," he continued at last thoughtfully; "he was a very
+young man, and so Ba Ahmad spoke for him and acted for him, and threw into
+prison all who might have stood before his face. Also, as was natural, he
+piled up great stores of gold, and took to his hareem the women he
+desired, and oppressed the poor and the rich, so that many men cursed him
+privately. But for all that Ba Ahmad was a wise man and very strong. He
+saw the might of the French in the East, and of the Bashadors who pollute
+Tanjah in the North; he remembered the ships that came to the waters in
+the West, and he knew that the men of these ships want to seize all the
+foreign lands, until at last they rule the earth even as they rule the
+sea. Against all the wise men of the Nazarenes who dwell in Tanjah the
+wazeer fought in the name of the Exalted of God,[33] so that no one of
+them could settle on this land to take it for himself and break into the
+bowels of the earth. To be sure, in Wazzan and far in the Eastern country
+the accursed French grew in strength and in influence, for they gave
+protection, robbing the Sultan of his subjects. But they took little land,
+they sent few to Court, the country was ours until the wazeer had
+fulfilled his destiny and died. Allah pardon him, for he was a man, and
+ruled this country, as his Master before him, with a rod of very steel."
+
+"But," I objected, "you told me formerly that while he lived no man's life
+or treasure was safe, that he extorted money from all, that he ground the
+faces of the rich and the poor, that when he died in this city, the
+Marrakshis said 'A dog is dead.' How now can you find words to praise
+him?"
+
+"The people cry out," explained the Hadj calmly; "they complain, but they
+obey. In the Moghreb it is for the people to be ruled as it is for the
+rulers to govern. Shall the hammers cease to strike because the anvil
+cries out? Truly the prisons of my Lord Abd-el-Aziz were full while Ba
+Ahmad ruled, but all who remained outside obeyed the law. No man can avoid
+his fate, even my Lord el Hasan, a fighter all the days of his life, loved
+peace and hated war. But his destiny was appointed with his birth, and he,
+the peaceful one, drove men yoked neck and neck to fight for him, even a
+whole tribe of the rebellious, as these eyes have seen. While Ba Ahmad
+ruled from Marrakesh all the Moghreb trembled, but the roads were safe, as
+in the days of Mulai Ismail,--may God have pardoned him,--the land knew
+quiet seasons of sowing and reaping, the expeditions were but few, and it
+is better for a country like ours that many should suffer than that none
+should be at rest."
+
+I remained silent, conscious that I could not hope to see life through my
+host's medium. It was as though we looked at his garden through glasses of
+different colour. And perhaps neither of us saw the real truth of the
+problem underlying what we are pleased to call the Moorish Question.
+
+[Illustration: A GLIMPSE OF THE ATLAS MOUNTAINS]
+
+"When the days of the Grand Wazeer were fulfilled," the Hadj continued
+gravely, "his enemies came into power. His brother the War Minister and
+his brother the Chamberlain died suddenly, and he followed them within the
+week. No wise man sought too particularly to know the cause of their
+death. Christians came to the Court Elevated by Allah, and said to my Lord
+Abd-el-Aziz, 'Be as the Sultans of the West.' And they brought him their
+abominations, the wheeled things that fall if left alone, but support a
+man who mounts them, as I suppose, in the name of Shaitan; the picture
+boxes that multiply images of True Believers and, being as the work of
+painters,[34] are wisely forbidden by the Far Seeing Book; carriages drawn
+by invisible djinoon, who scream and struggle in their fiery prison but
+must stay and work, small sprites that dance and sing.[35] The Christians
+knew that my Lord was but a young man, and so they brought these things,
+and Abd-el-Aziz gave them of the country's riches, and conversed with them
+familiarly, as though they had been of the house of a Grand Shareef.
+But in the far east of the Moghreb the French closed the oases of Tuat and
+Tidikelt without rebuke, and burnt Ksor and destroyed the Faithful with
+guns containing green devils,[36] and said, 'We do all this that we may
+venture abroad without fear of robbers.' Then my Lord sent the War
+Minister, the kaid Maheddi el Menebhi, to London, and he saw your Sultan
+face to face. And your Sultan's wazeers said to him, 'Tell the Lord of the
+Moghreb to rule as we rule, to gather his taxes peaceably and without
+force, to open his ports, to feed his prisoners, to follow the wisdom of
+the West. If he will do this, assuredly his kingdom shall never be moved.'
+Thereafter your Sultan's great men welcomed the kaid yet more kindly, and
+showed him all that Allah the One had given them in his mercy, their
+palaces, their workplaces, their devil ships that move without sails over
+the face of the waters, and their unveiled women who pass without shame
+before the faces of men. And though the kaid said nothing, he remembered
+all these things.
+
+"When he returned, and by the aid of your own Bashador in Tanjah prevailed
+over the enemies who had set snares in his path while he fared abroad, he
+stood up before my Lord and told him all he had seen. Thereupon my Lord
+Abd-el-Aziz sought to change that which had gone before, to make a new
+land as quickly as the father of the red legs[37] builds a new nest, or
+the boar of the Atlas whom the hunter has disturbed finds a new lair. And
+the land grew confused. It was no more the Moghreb, but it assuredly was
+not as the lands of the West.
+
+"In the beginning of the season of change the French were angry. 'All men
+shall pay an equal tax throughout my land,' said the King of the Age, and
+the Bashador of the French said, 'Our protected subjects shall not yield
+even a handful of green corn to the gatherer.' Now when the people saw
+that the tax-gatherers did not travel as they were wont to travel, armed
+and ready to kill, they hardened their hearts and said, 'We will pay no
+taxes at all, for these men cannot overcome us.' So the tribute was not
+yielded, and the French Bashador said to the Sultan, 'Thou seest that
+these people will not pay, but we out of our abundant wealth will give all
+the money that is needed. Only sign these writings that set forth our
+right to the money that is brought by Nazarenes to the seaports, and
+everything will be well.'
+
+"So the Sultan set his seal upon all that was brought before him, and the
+French sent gold to his treasury and more French traders came to his
+Court, and my Lord gave them the money that had come to him from their
+country, for more of the foolish and wicked things they brought. Then he
+left Marrakesh and went to Fez; and the Rogui, Bu Hamara,[38] rose up and
+waged war against him."
+
+The Hadj sighed deeply, and paused while fresh tea was brought by a
+coal-black woman slave, whose colour was accentuated by the scarlet
+_rida_ upon her head, and the broad silver anklets about her feet. When
+she had retired and we were left alone once more, my host continued:--
+
+"You know what happened after. My Lord Abd-el-Aziz made no headway against
+the Rogui, who is surely assisted by devils of the air and by the devils
+of France. North and south, east and west, the Moors flocked to him, for
+they said, 'The Sultan has become a Christian.' And to-day my Lord has no
+more money, and no strength to fight the Infidel, and the French come
+forward, and the land is troubled everywhere. But this is clearly the
+decree of Allah the All Wise, and if it is written that the days of the
+Filali Shareefs are numbered, even my Lord will not avoid his fate."
+
+I said nothing, for I had seen the latter part of Morocco's history
+working itself out, and knew that the improved relations between Great
+Britain and France had their foundation in the change of front that kept
+our Foreign Office from doing for Morocco what it has done for other
+states divided against themselves, and what it had promised Morocco,
+without words, very clearly. Then, again, it was obvious to me, though I
+could not hope to explain it to my host, that the Moor, having served his
+time, had to go under before the wave of Western civilisation. Morocco has
+held out longer than any other kingdom of Africa, not by reason of its own
+strength, but because the rulers of Europe could not afford to see the
+Mediterranean balance of power seriously disturbed. Just as Mulai Ismail
+praised Allah publicly two centuries ago for giving him strength to drive
+out the Infidel, when the British voluntarily relinquished their hold upon
+Tangier, so successive Moorish Sultans have thought that they have held
+Morocco for the Moors by their own power. And yet, in very sober truth,
+Morocco has been no more than one of the pawns in the diplomatic game
+these many years past.
+
+We who know and love the country, finding in its patriarchal simplicity so
+much that contrasts favourably with the hopeless vulgarity of our own
+civilisation, must recognise in justice the great gulf lying between a
+country's aspect in the eyes of the traveller and in the mind of the
+politician.
+
+[Illustration: A MARRAKSHI]
+
+Before we parted, the Hadj, prefacing his remark with renewed assurance of
+his personal esteem, told me that the country's error had been its
+admission of strangers. Poor man, his large simple mind could not realise
+that no power his master held could have kept them out. He told me on
+another occasion that the great wazeers who had opposed the Sultan's
+reforms were influenced by fear, lest Western ideas should alter the
+status of their womenkind. They had heard from all their envoys to Europe
+how great a measure of liberty is accorded to women, and were prepared to
+rebel against any reform that might lead to compulsory alteration of the
+system under which women live--too often as slaves and playthings--in
+Morocco. My friend's summary of his country's recent history is by no
+means complete, and, if he could revise it here would doubtless have
+far more interest. But it seemed advisable to get the Moorish point of
+view, and, having secured the curious elusive thing, to record it as
+nearly as might be.
+
+Sidi Boubikir seldom discussed politics. "I am in the South and the
+trouble is in the North," said he. "Alhamdolillah,[39] I am all for my
+Lord Abd-el-Aziz. In the reign of his grandfather I made money, when my
+Lord his father ruled--upon him the Peace--I made money, and now to-day I
+make money. Shall I listen then to Pretenders and other evil men? The
+Sultan may have half my fortune."
+
+I did not suggest what I knew to be true, that the Sultan would have been
+more than delighted to take him at his word, for I remembered the incident
+of the lampmaker's wager. A considerable knowledge of Moghrebbin Arabic,
+in combination with hypnotic skill of a high order, would have been
+required to draw from Boubikir his real opinions of the outlook. Not for
+nothing was he appointed British political agent in South Morocco. The
+sphinx is not more inscrutable.
+
+One night his son came to the Dar al Kasdir and brought me an invitation
+from Sidi Boubikir to dine with him on the following afternoon. Arrived
+before the gate of his palace at the time appointed, two o'clock, we found
+the old diplomat waiting to welcome us. He wore a fine linen djellaba of
+dazzling whiteness, and carried a scarlet geranium in his hand. "You are
+welcome," he said gravely, and led the way through a long corridor,
+crying aloud as he went, "Make way, make way," for we were entering the
+house itself, and it is not seemly that a Moorish woman, whether she be
+wife or concubine, should look upon a stranger's face. Yet some few lights
+of the hareem were not disposed to be extinguished altogether by
+considerations of etiquette, and passed hurriedly along, as though bent
+upon avoiding us and uncertain of our exact direction. The women-servants
+satisfied their curiosity openly until my host suddenly commented upon the
+questionable moral status of their mothers, and then they made haste to
+disappear, only to return a moment later and peep round corners and
+doorways, and giggle and scream--as if they had been Europeans of the same
+class.
+
+Sidi Boubikir passed from room to room of his great establishment and
+showed some of its treasures. There were great piles of carpets and vast
+quantities of furniture that must have looked out at one time in their
+history upon the crowds that throng the Tottenham Court Road; I saw
+chairs, sofas, bedsteads, clocks, and sideboards, all of English make.
+Brought on camels through Dukala and R'hamna to Marrakesh, they were left
+to fill up the countless rooms without care or arrangement, though their
+owner's house must hold more than fifty women, without counting servants.
+Probably when they were not quarrelling or dying their finger nails, or
+painting their faces after a fashion that is far from pleasing to European
+eyes, the ladies of the hareem passed their days lying on cushions,
+playing the gimbri[40] or eating sweetmeats.
+
+In one room on the ground-floor there was a great collection of
+mechanical toys. Sidi Boubikir explained that the French Commercial
+Attach� had brought a large number to the Sultan's palace, and that my
+Lord Abd-el-Aziz had rejected the ones before us. With the curious
+childish simplicity that is found so often among the Moors of high
+position, Boubikir insisted upon winding up the clock-work apparatus of
+nearly all the toys. Then one doll danced, another played a drum, a third
+went through gymnastic exercises, and the toy orchestra played the
+Marseillaise, while from every adjacent room veiled figures stole out
+cautiously, as though this room in a Moorish house were a stage and the
+shrouded visitors were the chorus entering mysteriously from unexpected
+places. The old man's merriment was very real and hearty, so genuine, in
+fact, that he did not notice how his women-folk were intruding until the
+last note sounded. Then he turned round and the swathed figures
+disappeared suddenly as ghosts at cockcrow.
+
+Though it was clear that Sidi Boubikir seldom saw half the rooms through
+which we hurried, the passion for building, that seizes all rich Moors,
+held him fast. He was adding wing after wing to his vast premises, and
+would doubtless order more furniture from London to fill the new rooms. No
+Moor knows when it is time to call a halt and deem his house complete, and
+so the country is full of palaces begun by men who fell from power or died
+leaving the work unfinished. The Grand Wazeer Ba Ahmad left a palace
+nearly as big as the Dar el Makhzan itself, and since he died the storks
+that build upon the flat roofs have been its only occupants. So it is with
+the gardens, whose many beauties he did not live to enjoy. I rode past
+them one morning, noted all manner of fruit trees blossoming, heard birds
+singing in their branches, and saw young storks fishing in the little
+pools that the rains of winter had left. But there was not one gardener
+there to tend the ground once so highly cultivated, and I was assured that
+the terror of the wazeer's name kept even the hungry beggars from the
+fruit in harvest time.
+
+[Illustration: STREET IN MARRAKESH]
+
+The home and its appointments duly exhibited, Sidi Boubikir led the way to
+a diwan in a well-cushioned room that opened on to the garden. He clapped
+his hands and a small regiment of women-servants, black and for the most
+part uncomely, arrived to prepare dinner. One brought a ewer, another a
+basin, a third a towel, and water was poured out over our hands. Then a
+large earthenware bowl encased in strong basketwork was brought by a
+fourth servant, and a tray of flat loaves of fine wheat by a fifth, and we
+broke bread and said the "Bismillah,"[41] which stands for grace. The bowl
+was uncovered and revealed a savoury stew of chicken with sweet lemon and
+olives, a very pleasing sight to all who appreciate Eastern cooking. The
+use of knives being a crime against the Faith, and the use of forks and
+spoons unknown, we plunged the fingers of the right hand into the bowl and
+sought what pleased us best, using the bread from time to time to deal
+with the sauce of the stew. It was really a delicious dish, and when
+later in the afternoon I asked my host for the recipe he said he would
+give it to me if I would fill the bowl with Bank of England notes. I had
+to explain that, in my ignorance of the full resources of Moorish cooking,
+I had not come out with sufficient money.
+
+So soon as the charm of the first bowl palled, it was taken away and
+others followed in quick succession, various meats and eggs being served
+with olives and spices and the delicate vegetables that come to Southern
+Morocco in early spring. It was a relief to come to the end of our duties
+and, our hands washed once more, to digest the meal with the aid of green
+tea flavoured with mint. Strong drink being forbidden to the True
+Believer, water only was served with the dinner, and as it was brought
+direct from the Tensift River, and was of rich red colour, there was no
+temptation to touch it. Sidi Boubikir was in excellent spirits, and told
+many stories of his earlier days, of his dealings with Bashadors, his
+quarrel with the great kaid Ben Daoud, the siege of the city by certain
+Illegitimate men--enemies of Allah and the Sultan--his journey to
+Gibraltar, and how he met one of the Rothschilds there and tried to do
+business with him. He spoke of his investments in consols and the poor
+return they brought him, and many other matters of equal moment.
+
+It was not easy to realise that the man who spoke so brightly and lightly
+about trivial affairs had one of the keenest intellects in the country,
+that he had the secret history of its political intrigues at his fingers'
+ends, that he was the trusted agent of the British Government, and lived
+and throve surrounded by enemies. As far as was consistent with courtesy I
+tried to direct his reminiscences towards politics, but he kept to purely
+personal matters, and included in them a story of his attempt to bribe a
+British Minister,[42] to whom, upon the occasion of the arrival of a
+British Mission in Marrakesh, he went leading two mules laden with silver.
+"And when I came to him," said the old man, "I said, 'By Allah's grace I
+am rich, so I have brought you some share of my wealth.' But he would not
+even count the bags. He called with a loud voice for his wife, and cried
+to her, 'See now what this son of shame would do to me. He would give me
+his miserable money.' And then in very great anger he drove me from his
+presence and bade me never come near him again bearing a gift. What shall
+be said of a man like that, to whom Allah had given the wisdom to become a
+Bashador and the foolishness to reject a present? Two mules, remember, and
+each one with as many bags of Spanish dollars as it could carry. Truly the
+ways of your Bashadors are past belief." I agreed heartily with Sidi
+Boubikir; a day's discourse had not made clear any other aspect of the
+case.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[27] "In Paradise are rivers of incorruptible water; and rivers of milk,
+the taste whereof changes not; and rivers of wine, pleasant unto those who
+drink; and rivers of clarified honey; and in Paradise the faithful shall
+have all kinds of fruits, and pardon from their God."--Al Koran; Sura 47,
+"Mohammed."
+
+[28] The late Sir John Drummond Hay, whose name is honourably remembered
+to this day throughout the Moghreb.
+
+[29] When a Sultan appears in public on a white horse, it is for sign that
+he is pleased; a black horse, on the other hand, is ominous to them that
+understand.
+
+[30] Literally "Learned Ones," a theological cabinet, the number of whose
+members is known to no man, the weight of whose decisions is felt
+throughout Morocco.
+
+[31] 1873-94.
+
+[32] Hareem.
+
+[33] One of the titles of a Sultan. The "Lofty Portal" ("Sublime Porte")
+and the "Sublime Presence" are among the others.
+
+[34] Mohammed said: "Every painter is in Hell Fire, and Allah will appoint
+a person at the day of Resurrection to punish him for every picture he
+shall have drawn, and he shall be punished in Hell. So, if ye must make
+pictures, make them of trees and things without souls."
+
+[35] The reader will recognise the Hadj's reference to bicycles, cameras,
+motor-cars, and other mechanical toys.
+
+[36] Melinite shells.
+
+[37] The stork.
+
+[38] Literally, "Father of the she-ass," the Pretender who conducted a
+successful campaign against the Sultan in 1902 and 1903, and is still an
+active enemy of the Filali dynasty.
+
+[39] "The Praise to Allah."
+
+[40] A Moorish lute.
+
+[41] Literally, "In the name of God."
+
+[42] The late Sir William Kirby Green.
+
+
+
+
+THROUGH A SOUTHERN PROVINCE
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: AN ARAB STEED]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THROUGH A SOUTHERN PROVINCE
+
+    The full streams feed on flower of rushes,
+      Ripe grasses trammel a travelling foot;
+    The faint fresh flame of the young year flushes
+      From leaf to flower, and flower to fruit.
+
+    _Atalanta in Calydon._
+
+Even in these fugitive records of my last journey into the "Extreme West,"
+I find it hard to turn from Marrakesh. Just as the city held me within its
+gates until further sojourn was impossible, so its memories crowd upon me
+now, and I recall with an interest I may scarcely hope to communicate the
+varied and compelling appeals it made to me at every hour of the day. Yet
+I believe, at least I hope, that most of the men and women who strive to
+gather for themselves some picture of the world's unfamiliar aspects will
+understand the fascination to which I refer, despite my failure to give it
+fitting expression. Sevilla in Andalusia held me in the same way when I
+went from Cadiz to spend a week-end there, and the three days became as
+many weeks, and would have become as many months or years had I been my
+own master--which to be sure we none of us are. The hand of the Moor is
+clearly to be seen in Sevilla to-day, notably in the Alcazar and the
+Giralda tower, fashioned by the builder of the Kutubia that stands like a
+stately lighthouse in the Blad al Hamra.
+
+So, with the fascination of the city for excuse, I lingered in Marrakesh
+and went daily to the bazaars to make small purchases. The dealers were
+patient, friendly folk, and found no trouble too much, so that there was
+prospect of a sale at the end of it. Most of them had a collapsible set of
+values for their wares, but the dealer who had the best share of my
+Moorish or Spanish dollars was an old man in the bazaar of the
+brass-workers, who used to say proudly, "Behold in me thy servant, Abd el
+Kerim,[43] the man of one price."
+
+The brass and copper workers had most of their metal brought to them from
+the Sus country, and sold their goods by weight. Woe to the dealer
+discovered with false scales. The gunsmiths, who seemed to do quite a big
+trade in flint-lock guns, worked with their feet as well as their hands,
+their dexterity being almost Japanese. Nearly every master had an
+apprentice or two, and if there are idle apprentices in the southern
+capital of my Lord Abd-el-Aziz, I was not fated to see one.
+
+No phase of the city's life lacked fascination, nor was the interest
+abated when life and death moved side by side. A Moorish funeral wound
+slowly along the road in the path of a morning's ride. First came a crowd
+of ragged fellows on foot singing the praises of Allah, who gives one
+life to his servants here and an eternity of bliss in Paradise at the end
+of their day's work. The body of the deceased followed, wrapped in a
+knotted shroud and partially covered with what looked like a coloured
+shawl, but was, I think, the flag from a saint's shrine. Four bearers
+carried the open bier, and following came men of high class on mules. The
+contrast between the living and the dead was accentuated by the freshness
+of the day, the life that thronged the streets, the absence of a coffin,
+the weird, sonorous chaunting of the mourners. The deceased must have been
+a man of mark, for the crowd preceding the bier was composed largely of
+beggars, on their way to the cemetery, where a gift of food would be
+distributed. Following their master's remains came two slaves, newly
+manumitted, their certificates of freedom borne aloft in cleft sticks to
+testify before all men to the generosity of the loudly lamented. Doubtless
+the shroud of the dead had been sprinkled with water brought from the well
+Zem Zem, which is by the mosque of Mecca, and is said to have been
+miraculously provided for Hagar, when Ishmael, then a little boy, was like
+to die of thirst in the wilderness.
+
+I watched the procession wind its way out of sight to the burial-ground by
+the mosque, whose mueddin would greet its arrival with the cry, "May Allah
+have mercy upon him." Then the dead man would be carried to the cemetery,
+laid on his right side looking towards Mecca, and the shroud would be
+untied, that there may be no awkwardness or delay upon the day of the
+Resurrection. And the Kadi or f'K'hay[44] would say, "O Allah, if he did
+good, over-estimate his goodness; and if he did evil, forget his evil
+deeds; and of Thy Mercy grant that he may experience Thine Acceptance; and
+spare him the trials and troubles of the grave.... Of Thy Mercy grant him
+freedom from torment until Thou send him to Paradise, O Thou Most Pitiful
+of the pitying.... Pardon us, and him, and all Moslems, O Lord of
+Creation."
+
+[Illustration: A YOUNG MARRAKSHI]
+
+On the three following mornings the men of the deceased's house would
+attend by the newly-made grave, in company with the tolba, and would
+distribute bread and fruit to the poor, and when their task was over and
+the way clear, the veiled women would bring flowers, with myrtle, willows,
+and young leaves of the palm, and lay them on the grave, and over these
+the water-carrier would empty his goat-skin. I knew that the dead man
+would have gone without flinching to his appointed end, not as one who
+fears, but rather as he who sets out joyfully to a feast prepared in his
+honour. His faith had kept all doubts at bay, and even if he had been an
+ill liver the charitable deeds wrought in his name by surviving relatives
+would enable him to face the two angels who descend to the grave on the
+night following a man's burial and sit in judgment upon his soul. This one
+who passed me on his last journey would tell the angels of the men who
+were slaves but yesterday and were now free, he would speak of the hungry
+who had been fed, and of the intercession of the righteous and learned.
+These facts and his faith, the greatest fact of all, would assuredly
+satisfy Munkir and Nakir.[45] Small wonder if no manner of life, however
+vile, stamps ill-livers in Morocco with the seal we learn to recognise in
+the Western world. For the Moslem death has no sting, and hell no victory.
+Faith, whether it be in One God, in a Trinity, in Christ, Mohammed, or
+Buddha, is surely the most precious of all possessions, so it be as virile
+and living a thing as it is in Sunset Land.
+
+Writing of religion, I needs must set down a word in this place of the men
+and women who work for the Southern Morocco Mission in Marrakesh. The
+beauty of the city has long ceased to hold any fresh surprises for them,
+their labour is among the people who "walk in noonday as in the night." It
+is not necessary to be of their faith to admire the steadfast devotion to
+high ideals that keeps Mr. Nairn and his companions in Marrakesh. I do not
+think that they make converts in the sense that they desire, the faith of
+Islam suits Morocco and the Moors, and it will not suffer successful
+invasion, but the work of the Mission has been effective in many ways. If
+the few Europeans who visit the city are free to wander unchallenged,
+unmolested through its every street, let them thank the missionaries; if
+the news that men from the West are straight-dealing, honourable, and
+slaves to truth, has gone from the villages on the hither side of Atlas
+down to the far cities of the Sus, let the missionaries be praised. And if
+a European woman can go unveiled yet uninsulted through Marrakesh, the
+credit is due to the ladies of the Mission. It may be said without mental
+reservation that the Southern Morocco Mission accomplishes a great work,
+and is most successful in its apparent failure. It does not make
+professing Christians out of Moors, but it teaches the Moors to live finer
+lives within the limits of their own faith, and if they are kinder and
+cleaner and more honourable by reason of their intercourse with the
+"tabibs" and "tabibas," the world gains and Morocco is well served. When
+the Sultan was in difficulties towards the end of 1902, and the star of Bu
+Hamara was in the ascendant, Sir Arthur Nicolson, our Minister in Tangier,
+ordered all British subjects to leave the inland towns for the coast. As
+soon as the news reached the Marrakshis, the houses of the missionaries
+were besieged by eager crowds of Moors and Berbers, offering to defend the
+well-beloved tabibs against all comers, and begging them not to go away.
+Very reluctantly Mr. Nairn and his companions obeyed the orders sent from
+Tangier, but, having seen their wives and children safely housed in
+Djedida, they returned to their work.
+
+[Illustration: FRUIT MARKET, MARRAKESH]
+
+The Elhara or leper quarter is just outside one of the city gates, and
+after some effort of will, I conquered my repugnance and rode within its
+gate. The place proved to be a collection of poverty-stricken hovels built
+in a circle, of the native tapia, which was crumbling to pieces through
+age and neglect. Most of the inhabitants were begging in the city, where
+they are at liberty to remain until the gates are closed, but there were a
+few left at home, and I had some difficulty in restraining the keeper
+of Elhara, who wished to parade the unfortunate creatures before me that I
+might not miss any detail of their sufferings. Leper women peeped out from
+corners, as Boubikir's "house" had done; little leper children played
+merrily enough on the dry sandy ground, a few donkeys, covered with scars
+and half starved, stood in the scanty shade. In a deep cleft below the
+outer wall women and girls, very scantily clad, were washing clothes in a
+pool that is reserved apparently for the use of the stricken village. I
+was glad to leave the place behind me, after giving the unctuous keeper a
+gift for the sufferers that doubtless never reached them. They tell me
+that no sustained attempt is made to deal medically with the disease,
+though many nasty concoctions are taken by a few True Believers, whose
+faith, I fear, has not made them whole.[46]
+
+When it became necessary for us to leave Marrakesh the young shareef went
+to the city's fandaks and inquired if they held muleteers bound for
+Mogador. The Maalem had taken his team home along the northern road, our
+path lay to the south, through the province of the Son of Lions (Oulad bou
+Sba), and thence through Shiadma and Haha to the coast. We were fortunate
+in finding the men we sought without any delay. A certain kaid of the Sus
+country, none other than El Arbi bel Hadj ben Haida, who rules over
+Tiensiert, had sent six muleteers to Marrakesh to sell his oil, in what is
+the best southern market, and he had worked out their expenses on a scale
+that could hardly be expected to satisfy anybody but himself.
+
+[Illustration: IN THE FANDAK]
+
+"From Tiensiert to Marrakesh is three days journey," he had said, and,
+though it is five, no man contradicted him, perhaps because five is
+regarded as an unfortunate number, not to be mentioned in polite or
+religious society. "Three days will serve to sell the oil and rest the
+mules," he had continued, "and three days more will bring you home." Then
+he gave each man three dollars for travelling money, about nine shillings
+English, and out of it the mules were to be fed, the charges of n'zala and
+fandak to be met, and if there was anything over the men might buy food
+for themselves. They dared not protest, for El Arbi bel Hadj ben Haida had
+every man's house in his keeping, and if the muleteers had failed him he
+would have had compensation in a manner no father of a family would care
+to think about. The oil was sold, and the muleteers were preparing to
+return to their master, when Salam offered them a price considerably in
+excess of what they had received for the whole journey to take us to
+Mogador. Needless to say they were not disposed to let the chance go by,
+for it would not take them two days out of their way, so I went to the
+fandak to see mules and men, and complete the bargain. There had been a
+heavy shower some days before, and the streets were more than usually
+miry, but in the fandak, whose owner had no marked taste for
+cleanliness, the accumulated dirt of all the rainy season had been
+stirred, with results I have no wish to record. A few donkeys in the last
+stages of starvation had been sent in to gather strength by resting, one
+at least was too far gone to eat. Even the mules of the Susi tribesmen
+were not in a very promising condition. It was an easy task to count their
+ribs, and they were badly in need of rest and a few square meals. Tied in
+the covered cloisters of the fandak there was some respite for them from
+the attack of mosquitoes, but the donkeys, being cheap and of no
+importance, were left to all the torments that were bound to be associated
+with the place.
+
+Only one human being faced the glare of the light and trod fearlessly
+through the mire that lay eight or ten inches deep on the ground, and he
+was a madman, well-nigh as tattered and torn as the one I had angered in
+the Kaisariyah on the morning after my arrival in the city. This man's
+madness took a milder turn. He went from one donkey to another, whispering
+in its ear, a message of consolation I hope and believe, though I had no
+means of finding out. When I entered the fandak he came running up to me
+in a style suggestive of the gambols of a playful dog, and I was
+exceedingly annoyed by a thought that he might not know any difference
+between me and his other friends. There was no need to be uneasy, for he
+drew himself up to his full height, made a hissing noise in his throat,
+and spat fiercely at my shadow. Then he returned to the stricken donkeys,
+and the keeper of the fandak, coming out to welcome me, saw his more
+worthy visitor. Turning from me with "Marhababik" ("You are welcome") just
+off his lips, he ran forward and kissed the hem of the madman's djellaba.
+
+A madman is very often an object of veneration in Morocco, for his brain
+is in divine keeping, while his body is on the earth. And yet the Moor is
+not altogether logical in his attitude to the "afflicted of Allah." While
+so much liberty is granted to the majority of the insane that feigned
+madness is quite common among criminals in the country, less fortunate men
+who have really become mentally afflicted, but are not recognised as
+insane, are kept chained to the walls of the Marstan--half hospital, half
+prison--that is attached to the most great mosques. I have been assured
+that they suffer considerably at the hands of most gaoler-doctors, whose
+medicine is almost invariably the stick, but I have not been able to
+verify the story, which is quite opposed to Moorish tradition. The mad
+visitor to the fandak did not disturb the conversation with the keeper and
+the Susi muleteers, but he turned the head of a donkey in our direction
+and talked eagerly to the poor animal, pointing at me with outstretched
+finger the while. The keeper of the fandak, kind man, made uneasy by this
+demonstration, signed to me quietly to stretch out my hand, with palm
+open, and directed to the spot where the madman stood, for only in that
+way could I hope to avert the evil eye.
+
+The chief muleteer was a thin and wiry little fellow, a total stranger to
+the soap and water beloved of Unbelievers. He could not have been more
+than five feet high, and he was burnt brown. His dark outer garment of
+coarse native wool had the curious yellow patch on the back that all
+Berbers seem to favour, though none can explain its origin or purpose, and
+he carried his slippers in his hand, probably deeming them less capable of
+withstanding hard wear than his naked feet. He had no Arabic, but spoke
+only "Shilha," the language of the Berbers, so it took some time to make
+all arrangements, including the stipulation that a proper meal for all the
+mules was to be given under the superintendence of M'Barak. That worthy
+representative of Shareefian authority was having a regal time, drawing a
+dollar a day, together with three meals and a ration for his horse, in
+return for sitting at ease in the courtyard of the Tin House.
+
+Arrangements concluded, it was time to say good-bye to Sidi Boubikir. I
+asked delicately to be allowed to pay rent for the use of the house, but
+the hospitable old man would not hear of it. "Allah forbid that I should
+take any money," he remarked piously. "Had you told me you were going I
+would have asked you to dine with me again before you started." We sat in
+the well-remembered room, where green tea and mint were served in a
+beautiful set of china-and-gold filagree cups, presented to him by the
+British Government nearly ten years ago. He spoke at length of the places
+that should be visited, including the house of his near relative, Mulai el
+Hadj of Tamsloht, to whom he offered to send me with letters and an
+escort. Moreover, he offered an escort to see us out of the city and on
+the road to the coast, but I judged it better to decline both offers, and,
+with many high-flown compliments, left him by the entrance to his great
+house, and groped back through the mud to put the finishing touches to
+packing.
+
+The young shareef accepted a parting gift with grave dignity, and assured
+me of his esteem for all time and his willing service when and where I
+should need it. I had said good-bye to the "tabibs" and "tabibas," so
+nothing remained but to rearrange our goods, that nearly everything should
+be ready for the mules when they arrived before daybreak. Knowing that the
+first day's ride was a long one, some forty miles over an indifferent road
+and with second-rate animals, I was anxious to leave the city as soon as
+the gates were opened.
+
+[Illustration: THE JAMA'A EFFINA]
+
+Right above my head the mueddin in the minaret overlooking the Tin House
+called the sleeping city to its earliest prayer.[47] I rose and waked the
+others, and we dressed by a candle-light that soon became superfluous.
+When the mueddin began the chant that sounded so impressive and so
+mournful as it was echoed from every minaret in the city, the first
+approach of light would have been visible in the east, and in these
+latitudes day comes and goes upon winged feet. Before the beds were
+taken to pieces and Salam had the porridge and his "marmalade" ready, with
+steaming coffee, for early breakfast, we heard the mules clattering down
+the stony street. Within half an hour the packing comedy had commenced.
+The Susi muleteer, who was accompanied by a boy and four men, one a slave,
+and all quite as frowzy, unwashed, and picturesque as himself, swore that
+we did not need four pack-mules but eight. Salam, his eyes flaming, and
+each separate hair of his beard standing on end, cursed the shameless
+women who gave such men as the Susi muleteer and his fellows to the
+kingdom of my Lord Abd-el-Aziz, threw the _shwarris_ on the ground,
+rejected the ropes, and declared that with proper fittings the mules, if
+these were mules at all, and he had his very serious doubts about the
+matter, could run to Mogador in three days. Clearly Salam intended to be
+master from the start, and when I came to know something more about our
+company, the wisdom of the procedure was plain. Happily for one and all
+Mr. Nairn came along at this moment. It was not five o'clock, but the hope
+of serving us had brought him into the cold morning air, and his thorough
+knowledge of the Shilha tongue worked wonders. He was able to send for
+proper ropes at an hour when we could have found no trader to supply them,
+and if we reached the city gate that looks out towards the south almost as
+soon as the camel caravan that had waited without all night, the
+accomplishment was due to my kind friend who, with Mr. Alan Lennox, had
+done so much to make the stay in Marrakesh happily memorable.
+
+It was just half-past six when the last pack-mule passed the gate, whose
+keeper said graciously, "Allah prosper the journey," and, though the sun
+was up, the morning was cool, with a delightfully fresh breeze from the
+west, where the Atlas Mountains stretched beyond range of sight in all
+their unexplored grandeur. They seemed very close to us in that clear
+atmosphere, but their foot hills lay a day's ride away, and the natives
+would be prompt to resent the visit of a stranger who did not come to them
+with the authority of a kaid or governor whose power and will to punish
+promptly were indisputable. With no little regret I turned, when we had
+been half an hour on the road, for a last look at Ibn Tachfin's city.
+Distance had already given it the indefinite attraction that comes when
+the traveller sees some city of old time in a light that suggests every
+charm and defines none. I realised that I had never entered an Eastern
+city with greater pleasure, or left one with more sincere regret, and that
+if time and circumstance had been my servants I would not have been so
+soon upon the road.
+
+The road from Marrakesh to Mogador is as pleasant as traveller could wish,
+lying for a great part of the way through fertile land, but it is seldom
+followed, because of the two unbridged rivers N'fiss and Sheshoua. If
+either is in flood (and both are fed by the melting snows from the Atlas
+Mountains), you must camp on the banks for days together, until it shall
+please Allah to abate the waters. Our lucky star was in the ascendant; we
+reached Wad N'fiss at eleven o'clock to find its waters low and clear. On
+the far side of the banks we stayed to lunch by the border of a thick belt
+of sedge and bulrushes, a marshy place stretching over two or three acres,
+and glowing with the rich colour that comes to southern lands in April and
+in May. It recalled to me the passage in one of the stately choruses of
+Mr. Swinburne's _Atalanta in Calydon_, that tells how "blossom by blossom
+the spring begins."
+
+The intoxication that lies in colour and sound has ever had more
+fascination for me than the finest wine could bring: the colour of the
+vintage is more pleasing than the taste of the grape. In this forgotten
+corner the eye and ear were assailed and must needs surrender. Many tiny
+birds of the warbler family sang among the reeds, where I set up what I
+took to be a Numidian crane, and, just beyond the river growths, some
+splendid oleanders gave an effective splash of scarlet to the surrounding
+greens and greys. In the waters of the marsh the bullfrogs kept up a loud
+sustained croak, as though they were True Believers disturbed by the
+presence of the Infidels. The N'fiss is a fascinating river from every
+point of view. Though comparatively small, few Europeans have reached the
+source, and it passes through parts of the country where a white man's
+presence would be resented effectively. The spurs of the Atlas were still
+clearly visible on our left hand, and needless to say we had the place to
+ourselves. There was not so much as a tent in sight.
+
+At last M'Barak, who had resumed his place at the head of our little
+company, and now realised that we had prolonged our stay beyond proper
+limits, mounted his horse rather ostentatiously, and the journey was
+resumed over level land that was very scantily covered with grass or
+clumps of irises. The mountains seemed to recede and the plain to spread
+out; neither eye nor glass revealed a village; we were apparently riding
+towards the edge of the plains. The muleteer and his companions strode
+along at a round pace, supporting themselves with sticks and singing
+melancholy Shilha love-songs. Their mules, recollection of their good meal
+of the previous evening being forgotten, dropped to a pace of something
+less than four miles an hour, and as the gait of our company had to be
+regulated by the speed of its slowest member, it is not surprising that
+night caught us up on the open and shut out a view of the billowy plain
+that seemingly held no resting-place. How I missed the little Maalem,
+whose tongue would have been a spur to the stumbling beasts! But as
+wishing would bring nothing, we dismounted and walked by the side of our
+animals, the kaid alone remaining in the saddle. Six o'clock became seven,
+and seven became eight, and then I found it sweet to hear the watch-dog's
+honest bark. Of course it was not a "deep-mouthed welcome:" it was no more
+than a cry of warning and defiance raised by the colony of pariah dogs
+that guarded Ain el Baidah, our destination.
+
+In the darkness, that had a pleasing touch of purple colouring lent it by
+the stars, Ain el Baidah's headman loomed very large and imposing. "Praise
+to Allah that you have come and in health," he remarked, as though we
+were old friends. He assured me of my welcome, and said his village had a
+guest-house that would serve instead of the tent. Methought he protested
+too much, but knowing that men and mules were dead beat, and that we had a
+long way to go, I told Salam that the guest-house would serve, and the
+headman lead the way to a tapia building that would be called a very small
+barn, or a large fowl-house, in England. A tiny clay lamp, in which a
+cotton wick consumed some mutton fat, revealed a corner of the darkness
+and the dirt, and when our own lamps banished the one, they left the other
+very clearly to be seen. But we were too tired to utter a complaint. I saw
+the mules brought within the zariba, helped to set up my camp bed, took
+the cartridges out of my shot gun, and, telling Salam to say when supper
+was ready, fell asleep at once. Eighteen busy hours had passed since the
+mueddin called to "feyer" from the minaret above the Tin House, but my
+long-sought rest was destined to be brief.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[43] Literally, "Slave of the Merciful."
+
+[44] Priest attached to the Mosque.
+
+[45] The Angels of Judgment.
+
+[46] So many lepers come from the Argan Forest provinces of Haha and
+Shiadma that leprosy is believed by many Moors to result from the free use
+of Argan oil. There is no proper foundation for this belief.
+
+[47] This is the most important of the five supplications. The Sura of Al
+Koran called "The Night Journey" says, "To the prayer of daybreak the
+Angels themselves bear witness."
+
+
+
+
+"SONS OF LIONS" AND OTHER TRUE BELIEVERS
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: EVENING IN CAMP]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+"SONS OF LIONS" AND OTHER TRUE BELIEVERS
+
+    FALSTAFF--"Four rogues in buckram let drive at me."
+
+    _King Henry IV._, Act II. Scene 4.
+
+
+By the time Salam had roused me from a dream in which I was being torn
+limb from limb in a Roman amphitheatre, whose terraced seats held
+countless Moors all hugely enjoying my dismemberment, I realised that a
+night in that guest-house would be impossible. The place was already
+over-populated.
+
+A brief meal was taken in the open, and we sat with our feet thrust to the
+edge of the nearest charcoal fire, for the night was cold. Our animals,
+tethered and watered, stood anxiously waiting for the barley the chief
+muleteer had gone to buy. Supper over, I sat on a chair in the open, and
+disposed myself for sleep as well as the conditions permitted. Round me,
+on the bare ground, the men and the boy from the Sus lay wrapped in their
+haiks--the dead could not have slept more soundly than they. The two fires
+were glimmering very faintly now, M'Barak was stretching a blanket for
+himself, while Salam collected the tin plates and dishes, his last task
+before retiring. Somewhere in the far outer darkness I heard the wail of
+a hy�na, and a light cold breeze sighed over the plain. Half asleep and
+half awake I saw the village headman approaching from out the darkness; a
+big bag of barley was on his shoulder, and he was followed closely by the
+muleteer. They came into the little circle of the fast falling light; I
+was nodding drowsily toward unconsciousness, and wondering, with a vague
+resentment that exhausted all my remaining capacity to think, why the
+headman should be speaking so loudly. Suddenly, I saw the muleteer go to
+earth as if he had been pole-axed, and in that instant I was wide awake
+and on my feet. So was Salam.
+
+The headman delivered himself of a few incisive rasping sentences. The
+muleteer rose slowly and wiped a little blood from his face.
+
+Salam explained: his capacity for fathoming a crisis was ever remarkable.
+"Headman he charge three dollars for barley and he don't worth more than
+one. Muleteer he speaks for that, and headman 'e knock him down."
+
+"Ask him how he dares interfere with our people," I said. "Tell him his
+kaid shall hear of it."
+
+The headman replied haughtily to Salam's questions and strode away. "He
+say," said Salam, beginning to get angry, "Pay first and talk
+afterwards--to Allah, if you will. He say he wait long time for man like
+muleteer an' cut 'im throat. What he's bin done that be nothing. What he's
+goin' to do, that all Moors is goin' to see. He come back soon, sir."
+
+Then Salam slipped noiselessly into the guest-house and fetched my
+repeating shot gun, from which I had previously drawn all cartridges. He
+sat down outside with the weapon across his knees, and the bruised
+muleteer safely behind him. I coaxed the charcoal to a further effort and
+returned to my chair, wondering whether trouble that had been so long in
+coming had arrived at last. Some five minutes later we heard a sound of
+approaching footsteps, and I could not help noting how Salam brightened.
+He was spoiling for a fight. I watched dim figures coming into the area of
+light, they took shape and showed Ain al Baidah's chief and two of his
+men--tall, sturdy fellows, armed with thick sticks. Seeing Salam sitting
+with gun levelled full on them they came to a sudden halt, and listened
+while he told them, in a voice that shook and sometimes broke with rage,
+their character, their characteristics, the moral standing of their
+parents and grandparents, the probable fate of their sons, and the certain
+and shameful destiny of their daughters. He invited them, with finger on
+trigger, to advance one step and meet the death that should enable him to
+give their ill-favoured bodies one by one to the pariahs and the hawks,
+before he proceeded to sack Ain al Baidah and overcome single-handed the
+whole of its fighting men. And, absurd though his rodomontade may sound to
+Europeans, who read it in cold print, it was a vastly different matter
+there in the dark of the Plain, when Salam stood, believing he held a
+loaded gun in his hand, and allowed his fierce temper rein. The headman
+and his two attendants slunk off like whipped curs, and we proceeded to
+feed our animals, replenish both fires, and sleep with one eye open.
+
+[Illustration: PREPARING SUPPER]
+
+Morning came over the hills to Ain al Baidah in cold and cheerless guise.
+The villagers crowded round to stare at us in the familiar fashion. But
+there were grim looks and dark scowls among them, and, failing the
+truculent and determined bearing of Salam and the presence of the kaid we
+should have had a lively quarter of an hour. As it was, we were not ready
+to leave before eight o'clock, and then Salam went, money in hand, to
+where the thieving headman stood. The broken night's rest had not made my
+companion more pleased with Ain al Baidah's chief. He threw the dollars
+that had been demanded on to the ground before the rogue's feet, and then
+his left hand flew up and outward. With one swift, irresistible movement
+he had caught his foe by the beard, drawn down the shrinking, vicious face
+to within a few inches of his own, and so holding him, spoke earnestly for
+half a minute, of what the Prophet has said about hospitality to
+travellers, and the shocking fate that awaits headmen who rob those who
+come seeking shelter, and beat them when they complain. Ain al Baidah's
+chief could not but listen, and listening, he could not but shudder. So it
+fell out that, when Salam's harangue was finished, we left a speechless,
+irresolute, disgraced headman, and rode away slowly, that none might say
+we knew fear. If the village had any inclination to assist its chief, the
+sight of the blessed one's weapon, in its fierce red cloth covering, must
+have awed them. Some days later, in Mogador, I was told that the Ain al
+Baidah man is a terror to travellers and a notorious robber, but I made no
+complaint to our Consul. If the headman's overlord had been told to punish
+him, the method chosen would assuredly have been to rob every man in the
+douar, and if they resisted, burn their huts over their heads. It seemed
+better to trust that the memory of Salam will lead Ain al Baidah's chief
+to lessen his proud looks.
+
+We made slow progress to Sheshoua, where the river that might have barred
+our road to the coast was as friendly as the N'fiss had been on the
+previous day. The track to its banks had been flat and uninteresting
+enough; what good work the winter rains had done by way of weaving a
+flower carpet on the plains, the summer sun had destroyed. There was a
+considerable depression in the plain, though we could not notice it at the
+slow pace forced upon us, and this accounted for the absence of water
+between the rivers, and for the great extent of the calcareous gravel, in
+which few plants could thrive. Only the _zizyphus lotus_, from whose
+branches little white snails hung like flowers, seemed to find real
+nourishment in the dry ground, though colocynth and wild lavender were to
+be seen now and again. But by the Sheshoua River the change was very
+sudden and grateful to the eye.
+
+A considerable olive grove, whose grey-green leaves shone like silver in
+the light breeze, offered shade and shelter to a large colony of doves.
+There was a thriving village, with a saint's tomb for chief attraction,
+and solid walls to suggest that the place does not enjoy perennial
+tranquillity. But even though there are strangers who trouble these good
+folk, their home could not have looked more charmingly a haunt of peace
+than it did. All round the village one saw orchards of figs, apricots, and
+pomegranate trees; the first with the leaves untouched by the summer heat,
+the apricots just at the end of their blossoming, and the pomegranates
+still in flower. In place of the dry, hard soil that was so trying to the
+feet of man and beast, there were here meadows in plenty, from which the
+irises had only lately died. I saw the common English dandelion growing
+within stone's throw of a clump of feathery palms.
+
+Tired after the vigil of the previous night and the long hours that had
+led up to it, we reclined at our ease under the olives, determined to
+spend the night at Sidi el Muktar, some fifteen or twenty miles away. From
+there one can hunt the great bustard, and I had hoped to do so until I saw
+the animals that were to take us to the coast. Neither the bustard nor the
+gazelle, that sometimes roams Sidi el Muktar's plains, had anything to
+fear from those noble creatures. The kaid alone might have pursued bird or
+beast, but as his gun was innocent of powder and shot there would have
+been nothing but exercise to seek.
+
+After a two-hours' rest, given in one case more to sleep than lunch, we
+moved on towards the village of Sidi el Muktar, passing some curious
+flat-topped hills called by the natives Haunk Ijjimmal.[48] The oasis had
+ceased as suddenly as it had begun, and the road became as uninteresting
+as was our own crawling gait. I noticed that the Susi muleteers were
+travelling very sadly, that they had not among them an echo of the songs
+that had sounded so strangely on the previous day, and I bade Salam find
+the cause of the depression, and ask whether the young lad whose features
+had become pinched and drawn felt ill. Within a few moments the truth was
+out. The six men had eaten nothing save a little of the mules' barley
+since they left Marrakesh, and as they had been on short rations between
+Tiensiert and the Southern capital, their strength was beginning to give
+out. It was no part of my business to feed them; they had received
+"something in the hand" before they left the city, and could well have
+bought supplies for the road, but they had preferred to trust Providence,
+and hoped to live on a small part of the mules' barley and the daily gift
+of tea that had been promised. Under the circumstances, and though I had
+found reason to believe that they were lazy, feckless rogues enough, who
+really needed an iron-handed kaid to rule over them, I told Salam to pass
+word round that their wants would be supplied at the day's end. Then they
+picked up their old stride, and one by one resumed the love-songs of
+yesterday as we moved slowly over the plains to where, in the far
+distance, Sidi el Muktar stood between us and the fast setting sun, placed
+near to the junction of three provinces--Oulad bou Sba, through which we
+travelled, M'touga, famous for fleet horses, and Shiadma, where our road
+lay.
+
+But we were to find no rest in the shade of Sidi el Muktar's stately
+zowia. The "Sons of Lions" had raided the place on the previous day,
+hoping to terminate alike the rule and the existence of a kaid whose hand
+had rested too heavily upon them. Some friend of the kaid having given him
+due notice of the raiders' intentions--treachery is a painfully common
+feature of these forays--he had been well prepared to meet these godless
+men. Powder had spoken, and was to speak again, for the kaid, having
+driven off the raiders, was going to carry war into the enemy's country,
+and was busy preparing to start on the morrow at daybreak. At such a time
+as this it had not been wise to pitch tent within sound or sight of men
+with the killing lust upon them. Very reluctantly we rode on for another
+two hours and then Ain Umast, a douar that is famous for its possession of
+a well of pure water, received us with nightfall. There our troubles were
+over, for though the place was more than commonly dirty, the inhabitants
+were peaceable and disposed to be friendly. A few crops were raised on the
+surrounding fields, and small herds of sheep and goats managed to pick up
+some sort of a living on the surrounding lands, but poverty reigned there,
+and Ain Umast is of small account by the side of Sidi el Muktar, which is
+the burial-place of a saint, whose miracles are still acknowledged by all
+the faithful who happen to have met with good luck of any sort.
+
+[Illustration: A GOATHERD]
+
+Bread, butter, and eggs were brought for the muleteers, and I was
+greatly surprised by the cleanliness of the men. Before they broke an egg
+for the omelette they washed it with greatest care. They themselves stood
+far more in need of a washing than the eggs did, but perhaps they could
+not be expected to think of everything. Barley was bought, at half the
+price charged at Ain el Baidah, and I noticed that the cunning Susi hid
+some of it in the long bag they kept at the bottom of one of the
+_shwarris_. Clearly they intended to make the supply we paid for serve to
+take them all the way to Tiensiert. This was annoying, since one of the
+objects of ordering a good supply each night was to enable the
+long-suffering beasts to compass a better speed on the following day.
+
+That evening there was great excitement in the douar. The elders came
+round our fire after supper and sought to know if it were true that the
+"Sons of Lions" had blotted out Sidi el Muktar, and put all its
+inhabitants to the sword. When we declared that the little town was still
+where it had stood since they were born, they appeared distinctly
+surprised, and gave the praise and credit to the patron saint. They said
+the kaid's hand was a very heavy one, that his men went to the Wednesday
+market and were the terror of the country folks who came to buy and sell.
+The absence of the Court Elevated by Allah was to be deplored, for had my
+Lord Abd-el-Aziz been in residence at Marrakesh some other kaid would have
+made him a bid for the place of the ruler of Sidi el Muktar, basing his
+offer upon the fact that the present governor could not keep order. A
+change might have been for the better--it could hardly have been for the
+worse. One or two of the men of Ain Umast spoke Shilha, and the Susi men,
+hearing the cruelties of Sidi el Muktar's ruler discussed, claimed to have
+a far better specimen of the genus kaid in Tiensiert. He was a man indeed,
+ready with fire and sword at the shortest notice; his subjects called him
+Father of Locusts, so thoroughly did he deal with all things that could be
+eaten up.
+
+It was a curious but instructive attitude. These miserable men were quite
+proud to think that the tyranny of their kaid, the great El Arbi bel Hadj
+ben Haida, was not to be rivalled by anything Shiadma could show. They
+instanced his treatment of them and pointed to the young boy who was of
+their company. His father had been kaid in years past, but the late Grand
+Wazeer Ba Ahmad sold his office to El Arbi, who threw the man into prison
+and kept him there until he died. To show his might, El Arbi had sent the
+boy with them, that all men might know how the social scales of Tiensiert
+held the kaid on one side and the rest of the people on the other. The
+black slave who accompanied them had been brought up by the late kaid's
+father, and was devoted to the boy. In his mercy El Arbi allowed him to
+live with the lad and work a small farm, the harvest of which was strictly
+tithed by Tiensiert's chief--who took a full nine-tenths. Before the
+evening was over the elders of Ain Umast had acknowledged, rather
+regretfully I thought, that the tyrant of Sidi el Muktar must hide a
+diminished head before his brother of the Sus. The triumph of the grimy
+men from Tiensiert was then complete.
+
+They were a sorry set of fellows enough, to outward seeming, but how shall
+a European judge them fairly? Stevenson says in one of his Essays,
+"Justice is not done to the versatility and the unplumbed childishness of
+man's imagination. His life from without may seem but a rude mound of mud;
+there will be some golden chamber at the heart of it, in which he dwells
+delighted; and for as dark as his pathway seems to the observer, he will
+have some kind of bull's-eye at his belt." So, doubtless, had I had the
+eyes that see below the surface, these hardy traders, the best of whose
+hopes and actions were hidden from me, would have been no less interesting
+than the Maalem or the young shareef.
+
+In view of the disturbed state of the country I thought of having a few
+extra guards, but finding the two already engaged sleeping peacefully
+before our tent was closed, it seemed likely that a couple of sleeping men
+would be as useful as four. I fear they had a troubled night, for though
+the "Sons of Lions" did not trouble us, a short, sharp shower came with
+the small hours and woke the poor fellows, who asked for extra money in
+the morning by way of consolation for their broken rest. By five o'clock
+we were astir, and soon after we were on the road again, bound for the
+village of Hanchen, where a small Sok Thalata[49] is held. After a brief
+mid-day rest we reached the outskirts of the Argan Forest.
+
+This great forest is quite the distinctive feature of Southern Morocco.
+The argan tree, that gives a name to it, is the indigenous olive of the
+country, and is found only in the zone between the Tensift river and the
+river Sus. Argan wood is exceedingly hard and slow growing, thus differing
+materially from the olive, to which it seems so nearly related. The trunk
+divides low down, sometimes within six feet of the roots, and the branches
+grow horizontally. If the Moors are right, the age of the elders of the
+forest is to be counted in centuries, and the wood can defy the attacks of
+insects that make short-work of other trees. The leaves of the argan
+recall those of the olive, but have even a lighter silvery aspect on the
+underside; the fruit is like the olive, but considerably larger, and is
+sought after by many animals. Goats climb among the branches in search of
+the best nuts. Camels and cows will not pass an argan tree if given the
+slightest chance to linger. The animals that eat the nuts reject their
+kernels, and the Moors collect these in order to extract the oil, which is
+used in cooking, for lighting purposes, and as medicine. After extraction
+the pulp is eagerly accepted by cattle, so no part of the valued fruit is
+wasted. One of the giants of the forest, said to be four hundred years
+old, has before now given shade to a regiment of soldiers; I saw for
+myself that the circumference of its branches was more than two hundred
+feet.
+
+[Illustration: COMING FROM THE MOSQUE, HANCHEN]
+
+But it must not be thought that the Argan Forest is composed entirely of
+these trees. The argan dominates the forest but does not account for
+its beauty. The r'tam is almost as plentiful, and lends far more to the
+wood's colour scheme, for its light branches are stirred by every breeze.
+Dwarf-palm is to be found on all sides, together with the arar or citrus,
+and the double-thorned lotus. The juniper, wild pear, and cork trees are
+to be met with now and again, and the ground is for the most part a sea of
+flowers almost unknown to me, though I could recognise wild thyme,
+asphodel, and lavender amid the tamarisk and myrtle undergrowth. At
+intervals the forest opens, showing some large douar that was built
+probably on the site of a well, and there industrious village folks have
+reclaimed the land, raised crops, and planted orchards. Olive, fig, and
+pomegranate seem to be the most popular trees, and corn is grown in the
+orchards too, possibly in order that it may have the benefit of the trees'
+shade. The soil that can raise corn and fruit trees together must have
+exceptional vitality and richness, particularly in view of the fact that
+it is in no way fed, and is rather scraped or scratched than truly
+ploughed.
+
+The village of Hanchen, known for miles round as "Sok Thalata" by reason
+of its weekly gathering, might well serve to justify a halt. It straggles
+over a hill surrounded on all sides by the forest, it has a saint's shrine
+of fair size and imposing aspect, a good supply of water, and very
+peaceful inhabitants. At the base of the slope, some fifty yards from the
+broad track leading to the coast, there was an orchard of more than common
+beauty, even for Southern Morocco. The pomegranates, aflower above the
+ripening corn, had finer blossoms than any I had seen before, the
+fig-trees were Biblical in their glossy splendour. Mules were footsore,
+the Susi men were tired, the weather was perfect, time was our own for a
+day or two, and I was aching to take my gun down the long glades that
+seemed to stretch to the horizon. So we off-saddled, and pitched our tent
+in the shadow of a patriarchal fig-tree. Then the mules were eased of
+their burdens and fed liberally, Salam standing between the poor beasts
+and the muleteers, who would have impounded a portion of their hard-earned
+meal.
+
+The heat of the afternoon was passing; I loaded my gun and started out. At
+first sight of the weapon some score of lads from the village--athletic,
+vigorous boys, ready to go anywhere and do anything--made signs that they
+would come and beat for me. With Salam's help I gave them proper
+instructions; my idea was to shoot enough of fur and feather to give the
+muleteers a good supper.
+
+At the outset a sorry accident befell. A fat pigeon came sailing overhead,
+so well fed that it was hard to believe he was a pigeon at all. This being
+the sort of bird that suits hungry men, I fired and was well pleased to
+note the swift direct fall, and to hear the thud that tells of a clean
+kill. To my surprise the beaters remained where they were, none offering
+to pick up the bird. There were glum and serious looks on every side. I
+motioned one lad to go forward, and, to my amazement, he made the sign
+that is intended to avert the evil eye, and declared that he took refuge
+from me with Allah.
+
+I sent for Salam, and, as he approached, a chorus of explanations came to
+him from all sides. The pigeon came from the zowia of El Hanchen. It was
+sacred--that is why it was so fat. This was a bad beginning, and a matter
+that demanded careful handling. So I sent M'Barak, representing official
+Morocco, to express to El Hanchen's headman my extreme sorrow and sincere
+regret. The blessed one was instructed to assure the village that I had no
+suspicion of the bird's holiness, and that it was my rule in life to
+respect everything that other men respected. It seemed courteous to await
+the kaid's return before resuming operations, and he came back in half an
+hour with word that the headman, while deeply regretting the incident,
+recognised the absence of bad intention. He asked that the sacred slain
+might not be eaten. I sent back word thanking him for his courteous
+acceptance of my explanations, and promising that the fat pigeon should
+receive decent burial. A small hole was dug on the sunny side of the
+fig-tree, and there the sacred bird was interred. I hope that the worms
+proved as particular as we had been.
+
+Duty done, we went off to the woods, the beaters, now quite reassured,
+driving stock-doves over in quantities that left no reason to fear about
+the muleteers' supper. While birds were the quarry the lads worked well,
+but now and again a hare would start from her form, and every boy would
+join in the headlong, hopeless chase that ensued. It was impossible to
+check them, and equally impossible to shoot at the hare. While she was
+within gunshot the lads were close on her heels, and by the time she had
+distanced them or dashed into the long grasses and scrub she was out of
+range or out of sight. In vain I waved them back and complained when they
+returned panting; as soon as another hare got up they went after her in
+the same way, until at last, taking advantage of a wild chase that had
+carried them rather a longer distance than usual, I took a sharp turn and
+strolled away quite by myself. I heard the excited cries die away in the
+distance, and then for some few moments the forest silence was broken only
+by the rustle of the breeze through the grass, and the sudden scream of a
+startled jay. Doves went happily from tree to tree and I never put my gun
+up. I had heard a very familiar sound, and wanted to be assured that my
+ears were not deceived. No, I was right; I could hear the cuckoo, calling
+through the depth of the forest, as though it were my favourite Essex
+copse at home. It was pleasant, indeed, to hear the homely notes so far
+from any other object, even remotely, connected with England.
+
+I strolled for an hour or more, listening to the "wandering voice,"
+heedless of what passed me by, at peace with all the world, and resolved
+to shoot no more. Alas, for good intentions! Coming suddenly into a great
+clearing girdled by argan trees, I flushed two large birds some forty
+yards away. The first was missed, the second came down and proved to be a
+Lesser Bustard or _boozerat_--quite a prize. Well content, I emptied the
+gun to avoid temptation and walked back to the camp, where there was
+quite a fair bag.
+
+"Tell the muleteers, Salam," I said, "that they may have these birds for
+their supper, and that I hope they will enjoy themselves."
+
+Salam wore a rather troubled expression, I thought, as he went to the head
+muleteer and pointed to the spoils. Then he came back and explained to me
+that their dietary laws did not allow the Susi to eat anything that had
+not been killed by bleeding in the orthodox fashion. Had they been with
+me, to turn wounded birds to the East and cut their throats in the name of
+Allah, all would have been well, but birds shot dead were an abomination
+to the righteous Susi. They scorned to avail themselves of the excuse
+afforded by their needs.[50] So my labour had been in vain, and I did not
+know what to do with the spoil. But I left the slain in a little heap out
+of the way of insects and flies, and when we rose in the morning the
+unorthodox among Hanchen's inhabitants had apparently solved the problem.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[48] The Camel's Jaw.
+
+[49] "Tuesday market."
+
+[50] "I find not in that which hath been revealed to me anything forbidden
+unto the eater ... except it be that which dieth of itself ... or that
+which is profane, having been slain in the name of some other than God.
+But whoso shall be compelled of necessity to eat these things, not lusting
+nor wilfully transgressing, verily thy Lord will be gracious unto him and
+merciful."--Al Koran, Sura, "Cattle."
+
+
+
+
+IN THE ARGAN FOREST
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: EVENING AT HANCHEN]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+IN THE ARGAN FOREST
+
+    Life, even at its greatest and best, may be compared to a froward
+    child, who must be humoured and played with till he falls asleep, and
+    then the care is over.
+
+    --_Goldsmith._
+
+
+Early morning found the Tuesday market in full swing, and the town of
+Hanchen already astir in honour of the occasion. To realise the importance
+of the weekly gathering, it is well to remember that a market in the
+country here is the only substitute for the bazaar of the towns. Every
+douar within a ten-mile radius of Hanchen sends men and women to the
+Tuesday market to buy and sell. So it befell that the hillside slope,
+which was bare on the previous afternoon, hummed now like a hive, and was
+well nigh as crowded. Rough tents of goats' or camels'-hair cloth
+sheltered everything likely to appeal to the native mind and
+resources,--tea, sugar, woollen and cotton goods, pottery, sieves,
+padlocks, and nails being to all appearance the goods most sought after by
+the country Moor. Quite a brisk demand for candles prevailed; they were
+highly-coloured things, thick at the base and tapering to the wick. There
+was a good sale too for native butter, that needed careful straining
+before it could be eaten with comfort, and there were eggs in plenty,
+fetching from twopence to threepence the dozen, a high price for Morocco,
+and brought about by the export trade that has developed so rapidly in the
+last few years. For the most part the traders seemed to be Berbers or of
+evident Berber extraction, being darker and smaller than the Arabs, and in
+some cases wearing the dark woollen outer garment, with its distinctive
+orange-coloured mark on the back. Women and little children took no small
+part in the market, but were perhaps most concerned with the sale of the
+chickens that they brought from their homes, tied by the legs in bundles
+without regard to the suffering entailed. The women did rather more than a
+fair share of porters' work too. Very few camels were to be seen, but I
+noticed one group of half a dozen being carefully fed on a cloth, because,
+like all their supercilious breed, they were too dainty to eat from the
+ground. They gurgled quite angrily over the question of precedence. A
+little way from the tents in which hardware was exposed for sale, bread
+was being baked in covered pans over a charcoal fire fanned by bellows,
+while at the bottom of the hill a butcher had put up the rough tripod of
+wooden poles, from which meat is suspended. The slaughter of sheep was
+proceeding briskly. A very old Moor was the official slaughter-man, and he
+sat in the shade of a wall, a bloody knife in hand, and conversed gravely
+with villagers of his own age. When the butcher's assistants had brought
+up three or four fresh sheep and stretched them on the ground, the old man
+would rise to his feet with considerable effort, cut the throats that
+were waiting for him very cleanly and expeditiously, and return to his
+place in the shade, while another assistant spread clean earth over the
+reeking ground. Some of the sheep after being dressed were barbecued.
+
+I saw many women and girls bent under the weight of baskets of charcoal,
+or firewood, or loads of hay, and some late arrivals coming in heavily
+burdened in this fashion were accompanied by their husband, who rode at
+ease on a donkey and abused them roundly because they did not go quickly
+enough. Mules and donkeys, with fore and hind leg hobbled, were left in
+one corner of the market-place, to make up in rest what they lacked in
+food. Needless to say that the marketing was very brisk, but I noted with
+some interest that very little money changed hands. Barter was more common
+than sale, partly because the Government had degraded its own currency
+until the natives were fighting shy of it, and partly because the owners
+of the sheep and goats were a company of true Bedouins from the extreme
+South. These Bedouins were the most interesting visitors to the Tuesday
+market, and I was delighted when one of them recognised Salam as a friend.
+The two had met in the days when an adventurous Scot set up in business at
+Cape Juby in the extreme South, where I believe his Majesty Lebaudy the
+First is now king.
+
+The Saharowi was an exceedingly thin man, of wild aspect, with flowing
+hair and scanty beard. His skin was burnt deep brown, and he was dressed
+in a blue cotton garment of guinea cloth made in simplest fashion. He was
+the chief of a little party that had been travelling for two months with
+faces set toward the North. He reminded Salam of Sidi[51] Mackenzie, the
+Scot who ruled Cape Juby, and how the great manager, whose name was known
+from the fort to Tindouf, had nearly poisoned him by giving him bread to
+eat when he was faint with hunger. These true Bedouins live on milk and
+cheese, with an occasional piece of camel or goat flesh, and a rare taste
+of mutton. When Salam's friend came starving to Cape Juby, Sidi Mackenzie
+had given him bread. The hungry man ate some and at once became violently
+ill, his stomach could not endure such solid fare. Having no milk in the
+fort, they managed to keep him alive on rice-water. It would appear that
+the Saharowi can easily live on milk for a week, and with milk and cheese
+can thrive indefinitely, as indeed could most other folk, if they cared to
+forswear luxury and try.
+
+[Illustration: ON THE ROAD TO ARGAN FOREST]
+
+The little party was travelling with some hundreds of sheep and goats,
+which were being tended a little way off by the children, and, large
+though their flocks seemed, they were in truth sadly reduced by the
+drought that had driven one and all to the North. The Saharowi explained
+to Salam that all the wandering Arabs were trekking northwards in search
+of land that had seen the rain; and that their path was strewn with the
+skeletons of animals fallen by the way. These nomads carried their wives
+and little ones, together with tents and household impedimenta, on the
+camels, and walked on foot with the grown children in charge of the
+flocks. The sheep they had sold to the butcher were in fair condition, and
+fetched from four to five shillings in English money, or the equivalent of
+this sum in goods, for when a Saharowi approaches civilised lands he is
+generally in need of some of the products of civilisation, or thinks he
+is, though, at need, he manages excellently well without them.
+
+Among the miscellaneous gathering that the Tuesday market had attracted to
+Hanchen I noticed a small company of acrobats from the Sus, and a medicine
+man of fierce aspect, who sat by himself under a rough tent, muttering
+charms and incantations, and waiting for Allah to send victims. This
+wonder-worker had piercing eyes, that seemed to examine the back of your
+head, long matted hair and a beard to match. He wore a white djellaba and
+a pair of new slippers, and was probably more dangerous than any disease
+he aided and abetted.
+
+For the amusement of the people who did not care for acrobatic feats and
+stood in no need of the primitive methods of the physician, there was a
+story-teller, who addressed a somewhat attenuated circle of phlegmatic
+listeners, and a snake-charmer who was surrounded by children. Sidi ben
+Aissa undoubtedly kept the snakes--spotted leffas from the Sus--from
+hurting his follower, but not even the saint could draw _floos_ from poor
+youngsters whose total wealth would probably have failed to yield
+threepence to the strictest investigator. Happily for them the charmer was
+an artist in his way; he loved his work for its own sake, and abated no
+part of his performance, although the reward would hardly buy him and his
+assistant a meal of mutton and bread at their labour's end. The boys of
+Hanchen were doing brisk business in the brass cases of cartridges that
+had been fired on the previous day, and without a doubt the story of the
+wonders of a repeating gun lost nothing in the telling.
+
+[Illustration: THE SNAKE-CHARMER]
+
+There was no interval for rest when the hours of greatest heat came round.
+Late arrivals who travelled in on mule- or donkey-back renewed business
+when it slackened, and brought fresh goods to be sold or exchanged. The
+"Sons of Lions" had broken up the market at Sidi el Muktar on the previous
+Friday before it was properly concluded, and many natives, disappointed
+there, had come out to Hanchen to do their business, until there seemed to
+be nothing in any stall that lacked buyers. Even the old man who had a
+heap of scrap-iron when the market opened had sold every piece of it by
+four o'clock, though it would have puzzled a European to find any use for
+such rubbish. The itinerant mender of slippers was hard at work with three
+young lads, and I never saw any one of the party idle. Hawks and corbies
+fluttered over the butcher's ground, and I noticed a vulture in the deep
+vault of the sky. Pariah dogs would clear every bit of refuse from the
+ground before another day dawned, and in their nasty fashion would serve
+their country, for the weather was very hot and the odours were
+overpowering. Flies covered all unprotected meat until it ceased to look
+red, and the stall of the seller of sweetmeats was a study in black and
+white: black when the swarms settled, and white for a brief moment when he
+switched them off with his feathery bamboo brush. Yet, in spite of the
+many difficulties under which trade was carried on, one could not help
+feeling that buyers and sellers alike were enjoying themselves hugely. The
+market did more than help them to make a living. It was at once their
+club, their newspaper, and their theatre, and supplied the one recreation
+of lives that--perhaps only to European seeming--were tedious as a
+twice-told tale.
+
+Here the village folk were able to keep themselves posted in the country's
+contemporary history, for traders had come from all points of the compass,
+and had met men at other markets who, in their turn, brought news from
+places still more remote. Consequently you might learn in Hanchen's
+Tuesday market what the Sultan was doing in Fez, and how the Rogui was
+occupied in Er-Riff. French penetration in the far-off districts of no
+man's land beyond Tafilalt was well-known to these travelling market-folk;
+the Saharowi had spoken with the heads of a caravan that had come with
+slaves from Ghadames, by way of the Tuat, bound for Marrakesh. Resting by
+day and travelling by night, they had passed without challenge through the
+French lines. A visitor knowing Arabic and Shilha, and able to discount
+the stories properly, might have had a faithful picture of Morocco as its
+own people see it, had he been admitted to join the weather-worn, hardy
+traders who sat complacently eyeing their diminished store towards the
+close of day. Truth is nowhere highly esteemed in Morocco,[52] and the
+colouring superimposed upon most stories must have destroyed their
+original hue, but it served to please the Moors and Berbers who, like the
+men of other countries one knows, have small use for unadorned facts.
+Perhaps the troubles that were reported from every side of the doomed
+country accounted for the professional story-teller's thin audience. By
+the side of tales that had some connection with fact the salt of his
+legends lost its savour.
+
+[Illustration: IN CAMP]
+
+Towards evening the crowd melted away silently, as it had come. A few
+mules passed along the road to Mogador, the Bedouin and his company moved
+off in the direction of Saffi, and the greater part of the traders turned
+south-east to M'touga, where there was a Thursday market that could be
+reached in comfort. Hanchen retired within its boundaries, rich in the
+proceeds of the sale of fodder, which had been in great demand throughout
+the day. Small companies of boys roamed over the market-place, seeking to
+snap up any trifles that had been left behind, just as English boys will
+at the Crystal Palace or Alexandra Park, after a firework display. The
+Moorish youngsters had even less luck than their English brethren, for in
+Morocco, where life is simple and men need and have little, everything has
+its use, and a native throws nothing away. The dogs, eager to forestall
+the vultures, were still fighting among themselves for the offal left
+by the butcher, when the villagers, who had come to take a late cup of tea
+with Salam and M'Barak, resumed their slippers, testified to the Unity of
+Allah, and turned to ascend Hanchen's steep hill.
+
+Among the stories circulated in the Tuesday market was one to the effect
+that a lion had come down from the Atlas, and after taking toll of the
+cattle belonging to the douars on its road, had been shot at the western
+end of the forest. This tale was told with so much circumstance that it
+seemed worth inquiry, and I found in Mogador that a great beast had indeed
+come from the hills and wrought considerable harm; but it was a leopard,
+not a lion. It may be doubted whether lions are to be found anywhere north
+of the Atlas to-day, though they were common enough in times past, and one
+is said to have been shot close to Tangier in the middle of last century.
+If they still exist it is in the farthest Atlas range, in the country of
+the Beni M'gild, a district that cannot be approached from the west at
+all, and in far lands beyond, that have been placed under observation
+lately by the advance-columns of the French Algerian army, which does not
+suffer from scruples where its neighbour's landmarks are concerned. Most
+of the old writers gave the title of lion or tiger to leopards, panthers,
+and lemurs; indeed, the error flourishes to-day.
+
+[Illustration: A COUNTRYMAN]
+
+On the road once again, I found myself wondering at the way in which
+British sportsmen have neglected the Argan Forest. If they had to reach it
+as we did, after long days and nights in a country that affords little
+attraction for sportsmen, it would be no matter for wonder that they stay
+away. But the outskirts of the forest can be reached from Mogador at the
+expense of a five-mile ride across the miniature Sahara that cuts off Sidi
+M'godol's city from the fertile lands, and Mogador has a weekly service of
+steamers coming direct from London by way of the other Moorish ports. No
+part of the forest is preserved, gun licenses are unknown, and the woods
+teem with game. Stories about the ouadad or moufflon may be disregarded,
+for this animal is only found in the passes of the Atlas Mountains, miles
+beyond the forest's boundaries. But, on the other hand, the wild boar is
+plentiful, while lynx, porcupine, hy�na, jackal, and hare are by no means
+rare. Sand-grouse and partridge thrive in large quantities. There are
+parts of the forest that recall the Highlands of Scotland, though the
+vegetation is richer than any that Scotland can show, and in these places,
+unknown save to a very few, the streams are full of trout, and the otter
+may be hunted along the banks. The small quantity and poor quality of
+native guns may be held to account for the continual presence of birds and
+beasts in a part of the world that may not fairly be deemed remote, and
+where, save in times of stress, a sportsman who will treat the natives
+with courtesy and consideration may be sure of a hearty welcome and all
+the assistance he deserves. Withal, no man who has once enjoyed a few days
+in the Argan Forest can sincerely regret Europe's neglect of it: human
+nature is not unselfish enough for that.
+
+The ride through the last part of the forest was uneventful. Argan,
+kharob, and lotus, with the help of a few of the "arar" or gum sandarac
+trees, shut off the view to the right and left. Below them dwarf-palm,
+aloe, cactus, and sweet broom made a dense undergrowth, and where the
+woodland opened suddenly the ground was aflame with flowers that recalled
+England as clearly as the cuckoo's note. Pimpernel, convolvulus,
+mignonette, marigold, and pansy were English enough, and in addition to
+these the ox-daisies of our meadows were almost as common here. Many
+companies of the true Bedouins passed us on the road, heralded by great
+flocks of sheep and goats, the sheep pausing to eat the tops of the
+dwarf-palms, the goats to climb the low-lying argan trees, while their
+owners stayed to ask about the water supply and the state of the country
+beyond.
+
+Though we might consider ourselves far removed from civilisation, these
+Bedouins felt that they were all too near it. The change from their desert
+land, with its few and far-scattered oases, to this country where there
+was a douar at the end of every day's journey, was like a change from the
+country to the town. They could not view without concern a part of the
+world in which men wore several garments, ate bread and vegetables, and
+slept under cover in a walled village, and one wild fellow, who carried a
+very old flint-lock musket, lamented the drought that had forced them from
+their homes to a place so full of men. So far as I was able to observe the
+matter, the Berber muleteers of El Arbi bel Hadj ben Haidah looked with
+great scorn upon these Bedouins, and their contempt was reciprocated. In
+the eyes of the Berbers these men were outcasts and "eaters of sand," and
+in the eyes of the Bedouins the muleteers were puling, town-bred slaves,
+who dared not say their right hands were their own.
+
+Perhaps the difficulty in the way of a proper understanding was largely
+physical. The Berbers believe they came to Morocco from Canaan, forced out
+of Palestine by the movement of the Jews under Joshua. They settled in the
+mountains of the "Far West," and have never been absorbed or driven out by
+their Arab conquerors. Strong, sturdy, temperate men, devoid of
+imagination, and of the impulse to create or develop an artistic side to
+their lives, they can have nothing in common with the slenderly built,
+far-seeing Arab of the plains, who dreams dreams and sees visions all the
+days of his life. Between Salam and the Bedouins, on the other hand, good
+feeling came naturally. The poor travellers, whose worldly wealth was ever
+in their sight--a camel or two, a tent with scanty furniture, and a few
+goats and sheep--had all the unexplored places of the world to wander in,
+and all the heavens for their canopy. That is the life the Arabs love, and
+it had tempted Salam many hundreds of miles from his native place, the
+sacred city of Sheshawan, on the border of Er-Riff. The wandering instinct
+is never very far from any of us who have once passed east of Suez, and
+learned that the highest end and aim of life is not to live in a town,
+however large and ugly, and suffer without complaining the inevitable
+visits of the tax collector.
+
+Our tent was set for the night in a valley that we reached by a path
+half-buried in undergrowth and known only to the head muleteer. It was a
+spot far removed from the beaten tracks of the travellers. In times past a
+great southern kaid had set his summer-house there: its skeleton, changed
+from grey to pink in the rosy light of sun-setting, stood before us, just
+across a tiny stream fringed by rushes, willows, and oleanders. When the
+Court Elevated by Allah left Marrakesh for the north some years ago, the
+sorely-tried natives had risen against their master, they had captured and
+plundered his house, and he had been fortunate in getting away with a
+whole skin. Thereafter the tribesmen had fought among themselves for the
+spoils of war, the division of the china and cutlery accounting for
+several deaths. All the land round our little camp had been a garden, a
+place famous for roses and jessamine, verbena and the geraniums that grow
+in bushes, together with countless other flowers, that make the garden of
+Sunset Land suggest to Moors the beauties of the paradise that is to come.
+Now the flowers that had been so carefully tended ran wild, the boar
+rooted among them, and the porcupine made a home in their shade. As
+evening closed in, the wreck of the great house became vague and shadowy,
+a thing without outline, the wraith of the home that had been. Grey owls
+and spectral bats sailed or fluttered from the walls. They might have been
+past owners or servitors who had suffered metamorphosis. The sight set me
+thinking of the mutual suspicions of the Bedouins and the Susi traders,
+the raiding of Sidi el Muktar, the other signs of tribal fighting that had
+been apparent on the road, the persecution of the Moor by his protected
+fellow-subjects,--in short, the whole failure of the administration to
+which the ruin that stood before me seemed to give fitting expression.
+This house had not stood, and, after all, I thought Morocco was but a
+house divided against itself.
+
+[Illustration: MOONLIGHT]
+
+In the face of all the difficulties and dangers that beset the state, the
+Sultan's subjects are concerned only with their own private animosities.
+Berber cannot unite with Moor, village still wars against village, each
+province is as a separate kingdom, so far as the adjacent province is
+concerned. As of old, the kaids are concerned only with filling their
+pockets; the villagers, when not fighting, are equally engrossed in saving
+some small portion of their earnings and taking advantage of the inability
+of the central Government to collect taxes. They all know that the land is
+in confusion, that the Europeans at the Court are intriguing against its
+independence. In camp and market-place men spread the news of the French
+advance from the East. Yet if the forces of the country could be
+organised,--if every official would but respond to the needs of the
+Government and the people unite under their masters,--Morocco might still
+hold Europe at bay, to the extent at least of making its subjection too
+costly and difficult a task for any European Government to undertake.
+If Morocco could but find its Abd el Kadr, the day of its partition
+might even yet be postponed indefinitely. But next year, or the next--who
+shall say?
+
+My journey was well nigh over. I had leisure now to recall all seen and
+heard in the past few weeks and contrast it with the mental notes I had
+made on the occasion of previous visits. And the truth was forced upon me
+that Morocco was nearer the brink of dissolution than it had ever
+been--that instability was the dominant note of social and political life.
+I recalled my glimpses of the Arabs who live in Algeria and Tunisia, and
+even Egypt under European rule, and thought of the servility and
+dependence of the lower classes and the gross, unintelligent lives of the
+rest. Morocco alone had held out against Europe, aided, to be sure, by the
+accident of her position at the corner of the Mediterranean where no one
+European Power could permit another to secure permanent foothold. And with
+the change, all the picturesque quality of life would go from the Moghreb,
+and the kingdom founded by Mulai Idrees a thousand years ago would become
+as vulgar as Algeria itself.
+
+There is something very solemn about the passing of a great kingdom--and
+Morocco has been renowned throughout Europe. It has preserved for us the
+essence of the life recorded in the Pentateuch; it has lived in the light
+of its own faith and enforced respect for its prejudices upon one and all.
+In days when men overrun every square mile of territory in the sacred name
+of progress, and the company promoter in London, Paris, or Berlin
+acquires wealth he cannot estimate by juggling with mineralised land he
+has never seen, Morocco has remained intact, and though her soil teems
+with evidences of mineral wealth, no man dares disturb it. There is
+something very fascinating about this defiance of all that the great
+Powers of the world hold most dear.
+
+One could not help remembering, too, the charm and courtesy, the simple
+faith and chivalrous life, of the many who would be swallowed up in the
+relentless maw of European progress, deliberately degraded, turned
+literally or morally into hewers of wood and drawers of
+water--misunderstood, made miserable and discontented. And to serve what
+end? Only that the political and financial ambitions of a restless
+generation might be gratified--that none might be able to say, "A weak
+race has been allowed to follow its path in peace."
+
+Salam disturbed my meditations.
+
+"Everything shut up, sir," he said. "I think you have forgot: to-morrow we
+go early to hunt the wild boar, sir."
+
+So I left Morocco to look after its own business and turned in.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[51] Sidi is a Moorish title, and means "my Lord."
+
+[52] It is related of one Sultan that when a "Bashador" remonstrated with
+him for not fulfilling a contract, he replied, "Am I then a Nazarene, that
+I should be bound by my word?"
+
+
+
+
+TO THE GATE OF THE PICTURE CITY
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: A MOORISH GIRL]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+TO THE GATE OF THE PICTURE CITY
+
+    Is it Pan's breath, fierce in the tremulous maiden-hair,
+      That bids fear creep as a snake through the woodlands, felt
+    In the leaves that it stirs not yet, in the mute bright air,
+      In the stress of the sun?
+
+    _A Nympholept._
+
+
+By the time the little camp was astir and the charcoal fires had done
+their duty to eggs, coffee, and porridge, Pepe Ratto, accompanied by two
+of his Berber trackers, rode into the valley, and dismounted on the level
+ground where our tent was pitched. At first sight the sportsman stood
+revealed in our welcome visitor. The man whose name will be handed down to
+future generations in the annals of Morocco's sport would attract
+attention anywhere. Tall, straight, sunburnt, grizzled, with keen grey
+eyes and an alert expression, suggesting the easy and instantaneous change
+from thought to action, Pepe Ratto is in every inch of him a sportsman.
+Knowing South Morocco as few Europeans know it, and having an acquaintance
+with the forest that is scarcely exceeded by either Moor or Berber, he
+gives as much of his life as he can spare to the pursuit of the boar, and
+he had ridden out with his hunters this morning from his forest home, the
+Palm Tree House, to meet us before we left the Argans behind, so that we
+might turn awhile on the track of a "solitaire" tusker.
+
+So the mules were left to enjoy an unexpected rest while their owners
+enjoyed an uninterrupted breakfast, and the kaid was given ample time in
+which to groom his horse and prepare it and himself for sufficiently
+imposing entrance into the Picture City[53] that evening. Salam was
+instructed to pack tents and boxes at his leisure, before he took one of
+my sporting guns and went to pursue fur and feather in parts of the forest
+immediately adjacent to the camp. A straight shot and a keen sportsman, I
+knew that Salam would not bother about the hares that might cross his
+path, or birds that rose in sudden flight away from it. His is the Moorish
+method of shooting, and he is wont to stalk his quarry and fire before it
+rises. I protested once that this procedure was unsportsmanlike.
+
+"Yes, sir," he replied simply. "If I wait for bird to fly may be I miss
+him, an' waste cartridge."
+
+[Illustration: A NARROW STREET IN MOGADOR]
+
+This argument was, of course, unanswerable. He would follow birds slowly
+and deliberately, taking advantage of wind and cover, patient in pursuit
+and deadly in aim. Our points of view were different. I shot for sport,
+and he, and all Moors, for the bag. In this I felt he was my superior.
+But, barring storks, all creatures were game that came within Salam's
+range.
+
+No Moor will harm a stork. Even Moorish children, whose taste for
+destruction and slaughter is as highly developed as any European's, will
+pick up a young stork that has fallen from its nest and return it to the
+mother bird if they can. Storks sit at peace among the women of the hareem
+who come for their afternoon airing to the flat roof-tops of Moorish
+houses. Moorish lovers in the streets below tell the story of their hopes
+and fears to the favoured bird, who, when he is chattering with his
+mandibles, is doing what he can to convey the message. Every True Believer
+knows that the stork was once a Sultan, or a Grand Wazeer at least, who,
+being vain and irreligious, laughed in the beards of the old men of his
+city on a sacred day when they came to pay their respects to him. By so
+doing he roused the wrath of Allah, who changed him suddenly to his
+present form. But in spite of misdeeds, the Moors love the stately bird,
+and there are hospitals for storks in Fez and Marrakesh, where men whose
+sanctity surpasses their ignorance are paid to minister to the wants of
+the sick or injured among them. Many a time Salam, in pursuit of birds,
+has passed within a few-yards of the father of the red legs or his
+children, but it has never occurred to him to do them harm. Strange fact,
+but undeniable, that in great cities of the East, where Muslims and
+Christians dwell, the storks will go to the quarter occupied by True
+Believers, and leave the other districts severely alone. I have been
+assured by Moors that the first of these birds having been a Muslim, the
+storks recognise the True Faith, and wish to testify to their preference
+for it. It is hard to persuade a Moor to catch a stork or take an egg from
+the nest, though in pursuit of other birds and beasts he is a stranger to
+compunction in any form.
+
+One of the trackers gave me his horse, and Pepe Ratto led the way down the
+stream for a short distance and then into thick scrub that seemed to be
+part of wild life's natural sanctuary, so quiet it lay, so dense and
+undisturbed. After the first five minutes I was conscious of the forest in
+an aspect hitherto unknown to me; I was aware that only a man who knew the
+place intimately could venture to make a path through untrodden growths
+that were left in peace from year to year. It was no haphazard way, though
+bushes required careful watching, the double-thorned lotus being too
+common for comfort.
+
+[Illustration: A NIGHT SCENE, MOGADOR]
+
+My companion's eye, trained to the observation of the woodlands in every
+aspect, noted the stories told by the bushes, the gravel, and the sand
+with a rapidity that was amazing. Twenty-five years of tireless hunting
+have given Pepe Ratto an instinct that seems to supplement the ordinary
+human gifts of sight and hearing. Our forefathers, who hunted for their
+living, must have had this gift so developed, and while lying dormant in
+Europeans, whose range of sports is compassed by the life of cities and
+limited game preserves, it persists among the men who devote the best
+years of their life to pitting their intelligence against that of the
+brute creation. The odds are of course very much in favour of the human
+being, but we may not realise readily the extreme cunning of hunted
+animals. The keen sportsman, who rode by my side pointing out the track of
+boar or porcupine, showing where animals had been feeding, and judging how
+recently they had passed by difference in the marks too faint for my eyes
+to see, confessed that he had spent months on the track of a single
+animal, baffled over and over again, but getting back to his quarry
+because he had with him the mark of the feet as copied when he tracked it
+for the first time.
+
+"No boar has four feet absolutely identical with those of another boar,"
+he said, "so when once you have the prints the animal must leave the
+forest altogether and get off to the Atlas, or you will find him in the
+end. He may double repeatedly on his own tracks, he may join a herd and
+travel with them for days into the thick scrub, where the dogs are badly
+torn in following him, but he can never get away, and the hunter following
+his tracks learns to realise in the frenzied changes and manoeuvres of the
+beast pursued, its consciousness of his pursuit." In these matters the
+trained and confirmed hunter's heart grows cold as the physiologist's,
+while his senses wax more and more acute, and near to the level of those
+of his prey.
+
+That is but a small part of the hunter's lore. As his eyes and ears
+develop a power beyond the reach of dwellers of cities with stunted sight
+and spoiled hearing, he grows conscious of the great forest laws that rule
+the life of birds and beasts--laws yet unwritten in any language. He
+finds all living things pursuing their destiny by the light of customs
+that appeal as strongly to them as ours to us, and learns to know that the
+order and dignity of the lower forms of life are not less remarkable in
+their way than the phenomena associated with our own.
+
+To me, the whirring of a covey of sand-grouse or partridges could express
+little more than the swift passage of birds to a place of security. To the
+man who grew almost as a part of the forest, the movement was something
+well defined, clearly initiated, and the first step in a sequence that he
+could trace without hesitation. One part of the forest might be the same
+as another to the casual rider, or might at best vary in its purely
+picturesque quality. To the long trained eye, on the other hand, it was a
+place that would or would not be the haunt of certain beasts or birds at
+certain hours of the day, by reason of its aspect with regard to the sun,
+its soil, cover, proximity to the river or other source of water supply,
+its freedom from certain winds and accessibility to others, its distance
+from any of the tracks that led to the country beyond the forest and were
+frequented at certain seasons of the year. The trained hunter reads all
+this as in a book, but the most of us can do no more than recognise the
+writing when it has been pointed out to us.
+
+[Illustration: HOUSE-TOPS, MOGADOR]
+
+So it happened that my morning ride with the hardy hunter, whose
+achievements bulk next to those of the late Sir John Drummond Hay in the
+history of Moorish sport, had an interest that did not depend altogether
+upon the wild forest paths through which he led the way. He told me how
+at daybreak the pack of cross-bred hounds came from garden, copse, and
+woodland, racing to the steps of the Palm Tree House, and giving tongue
+lustily, as though they knew there was sport afoot. One or two grizzled
+huntsmen who had followed every track in the Argan Forest were waiting in
+the patio for his final instructions, and he told them of hoof prints that
+had revealed to his practised eye a "solitaire" boar of more than ordinary
+size. He had tracked it for more than three hours on the previous day,
+past the valley where our tents were set, and knew now where the lair was
+chosen.
+
+"He has been lying under an argan tree, one standing well away from the
+rest at a point where the stream turns sharply, about a mile from the old
+kasbah in the wood, and he has moved now to make a new lair. I have made a
+note of his feet in my book; he had been wallowing less than twenty-four
+hours before when I found him. To-morrow, when we hunt the beast I hope to
+track to-day, the pack will follow in charge of the huntsmen. They will be
+taken through the wood all the way, for it is necessary to avoid villages
+and cattle pasture when you have more than a score of savage dogs that
+have not been fed since three o'clock on the previous afternoon. They are
+by no means averse from helping themselves to a sheep or a goat at such
+times."
+
+We had ridden in single file through a part where the lotus, now a tree
+instead of a bush, snatched at us on either side, and the air was
+fragrant with broom, syringa, and lavender. Behind us the path closed and
+was hidden; before us it was too thick to see more than a few yards ahead.
+Here and there some bird would scold and slip away, with a flutter of
+feathers and a quiver of the leaves through which it fled; while ever
+present, though never in sight, the cuckoo followed us the whole day long.
+Suddenly and abruptly the path ended by the side of a stream where great
+oleanders spread their scarlet blossoms to the light, and kingfishers
+darted across the pools that had held tiny fish in waters left by the
+rainy season. When we pushed our horses to the brink the bushes on either
+hand showered down their blossoms as though to greet the first visitors to
+the rivulet's bank. Involuntarily we drew rein by the water's edge,
+acknowledging the splendour of the scene with a tribute of silence. If you
+have been in the Western Highlands of Scotland, and along the Levantine
+Riviera, and can imagine a combination of the most fascinating aspects of
+both districts, you have but to add to them the charm of silence and
+complete seclusion, the sense of virgin soil, and the joy of a perfect day
+in early summer, and then some faint picture of the scene may present
+itself. It remains with me always, and the mere mention of the Argan
+Forest brings it back.
+
+Pepe Ratto soon recovered himself.
+
+[Illustration: SELLING GRAIN IN MOGADOR]
+
+"Yes," he said, in reply to my unspoken thoughts, "one seldom sees country
+like this anywhere else. But the boar went this way."
+
+So saying, the hunter uppermost again, he wheeled round, and we
+followed the stream quite slowly while he looked on either hand for signs
+of the large tusker. "We must find where he has settled," he continued.
+"Now the weather is getting so warm he will move to some place that is
+sandy and moist, within reach of the puddles he has chosen to wallow in.
+And he won't go far from this part, because the maize is not yet ripe."
+
+"Do they grow maize in this province?" I asked.
+
+"Yes," replied the hunter. "I give the farmers the seed and they plant it,
+for a boar is as fond of green maize as a fox is of chickens." He paused
+and showed me the marks of a herd that had come to the water within the
+past two days to drink and wallow. While I could see the marks of many
+feet, he could tell me all about the herd, the approximate numbers, the
+ages, and the direction they were taking. Several times we dismounted, and
+he examined the banks very carefully until, at the fourth or fifth
+attempt, tracks that were certainly larger than any we had seen revealed
+the long-sought tusker.
+
+We went through the wood, the hunter bending over a trail lying too faint
+on the green carpet of the forest for me to follow. We moved over
+difficult ground, often under the blaze of the African sun, and, intent
+upon the pursuit, noted neither the heat nor the flight of time. For some
+two miles of the dense scrub, the boar had gone steadily enough until the
+ground opened into a clearing, where the soil was sandy and vegetation
+correspondingly light. Here at last the track moved in a circle.
+
+"See," said the hunter, a suspicion of enthusiasm in his tone, "he has
+been circling; that means he is looking for a lair. Stay here, if you
+will, with the horses while I follow him home." And in a minute he was out
+of sight.
+
+I waited patiently enough for what seemed a long time, trying to catch the
+undersong that thrilled through the forest, "the horns of elf-land faintly
+blowing," the hum such as bees at home make when late May sees the
+chestnut trees in flower. Here the song was a veritable psalm of life, in
+which every tree, bird, bush, and insect had its own part to play. It
+might have been a primeval forest; even the horses were grazing quietly,
+as though their spirits had succumbed to the solemn influences around us.
+The great god Pan himself could not have been far away, and I felt that he
+might have shown himself--that it was fitting indeed for him to appear in
+such a place and at such a season.
+
+The hunter came back silently as he had gone.
+
+[Illustration: SELLING ORANGES]
+
+"All's well," he said as he remounted; "he is a fine fellow, and has his
+lair most comfortably placed. And you should have come with me, but your
+creaking English gaiters would have disturbed him, while my soft native
+ones let me go within thirty or forty yards of his new home in safety." My
+companion was wearing the Moorish gaiters of the sort his trackers
+used--things made of palmetto. When they follow on foot the trackers
+wear leather aprons too, in order to deaden the sound made by their
+passage through the resisting undergrowth.
+
+Then we rode back by another route, down paths that only an Arab horse
+could have hoped to negotiate, through densely wooded forest tracks that
+shut out the sun, but allowed its brightness to filter through a leafy
+sieve and work a pattern of dappled light and shadow on the grass, for our
+delectation. Most of the way had been made familiar in pursuit of some
+wild boar that would not stand and fight but hurried into the wildest and
+most difficult part of the forest, charging through every bush, however
+thick and thorny, in vain endeavour to shake off the pitiless pack. For my
+companion no corner of the forest lacked memories, some recent, some
+remote, but all concerned with the familiar trial of skill in which the
+boar had at last yielded up his pleasant life.
+
+We came quite suddenly upon the stream and past a riot of green bamboo and
+rushes, saw the kaid's house, more than ever gaunt and dishevelled by
+daylight, with the shining water in front, the wild garden beyond, and on
+the other bank the Susi muleteers sitting with the black slave in pleasant
+contemplation of the work Salam had done. Kaid M'Barak dozed on one of the
+boxes, nursing his beloved gun, while the horse equally dear to him stood
+quietly by, enjoying the lush grasses. Salam and the tracker were not far
+away, a rendezvous was appointed for the hunt, and Pepe Ratto, followed by
+his men, cantered off, leaving me to a delightful spell of rest, while
+Salam persuaded the muleteers to load the animals for the last few miles
+of the road between us and Mogador.
+
+Then, not without regret, I followed the pack-mules out of the valley,
+along the track leading to a broad path that has been worn by the feet of
+countless nomads, travelling with their flocks and herds, from the heat
+and drought of the extreme south to the markets that receive the trade of
+the country, or making haste from the turbulent north to escape the heavy
+hand of the oppressor.
+
+It was not pleasant to ride away from the forest, to see the great open
+spaces increasing and the trees yielding slowly but surely to the dwarf
+bushes that are the most significant feature of the southern country,
+outside the woodland and oases. I thought of the seaport town we were so
+soon to see--a place where the civilisation we had dispensed with happily
+enough for some weeks past would be forced into evidence once more, where
+the wild countrymen among whom we had lived at our ease would be seen only
+on market days, and the native Moors would have assimilated just enough of
+the European life and thought to make them uninteresting, somewhat
+vicious, and wholly ill-content.
+
+The forest was left behind, the land grew bare, and from a hill-top I saw
+the Atlantic some five or six miles away, a desert of sand stretching
+between. We were soon on these sands--light, shifting, and intensely
+hot--a Sahara in miniature save for the presence of the fragrant broom in
+brief patches here and there. It was difficult riding, and reduced the
+pace of the pack-mules to something under three miles an hour. As we
+ploughed across the sand I saw Suera itself, the Picture City of Sidi
+M'godol, a saint of more than ordinary repute, who gave the city the name
+by which it is known to Europe. Suera or Mogador is built on a little
+tongue of land, and threatens sea and sandhills with imposing
+fortifications that are quite worthless from a soldier's point of view.
+Though the sight of a town brought regretful recollection that the time of
+journeying was over, Mogador, it must be confessed, did much to atone for
+the inevitable. It looked like a mirage city that the sand and sun had
+combined to call into brief existence--Moorish from end to end, dazzling
+white in the strong sun of early summer, and offering some suggestion of
+social life in the flags that were fluttering from the roof-tops of
+Consuls' houses. A prosperous city, one would have thought, the emporium
+for the desert trade with Europe, and indeed it was all this for many
+years. Now it has fallen from its high commercial estate; French
+enterprise has cut into and diverted the caravan routes, seeking to turn
+all the desert traffic to Dakkar, the new Bizerta in Senegal, or to the
+Algerian coast.
+
+Salam and M'Barak praised Sidi M'godol, whose zowia lay plainly to be seen
+below the Marrakesh gate; the Susi muleteers, the boy, and the slave
+renewed their Shilha songs, thinking doubtless of the store of dollars
+awaiting them; but I could not conquer my regrets, though I was properly
+obliged to Sidi M'godol for bringing me in safety to his long home. Just
+before us a caravan from the South was pushing its way to the gates. The
+ungainly camels, seeing a resting-place before them, had plucked up their
+spirits and were shuffling along at a pace their drivers could hardly have
+enforced on the previous day. We caught them up, and the leaders explained
+that they were coming in from Tindouf in the Draa country, a place
+unexplored as yet by Europeans. They had suffered badly from lack of water
+on the way, and confirmed the news that the Bedouins had brought, of a
+drought unparalleled in the memory of living man. Sociable fellows all,
+full of contentment, pluck, and endurance, they lightened the last hour
+upon a tedious road.
+
+At length we reached the strip of herbage that divides the desert from the
+town, a vegetable garden big enough to supply the needs of the Picture
+City, and full of artichokes, asparagus, egg plants, sage, and thyme. The
+patient labour of many generations had gone to reclaim this little patch
+from the surrounding waste.
+
+We passed the graveyard of the Protestants and Catholics, a retired place
+that pleaded eloquently in its peacefulness for the last long rest that
+awaits all mortal travellers. Much care had made it less a cemetery than a
+garden, and it literally glowed and blazed with flowers--roses, geraniums,
+verbena, and nasturtiums being most in evidence. A kindly priest of the
+order of St. Francis invited us to rest, and enjoy the colour and
+fragrance of his lovingly-tended oasis. And while we rested, he talked
+briefly of his work in the town, and asked me of our journey. The place
+reminded me strongly of a garden belonging to another Brotherhood of the
+Roman Catholic Church, and set at Capernaum on the Sea of Galilee, where,
+a few years ago, I saw the monks labouring among their flowers, with
+results no less happy than I found here.
+
+After a brief rest we rode along the beach towards the city gate. Just
+outside, the camels had come to a halt and some town traders had gathered
+round the Bedouins to inquire the price of the goods brought from the
+interior, in anticipation of the morrow's market. Under the frowning
+archway of the water-port, where True Believers of the official class sit
+in receipt of custom, I felt the town's cobbled road under foot, and the
+breath of the trade-winds blowing in from the Atlantic. Then I knew that
+Sunset Land was behind me, my journey at an end.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[53] Mogador, called by the Moors "Suera," _i.e._ "The Picture."
+
+
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+_Printed by_ R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, _Edinburgh_.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Morocco, by S.L. Bensusan
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Morocco, by S.L. Bensusan
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Morocco
+
+Author: S.L. Bensusan
+
+Illustrator: A.S. Forrest
+
+Release Date: August 13, 2005 [EBook #16526]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MOROCCO ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Melissa Er-Raqabi and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 468px;">
+<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="468" height="640" alt="Cover" title="Cover" />
+</div>
+
+<h1>MOROCCO</h1>
+
+<h2><span class="smcap">painted by</span><br />
+A.S. FORREST</h2>
+
+<h2><span class="smcap">described by</span><br />
+S.L. BENSUSAN</h2>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h3>Transcriber's Note:</h3>
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="Transcribers Note">
+<tr><td align='left'></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><i><small>The following apparent printer's errors were changed:</small></i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i><small>from appearonce to appearance</small></i></span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i><small>from everthing to everything</small></i></span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i><small>from kindgom to kingdom</small></i></span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i><small>from "Tuesday market. to "Tuesday market."</small></i></span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><i><small>Other inconsistencies in spelling have been left as in the original.</small></i></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="m1" id="m1"></a>
+<img src="images/m1.jpg"
+alt="IN DJEDIDA" title="IN DJEDIDA" />
+<br /><span class="caption">IN DJEDIDA</span>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<h1>MOROCCO</h1>
+
+<h2><span class="smcap">painted by</span><br />
+A.S. FORREST</h2>
+
+<h2><span class="smcap">described by</span><br />
+S.L. BENSUSAN</h2>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 77px;">
+<img src="images/stamp.jpg" width="77" height="102" alt="Stamp" title="Stamp" />
+</div>
+
+
+<p class="center">LONDON<br />
+ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK<br />
+1904<br />
+</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<blockquote><p>"As I have felt, so I have written."</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">E&#333;then</span>. </p></blockquote>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>Preface</h2>
+
+
+<p>It has been a pleasant task to recall the little journey set out in the
+following pages, but the writer can hardly escape the thought that the
+title of the book promises more than he has been able to perform. While
+the real Morocco remains a half-known land to-day, this book does not take
+the traveller from the highroad. The mere idler, the wayfarer to whom
+Morocco is no more than one of many places of pilgrimage, must needs deal
+modestly with his task, even though modesty be an unfashionable virtue;
+and the painstaking folk who pass through this world pelting one another
+with hard facts will find here but little to add to their store of
+ammunition. This appeal is of set purpose a limited one, made to the few
+who are content to travel for the sake of the pleasures of the road, free
+from the comforts that beset them at home, and free also from the popular
+belief that their city, religion, morals, and social laws are the best in
+the world. The qualifications that fit a man to make money and acquire the
+means for modern travel are often fatal to proper appreciation of the
+unfamiliar world he proposes to visit. To restore the balance of things,
+travel agents and other far-seeing folks have contrived to inflict upon
+most countries within the tourist's reach all the modern conveniences by
+which he lives and thrives. So soon as civilising missions and
+missionaries have pegged out their claims, even the desert is deemed
+incomplete without a modern hotel or two, fitted with electric light,
+monstrous tariff, and served by a crowd of debased guides. In the wake of
+these improvements the tourist follows, finds all the essentials of the
+life he left at home, and, knowing nothing of the life he came to see, has
+no regrets. So from Algiers, Tunis, Cairo&mdash;ay, even from Jerusalem itself,
+all suggestion of great history has passed, and one hears among ruins,
+once venerable, the globe-trotter's cry of praise. "Hail Cook," he cries,
+as he seizes the coupons that unveil Isis and read the riddle of the
+Sphinx, "those about to tour salute thee."</p>
+
+<p>But of the great procession that steams past Gibraltar, heavily armed with
+assurance and circular tickets, few favour Morocco at all, and the most of
+these few go no farther than Tangier. Once there, they descend upon some
+modern hotel, often with no more than twenty-four hours in which to master
+the secrets of Sunset Land.</p>
+
+<p>After dinner a few of the bolder spirits among the men take counsel of a
+guide, who leads them to the Moorish coffee-house by the great Mosque.
+There they listen to the music of ghaitah and gimbri, pay a peseta for a
+cup of indifferent coffee, and buy an unmusical instrument or two for many
+times the proper price. Thereafter they retire to their hotel to consider
+how fancy can best embellish the bare facts of the evening's amusement,
+while the True Believers of the coffee-house (debased in the eyes of all
+other Believers, and, somewhat, too, in fact, by reason of their contact
+with the Infidel) gather up the pesetas, curse the Unbeliever and his
+shameless relations, and praise Allah the One who, even in these
+degenerate days, sends them a profit.</p>
+
+<p>On the following morning the tourists ride on mules or donkeys to the
+showplaces of Tangier, followed by scores of beggar boys. The ladies are
+shown over some hareem that they would enter less eagerly did they but
+know the exact status of the odalisques hired to meet them. One and all
+troop to the bazaars, where crafty men sit in receipt of custom and
+relieve the Nazarene of the money whose value he does not know. Lunch
+follows, and then the ship's siren summons the travellers away from
+Morocco, to speak and write with authority for all time of the country and
+its problems.</p>
+
+<p>With these facts well in mind, it seemed best for me to let the pictures
+suffice for Tangier, and to choose for the text one road and one city. For
+if the truth be told there is little more than a single path to all the
+goals that the undisguised European may reach.</p>
+
+<p>Morocco does not change save by compulsion, and there is no area of
+European influence below Tangier. Knowing one highway well you know
+something of all; consequently whether Fez, Mequinez, Wazzan, or Marrakesh
+be the objective, the travel story does not vary greatly. But to-day,
+Marrakusha-al-Hamra, Red Marrakesh, is the most African of all cities in
+Morocco, and seemed therefore best suited to the purpose of this book.
+Moreover, at the time when this journey was made, Bu Hamara was holding
+the approaches to Fez, and neither Mequinez nor Wazzan was in a mood to
+receive strangers.</p>
+
+<p>So it falls out that the record of some two or three hundred miles of
+inland travel is all that awaits the reader here. In time to come, when
+Morocco has been purged of its offences of simplicity and primitiveness,
+the tourist shall accomplish in forty-eight hours the journey that
+demanded more than a month of last year's spring. For Sunset Land has no
+railway lines, nor can it boast&mdash;beyond the narrow limits of
+Tangier&mdash;telegraphs, telephones, electric light, modern hotels, or any of
+the other delights upon which the pampered traveller depends. It is as a
+primeval forest in the hour before the dawn. When the sun of France
+penetrates pacifically to all its hidden places, the forest will wake to a
+new life. Strange birds of bright plumage, called in Europe <i>gens
+d'armes</i>, will displace the storks upon the battlements of its ancient
+towns, the <i>commis voyageur</i> will appear where wild boar and hy&aelig;na now
+travel in comparative peace, the wild cat (<i>felis Throgmortonensis</i>) will
+arise from all mineralised districts. Arab and Berber will disappear
+slowly from the Moroccan forest as the lions have done before them, and in
+the place of their <i>douars</i> and <i>ksor</i> there shall be a multitude of small
+towns laid out with mathematical precision, reached by rail, afflicted
+with modern improvements, and partly filled with Frenchmen who strive to
+drown in the caf&eacute; their sorrow at being so far away from home. The real
+Morocco is so lacking in all the conveniences that would commend it to
+wealthy travellers that the writer feels some apology is due for the
+appearance of his short story of an almost unknown country in so fine a
+setting. Surely a simple tale of Sunset Land was never seen in such
+splendid guise before, and will not be seen again until, with past
+redeemed and forgotten, future assured, and civilisation modernised,
+Morocco ceases to be what it is to-day.</p>
+
+<p class="right">S.L. BENSUSAN.</p>
+
+<p><i>July 1904.</i></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>Contents</h2>
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="Table of Contents">
+<tr><td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I</a></td><td align='right'><span class="smcap">page</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">By Cape Spartel</span></td><td align='right'>3</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">From Tangier to Djedida</span></td><td align='right'>21</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">On the Moorish Road</span></td><td align='right'>41</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">To the Gates of Marrakesh</span></td><td align='right'>57</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">In Red Marrakesh</span></td><td align='right'>77</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Round about Marrakesh</span></td><td align='right'>101</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">The Slave Market at Marrakesh</span></td><td align='right'>121</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Green Tea and Politics</span></td><td align='right'>139</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">Through a Southern Province</span></td><td align='right'>159</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>"<span class="smcap">Sons of Lions</span>"</td><td align='right'>179</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">In the Argan Forest</span></td><td align='right'>199</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='center'><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap">To the Gate of the Picture City</span></td><td align='right'>217</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>List of Illustrations</h2>
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" summary="List of Illustrations">
+<tr><td align='right'>1.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m1">In Djedida</a></td><td align='right'><i>Frontispiece</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'></td><td align='left'></td><td align='right'><span class="smcap"><small>facing page</small></span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>2.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m2">A Shepherd, Cape Spartel</a></td><td align='right'>2</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>3.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m3">The Courtyard of the Lighthouse, Cape Spartel</a></td><td align='right'>4</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>4.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m4">A Street, Tangier</a></td><td align='right'>6</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>5.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m5">In Tangier</a></td><td align='right'>8</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>6.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m6">A Street in Tangier</a></td><td align='right'>10</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>7.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m7">A Guide, Tangier</a></td><td align='right'>12</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>8.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m8">The Road to the Kasbah, Tangier</a></td><td align='right'>14</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>9.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m9">Head of a Boy from Mediunah</a></td><td align='right'>16</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>10.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m10">The Goatherd from Mediunah</a></td><td align='right'>18</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>11.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m11">Old Buildings, Tangier</a></td><td align='right'>20</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>12.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m12">Moorish House, Cape Spartel</a></td><td align='right'>22</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>13.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m13">A Patriarch</a></td><td align='right'>24</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>14.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m14">Pilgrims on a Steamer</a></td><td align='right'>26</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>15.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m15">The Hour of Sale</a></td><td align='right'>28</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>16.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m16">Evening, Magazan</a></td><td align='right'>30</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>17.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m17">Sunset off the Coast</a></td><td align='right'>32</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>18.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m18">A Veranda at Magazan</a></td><td align='right'>34</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>19.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m19">A Blacksmith's Shop</a></td><td align='right'>36</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>20.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m20">A Saint's Tomb</a></td><td align='right'>40</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>21.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m21">Near a Well in the Country</a></td><td align='right'>42</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>22.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m22">Near a Well in the Town</a></td><td align='right'>44</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>23.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m23">Moorish Woman and Child</a></td><td align='right'>46</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>24.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m24">Evening on the Plains</a></td><td align='right'>48</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>25.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m25">Travellers by Night</a></td><td align='right'>52</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>26.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m26">The R'Kass</a></td><td align='right'>56</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>27.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m27">A Traveller on the Plains</a></td><td align='right'>58</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>28.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m28">The Mid-day Halt</a></td><td align='right'>60</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>29.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m29">On Guard</a></td><td align='right'>64</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>30.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m30">A Village at Dukala</a></td><td align='right'>68</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>31.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m31">The Approach to Marrakesh</a></td><td align='right'>72</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>32.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m32">Date Palms near Marrakesh</a></td><td align='right'>76</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>33.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m33">On the Road to Marrakesh</a></td><td align='right'>80</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>34.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m34">A Minstrel</a></td><td align='right'>84</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>35.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m35">One of the City Gates</a></td><td align='right'>86</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>36.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m36">A Blind Beggar</a></td><td align='right'>90</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>37.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m37">A Wandering Minstre</a>l</td><td align='right'>94</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>38.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m38">The Roofs of Marrakesh</a></td><td align='right'>100</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>39.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m39">A Gateway, Marrakesh</a></td><td align='right'>104</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>40.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m40">A Courtyard, Marrakesh</a></td><td align='right'>108</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>41.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m41">A Well in Marrakesh</a></td><td align='right'>112</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>42.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m42">A Bazaar, Marrakesh</a></td><td align='right'>114</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>43.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m43">A Brickfield, Marrakesh</a></td><td align='right'>116</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>44.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m44">A Mosque, Marrakesh</a></td><td align='right'>120</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>45.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m45">A Water Seller, Marrakesh</a></td><td align='right'>124</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>46.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m46">On the Road to the S&ocirc;k el Abeed</a></td><td align='right'>126</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>47.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m47">The Slave Market</a></td><td align='right'>128</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>48.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m48">Dilals in the Slave Market</a></td><td align='right'>132</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>49.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m49">On the House-top, Marrakesh</a></td><td align='right'>138</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>50.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m50">A House Interior, Marrakesh</a></td><td align='right'>142</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>51.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m51">A Glimpse of the Atlas Mountains</a></td><td align='right'>146</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>52.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m52">A Marrakshi</a></td><td align='right'>150</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>53.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m53">Street in Marrakesh</a></td><td align='right'>154</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>54.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m54">An Arab Steed</a></td><td align='right'>158</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>55.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m55">A Young Marrakshi</a></td><td align='right'>162</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>56.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m56">Fruit Market, Marrakesh</a></td><td align='right'>164</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>57.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m57">In the Fandak</a></td><td align='right'>166</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>58.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m58">The Jama'a Effina</a></td><td align='right'>170</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>59.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m59">Evening in Camp</a></td><td align='right'>178</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>60.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m60">Preparing Supper</a></td><td align='right'>182</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>61.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m61">A Goatherd</a></td><td align='right'>186</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>62.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m62">Coming from the Mosque, Hanchen</a></td><td align='right'>190</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>63.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m63">Evening at Hanchen</a></td><td align='right'>198</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>64.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m64">On the Road to Argan Forest</a></td><td align='right'>202</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>65.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m65">The Snake Charmer</a></td><td align='right'>204</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>66.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m66">In Camp</a></td><td align='right'>206</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>67.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m67">A Countryman</a></td><td align='right'>208</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>68.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m68">Moonlight</a></td><td align='right'>212</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>69.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m69">A Moorish Girl</a></td><td align='right'>216</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>70.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m70">A Narrow Street in Mogador</a></td><td align='right'>218</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>71.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m71">Night Scene, Mogador</a></td><td align='right'>220</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>72.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m72">House Tops, Mogador</a></td><td align='right'>222</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>73.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m73">Selling Grain in Mogador</a></td><td align='right'>224</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='right'>74.</td><td align='left'><a href="#m74">Selling Oranges</a></td><td align='right'>226</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<p class="center"><i>The Illustrations in this volume have been engraved in England by the
+Hentschel Colourtype Process.</i></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>BY CAPE SPARTEL</h2>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 541px;">
+<a name="m2" id="m2"></a>
+<img src="images/m2.jpg" width="541" height="640" alt="A SHEPHERD, CAPE SPARTEL" title="A SHEPHERD, CAPE SPARTEL" />
+<br /><span class="caption">A SHEPHERD, CAPE SPARTEL</span>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2>
+
+<h3>BY CAPE SPARTEL</h3>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Over the meadows that blossom and wither<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Rings but the note of a sea-bird's song,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Only the sun and the rain come hither<br /></span>
+<span class="i6">All year long.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0"><i>The Deserted Garden.</i><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<p>Before us the Atlantic rolls to the verge of the "tideless, dolorous
+inland sea." In the little bay lying between Morocco's solitary lighthouse
+and the famous Caves of Spartel, the waters shine in colours that recall
+in turn the emerald, the sapphire, and the opal. There is just enough
+breeze to raise a fine spray as the baby waves reach the rocks, and to
+fill the sails of one or two tiny vessels speeding toward the coast of
+Spain. There is just enough sun to warm the water in the pools to a point
+that makes bathing the most desirable mid-day pastime, and over land and
+sea a solemn sense of peace is brooding. From where the tents are set no
+other human habitation is in sight. A great spur of rock, with the green
+and scarlet of cactus sprawling over it at will, shuts off lighthouse and
+telegraph station, while the towering hills above hide the village of
+Mediunah, whence our supplies are brought each day at dawn and
+sun-setting.</p>
+
+<p>Two fishermen, clinging to the steep side of the rock, cast their lines
+into the water. They are from the hills, and as far removed from our
+twentieth century as their prototypes who were fishing in the sparkling
+blue not so very far away when, the world being young, Theocritus passed
+and gave them immortality. In the valley to the right, the atmosphere of
+the Sicilian Idylls is preserved by two half-clad goatherds who have
+brought their flock to pasture from hillside Mediunah, in whose pens they
+are kept safe from thieves at night. As though he were a reincarnation of
+Daphnis or Menalcas, one of the brown-skinned boys leans over a little
+promontory and plays a tuneless ghaitah, while his companion, a younger
+lad, gives his eyes to the flock and his ears to the music. The last rains
+of this favoured land's brief winter have passed; beyond the plateau the
+sun has called flowers to life in every nook and cranny. Soon the light
+will grow too strong and blinding, the flowers will fade beneath it, the
+shepherds will seek the shade, but in these glad March days there is no
+suggestion of the intolerable heat to come.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 476px;">
+<a name="m3" id="m3"></a>
+<img src="images/m3.jpg" width="476" height="640" alt="THE COURT-YARD OF THE LIGHTHOUSE, CAPE SPARTEL" title="THE COURT-YARD OF THE LIGHTHOUSE, CAPE SPARTEL" />
+<br /><span class="caption">THE COURT-YARD OF THE LIGHTHOUSE, CAPE SPARTEL</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>On the plot of level ground that Nature herself has set in position for a
+camp, the tents are pitched. Two hold the impedimenta of travel; in the
+third Salam and his assistant work in leisurely fashion, as befits the
+time and place. Tangier lies no more than twelve miles away, over a road
+that must be deemed uncommonly good for Morocco, but I have chosen to live
+in camp for a week or two in this remote place, in preparation for a
+journey to the southern country. At first the tents were the cynosure of
+native eyes. Mediunah came down from its fastness among the hilltops to
+investigate discreetly from secure corners, prepared for flight so soon as
+occasion demanded it, if not before. Happily Salam's keen glance pierced
+the cover of the advance-guard and reassured one and all. Confidence
+established, the village agreed after much solemn debate to supply eggs,
+chickens, milk, and vegetables at prices doubtless in excess of those
+prevailing in the country markets, but quite low enough for Europeans.</p>
+
+<p>This little corner of the world, close to the meeting of the Atlantic and
+Mediterranean waters, epitomises in its own quiet fashion the story of the
+land's decay. Now it is a place of wild bees and wilder birds, of flowers
+and bushes that live fragrant untended lives, seen by few and appreciated
+by none. It is a spot so far removed from human care that I have seen, a
+few yards from the tents, fresh tracks made by the wild boar as he has
+rooted o' nights; and once, as I sat looking out over the water when the
+rest of the camp was asleep, a dark shadow passed, not fifty yards
+distant, going head to wind up the hill, and I knew it for "tusker"
+wending his way to the village gardens, where the maize was green.</p>
+
+<p>Yet the district has not always been solitary. Where now the tents are
+pitched, there was an orange grove in the days when Mulai Abd er Rahman
+ruled at Fez and Marrakesh, and then Mediunah boasted quite a thriving
+connection with the coasts of Portugal and Spain. The little bay wherein
+one is accustomed to swim or plash about at noonday, then sheltered
+furtive sailing-boats from the sleepy eyes of Moorish authority, and a
+profitable smuggling connection was maintained with the Spanish villages
+between Algeciras and Tarifa Point. Beyond the rocky caverns, where
+patient countrymen still quarry for millstones, a bare coast-line leads to
+the spot where legend places the Gardens of the Hesperides; indeed, the
+millstone quarries are said to be the original Caves of Hercules, and the
+golden fruit the hero won flourished, we are assured, not far away. Small
+wonder then that the place has an indefinable quality of enchantment that
+even the twentieth century cannot quite efface.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 650px;">
+<a name="m4" id="m4"></a>
+<img src="images/m4.jpg" width="650" height="640" alt="A STREET, TANGIER" title="A STREET, TANGIER" />
+<br /><span class="caption">A STREET, TANGIER</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Life in camp is exquisitely simple. We rise with the sun. If in the raw
+morning hours a donkey brays, the men are very much perturbed, for they
+know that the poor beast has seen a djin. They will remain ill-at-ease
+until, somewhere in the heights where Mediunah is preparing for another
+day, a cock crows. This is a satisfactory omen, atoning for the donkey's
+performance. A cock only crows when he sees an angel, and, if there are
+angels abroad, the ill intentions of the djinoon will be upset. When I was
+travelling in the country some few years ago, it chanced one night that
+the heavens were full of shooting stars. My camp attendants ceased work at
+once. Satan and all his host were assailing Paradise, they said, and we
+were spectators of heaven's artillery making counter-attack upon the
+djinoon.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> The wandering meteors passed, the fixed stars shone out with
+such a splendour as we may not hope to see in these western islands, and
+the followers of the great Camel Driver gave thanks and praise to His
+Master Allah, who had conquered the powers of darkness once again.</p>
+
+<p>While I enjoy a morning stroll over the hills, or a plunge in the sea,
+Salam, squatting at the edge of the cooking tent behind two small charcoal
+fires, prepares the breakfast. He has the true wayfarer's gift that
+enables a man to cook his food in defiance of wind or weather. Some wisps
+of straw and charcoal are arranged in a little hole scooped out of the
+ground, a match is struck, the bellows are called into play, and the fire
+is an accomplished fact. The kettle sings as cheerfully as the cicadas in
+the tree tops, eggs are made into what Salam calls a "marmalade," in spite
+of my oft-repeated assurance that he means omelette, porridge is cooked
+and served with new milk that has been carefully strained and boiled. For
+bread we have the flat brown loaves of Mediunah, and they are better than
+they look&mdash;ill-made indeed, but vastly more nutritious than the pretty
+emasculated products of our modern bakeries.</p>
+
+<p>Bargain and sale are concluded before the morning walk is over. The
+village folk send a deputation carrying baskets of eggs and charcoal, with
+earthen jars of milk or butter, fresh vegetables, and live chickens. I
+stayed one morning to watch the procedure.</p>
+
+<p>The eldest of the party, a woman who seems to be eighty and is probably
+still on the sunny side of fifty, comes slowly forward to where Salam sits
+aloof, dignified and difficult to approach. He has been watching her out
+of one corner of an eye, but feigns to be quite unconscious of her
+presence. He and she know that we want supplies and must have them from
+the village, but the facts of the case have nothing to do with the
+conventions of trading in Sunset Land.</p>
+
+<p>"The Peace of the Prophet on all True Believers. I have brought food from
+Mediunah," says the elderly advance-guard, by way of opening the campaign.</p>
+
+<p>"Allah is indeed merciful, O my Aunt," responds Salam with lofty
+irrelevance. Then follows a prolonged pause, somewhat trying, I apprehend,
+to Aunt, and struggling with a yawn Salam says at length, "I will see what
+you would sell."</p>
+
+<p>She beckons the others, and they lay their goods at our steward's feet.
+Salam turns his head away meanwhile, and looks out across the Atlantic as
+though anxious to assure himself about the state of agriculture in Spain.
+At last he wheels about, and with a rapid glance full of contempt surveys
+the village produce. He has a cheapening eye.</p>
+
+<p>"How much?" he asks sternly.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 469px;">
+<a name="m5" id="m5"></a>
+<img src="images/m5.jpg" width="469" height="640" alt="IN TANGIER" title="IN TANGIER" />
+<br /><span class="caption">IN TANGIER</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Item by item the old dame prices the goods. The little group of young
+married women, with babies tied in a bundle behind them, or half-naked
+children clinging to their loin-cloths, nods approval. But Salam's face is
+a study. In place of contemptuous indifference there is now rising anger,
+terrible to behold. His brows are knitted, his eyes flame, his beard seems
+to bristle with rage. The tale of prices is hardly told before, with a
+series of rapid movements, he has tied every bundle up, and is thrusting
+the good things back into the hands of their owners. His vocabulary is
+strained to its fullest extent; he stands up, and with outspread hands
+denounces Mediunah and all its ways. The men of the village are cowards;
+the women have no shame. Their parents were outcasts. They have no fear of
+the Prophet who bade True Believers deal fairly with the stranger within
+their gates. In a year at most, perhaps sooner, "Our Master the Sultan"
+will assuredly be among these people who shame Al Moghreb,<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> he will eat
+them up, dogs will make merry among their graves, and their souls will go
+down to the pit. In short, everything is too dear.</p>
+
+<p>Only the little children are frightened by this outburst, which is no more
+than a prelude to bargaining. The women extol and Salam decries the goods
+on offer; both praise Allah. Salam assures them that the country of the
+"Ingliz" would be ruined if its inhabitants had to pay the prices they ask
+for such goods as they have to sell. He will see his master starve by
+inches, he will urge him to return to Tangier and eat there at a fair
+price, before he will agree to sacrifices hitherto unheard of in Sunset
+Land. This bargaining proceeds for a quarter of an hour without
+intermission, and by then the natives have brought their prices down and
+Salam has brought his up. Finally the money is paid in Spanish pesetas or
+Moorish quarters, and carefully examined by the simple folk, who retire to
+their ancestral hills, once more praising Allah who sends custom. Salam,
+his task accomplished, complains that the villagers have robbed us
+shamefully, but a faint twinkle in his eye suggests that he means less
+than he says.</p>
+
+<p>Breakfast over, I seek a hillside cave where there is a double gift of
+shade and a wonderful view, content to watch the pageantry of the morning
+hours and dream of hard work. Only the goatherds and their charges suggest
+that the district is inhabited, unless some vessel passing on its way to
+or from the southern coast can be seen communicating with the signal
+station round the bend of the rocks. There a kindly old Scot lives, with
+his Spanish wife and little children, in comparative isolation, from the
+beginning to the end of the year.</p>
+
+<p>"I've almost forgotten my own tongue," he said to me one evening when he
+came down to the camp to smoke the pipe of peace and tell of the fur and
+feather that pass in winter time. It was on a day when a great flight of
+wild geese had been seen winging its way to the unknown South, and the
+procession had fired the sporting instinct in one of us at least.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 881px;">
+<a name="m6" id="m6"></a>
+<img src="images/m6.jpg" width="881" height="640" alt="A STREET IN TANGIER" title="A STREET IN TANGIER" />
+<br /><span class="caption">A STREET IN TANGIER</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Mid-day, or a little later, finds Salam in charge of a light meal, and,
+that discussed, one may idle in the shade until the sun is well on the way
+to the West. Then books and papers are laid aside. We set out for a tramp,
+or saddle the horses and ride for an hour or so in the direction of the
+mountain, an unexplored Riviera of bewildering and varied loveliness. The
+way lies through an avenue of cork trees, past which the great hills slope
+seaward, clothed with evergreen oak and heath, and a species of sundew,
+with here and there yellow broom, gum cistus, and an unfamiliar plant with
+blue flowers. Trees and shrubs fight for light and air, the fittest
+survive and thrive, sheltering little birds from the keen-eyed, quivering
+hawks above them. The road makes me think of what the French Mediterranean
+littoral must have been before it was dotted over with countless vulgar
+villas, covered with trees and shrubs that are not indigenous to the soil,
+and tortured into trim gardens that might have strayed from a prosperous
+suburb of London or Paris. Save a few charcoal burners, or stray women
+bent almost double beneath the load of wood they have gathered for some
+village on the hills, we see nobody. These evening rides are made into a
+country as deserted as the plateau that holds the camp, for the mountain
+houses of wealthy residents are half a dozen miles nearer Tangier.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p>
+
+<p>On other evenings the road chosen lies in the direction of the Caves of
+Hercules, where the samphire grows neglected, and wild ferns thrive in
+unexpected places. I remember once scaring noisy seabirds from what seemed
+to be a corpse, and how angrily the gorged, reluctant creatures rose from
+what proved to be the body of a stranded porpoise, that tainted the air
+for fifty yards around. On another evening a storm broke suddenly.
+Somewhere in the centre rose a sand column that seemed to tell, in its
+brief moment of existence, the secret of the origin of the djinoon that
+roam at will through Eastern legendary lore.</p>
+
+<p>It is always necessary to keep a careful eye upon the sun during these
+excursions past the caves. The light fails with the rapidity associated
+with all the African countries, tropical and semi-tropical alike. A sudden
+sinking, as though the sun had fallen over the edge of the world, a brief
+after-glow, a change from gold to violet, and violet to grey, a chill in
+the air, and the night has fallen. Then there is a hurried scamper across
+sand, over rocks and past boulders, before the path that stretches in a
+faint fading line becomes wholly obliterated. In such a place as this one
+might wander for hours within a quarter of a mile of camp, and then only
+find the road by lucky accident, particularly if the senses have been
+blunted by very long residence in the heart of European civilisation.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 464px;">
+<a name="m7" id="m7"></a>
+<img src="images/m7.jpg" width="464" height="640" alt="A GUIDE, TANGIER" title="A GUIDE, TANGIER" />
+<br /><span class="caption">A GUIDE, TANGIER</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>I think that dinner brings the most enjoyable hour of the day. Work is
+over, the sights of sea and shore have been enjoyed, we have taken
+exercise in plenty. Salam and his helpers having dined, the kitchen tent
+becomes the scene of an animated conversation that one hears without
+understanding. Two or three old headmen, finding their way in the dark
+like cats, have come down from Mediunah to chat with Salam and the town
+Moor. The social instinct pervades Morocco. On the plains of R'hamna,
+where fandaks are unknown and even the n'zalas<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> are few and far between;
+in the fertile lands of Dukala, Shiadma, and Haha; in M'touga, on whose
+broad plains the finest Arab horses are reared and thrive,&mdash;I have found
+this instinct predominant. As soon as the evening meal is over, the
+headmen of the nearest village come to the edge of the tent, remove their
+slippers, praise God, and ask for news of the world without. It may be
+that they are going to rob the strangers in the price of food for mules
+and horses, or even over the tent supplies. It may be that they would cut
+the throats of all foreign wayfarers quite cheerfully, if the job could be
+accomplished without fear of reprisals. It is certain that they despise
+them for Unbelievers, <i>i.e.</i> Christians or Jews, condemned to the pit; but
+in spite of all considerations they must have news of the outer world.</p>
+
+<p>When the moon comes out and the Great Bear constellation is shining above
+our heads as though its sole duty in heaven were to light the camp, there
+is a strong temptation to ramble. I am always sure that I can find the
+track, or that Salam will be within hail should it be lost. How quickly
+the tents pass out of sight. The path to the hills lies by way of little
+pools where the frogs have a croaking chorus that Aristophanes might have
+envied. On the approach of strange footsteps they hurry off the flat rocks
+by the pool, and one hears a musical plash as they reach water. Very soon
+the silence is resumed, and presently becomes so oppressive that it is a
+relief to turn again and see our modest lights twinkling as though in
+welcome.</p>
+
+<p>It is hopeless to wait for wild boar now. One or two pariah dogs, hailing
+from nowhere, have been attracted to the camp, Salam has given them the
+waste food, and they have installed themselves as our protectors, whether
+out of a feeling of gratitude or in hope of favours to come I cannot tell,
+but probably from a mixture of wise motives. They are alert, savage
+beasts, of a hopelessly mixed breed, but no wild boar will come rooting
+near the camp now, nor will any thief, however light-footed, yield to the
+temptation our tents afford.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 628px;">
+<a name="m8" id="m8"></a>
+<img src="images/m8.jpg" width="628" height="640" alt="THE ROAD TO THE KASBAH, TANGIER" title="THE ROAD TO THE KASBAH, TANGIER" />
+<br /><span class="caption">THE ROAD TO THE KASBAH, TANGIER</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>We have but one visitor after the last curtain has been drawn, a strange
+bird with a harsh yet melancholy note, that reminds me of the night-jar of
+the fen lands in our own country. The hills make a semicircle round the
+camp, and the visitor seems to arrive at the corner nearest Spartel about
+one o'clock in the morning. It cries persistently awhile, and then flies
+to the middle of the semicircle, just at the back of the tents, where the
+note is very weird and distinct. Finally it goes to the other horn of the
+crescent and resumes the call&mdash;this time, happily, a much more subdued
+affair. What is it? Why does it come to complain to the silence night
+after night? One of the men says it is a djin, and wants to go back to
+Tangier, but Salam, whose loyalty outweighs his fears, declares that even
+though it be indeed a devil and eager to devour us, it cannot come within
+the charmed range of my revolver. Hence its regret, expressed so
+unpleasantly. I have had to confess to Salam that I have no proof that he
+is wrong.</p>
+
+<p>Now and again in the afternoon the tribesmen call to one another from the
+hill tops. They possess an extraordinary power of carrying their voices
+over a space that no European could span. I wonder whether the real secret
+of the powers ascribed to the half-civilised tribes of Africa has its
+origin in this gift. Certain it is that news passes from village to
+village across the hills, and that no courier can keep pace with it. In
+this way rumours of great events travel from one end of the Dark Continent
+to the other, and if the tales told me of the passage of news from South
+to North Africa during the recent war were not so extravagant as they seem
+at first hearing, I would set them down here, well assured that they would
+startle if they could not convince. In the south of Morocco, during the
+latter days of my journey, men spoke with quiet conviction of the doings
+of Sultan and Pretender in the North, just as though Morocco possessed a
+train or telegraph service, or a native newspaper. It does not seem
+unreasonable that, while the deserts and great rolling plains have
+extended men's vision to a point quite outside the comprehension of
+Europe, other senses may be at least equally stimulated by a life we
+Europeans shall: never know intimately. Perhaps the fear of believing too
+readily makes us unduly sceptical, and inclined to forget that our
+philosophy cannot compass one of the many mysteries that lie at our door.</p>
+
+<p>If any proof were required that Morocco in all its internal disputes is
+strictly tribal, our safe residence here would supply one. On the other
+side of Tangier, over in the direction of Tetuan, the tribes are out and
+the roads are impassable. Europeans are forbidden to ride by way of Angera
+to Tetuan. Even a Minister, the representative of a great European Power,
+was warned by old Hadj Mohammed Torres, the resident Secretary for Foreign
+Affairs, that the Moorish Administration would not hold itself responsible
+for his safety if he persisted in his intention to go hunting among the
+hills. And here we remain unmolested day after day, while the headmen of
+the Mediunah tribe discuss with perfect tranquillity the future of the
+Pretender's rebellion, or allude cheerfully to the time when, the Jehad
+(Holy War) being proclaimed, the Moslems will be permitted to cut the
+throats of all the Unbelievers who trouble the Moghreb. In the fatalism of
+our neighbours lies our safety. If Allah so wills, never a Nazarene will
+escape the more painful road to eternal fire; if it is written otherwise,
+Nazarene torment will be posthumous. They do not know, nor, in times when
+the land is preparing for early harvest, do they greatly care, what or
+when the end may be. Your wise Moor waits to gather in his corn and see it
+safely hoarded in the clay-lined and covered pits called mat'moras. That
+work over, he is ready and willing, nay, he is even anxious, to fight, and
+if no cause of quarrel is to be found he will make one.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 636px;">
+<a name="m9" id="m9"></a>
+<img src="images/m9.jpg" width="636" height="640" alt="HEAD OF A BOY FROM MEDIUNA" title="HEAD OF A BOY FROM MEDIUNA" />
+<br /><span class="caption">HEAD OF A BOY FROM MEDIUNA</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Every year or two a party of travellers settles on this plateau, says the
+headman of Mediunah. From him I hear of a fellow writer from England who
+was camped here six years ago.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> Travellers stay sometimes for three or
+four days, sometimes for as many weeks, and he has been told by men who
+have come many miles from distant markets, that the Nazarenes are to be
+found here and there throughout the Moroccan highlands towards the close
+of the season of the winter rains. Clearly their own land is not a very
+desirable abiding place, or they have sinned against the law, or their
+Sultan has confiscated their worldly goods, remarks the headman. My
+suggestion that other causes than these may have been at work, yields no
+more than an assertion that all things are possible, if Allah wills them.
+It is his polite method of expressing reluctance to believe everything he
+is told.</p>
+
+<p>From time to time, when we are taking our meals in the open air, I see the
+shepherd boys staring at us from a respectful distance. To them we must
+seem no better than savages. In the first place, we sit on chairs and not
+on the ground. We cut our bread, which, as every True Believer knows, is a
+wicked act and defies Providence, since bread is from Allah and may be
+broken with the hand but never touched with a knife. Then we do not know
+how to eat with our fingers, but use knives and forks and spoons that,
+after mere washing, are common property. We do not have water poured out
+over our fingers before the meal begins,&mdash;the preliminary wash in the tent
+is invisible and does not count,&mdash;and we do not say "Bismillah" before we
+start eating. We are just heathens, they must say to themselves. Our daily
+bathing seems to puzzle them greatly. I do not notice that little Larbi or
+his brother Kasem ever tempt the sea to wash or drown them. Yet they look
+healthy enough, and are full of dignity. You may offer them fruit or
+sweetmeats or anything tempting that may be on the table, and they will
+refuse it. I fancy they regard the invitation to partake of Nazarene's
+food as a piece of impertinence, only excusable because Nazarenes are mad.</p>
+
+<p>The days slip away from the plateau below Mediunah. March has yielded
+place to April. To-morrow the pack-mules will be here at sunrise. In the
+afternoon, when the cool hours approach, camp will be struck, and we shall
+ride down the avenue of cork trees for the last time on the way to "Tanjah
+of the Nazarenes," whence, at the week end, the boat will carry us to some
+Atlantic port, there to begin a longer journey.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 617px;">
+<a name="m10" id="m10"></a>
+<img src="images/m10.jpg" width="617" height="640" alt="THE GOATHERD FROM MEDIUNA" title="THE GOATHERD FROM MEDIUNA" />
+<br /><span class="caption">THE GOATHERD FROM MEDIUNA</span><br /><br />
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> "Moreover, we have decked the lower heaven with lamps, and
+have made them for pelting the devils."&mdash;Al Koran; Sura, "The Kingdom."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> "The Far West", the native name for Morocco.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> One of the most charming of these houses is "Aidonia,"
+belonging to Mr. Ion Perdicaris. He was seized there by the brigand Rais
+Uli in May last.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> Shelters provided by the Government for travellers.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> A.J. Dawson, whose novels dealing with Morocco are full of
+rare charm and distinction.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>FROM TANGIER TO DJEDIDA</h2>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 551px;">
+<a name="m11" id="m11"></a>
+<img src="images/m11.jpg" width="551" height="640" alt="OLD BUILDINGS, TANGIER" title="OLD BUILDINGS, TANGIER" />
+<br /><span class="caption">OLD BUILDINGS, TANGIER</span>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2>
+
+<h3>FROM TANGIER TO DJEDIDA</h3>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The droghte of March hath perced to the roote<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&#10018;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&#10018;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&#10018;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&#10018;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&#10018;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0"><i>The Canterbury Tales.</i><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>We have rounded the north-west corner of Africa, exchanged farewell
+signals with our friend on Lloyd's station,&mdash;who must now return to his
+Spanish and Arabic or live a silent life,&mdash;and I have taken a last look
+through field-glasses at the plateau that held our little camp. Since then
+we have raced the light for a glimpse of El Araish, where the Gardens of
+the Hesperides were set by people of old time. The sun was too swift in
+its decline; one caught little more than an outline of the white city,
+with the minarets of its mosques that seemed to pierce the sky, and flags
+flying in the breeze on the flat roofs of its Consuls' houses. The river
+Lekkus showed up whitely on the eastern side, a rising wind having whipped
+its waters into foam, and driven the light coasting vessels out to sea. So
+much I saw from the good ship <i>Zweena's</i> upper deck, and then evening
+fell, as though to hide from me the secret of the gardens where the
+Golden Apples grew.</p>
+
+<p>Alas, that modern knowledge should have destroyed all faith in old legend!
+The fabled fruits of the Hesperides turn to oranges in the hands of our
+wise men, the death-dealing dragon becomes Wad Lekkus itself, so ready
+even to-day to snarl and roar at the bidding of the wind that comes up out
+of the south-west, and the dusky maidens of surpassing loveliness are no
+more than simple Berber girls, who, whilst doubtless dusky, and possibly
+maidenly as ever, have not inherited much of the storied beauty of their
+forbears. In spite of this modern perversion of the old tale I find that
+the oranges of the dining-table have a quite rare charm for me
+to-night,&mdash;such an attraction as they have had hitherto only when I have
+picked them in the gardens of Andalusia, or in the groves that perfume the
+ancient town of Jaffa at the far eastern end of the Mediterranean. Now I
+have one more impression to cherish, and the scent of a blossoming orange
+tree will recall for me El Araish as I saw it at the moment when the
+shroud of evening made the mosques and the kasbah of Mulai al Yazeed melt,
+with the great white spaces between them, into a blurred pearly mass
+without salient feature.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 887px;">
+<a name="m12" id="m12"></a>
+<img src="images/m12.jpg" width="887" height="640" alt="MOORISH HOUSE, CAPE SPARTEL" title="" />
+<br /><span class="caption">MOORISH HOUSE, CAPE SPARTEL</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>You shall still enjoy the sense of being in touch with past times and
+forgotten people, if you will walk the deck of a ship late at night. Your
+fellow-passengers are abed, the watch, if watch there be, is invisible,
+the steady throbbing movement of the screw resolves itself into a
+pleasing rhythmic melody. So far as the senses can tell, the world is your
+closet, a silent pleasaunce for your waking dreams. The coast-line has no
+lights, nor is any other vessel passing over the waters within range of
+eye or glass. The hosts of heaven beam down upon a silent universe in
+which you are the only waking soul. On a sudden eight bells rings out
+sharply from the forecastle head, and you spring back from your world of
+fancy as hurriedly as Cinderella returned to her rags when long-shore
+midnight chimed. The officer of the middle watch and a hand for the wheel
+come aft to relieve their companions, the illusion has passed, and you go
+below to turn in, feeling uncomfortably sure that your pretty thoughts
+will appear foolish and commonplace enough when regarded in the
+matter-of-fact light of the coming day.</p>
+
+<p>D&aacute;r el Baida, most Moorish of seaports, received us in the early morning.
+The wind had fallen, and the heavy surf-boats of the port could land us
+easily. We went on shore past the water-gate and the custom-house that
+stands on the site of the stores erected by the society of the Gremios
+Majores when Charles V. ruled Spain. D&aacute;r el Baida seemed to have straggled
+over as much ground as Tangier, but the ground itself was flat and full of
+refuse. The streets were muddy and unpaved, cobble stones strove
+ineffectually to disguise drains, and one felt that the sea breezes alone
+stood between the city and some such virulent epidemic as that which smote
+Tangier less than ten years ago. But withal there was a certain
+picturesque quality about D&aacute;r el Baida that atoned for more obvious
+faults, and the market-place afforded a picture as Eastern in its main
+features as the tired Western eye could seek. Camel caravans had come in
+from the interior for the Monday market. They had tramped from the
+villages of the Zair and the Beni Hassan tribes, bringing ripe barley for
+sale, though the spring months had not yet passed. From places near at
+hand the husbandmen had brought all the vegetables that flourish after the
+March rains,&mdash;peas and beans and lettuces; pumpkins, carrots and turnips,
+and the tender leaves of the date-palm. The first fruits of the year and
+the dried roses of a forgotten season were sold by weight, and charcoal
+was set in tiny piles at prices within the reach of the poorest customers.</p>
+
+<p>Wealthy merchants had brought their horses within the shadow of the
+sok's<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> high walls and loosened the many-clothed saddles. Slaves walked
+behind their masters or trafficked on their behalf. The snake-charmer, the
+story-teller, the beggar, the water-carrier, the incense seller, whose
+task in life is to fumigate True Believers, all who go to make the typical
+Moorish crowd, were to be seen indolently plying their trade. But
+inquiries for mules, horses, and servants for the inland journey met with
+no ready response. D&aacute;r el Baida, I was assured, had nothing to offer;
+Djedida, lower down along the coast, might serve, or Saffi, if Allah
+should send weather of a sort that would permit the boat to land.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 538px;">
+<a name="m13" id="m13"></a>
+<img src="images/m13.jpg" width="538" height="640" alt="A PATRIARCH" title="A PATRIARCH" />
+<br /><span class="caption">A PATRIARCH</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>As it happened, Djedida was the steamer's next port of call, so we made
+haste to return to her hospitable decks. I carried with me a vivid
+impression of D&aacute;r el Baida, of the market-place with its varied goods, and
+yet more varied people, the white Arabs, the darker Berbers, the black
+slaves from the Soudan and the Draa. Noticeable in the market were the
+sweet stores, where every man sat behind his goods armed with a feather
+brush, and waged ceaseless war with the flies, while a corner of his eye
+was kept for small boys, who were well nigh as dangerous. I remember the
+gardens, one particularly well. It belongs to the French Consul, and has
+bananas growing on the trees that face the road; from beyond the hedge one
+caught delightful glimpses of colour and faint breaths of exquisite
+perfume.</p>
+
+<p>I remember, too, the covered shed containing the mill that grinds the
+flour for the town, and the curious little bakehouse to which D&aacute;r el Baida
+takes its flat loaves, giving the master of the establishment one loaf in
+ten by way of payment. I recall the sale of horses, at which a fine raking
+mare with her foal at foot fetched fifty-four dollars in Moorish silver, a
+sum less than nine English pounds.</p>
+
+<p>And I seem to see, even now as I write, the Spanish woman with cruel
+painted face, sitting at the open casement of an old house near the
+Spanish church, thrumming her guitar, and beneath her, by the roadside, a
+beggar clad, like the patriarch of old, in a garment of many colours, that
+made his black face seem blacker than any I have seen in Africa. Then D&aacute;r
+el Baida sinks behind the water-port gate, the strong Moorish rowers bend
+to their oars, their boat laps through the dark-blue water, and we are
+back aboard the ship again, in another atmosphere, another world.
+Passengers are talking as it might be they had just returned from their
+first visit to a Zoological Garden. Most of them have seen no more than
+the dirt and ugliness&mdash;their vision noted no other aspect&mdash;of the
+old-world port. The life that has not altered for centuries, the things
+that make it worth living to all the folk we leave behind,&mdash;these are
+matters in which casual visitors to Morocco have no concern. They resent
+suggestion that the affairs of "niggers" can call for serious
+consideration, far less for appreciation or interest of any sort.</p>
+
+<p>Happily Djedida is not far away. At daybreak we are securely anchored
+before the town whose possession by the Portuguese is recorded to this
+hour by the fine fortifications and walls round the port. We slip over the
+smooth water in haste, that we may land before the sun is too high in the
+heavens. It is not without a thrill of pleasure that I hear the ship's
+shrill summons and see the rest of the passengers returning.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 676px;">
+<a name="m14" id="m14"></a>
+<img src="images/m14.jpg" width="676" height="640" alt="PILGRIMS ON A STEAMER" title="PILGRIMS ON A STEAMER" />
+<br /><span class="caption">PILGRIMS ON A STEAMER</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>By this time it is afternoon, but the intervening hours have not been
+wasted. I have found the Maalem, master of a bakehouse, a short,
+olive-skinned, wild, and wiry little man, whose yellowed eyes and
+contracting pupils tell a tale of haschisch and kief that his twitching
+fingers confirm. But he knows the great track stretching some hundred and
+twenty miles into the interior up to Red Marrakesh; he is "the father and
+mother" of mules and horses, animals that brighten the face of man by
+reason of their superlative qualities, and he is prepared to undertake the
+charge of all matters pertaining to a journey over this roadless country.
+His beasts are fit to journey to Tindouf in the country of the Draa, so
+fine is their condition; their saddles and accoutrements would delight the
+Sultan's own ministers. By Allah, the inland journey will be a picnic!
+Quite gravely, I have professed to believe all he says, and my
+reservations, though many, are all mental.</p>
+
+<p>In the days that precede departure&mdash;and in Morocco they are always apt to
+be numerous&mdash;I seek to enter into the life of Djedida. Sometimes we stroll
+to the custom-house, where grave and dignified Moors sit in the bare,
+barnlike office that opens upon the waste ground beyond the port. There
+they deliver my shot guns after long and dubious scrutiny of the order
+from the British Consulate at Tangier. They also pass certain boxes of
+stores upon production of a certificate testifying that they paid duty on
+arrival at the Diplomatic Capital. These matters, trivial enough to the
+Western mind, are of weight and moment here, not to be settled lightly or
+without much consultation.</p>
+
+<p>Rotting in the stores of this same custom-house are two grand pianos and
+an electric omnibus. The Sultan ordered them, the country paid for
+them,&mdash;so much was achieved by the commercial energy of the infidel,&mdash;and
+native energy sufficed to land them; it was exhausted by the effort. If
+Mulai Abd-el-Aziz wants his dearly purchased treasure, the ordering and
+existence of which he has probably forgotten, he must come to Mazagan for
+it, I am afraid, and unless he makes haste it will not be worth much. But
+there are many more such shipments in other ports, not to mention the
+unopened and forgotten packing cases at Court.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 734px;">
+<a name="m15" id="m15"></a>
+<img src="images/m15.jpg" width="734" height="640" alt="THE HOUR OF SALE" title="THE HOUR OF SALE" />
+<br /><span class="caption">THE HOUR OF SALE</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The Basha of Djedida is a little old man, very rich indeed, and the terror
+of the entire Dukala province. I like to watch him as he sits day by day
+under the wall of the Kasbah by the side of his own palace, administering
+what he is pleased to call justice. Soldiers and slaves stand by to
+enforce his decree if need be, plaintiff and defendant lie like tombstones
+or advertisements of patent medicines, or telegrams from the seat of war,
+but no sign of an emotion lights the old man's face. He tempers justice
+with&mdash;let us say, diplomacy. The other afternoon a French-protected
+subject was charged with sheep-stealing, and I went to the trial. Salam
+acted as interpreter for me. The case was simple enough. The defendant had
+received some hundred sheep from plaintiff to feed and tend at an agreed
+price. From time to time he sent plaintiff the sad news of the death of
+certain rams, always among the finest in the flock. Plaintiff, a farmer in
+good circumstances, testified to the Unity of Allah and was content to
+pray for better luck, until news was brought to him that most of the sheep
+reported dead were to be seen in the Friday market fetching good prices.
+The news proved true, the report of their death was no more than the
+defendant's intelligent anticipation of events, and the action arose out
+of it. To be sure, the plaintiff had presented a fine sheep to the Basha,
+but the defendant was a French subject by protection, and the Vice-Consul
+of his adopted nation was there to see fair play. Under these
+circumstances the defendant lied with an assurance that must have helped
+to convince himself; his friends arrived in the full number required by
+the law, and testified with cheerful mendacity in their companion's
+favour. The Basha listened with attention while the litigants swore
+strange oaths and abused each other very thoroughly. Then he silenced both
+parties with a word, and gave judgment for the defendant. There was no
+appeal, though, had the defendant been an unprotected subject, the
+plaintiff's knife had assuredly entered into the final settlement of this
+little matter. But the plaintiff knew that an attack upon a French prot&eacute;g&eacute;
+would lead to his own indefinite imprisonment and occasional torture, to
+the confiscation of his goods, and to sundry other penalties that may be
+left unrecorded, as they would not look well in cold print. He knew,
+moreover, that everything is predestined, that no man may avoid Allah's
+decree. These matters of faith are real, not pale abstractions, in
+Morocco. So he was less discontented with the decision than one of his
+European brethren would have been in similar case&mdash;and far more
+philosophic regarding it.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 546px;">
+<a name="m16" id="m16"></a>
+<img src="images/m16.jpg" width="546" height="640" alt="EVENING, MAZAGAN" title="EVENING, MAZAGAN" />
+<br /><span class="caption">EVENING, MAZAGAN</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Quite slowly we completed our outfit for the inland journey. Heaven aid
+the misguided Nazarene who seeks to accomplish such matters swiftly in
+this land of eternal afternoon. I bought an extraordinary assortment of
+what our American friends call "dry-goods" in the Jewish stores, from the
+very business-like gentlemen in charge of them. These all wore black
+gaberdines, black slippers, stockings that were once white, and black
+skull-caps over suspiciously shining love-locks. Most of the Jewish men
+seemed to have had smallpox; in their speech they relied upon a very base
+Arabic, together with worse Spanish or quite barbarous French. Djedida
+having no Mellah, as the Moorish ghetto is called, they were free to trade
+all over the town, and for rather less than a pound sterling I bought
+quite an imposing collection of cutlery, plate, and dishes for use on the
+road. It is true, as I discovered subsequently, that the spoons and forks
+might be crushed out of shape with one hand, that the knives would cut
+nothing rougher than Danish butter, and were imported from Germany with a
+Sheffield mark on them to deceive the natives, and that the plates and
+dishes were not too good to go with the cutlery. But nothing had been
+bought without bargaining of a more or less exciting and interesting sort,
+and for the bargaining no extra charge whatever was made. The little
+boxlike shops, with flaps that served as shutters, were ill-adapted for
+private purchase; there was no room for more than the owner inside, and
+before we had been at one for five minutes the roadway became impassable.
+All the idlers and beggars in that district gathered to watch the
+strangers, and the Maalem was the only one who could keep them at bay.
+Salam would merely threaten to cuff an importunate rogue who pestered us,
+but the Maalem would curse him so fluently and comprehensively, and extend
+the anathema so far in either direction, from forgotten ancestors to
+unborn descendants, that no native could stand up for long against the
+flashing eye, the quivering forefinger, the foul and bitter tongue of him.
+There were times, then and later on, when the Maalem seemed to be some
+Moorish connection of Captain Kettle's family, and after reflecting upon
+my experience among hard-swearing men of many nations, seafarers,
+land-sharks, beach-combers and the rest, I award the Maalem pride of
+place. You will find him to-day in Djedida, baking his bread with the aid
+of the small apprentice who looks after the shop when he goes abroad, or
+enjoying the dreams of the haschisch eater when his work is done. He is no
+man's enemy, and the penalty of his shortcomings will probably fall upon
+no body or soul save his own. A picturesque figure, passionate yet a
+philosopher, patiently tolerant of blinding heat, bad roads, uncomfortable
+sleeping quarters and short commons, the Maalem will remain alive and real
+in my memory long after the kaids and wazeers and other high dignitaries
+of his country are no more than dimly splendid shadows, lacking altogether
+in individuality.</p>
+
+<p>I learned to enjoy Djedida by night. Then the town was almost as silent as
+our camp below Mediunah had been. The ramparts left by the Portuguese and
+the white walls of the city itself became all of a piece, indistinct and
+mysterious as the darkness blended them. Late camels coming into the town
+to seek the security of some fandak would pad noiselessly past me; weird
+creatures from the under-world they seemed, on whom the ghostlike Arabs in
+their white djellabas were ordered to attend. Children would flit to and
+fro like shadows, strangely quiet, as though held in thrall even in the
+season of their play by the solemn aspect of the surroundings. The
+market-place and road to the landing-stage would be deserted, the gates of
+the city barred, and there was never a light to be seen save where some
+wealthy Moor attended by lantern-bearing slaves passed to and from his
+house. One night by the Kasbah the voice of a watchman broke upon the
+city's silence, at a time when the mueddin was at rest, and it was not
+incumbent upon the faithful to pray. "Be vigilant, O guardians," he
+cried,&mdash;"be vigilant and do not sleep." Below, by my side, on the ground,
+the guardians, wrapped warm in their djellabas, dreamed on, all
+undisturbed.</p>
+
+<p>By night, too, the pariah dogs, scavengers of all Mohammedan cities,
+roamed at their ease and leisure through Djedida, so hungry and so free
+from daintiness that no garbage would be left on the morrow. Moorish
+houses have no windows fronting the road&mdash;decency forbids, and though
+there might have been ample light within, the bare walls helped to darken
+the pathway, and it was wise to walk warily lest one should tumble over
+some beggar asleep on the ground.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 792px;">
+<a name="m17" id="m17"></a>
+<img src="images/m17.jpg" width="792" height="640" alt="SUNSET OFF THE COAST" title="SUNSET OFF THE COAST" />
+<br /><span class="caption">SUNSET OFF THE COAST</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>On nights like these and through streets not greatly different, Harun al
+Raschid fared abroad in Baghdad and lighted upon the wonderful folk who
+live for all time in the pages of the <i>Arabian Nights</i>. Doubtless I passed
+some twentieth-century descendants of the fisher-folk, the Calendars, the
+slaves, and the merchants who move in their wonderful pageantry along the
+glittering road of the "Thousand Nights and a Night,"&mdash;the type is
+marvellously unchanging in Al Moghreb; but, alas, they spoke, if at all,
+to deaf ears, and Salam was ever more anxious to see me safely home than
+to set out in search of adventure. By day I knew that Djedida had little
+of the charm associated even in this year of grace with the famous city on
+the Tigris, but, all over the world that proclaims the inspiration of
+Mohammed, the old times come back by night, and then "a thousand years are
+but as yesterday."</p>
+
+<p>Happily we were right below the area of rebellion. In the north, round Fez
+and Taza, there was severe fighting, spreading thence to the Riff country.
+Here, people did no more than curse the Pretender in public or the Sultan
+in private, according to the state of their personal feelings.
+Communication with the south, said the Maalem, was uninterrupted; only in
+the north were the sons of the Illegitimate, the rebels against Allah,
+troubling Our Lord the Sultan. From Djedida down to the Atlas the tribes
+were peaceful, and would remain at rest unless Our Master should attempt
+to collect his taxes, in which case, without doubt, there would be
+trouble.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 721px;">
+<a name="m18" id="m18"></a>
+<img src="images/m18.jpg" width="721" height="640" alt="A VERANDAH AT MAZAGAN" title="A VERANDAH AT MAZAGAN" />
+<br /><span class="caption">A VERANDAH AT MAZAGAN</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>He was a busy man in these days, was the Maalem. When he was not baking
+bread or smoking kief he was securing mules and bringing them for our
+inspection. To Mr. T. Spinney, son of the British Vice-Consul in Mazagan,
+we owed our salvation. A master of Moghrebbin Arabic, on intimate terms
+with the Moors, and thoroughly conversant with the road and its
+requirements, he stood between me and the fiery-tongued Maalem. This mule
+was rejected, that saddle was returned, stirrups tied with string were
+disqualified, the little man's claim to have all "the money in the hand"
+was overruled, and the Maalem, red-hot sputtering iron in my hands, was as
+wax in Mr. Spinney's. My good friend and host also found Kaid M'Barak,<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a>
+the soldier, a tall, scorched, imperturbable warrior, who rode a brave
+horse, and carried a gun done up in a very tattered, old, flannel case
+tied with half a dozen pieces of string. The kaid's business was to strike
+terror into the hearts of evil men in return for a Moorish dollar a day,
+and to help with tent setting and striking, or anything else that might be
+required, in return for his food. He was a lean, gaunt, taciturn man, to
+whom twelve hours in the saddle brought no discomfort, and though he
+strove earnestly to rob me, it was only at the journey's end, when he had
+done his work faithfully and well. His gun seemed to be a constant source
+of danger to somebody, for he carried it at right angles to his horse
+across the saddle, and often on the road I would start to consciousness
+that the kaid was covering me with his be-frocked weapon. After a time
+one grew accustomed and indifferent to the danger, but when I went
+shooting in the Argan forest I left the blessed one in camp. He was
+convinced that he carried his gun in proper fashion, and that his duty was
+well done. And really he may have been right, for upon a day, when a hint
+of possible danger threatened, I learned to my amusement and relief that
+the valiant man carried no ammunition of any sort, and that the barrel of
+his gun was stuffed full of red calico.</p>
+
+<p>Our inland tramp over, he took one day's rest at Mogador, then gathered
+the well-earned store of dollars into his belt and started off to follow
+the coast road back to Djedida. Perhaps by now the Basha has had his
+dollars, or the Sultan has summoned him to help fight Bu Hamara. In any
+case I like to think that his few weeks with us will rank among the
+pleasant times of his life, for he proved a patient, enduring man, and
+though silent, a not unedifying companion.</p>
+
+<p>Among the strange stories I heard in Djedida while preparing for the
+journey was one relating to the then War Minister, Kaid Mahedi el Menebhi,
+some-time envoy to the Court of St. James's. In his early days Menebhi,
+though a member of the great Atlas Kabyle of that name, had been a poor
+lad running about Djedida's streets, ready and willing to earn a handful
+of <i>floos</i><a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> by hard work of any description. Then he set up in business
+as a mender of old shoes and became notorious, not because of his skill as
+a cobbler, but on account of his quick wit and clever ideas. In all
+Mohammedan countries a Believer may rise without any handicap on account
+of lowly origin, and so it fell out that the late Grand Wazeer, Ba Ahmad,
+during a visit to Djedida heard of the young cobbler's gifts, and
+straightway gave him a place in his household. Thereafter promotion was
+rapid and easy for Menebhi, and the lad who had loafed about the streets
+with the outcasts of the city became, under the Sultan, the first man in
+Morocco. "To-day," concluded my informant, "he has palaces and slaves and
+a great hareem, he is a Chief Wazeer and head of the Sultan's forces, but
+he still owes a merchant in Djedida some few dollars on account of leather
+he had bought and forgot to pay for when Ba Ahmad took him to
+Marrakesh."<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 730px;">
+<a name="m19" id="m19"></a>
+<img src="images/m19.jpg" width="730" height="640" alt="A BLACKSMITH&#39;S SHOP" title="A BLACKSMITH&#39;S SHOP" />
+<br /><span class="caption">A BLACKSMITH&#39;S SHOP</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>In the R'hamna country, on the way to the southern capital, we pitched our
+tents one night in a Government n'zala, or guarded camping-ground, one of
+many that are spread about the country for the safety of travellers. The
+price of corn, eggs, and chickens was amazingly high, and the Maalem
+explained that the n'zala was kept by some of the immediate family of
+Mahedi el Menebhi, who had put them there, presumably to make what profit
+they could. I looked very carefully at our greedy hosts. They were a rough
+unprepossessing crowd, but their wealth in sheep and goats alone was
+remarkable, and their stock was safe from molestation, for they were
+known to be relatives of the Sultan's chief minister, a man whose arm is
+long and hard-hitting. Since last autumn Menebhi has resigned his high
+office, reduced his household, manumitted many slaves, and gone on the
+great pilgrimage to Mecca, so it may be presumed that his relatives in the
+forsaken R'hamna country have lowered their prices. Yet, 'tis something to
+have a great wazeer for relative even though, for the time being, loss of
+favour has given him leisure for pious observances.</p>
+
+<p>At length the evening came, when the last mule was selected, the last
+package made up, and nothing lay between us and the open road. Sleep was
+hard to woo. I woke before daylight, and was in the patio before the first
+animal arrived, or the sleepy porter had fumbled at the door of the
+warehouse where the luggage was stacked.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Morn in the white wake of the morning star<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Came furrowing all the orient into gold,<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>and gave to the tops of walls and battlements a momentary tinge of rose
+colour, a sight well worth the effort demanded by early rising.
+Sparrow-hawks and pigeons were fluttering over their nests on the deserted
+battlements, a stork eyed me with solemn curiosity from the minaret of a
+near mosque, and only the earliest wayfarers were astir. How slowly the
+men seemed to do their work, and how rapidly the morning wore on. Ropes
+and palmetto baskets refused to fit at the last moment, two mules were
+restive until their "father," the Maalem, very wide awake and energetic,
+cursed their religion, and reminded them that they were the children of
+asses renowned throughout the Moghreb for baseness and immorality. One
+animal was found at the last moment to be saddle-galled, and was rejected
+summarily, despite its "father's" frenzied assurances. Though I had been
+astir shortly before three, and at work soon after four, it was nearly
+seven o'clock when the last crooked way had been made straight, the last
+shwarri<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> balanced, and the luggage mules were moving to the Dukala
+gate.</p>
+
+<p>The crowd of curious onlookers then gave way, some few wishing us well on
+the journey. I daresay there were many among them, tied by their daily
+toil to the town, who thought with longing of the pleasant road before us,
+through fertile lands where all the orchards were aflower and the peasants
+were gathering the ripe barley, though April had yet some days to revel
+in. Small boys waved their hands to us, the water-carrier carrying his
+tight goat-skin from the wells set his cups a-tinkling, as though by way
+of a God-speed, and then M'Barak touched his horse with the spur to induce
+the bravery of a caracole, and led us away from Djedida. I drew a long
+breath of pleasure and relief; we were upon the road.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> The sok is the market-place.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Kaid is a complimentary title&mdash;he was a common soldier.
+M'Barak means "the blessed one," and is one of the names usually set apart
+for slaves.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Base copper coins, of which a penny will purchase a score.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> It is fair to say that this is no more than one of many
+stories relating to the great Wazeer's early days. Another says that he
+started life as a soldier. There is no doubt that he is a man of
+extraordinary talent.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> A pannier made of palmetto.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>ON THE MOORISH ROAD</h2>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 874px;">
+<a name="m20" id="m20"></a>
+<img src="images/m20.jpg" width="874" height="640" alt="A SAINT&#39;S TOMB" title="A SAINT&#39;S TOMB" />
+<br /><span class="caption">A SAINT&#39;S TOMB</span>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2>
+
+<h3>ON THE MOORISH ROAD</h3>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">With the brief gladness of the Palms, that tower and sway o'er seething plain,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Fraught with the thoughts of rustling shade, and welling spring, and rushing rain;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">'Tis their's to pass with joy and hope, whose souls shall ever thrill and fill<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Dreams of the Birthplace and the Tomb,&mdash;visions of Allah's Holy Hill.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0"><i>The Kasidah.</i><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<p>We travel slowly, for the Maalem "father" of the pack-mules&mdash;guide,
+philosopher, and trusted companion&mdash;says that haste kills strong men, and
+often repeats a Moorish proverb which tells us that walking is better than
+running, and that of all things sitting still is best. If Salam and I,
+reaching a piece of level sward by the side of some orchard or arable land
+when the heat of the day has passed, venture to indulge in a brisk canter,
+the Maalem's face grows black as his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>"Have a care," he said to me one evening, "for this place is peopled by
+djinoon, and if they are disturbed they will at least kill the horses and
+mules, and leave us to every robber among the hills." Doubtless the
+Maalem prophesied worse things than this, but I have no Arabic worth
+mention, and Salam, who acts as interpreter, possesses a very fair amount
+of tact. I own to a vulgar curiosity that urges me to see a djin if I can,
+so, after this warning, Salam and I go cantering every late afternoon when
+the Enemy, as some Moors call the sun, is moving down towards the west,
+and the air gets its first faint touch of evening cool. Fortunately or
+unfortunately, the evil spirits never appear however, unless unnoticed by
+me in the harmless forms of storks, stock-doves, or sparrow-hawks.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 647px;">
+<a name="m21" id="m21"></a>
+<img src="images/m21.jpg" width="647" height="640" alt="NEAR A WELL IN THE COUNTRY" title="NEAR A WELL IN THE COUNTRY" />
+<br /><span class="caption">NEAR A WELL IN THE COUNTRY</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>In this fertile province of the Dukala, in the little-known kingdom of the
+victorious Sultan, Mulai Abd-el-Aziz, there are delightful stretches of
+level country, and the husbandman's simplest toil suffices to bring about
+an abundant harvest. Unhappily a great part of the province is not in
+permanent cultivation at all. For miles and miles, often as far as the eye
+can see, the land lies fallow, never a farmhouse or village to be seen,
+nothing save some zowia or saint's tomb, with white dome rising within
+four white walls to stare undaunted at the fierce African sun, while the
+saint's descendants in the shelter of the house live by begging from pious
+visitors. Away from the fertility that marks the neighbourhood of the
+douars, one finds a few spare bushes, suddra, retam, or colocynth, a few
+lizards darting here and there, and over all a supreme silence that may be
+felt, even as the darkness that troubled Egypt in days of old. The main
+track, not to be dignified by the name of road, is always to be discerned
+clearly enough, at least the Maalem is never in doubt when stray paths,
+leading from nowhere to the back of beyond, intersect it.</p>
+
+<p>At long intervals we pass a n'zala, a square empty space surrounded by a
+zariba of thorn and prickly pear. The village, a few wattled huts with
+conical roofs, stands by its side. Every n'zala is a Government shelter
+for travellers; you may pitch your tent within the four walls, and even if
+you remain outside and hire guards the owners of the huts are responsible
+for your safety, with their worldly goods, perhaps with their lives. I
+have tried the interior of the Moorish n'zalas, where all too frequently
+you must lie on unimagined filth, often almost within reach of
+camel-drivers and muleteers, who are so godly that they have no time to be
+clean, and I have concluded that the drawbacks outweigh the advantages.
+Now I pitch my tent on some cleaner spot, and pay guards from the village
+to stretch their blankets under its lee and go to sleep. If there are
+thieves abroad the zariba will not keep them out, and if there are no
+thieves a tired traveller may forget his fatigue.</p>
+
+<p>On the road we meet few wayfarers, and those we encounter are full of
+suspicion. Now and again we pass some country kaid or khalifa out on
+business. As many as a dozen well-armed slaves and retainers may follow
+him, and, as a rule, he rides a well-fed Barb with a fine crimson saddle
+and many saddle cloths. Over his white djellaba is a blue selham that
+came probably from Manchester; his stirrups are silver or plated. He
+travels unarmed and seldom uses spurs&mdash;a packing needle serves as an
+effective substitute. When he has spurs they are simply spear-heads&mdash;sharp
+prongs without rowels. The presence of Unbelievers in the country of the
+True Faith is clearly displeasing to him, but he is nearly always diplomat
+enough to return my laboured greeting, though doubtless he curses me
+heartily enough under his breath. His road lies from village to village,
+his duty to watch the progress of the harvest for his overlord. Even the
+locusts are kinder than the country kaids. But so soon as the kaid has
+amassed sufficient wealth, the governor of his province, or one of the
+high wazeers in the Sultan's capital, will despoil him and sell his place
+to the highest bidder, and in the fulness of time the Sultan will send for
+that wazeer or governor, and treat him in similar fashion. "Mektub," it is
+written, and who shall avoid destiny?<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 605px;">
+<a name="m22" id="m22"></a>
+<img src="images/m22.jpg" width="605" height="640" alt="NEAR A WELL IN THE TOWN" title="NEAR A WELL IN THE TOWN" />
+<br /><span class="caption">NEAR A WELL IN THE TOWN</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>When the way is long and the sun hot, pack and saddle animals come
+together, keeping a level pace of some five miles an hour, and Salam or
+the Maalem beguiles the tedium of the way with song or legend. The Maalem
+has a song that was taught him by one of his grandfather's slaves, in the
+far-off days when Mulai Mohammed reigned in Red Marrakesh. In this chant,
+with its weird monotonous refrain, the slaves sing of their journey from
+the lands of the South, the terrors of the way, the lack of food and
+water. It is a dismal affair enough, but the Maalem likes it, and Salam,
+riding under a huge Tetuan hat, carrying my shot gun, in case some fresh
+meat should come along, and keeping watchful eye on the mules, joins
+lustily in the refrain. Salam has few songs of his own, and does not care
+to sing them, lest his importance should suffer in the native eyes, but he
+possesses a stock of Arabian Nights' legends, and quotes them as though
+they were part of Al Koran.</p>
+
+<p>Now and again, in some of the waste and stony places beyond Dukala's
+boundaries, we come across a well, literally a well in the desert, with
+husbandmen gathered about it and drawing water in their goat-skin buckets,
+that are tied to long palmetto ropes made by the men of the neighbouring
+villages. The water is poured into flat, puddled troughs, and the thirsty
+flocks and herds drink in turn, before they march away to hunt for such
+scanty herbage as the land affords. The scene round these wells is
+wonderfully reminiscent of earliest Bible times, particularly so where the
+wandering Bedouins bring their flocks to water from the inhospitable
+territory of the Wad Nun and deserts below the Sus.</p>
+
+<p>I note with pleasure the surprising dignity of the herdsmen, who make far
+less comment upon the appearance of the stranger in these wild places than
+we should make upon the appearance of a Moor or Berber in a London street.</p>
+
+<p>The most unmistakable tribute to the value of the water is paid by the
+skeletons of camels, mules, sheep and goats that mark the road to the
+well. They tell the tale of animals beaten by the Enemy in their last
+stride. It is not easy for a European to realise the suffering these
+strange lands must see when the summer drought is upon the face of the
+earth. Perhaps they are lessened among the human sufferers by the very
+real fatalism that accepts evil as it accepts good, without grief and
+without gladness, but always with philosophic calm; at least we should
+call it philosophic in a European; superstitious fatalism, of course, in a
+Moor.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 599px;">
+<a name="m23" id="m23"></a>
+<img src="images/m23.jpg" width="599" height="640" alt="MOORISH WOMAN AND CHILD" title="MOORISH WOMAN AND CHILD" />
+<br /><span class="caption">MOORISH WOMAN AND CHILD</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The earliest and latest hours of our daily journey are, I think, the best.
+When afternoon turns toward evening in the fertile lands, and the great
+heat begins to pass, countless larks resume their song, while from every
+orchard one hears the subdued murmur of doves or the mellow notes of the
+nightingale. Storks sweep in wide circles overhead or teach their awkward
+young the arts of flight, or wade solemnly in search of supper to some
+marsh where the bull-frogs betray their presence by croaking as loudly as
+they can. The decline of the sun is quite rapid&mdash;very often the afterglow
+lights us to our destination. It is part of the Maalem's duty to decide
+upon the place of our nightly sojourn, and so to regulate the time of
+starting, the pace, and the mid-day rest, that he may bring us to the
+village or n'zala in time to get the tent up before darkness has fallen.
+The little man is master of every turn in the road, and has only failed
+once&mdash;when he brought us to a large village, where the bulk of the
+inhabitants of outlying douars had attacked the Governor's house, with
+very little success, on the previous day, and were now about to be
+attacked in their turn by the Governor and his bodyguard. There had been
+much firing and more shouting, but nobody was badly hurt. Prudence
+demanded that the journey be resumed forthwith, and for three hours the
+Maalem kept his eyes upon the stars and cursed the disturbers of the
+land's peace. Then we reached the desired haven, and passed unscathed
+through the attacks of the native dogs that guarded its approaches.</p>
+
+<p>The procedure when we approach a n'zala in the evening is highly
+interesting. Some aged headman, who has seen our little company
+approaching, stands by the edge of the road and declares we are
+welcome.<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> Salam or the Maalem responds and presents me, a traveller
+from the far country of the Ingliz, carrying letters to the great sheikhs
+of the South. The headman repeats his welcome and is closely questioned
+concerning the existing supplies of water, corn, milk, eggs, and poultry.
+These points being settled, Salam asks abouts guards. The strangers would
+sleep outside the n'zala: Can they have guards at a fair price? Three are
+promised for a payment of about sevenpence apiece, and then the headman
+precedes us and we turn from the main track to the place of shelter.</p>
+
+<p>Instantly the village is astir. The dogs are driven off. Every wattled
+hut yields its quota of men, women, and children, spectral in their white
+djellabas and all eager to see the strangers and their equipment. The men
+collect in one group and talk seriously of the visit, well assured that it
+has some significance, probably unpleasant; the women, nervous by nature
+and training, do not venture far from their homes and remain veiled to the
+eyes. But the children&mdash;dark, picturesque, half-naked boys and girls&mdash;are
+nearly free from fear if not from doubt. The tattoo marks on their chins
+keep them safe from the evil eye; so they do not run much risk from chance
+encounter with a European. They approach in a constantly shifting group,
+no detail of the unpacking is lost to them, they are delighted with the
+tent and amazed at the number of articles required to furnish it, they
+refuse biscuits and sugar, though Salam assures them that both are good to
+eat, and indeed sugar is one of the few luxuries of their simple lives.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 709px;">
+<a name="m24" id="m24"></a>
+<img src="images/m24.jpg" width="709" height="640" alt="EVENING ON THE PLAINS" title="EVENING ON THE PLAINS" />
+<br /><span class="caption">EVENING ON THE PLAINS</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>By the headman's direction our wants are supplied. The patriarch, with his
+long white beard and clear far-seeing eyes, receives the respect and
+obedience of all the village, settles all disputes, and is personally
+responsible to the kaid of the district for the order and safety of the
+n'zala. Three men come from the well, each bearing a big clay amphora of
+water that must be boiled before we drink it. One brings an ample measure
+of barley, costing about four shillings or a little more in English money,
+another bends under a great load of straw. Closely-veiled women carry
+small jars of milk and hand them to their lord, who brings them up to
+Salam and states the price demanded. Milk is dear throughout Morocco in
+the late spring and summer, for, herbage being scanty, cows are small and
+poor. Eggs, on the other hand, are cheap; we can buy a dozen for twopence
+or its equivalent in Spanish or Moorish money, and chickens cost about
+fivepence apiece. If Salam, M'Barak and the Maalem were travelling alone
+they would pay less, but a European is rarely seen, and his visit must be
+made memorable.</p>
+
+<p>Provisions purchased, the tent up, mules and horses tethered together in
+full view of the tent, a great peace falls upon our little party. I am
+permitted to lie at full length on a horse rug and stare up at the dark,
+star-spangled sky; Salam has dug a little hole in the ground, made a
+charcoal fire, and begun to prepare soup and boil the water for coffee.
+The Maalem smokes kief in furtive manner, as though orthodox enough to be
+ashamed of the practice, while M'Barak prepares plates and dishes for the
+evening meal. Around, in a semicircle, some ten yards away, the men and
+boys of the village sit observing us solemnly. They have little to say,
+but their surprise and interest are expressed quite adequately by their
+keen unfailing regard. The afterglow passes and charcoal fires are lighted
+at the edge of most of the native huts, in preparation for the evening
+meal, for the young shepherds have come from the fields and the flocks are
+safely penned. In the gathering dusk the native women, passing through the
+smoke or by the flame of their fire, present a most weird picture, as it
+might be they were participating in a Witches' Sabbath. Darkness envelops
+all the surrounding country, hiding the road by which we came, sealing up
+the track we have to follow, striking a note of loneliness that is awesome
+without being unpleasant. With what we call civilisation hundreds of miles
+away, in a country where law and order are to be regarded more as names
+than facts, one has a great joy in mere living, intensified doubtless by
+long hours spent in the saddle, by occasional hard work and curtailed
+rest, and by the daily sight of the rising sun.</p>
+
+<p>The evening meal is a simple affair of soup, a chicken, and some coffee to
+follow, and when it is over I make my way to the kitchen tent, where the
+men have supped, and send M'Barak with an invitation to the headman and
+his sons. The blessed one makes his way to the headman's hut, while Salam
+clears up the debris of the meal, and the Maalem, conscious that no more
+work will be expected of him, devotes his leisure to the combustion of
+hemp, openly and unashamed. With many compliments the headman arrives, and
+I stand up to greet and bid him welcome&mdash;an effort that makes heavy call
+upon my scanty store of Arabic. The visitors remove their slippers and sit
+at ease, while Salam makes a savoury mess of green tea, heavily sweetened
+and flavoured with mint. My visitors are too simply pious to smoke, and
+regard the Maalem with displeasure and surprise, but he is quite beyond
+the reach of their reproaches now. His eyes are staring glassily, his lips
+have a curious ashen colour, his hands are twitching&mdash;the hemp god has
+him by the throat. The village men turn their backs upon this degraded
+Believer, and return thanks to Allah the One for sending an infidel who
+gives them tea. Broadly speaking, it is only coast Moors, who have
+suffered what is to them the contamination of European influences, that
+smoke in Morocco.</p>
+
+<p>Like the Walrus and the Carpenter, we talk of many things, Salam acting as
+interpreter. The interests of my guests are simple: good harvests,
+abundant rain, and open roads are all they desire. They have never seen
+the sea or even a big Moorish town, but they have heard of these things
+from travellers and traders who have passed their nights in the n'zala in
+times recent or remote, and sometimes they appeal to me to say if these
+tales are true. Are there great waters of which no man may drink&mdash;waters
+that are never at rest? Do houses with devils (? steam engines) in them go
+to and fro upon the face of these waters? Are there great cities so big
+that a man cannot walk from end to end in half a day? I testify to the
+truth of these things, and the headman praises Allah, who has done what
+seemed good to him in lands both near and far. It is, I fear, the
+headman's polite way of saying that Saul is among the prophets. My
+revolver, carefully unloaded, is passed from hand to hand, its uses and
+capacities are known even to these wild people, and the weapon creates
+more interest than the tent and all its varied equipment. Naturally
+enough, it turns the talk to war and slaughter, and I learn that the local
+kaid has an endless appetite for thieves and other children of shameless
+women, that guns are fired very often within his jurisdiction, and baskets
+full of heads have been collected after a purely local fight. All this is
+said with a quiet dignity, as though to remind me that I have fallen among
+people of some distinction, and the effect is only spoilt by the
+recollection that nearly every headman has the same tale to tell. Sultans,
+pretenders, wazeers, and high court functionaries are passed in critical
+review, their faults and failings noted. I cannot avoid the conclusion
+that the popular respect is for the strong hand&mdash;that civilised government
+would take long to clear itself of the imputation of cowardice. The local
+kaid is always a tyrant, but he is above all things a man, keen-witted,
+adventurous, prompt to strike, and determined to bleed his subjects white.
+So the men of the village, while suffering so keenly from his arbitrary
+methods, look with fear and wonder at their master, respect him secretly,
+and hope the day will come when by Allah's grace they too will be allowed
+to have mastery over their fellows and to punish others as they have been
+punished. Strength is the first and greatest of all virtues, so far as
+they can see, and cunning and ferocity are necessary gifts in a land where
+every man's hand is against his neighbour.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 567px;">
+<a name="m25" id="m25"></a>
+<img src="images/m25.jpg" width="567" height="640" alt="TRAVELLERS BY NIGHT" title="TRAVELLERS BY NIGHT" />
+<br /><span class="caption">TRAVELLERS BY NIGHT</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The last cup of green tea has been taken, the charcoal, no longer
+refreshed by the bellows, has ceased to glow, around us the native fires
+are out. The hour of repose is upon the night, and the great athletic
+villagers rise, resume their slippers, and pass with civil salutation to
+their homes. Beyond the tent our guards are sleeping soundly in their
+blankets; the surrounding silence is overwhelming. The grave itself could
+hardly be more still. Even the hobbled animals are at rest, and we enter
+into the enveloping silence for five or six dreamless hours.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>The horses stir and wake me; I open the tent and call the men. Our guards
+rouse themselves and retire to their huts. The Maalem, no worse, to
+outward seeming, for the night's debauch, lights the charcoal. It is about
+half-past three, the darkness has past but the sun has not risen, the land
+seems plunged in heavy sleep, the air is damp and chill. Few pleasures
+attach to this early rising, but it is necessary to be on the road before
+six o'clock in order to make good progress before the vertical rays of the
+sun bid us pause and seek what shelter we can find. Two hours is not a
+long time in which to strike tents, prepare breakfast,&mdash;a solid affair of
+porridge, omelette, coffee, marmalade and biscuits,&mdash;pack everything, and
+load the mules. We must work with a will, or the multi-coloured pageant in
+the eastern sky will have passed before we are on the road again.</p>
+
+<p>Early as it is we are not astir much before the village. Almost as soon as
+I am dressed the shepherd boys and girls are abroad, playing on their reed
+flutes as they drive the flocks to pasture from the pens to which they
+were brought at sundown. They go far afield for food if not for water, but
+evening must see their animals safely secured once more, for if left out
+overnight the nearest predatory tribesmen would carry them off. There is
+no security outside the village, and no village is safe from attack when
+there is unrest in the province. A cattle raid is a favourite form of
+amusement among the warlike tribes of the Moorish country, being
+profitable, exciting, and calculated to provoke a small fight.</p>
+
+<p>A group of interested observers assembles once more, reinforced by the
+smallest children, who were too frightened to venture out of doors last
+night. Nothing disturbs the little company before we leave the camp. The
+headman, grave and dignified as ever, receives payment for corn, straw,
+chickens, milk, eggs, water, and guards, a matter of about ten shillings
+in English money, and a very large sum indeed for such a tiny village to
+receive. The last burden is fastened on the patient mules, girths and
+straps and belts are examined, and we pass down the incline to the main
+road and turn the horses' heads to the Atlas Mountains.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> "There happeneth no misfortune on the earth or to
+yourselves, but it is written in the Book before we created it: verily
+that is easy to Allah."&mdash;Al Koran; Sura, "The Tree."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> This courtesy is truly Eastern, and has many variants. I
+remember meeting two aged rabbis who were seated on stones by the roadside
+half a mile from the city of Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee. They rose as
+I approached, and said in Hebrew, "Blessed be he who cometh."</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>TO THE GATES OF MARRAKESH</h2>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 608px;">
+<a name="m26" id="m26"></a>
+<img src="images/m26.jpg" width="608" height="640" alt="THE R&#39;KASS" title="THE R&#39;KASS" />
+<br /><span class="caption">THE R&#39;KASS</span>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+
+<h3>TO THE GATES OF MARRAKESH</h3>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">In hawthorn-time the heart grows bright,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The world is sweet in sound and sight,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Glad thoughts and birds take flower and flight,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The heather kindles toward the light,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The whin is frankincense and flame.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0"><i>The Tale of Balen.</i><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<p>If you would savour the true sense of Morocco, and enjoy glimpses of a
+life that belongs properly to the era of Genesis, journey through Dukala,
+Shiadma, or Haha in April. Rise early, fare simply, and travel far enough
+to appreciate whatever offers for a camping-ground, though it be no more
+than the grudging shadow of a wall at mid-day, or a n'zala not overclean,
+when from north, south, east, and west the shepherd boys and girls are
+herding their flocks along the homeward way. You will find the natives
+kind and leisured enough to take interest in your progress, and, their
+confidence gained, you shall gather, if you will, some knowledge of the
+curious, alluring point of view that belongs to fatalists. I have been
+struck by the dignity, the patience, and the endurance of the Moor, by
+whom I mean here the Arab who lives in Morocco, and not the aboriginal
+Berber, or the man with black blood preponderating in his veins. To the
+Moor all is for the best. He knows that Allah has bound the fate of each
+man about his neck, so he moves fearlessly and with dignity to his
+appointed end, conscious that his God has allotted the palace or the
+prison for his portion, and that fellow-men can no more than fulfil the
+divine decree. Here lies the secret of the bravery that, when disciplined,
+may yet shake the foundations of Western civilisation. How many men pass
+me on the road bound on missions of life or death, yet serene and placid
+as the medi&aelig;val saints who stand in their niches in some cathedral at
+home. Let me recall a few fellow-wayfarers and pass along the roadless way
+in their company once again.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 736px;">
+<a name="m27" id="m27"></a>
+<img src="images/m27.jpg" width="736" height="640" alt="A TRAVELLER ON THE PLAINS" title="A TRAVELLER ON THE PLAINS" />
+<br /><span class="caption">A TRAVELLER ON THE PLAINS</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>First and foremost stands out a khalifa, lieutenant of a great country
+kaid, met midmost Dukala, in a place of level barley fields new cut with
+the <i>media luna</i>. Brilliant poppies and irises stained the meadows on all
+sides, and orchards whose cactus hedges, planted for defence, were now
+aflame with blood-red flowers, became a girdle of beauty as well as
+strength. The khalifa rode a swiftly-ambling mule, a beast of price, his
+yellow slippers were ostentatiously new, and his ample girth proclaimed
+the wealthy man in a land where all the poor are thin. "Peace," was his
+salutation to M'Barak, who led the way, and when he reached us he again
+invoked the Peace of Allah upon Our Lord Mohammed and the Faithful of the
+Prophet's House, thereby and with malice aforethought excluding the
+infidel. Like others of his class who passed us he was but ill-pleased to
+see the stranger in the land; unlike the rest he did not conceal his
+convictions. Behind him came three black slaves, sleek, armed, proud in
+the pride of their lord, and with this simple retinue the khalifa was on
+his way to tithe the newly-harvested produce of the farmers who lived in
+that district. Dangerous work, I thought, to venture thus within the
+circle of the native douars and claim the lion's share of the hard-won
+produce of the husbandmen. He and his little company would be outnumbered
+in the proportion of thirty or forty to one, they had no military
+following, and yet went boldly forth to rob on the kaid's behalf. I
+remembered how, beyond Tangier, the men of the hills round Anjera had
+risen against an unpopular khalifa, had tortured him in atrocious fashion,
+and left him blind and hideously maimed, to be a warning to all tyrants.
+Doubtless our prosperous fellow-traveller knew all about it, doubtless he
+realised that the Sultan's authority was only nominal, but he knew that
+his immediate master, the Basha, still held his people in an iron grip
+while, above and beyond all else, he knew by the living faith that
+directed his every step in life, that his own fate, whether good or evil,
+was already assigned to him. I heard the faint echo of the greeting
+offered by the dogs of the great douar into which he passed, and felt well
+assured that the protests of the village folk, if they ventured to
+protest, would move him no more than the barking of those pariahs. The
+hawks we saw poised in the blue above our heads when small birds sang at
+sunsetting, were not more cheerfully devoid of sentiment than our khalifa,
+though it may be they had more excuse than he.</p>
+
+<p>On another afternoon we sat at lunch in the grateful sombre shade of a
+fig-tree. Beyond the little stone dyke that cut the meadow from the arable
+land a negro ploughed with an ox and an ass, in flat defiance of Biblical
+injunction. The beasts were weary or lazy, or both, and the slave cursed
+them with an energy that was wonderful for the time of day. Even the birds
+had ceased to sing, the cicadas were silent in the tree tops, and when one
+of the mules rolled on the ground and scattered its pack upon all sides,
+the Maalem was too exhausted to do more than call it the "son of a
+Christian and a Jew."</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 594px;">
+<a name="m28" id="m28"></a>
+<img src="images/m28.jpg" width="594" height="640" alt="THE MID-DAY HALT" title="THE MID-DAY HALT" />
+<br /><span class="caption">THE MID-DAY HALT</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Down the track we had followed came a fair man, of slight build, riding a
+good mule. He dismounted by the tree to adjust his saddle, tighten a
+stirrup thong, and say a brief prayer. Then, indifferent to the heat, he
+hurried on, and Salam, who had held short converse with him, announced
+that he was an emissary of Bu Hamara the Pretender, speeding southward to
+preach the rising to the Atlas tribes. He carried his life in his hands
+through the indifferently loyal southern country, but the burden was not
+heavy enough to trouble him. Bu Hamara, the man no bullets could injure,
+the divinely directed one, who could call the dead from their pavilion in
+Paradise to encourage the living, had bade him go rouse the sleeping
+southerners, and so he went, riding fearlessly into the strong glare that
+wrapt and hid him. His work was for faith or for love: it was not for
+gain. If he succeeded he would not be rewarded, if he failed he would be
+forgotten.</p>
+
+<p>Very often, at morning, noon, and sunset, we would meet the r'kass or
+native letter-carrier, a wiry man from the Sus country, more often than
+not, with naked legs and arms. In his hand he would carry the long pole
+that served as an aid to his tired limbs when he passed it behind his
+shoulders, and at other times helped him to ford rivers or defend himself
+against thieves. An eager, hurrying fellow was the r'kass, with rarely
+enough breath to respond to a salutation as he passed along, his letters
+tied in a parcel on his back, a lamp at his girdle to guide him through
+the night, and in his wallet a little bread or parched flour, a tiny pipe,
+and some kief. Only if travelling in our direction would he talk, repaying
+himself for the expenditure of breath by holding the stirrup of mule or
+horse. Resting for three to five hours in the twenty-four, sustaining
+himself more with kief than with bread, hardened to a point of endurance
+we cannot realise, the r'kass is to be met with on every Moorish road that
+leads to a big city&mdash;a solitary, brave, industrious man, who runs many
+risks for little pay. His letters delivered, he goes to the nearest house
+of public service, there to sleep, to eat sparingly and smoke incessantly,
+until he is summoned to the road again. No matter if the tribes are out on
+the warpath, so that the caravans and merchants may not pass,&mdash;no matter
+if the powder "speaks" from every hill,&mdash;the r'kass slips through with
+his precious charge, passing lightly as a cloud over a summer meadow,
+often within a few yards of angry tribesmen who would shoot him at sight
+for the mere pleasure of killing. If the luck is against him he must pay
+the heaviest penalty, but this seldom occurs unless the whole country-side
+is aflame. At other times, when there is peace in the land, and the wet
+season has made the unbridged rivers impassable, whole companies of
+travellers camp on either side of some river&mdash;a silver thread in the dry
+season, a rushing torrent now. But the r'kass knows every ford, and, his
+long pole aiding him, manages to reach his destination. It is his business
+to defy Nature if necessary, just as he defies man in the pursuit of his
+task. He is a living proof of the capacity and dogged endurance still
+surviving in a race Europeans affect to despise.</p>
+
+<p>We met slaves-dealers too from time to time, carrying women and children
+on mules, while the men slaves walked along at a good pace. And the
+dealers by no means wore the villainous aspect that conventional observers
+look to see, but were plainly men bent upon business, travelling to make
+money. They regarded the slaves as merchandise, to be kept in tolerably
+fair condition for the sake of good sales, and unless Ruskin was right
+when he said that all who are not actively kind are cruel, there seemed
+small ground on which to condemn them. To be sure, they were taking slaves
+from market to market, and not bringing Soudanese captives from the
+extreme South, so we saw no trace of the trouble that comes of forced
+travel in the desert, but even that is equally shared by dealers and slave
+alike.</p>
+
+<p>The villages of Morocco are no more than collections of conical huts built
+of mud and wattle and palmetto, or goat and camel skins. These huts are
+set in a circle all opening to the centre, where the live-stock and
+agricultural implements are kept at night. The furniture of a tent is
+simple enough. Handloom and handmill, earthenware jars, clay lamps, a
+mattress, and perhaps a tea-kettle fulfil all requirements.</p>
+
+<p>A dazzling, white-domed saint's shrine within four square walls lights the
+landscape here and there, and gives to some douar such glory as a holy man
+can yield when he has been dead so long that none can tell the special
+direction his holiness took. The zowia serves several useful purposes. The
+storks love to build upon it, and perhaps the influence of its rightful
+owner has something to do with the good character of the interesting young
+birds that we see plashing about in the marshes, and trying to catch fish
+or frogs with something of their parents' skill. Then, again, the zowia
+shelters the descendants of the holy man, who prey upon passers in the
+name of Allah and of the departed.</p>
+
+<p>Beyond one of the villages graced with the shrine of a forgotten saint, I
+chanced upon a poor Moorish woman washing clothes at the edge of a pool.
+She used a native grass-seed in place of soap, and made the linen very
+white with it. On a great stone by the water's edge sat a very old and
+very black slave, and I tried with Salam's aid to chat with him. But he
+had no more than one sentence. "I have seen many Sultans," he cried
+feebly, and to every question he responded with these same words. Two tiny
+village boys stood hand in hand before him and repeated his words,
+wondering. It was a curious picture and set in striking colour, for the
+fields all round us were full of rioting irises, poppies, and convolvuli;
+the sun that gilded them was blazing down upon the old fellow's
+unprotected head. Gnats were assailing him in legions, singing their
+flattering song as they sought to draw his blood.<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> Before us on a hill
+two meadows away stood the douar, its conical huts thatched with black
+straw and striped palmetto, its zowia with minaret points at each corner
+of the protecting walls, and a stork on one leg in the foreground. It cost
+me some effort to tear myself away from the place, and as I remounted and
+prepared to ride off the veteran cried once more, "I have seen many
+Sultans." Then the stork left his perch on the zowia's walls, and settled
+by the marsh, clapping his mandibles as though to confirm the old man's
+statement, and the little boys took up the cry, not knowing what they
+said. He had seen many Sultans. The Praise to Allah, so had not I.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 710px;">
+<a name="m29" id="m29"></a>
+<img src="images/m29.jpg" width="710" height="640" alt="ON GUARD" title="ON GUARD" />
+<br /><span class="caption">ON GUARD</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>By another douar, this time on the outskirts of the R'hamna country, we
+paused for a mid-day rest, and entered the village in search of milk and
+eggs. All the men save one were at work on the land, and he, the guardian
+of the village, an old fellow and feeble, stood on a sandy mound within
+the zariba. He carried a very antiquated flint-lock, that may have been
+own brother to Kaid M'Barak's trusted weapon. I am sure he could not have
+had the strength to fire, even had he enjoyed the knowledge and possessed
+the material to load it. It was his business to mount guard over the
+village treasure. The mound he stood upon was at once the mat'mora that
+hid the corn store, and the bank that sheltered the silver dollars for
+whose protection every man of the village would have risked his life
+cheerfully. The veteran took no notice of our arrival: had we been thieves
+he could have offered no resistance. He remained silent and stationary,
+unconscious that the years in which he might have fulfilled his trust had
+gone for ever. All along the way the boundaries of arable land were marked
+by little piles of stones and I looked anxiously for some sign of the
+curious festival that greets the coming of the new corn, a ceremony in
+which a figure is made for worship by day and sacrifice by night; we were
+just too late for it. For the origin of this sacrifice the inquirer must
+go back to the time of nature worship. It was an old practice, of course,
+in the heyday of Grecian civilisation, and might have been seen in
+England, I believe, little more than twenty years ago.</p>
+
+<p>Claims for protection are made very frequently upon the road. There are
+few of the dramatic moments in which a man rushes up, seizes your stirrup
+and puts himself "beneath the hem of your garment," but there are
+numerous claims for protection of another sort. In Morocco all the Powers
+that signed the Treaty of Madrid are empowered to grant the privilege.
+France has protected subjects by the thousand. They pay no taxes, they are
+not to be punished by the native authorities until their Vice-Consul has
+been cited to appear in their defence, and, in short, they are put above
+the law of their own country and enabled to amass considerable wealth. The
+fact that the foreigner who protects them is often a knave and a thief is
+a draw-back, but the popularity of protection is immense, for the
+protector may possibly not combine cunning with his greed, while the
+native Basha or his khalifa quite invariably does. British subjects may
+not give protection,&mdash;happily the British ideals of justice and fair-play
+have forbidden the much-abused practice,&mdash;and the most the Englishman can
+do is to enter into a trading partnership with a Moor and secure for him a
+certificate of limited protection called "mukhalat," from the name of the
+person who holds it. Great Britain has never abused the Protection system,
+and there are fewer protected Moors in the service or partnership of
+Britons throughout all Morocco than France has in any single town of
+importance.</p>
+
+<p>If I had held the power and the will to give protection, I might have been
+in Morocco to-day, master of a house and a household, drawing half the
+produce of many fields and half the price of flocks of sheep and herds of
+goats. Few mornings passed without bringing some persecuted farmer to the
+camp, generally in the heat of the day, when we rested on his land. He
+would be a tall, vigorous man, burnt brown by the sun, and he would point
+to his fields and flocks, "I have so many sheep and goats, so many oxen
+for the plough, so many mules and horses, so much grain unharvested, so
+much in store. Give me protection, that I may live without fear of my
+kaid, and half of all I own shall be yours." Then I had to explain through
+Salam that I had no power to help him, that my Government would do no more
+than protect me. It was hard for the applicants to learn that they must go
+unaided. The harvest was newly gathered, it had survived rain and blight
+and locusts, and now they had to wait the arrival of their kaid or his
+khalifa, who would seize all they could not conceal,&mdash;hawk, locust, and
+blight in one.</p>
+
+<p>At the village called after its patron saint, Sidi B'noor, a little
+deputation of tribesmen brought grievances for an airing. We sat in the
+scanty shade of the zowia wall. M'Barak, wise man, remained by the side of
+a little pool born of the winter rains; he had tethered his horse and was
+sleeping patiently in the shadow cast by this long-suffering animal. The
+headman, who had seen my sporting guns, introduced himself by sending a
+polite message to beg that none of the birds that fluttered or brooded by
+the shrine might be shot, for that they were all sacred. Needless perhaps
+to say that the idea of shooting at noonday in Southern Morocco was far
+enough from my thoughts, and I sent back an assurance that brought half a
+dozen of the village notables round us as soon as lunch was over.
+Strangely enough, they wanted protection&mdash;but it was sought on account of
+the Sultan's protected subjects. "The men who have protection between
+this place and Djedida," declared their spokesman, sorrowfully, "have no
+fear of Allah or His Prophet. They brawl in our markets and rob us of our
+goods. They insult our houses,<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> they are without shame, and because of
+their protection our lives have become very bitter."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you been to your Basha?" I asked the headman.</p>
+
+<p>"I went bearing a gift in my hand, O Highly Favoured," replied the
+headman, "and he answered me, 'Foolish farmer, shall I bring the Sultan to
+visit me by interfering with these rebels against Allah who have taken the
+protection from Nazarenes?' And then he cursed me and drove me forth from
+his presence. But if you will give protection to us also we will face
+these misbegotten ones, and there shall be none to come between us."</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 870px;">
+<a name="m30" id="m30"></a>
+<img src="images/m30.jpg" width="870" height="640" alt="A VILLAGE AT DUKALA" title="A VILLAGE AT DUKALA" />
+<br /><span class="caption">A VILLAGE AT DUKALA</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>I could do no more than deliver messages of consolation to the poor
+tribesmen, who sat in a semicircle, patient in the quivering heat. The old
+story of goodwill and inability had to be told again, and I never saw men
+more dejected. At the moment of leave-taking, however, I remembered that
+we had some empty mineral-water bottles and a large collection of
+gunmaker's circulars, that had been used as padding for a case of
+cartridges. So I distributed the circulars and empty bottles among the
+protection hunters, and they received them with wonder and delight. When I
+turned to take a last look round, the pages that had pictures of guns
+were being passed reverently from hand to hand; to outward seeming the
+farmers had forgotten their trouble. Thus easily may kindnesses be wrought
+among the truly simple of this world.</p>
+
+<p>The market of Sidi B'noor is famous for its sales of slaves and
+horses,<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> but I remember it best by its swarm of blue rock-pigeons and
+sparrow-hawks, that seemed to live side by side in the walls surrounding
+the saint's white tomb. For reasons best known to themselves they lived
+without quarrelling, perhaps because the saint was a man of peace. Surely
+a sparrow-hawk in our island would not build his nest and live in perfect
+amity with pigeons. But, as is well known, the influence of the saintly
+endures after the flesh of the saint has returned to the dust whence it
+came.</p>
+
+<p>The difference between Dukala and R'hamna, two adjacent provinces, is very
+marked. All that the first enjoys the second lacks. We left the fertile
+lands for great stony plains, wind-swept, bare and dry. Skeletons of
+camels, mules, and donkeys told their story of past sufferings, and the
+water supply was as scanty as the herbage upon which the R'hamna flocks
+fare so poorly. In place of prosperous douars, set in orchards amid rich
+arable land, there were Government n'zalas at long intervals in the waste,
+with wattled huts, and lean, hungry tribesmen, whose poverty was as plain
+to see as their ribs. Neither Basha nor Kaid could well grow fat now in
+such a place, and yet there was a time when R'hamna was a thriving
+province after its kind. But it had a warlike people and fierce, to whom
+the temptation of plundering the caravans that made their way to the
+Southern capital was irresistible. So the Court Elevated by Allah, taking
+advantage of a brief interval of peace, turned its forces loose against
+R'hamna early in the last decade of the nineteenth century. From end to
+end of its plains the powder "spoke," and the burning douars lighted the
+roads that their owners had plundered so often. Neither old nor young were
+spared, and great basketsful of human heads were sent to Red Marrakesh, to
+be spiked upon the wall by the J'maa Effina. When the desolation was
+complete from end to end of the province, the Shareefian troops were
+withdrawn, the few remaining folk of R'hamna were sent north and south to
+other provinces, the n'zalas were established in place of the forgotten
+douars, and the Elevated Court knew that there would be no more
+complaints. That was Mulai el Hassan's method of ruling&mdash;may Allah have
+pardoned him&mdash;and his grand wazeer's after him. It is perhaps the only
+method that is truly understood by the people in Morocco. R'hamna reminded
+me of the wildest and bleakest parts of Palestine, and when the Maalem
+said solemnly it was tenanted by djinoon since the insurrection, I felt he
+must certainly be right.</p>
+
+<p>One evening we met an interesting procession. An old farmer was making his
+way from the jurisdiction of the local kaid. His "house" consisted of two
+wives and three children. A camel, whose sneering contempt for mankind
+was very noticeable, shuffled cumbrously beneath a very heavy load of
+mattresses, looms, rugs, copper kettles, sacks of corn, and other
+impedimenta. The wives, veiled to the eyes, rode on mules, each carrying a
+young child; the third child, a boy, walked by his father's side. The
+barley harvest had not been good in their part of the country, so after
+selling what he could, the old man had packed his goods on to the camel's
+back and was flying from the tax-gatherer. To be sure, he might meet
+robbers on the way to the province of M'touga, which was his destination,
+but they would do no more than the kaid of his own district; they might
+even do less. He had been many days upon the road, and was quaintly
+hopeful. I could not help thinking of prosperous men one meets at home,
+who declare, in the intervals of a costly dinner, that the Income Tax is
+an imposition that justifies the strongest protest, even to the point of
+repudiating the Government that puts it up by twopence in the pound. Had
+anybody been able to assure this old wanderer that his kaid or khalifa
+would be content with half the produce of his land, how cheerfully would
+he have returned to his native douar, how readily he would have&mdash;devised
+plans to avoid payment. A little later the track would be trodden by other
+families, moving, like the true Bedouins, in search of fresh pasture. It
+is the habit of the country to leave land to lie fallow when it has
+yielded a few crops.</p>
+
+<p>There were days when the mirage did for the plain the work that man had
+neglected. It set great cities on the waste land as though for our sole
+benefit. I saw walls and battlements, stately mosques, cool gardens, and
+rivers where caravans of camels halted for rest and water. Several times
+we were deceived and hurried on, only to find that the wonder city, like
+the <i>ignis fatuus</i> of our own marshlands, receded as we approached and
+finally melted away altogether. Then the Maalem, after taking refuge with
+Allah from Satan the Stoned, who set false cities before the eyes of tired
+travellers, would revile the mules and horses for needing a mirage to urge
+them on the way; he would insult the fair fame of their mothers and swear
+that their sires were such beasts as no Believer would bestride. It is a
+fact that when the Maalem lashed our animals with his tongue they made
+haste to improve their pace, if only for a few minutes, and Salam,
+listening with an expression of some concern at the sad family history of
+the beasts&mdash;he had a stinging tongue for oaths himself&mdash;assured me that
+their sense of shame hurried them on. Certainly no sense of shame, or
+duty, or even compassion, ever moved the Maalem. By night he would repair
+to the kitchen tent and smoke kief or eat haschisch, but the troubles of
+preparing beds and supper did not worry him.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 613px;">
+<a name="m31" id="m31"></a>
+<img src="images/m31.jpg" width="613" height="640" alt="THE APPROACH TO MARRAKESH" title="THE APPROACH TO MARRAKESH" />
+<br /><span class="caption">THE APPROACH TO MARRAKESH</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"Until the feast is prepared, why summon the guest," he said on a night
+when the worthy M'Barak, opening his lips for once, remonstrated with him.
+That evening the feast consisted of some soup made from meat tablets, and
+two chickens purchased for elevenpence the pair, of a market woman we met
+on the road. Yet if it was not the feast the Maalem's fancy painted it,
+our long hours in the open air had served to make it more pleasant than
+many a more elaborate meal.</p>
+
+<p>We rode one morning through the valley of the Little Hills, once a place
+of unrest notorious by reason of several murders committed there, and
+deserted now by everything save a few birds of prey. There were gloomy
+rocks on all sides, the dry bed of a forgotten river offered us an
+uncomfortable and often perilous path, and we passed several cairns of
+small stones. The Maalem left his mule in order to pick up stones and add
+one to each cairn, and as he did so he cursed Satan with great
+fluency.<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a></p>
+
+<p>It was a great relief to leave the Little Hills and emerge on to the
+plains of Hillreeli beyond. We had not far to go then before the view
+opened out, the haze in the far distance took faint shape of a city
+surrounded by a forest of palms on the western side, a great town with the
+minarets of many mosques rising from it. At this first view of Red
+Marrakesh, Salam, the Maalem, and M'Barak extolled Allah, who had renewed
+to them the sight of Yusuf ibn Tachfin's thousand-year-old city. Then they
+praised Sidi bel Abbas, the city's patron saint, who by reason of his love
+for righteous deeds stood on one leg for forty years, praying diligently
+all the time.</p>
+
+<p>We each and all rendered praise and thanks after our separate fashions,
+and for me, I lit my last cigarette, careless of the future and well
+pleased.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> As the gnat settles he cries, "Habibi," <i>i.e.</i> "O my
+beloved." His, one fears, is but a carnal affection.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> <i>I.e.</i> Wives and children, to whom no Moor refers by name.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> It is said to be the largest market in the Sultan's
+dominions. As many as two thousand camels have been counted at one of the
+weekly gatherings here.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> The cairns are met frequently in Morocco. Some mark the
+place from which the traveller may obtain his first view of a near city;
+others are raised to show where a murder was committed. The cairns in the
+Little Hills are of the former kind.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>IN RED MARRAKESH</h2>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 475px;">
+<a name="m32" id="m32"></a>
+<img src="images/m32.jpg" width="475" height="640" alt="DATE PALMS NEAR MARRAKESH" title="DATE PALMS NEAR MARRAKESH" />
+<br /><span class="caption">DATE PALMS NEAR MARRAKESH</span>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2>
+
+<h3>IN RED MARRAKESH</h3>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Think, in this batter'd Caravanserai,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Whose portals are alternate Night and Day,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">How Sult&aacute;n after Sult&aacute;n with his pomp<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Abode his destined hour and went his way.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0"><i>The Rub&aacute;iy&aacute;t of Omar Khayy&aacute;m.</i><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<p>There are certain cities that cannot be approached for the first time by
+any sympathetic traveller without a sense of solemnity and reverence that
+is not far removed from awe. Athens, Rome, Constantinople, Damascus, and
+Jerusalem may be cited as examples; each in its turn has filled me with
+great wonder and deep joy. But all of these are to be reached nowadays by
+the railway, that great modern purge of sensibility. Even Jerusalem is not
+exempt. A single line stretches from Jaffa by the sea to the very gates of
+the Holy City, playing hide-and-seek among the mountains of Jud&aelig;a by the
+way, because the Turk was too poor to tunnel a direct path.</p>
+
+<p>In Morocco, on the other hand, the railway is still unknown. He who seeks
+any of the country's inland cities must take horse or mule, camel or
+donkey, or, as a last resource, be content with a staff to aid him, and
+walk. Whether he fare to Fez, the city of Mulai Idrees, in which, an old
+writer assures us, "all the beauties of the earth are united"; or to
+Mequinez, where great Mulai Ismail kept a stream of human blood flowing
+constantly from his palace that all might know he ruled; or to Red
+Marrakesh, which Yusuf ibn Tachfin built nine hundred years ago,&mdash;his own
+exertion must convoy him. There must be days and nights of scant fare and
+small comfort, with all those hundred and one happenings of the road that
+make for pleasant memories. So far as I have been able to gather in the
+nine years that have passed since I first visited Morocco, one road is
+like another road, unless you have the Moghrebbin Arabic at your command
+and can go off the beaten track in Moorish dress. Walter Harris, the
+resourceful traveller and <i>Times</i> correspondent, did this when he sought
+the oases of Tafilalt, so also, in his fashion, did R.B. Cunninghame
+Graham when he tried in vain to reach Tarudant, and set out the record of
+his failure in one of the most fascinating travel books published since
+<i>Eothen</i>.<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a></p>
+
+<p>For the rank and file of us the Government roads and the harmless
+necessary soldier must suffice, until the Gordian knot of Morocco's future
+has been untied or cut. Then perhaps, as a result of French pacific
+penetration, flying railway trains loaded with tourists, guide-book in
+hand and camera at the ready, will pierce the secret places of the land,
+and men will speak of "doing" Morocco, as they "do" other countries in
+their rush across the world, seeing all the stereotyped sights and
+appreciating none. For the present, by Allah's grace, matters are quite
+otherwise.</p>
+
+<p>Marrakesh unfolded its beauties to us slowly and one by one as we pushed
+horses and mules into a canter over the level plains of Hillreeli. Forests
+of date-palm took definite shape; certain mosques, those of Sidi ben Yusuf
+and Bab Dukala, stood out clearly before us without the aid of glasses,
+but the Library mosque dominated the landscape by reason of the Kutubia
+tower by its side. The Atlas Mountains came out of the clouds and revealed
+the snows that would soon melt and set every southern river aflood, and
+then the town began to show limits to the east and west where, at first,
+there was nothing but haze. One or two caravans passed us, northward
+bound, their leaders hoping against hope that the Pretender, the
+"dog-descended," as a Susi trader called him, would not stand between them
+and the Sultan's camp, where the profits of the journey lay. By this time
+we could see the old grey wall of Marrakesh more plainly, with towers here
+and there, ruinous as the wall itself, and storks' nests on the
+battlements, their red-legged inhabitants fulfilling the duty of sentries.
+To the right, beyond the town, the great rock of Djebel Geelez suggested
+infinite possibilities in days to come, when some conqueror armed with
+modern weapons and a pacific mission should wish to bombard the walls in
+the sacred cause of civilisation. Then the view was lost in the date-palm
+forest, through which tiny tributaries of the Tensift run babbling over
+the red earth, while the kingfisher or dragon-fly, "a ray of living
+light," flashes over the shallow water, and young storks take their first
+lessons in the art of looking after themselves.</p>
+
+<p>When a Moor has amassed wealth he praises God, builds a palace, and plants
+a garden; or, is suspected, accused&mdash;despotic authority is not
+particular&mdash;and cast into prison! In and round Marrakesh many Moors have
+gained riches and some have held them. The gardens stretch for miles.
+There are the far-spreading Augdal plantations of the Sultans of Morocco,
+in part public and elsewhere so private that to intrude would be to court
+death. The name signifies "the Maze," and they are said to justify it. In
+the outer or public grounds of this vast pleasaunce the fruit is sold by
+auction to the merchants of the city in late spring, when blossoming time
+is over, and, after the sale, buyers must watch and guard the trees until
+harvest brings them their reward.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 539px;">
+<a name="m33" id="m33"></a>
+<img src="images/m33.jpg" width="539" height="640" alt="ON THE ROAD TO MARRAKESH" title="ON THE ROAD TO MARRAKESH" />
+<br /><span class="caption">ON THE ROAD TO MARRAKESH</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>We rode past the low-walled gardens, where pomegranate and apricot trees
+were flowering, and strange birds I did not know sang in the deep shade.
+Doves flitted from branch to branch, bee-eaters darted about among
+mulberry and almond trees. There was an overpowering fragrance from the
+orange groves, where blossom and unplucked fruit showed side by side; the
+jessamine bushes were scarcely less fragrant. Spreading fig-trees called
+every passer to enjoy their shade, and the little rivulets, born of the
+Tensift's winter floods to sparkle through the spring and die in June,
+were fringed with willows. It was delightful to draw rein and listen to
+the plashing of water and the cooing of doves, while trying in vain to
+recognise the most exquisite among many sweet scents.</p>
+
+<p>Under one of the fig-trees in a garden three Moors sat at tea. A carpet
+was spread, and I caught a glimpse of the copper kettle, the squat
+charcoal brazier tended by a slave, the quaint little coffer filled no
+doubt with fine green tea, the porcelain dish of cakes. It was a quite
+pleasing picture, at which, had courtesy permitted, I would have enjoyed
+more than a brief glance.</p>
+
+<p>The claim of the Moors upon our sympathy and admiration is made greater by
+reason of their love for gardens. As a matter of fact, their devotion may
+be due in part to the profit yielded by the fruit, but one could afford to
+forget that fact for the time being, when Nature seemed to be giving
+praise to the Master of all seasons for the goodly gifts of the spring.</p>
+
+<p>We crossed the Tensift by the bridge, one of the very few to be found in
+Southern Morocco. It has nearly thirty arches, all dilapidated as the city
+walls themselves, yet possessing their curious gift of endurance. Even the
+natives realise that their bridge is crumbling into uselessness, after
+nearly eight centuries of service, but they do no more than shrug their
+shoulders, as though to cast off the burden of responsibility and give it
+to destiny. On the outskirts of the town, where gardens end and open
+market-squares lead to the gates, a small group of children gathered to
+watch the strangers with an interest in which fear played its part. We
+waited now to see the baggage animals before us, and then M'Barak led the
+way past the mosque at the side of the Bab el Khamees and through the
+brass-covered doors that were brought by the Moors from Spain. Within the
+Khamees gate, narrow streets with windowless walls frowning on either side
+shut out all view, save that which lay immediately before us.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 525px;">
+<a name="m34" id="m34"></a>
+<img src="images/m34.jpg" width="525" height="640" alt="A MINSTREL" title="A MINSTREL" />
+<br /><span class="caption">A MINSTREL</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>No untrained eye can follow the winding maze of streets in Marrakesh, and
+it is from the Moors we learn that the town, like ancient Gaul of C&aelig;sar's
+<i>Commentaries</i>, has three well defined divisions. The Kasbah is the
+official quarter, where the soldiers and governing officials have their
+home, and the prison called Hib Misbah receives all evil-doers, and men
+whose luck is ill. The Madinah is the general Moorish quarter, and
+embraces the Kaisariyah or bazaar district, where the streets are
+parallel, well cleaned, thatched with palm and palmetto against the light,
+and barred with a chain at either end to keep the animals from entering.
+The Mellah (literally "salted place") is the third great division of
+Marrakesh, and is the Jewish quarter. In this district, or just beyond it,
+are a few streets that seem reserved to the descendants of Mulai Ismail's
+black guards, from whom our word "blackguard" should have come to us, but
+did not. Within these divisions streets, irregular and without a name,
+turn and twist in manner most bewildering, until none save old residents
+may hope to know their way about. Pavements are unknown, drainage is in
+its most dangerous infancy, the rainy season piles mud in every
+direction, and, as though to test the principle embodied in the
+homoeopathic theory, the Marrakshis heap rubbish and refuse in every
+street, where it decomposes until the enlightened authorities who dwell in
+the Kasbah think to give orders for its removal. Then certain men set out
+with donkeys and carry the sweepings of the gutters beyond the gates.<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a>
+This work is taken seriously in the Madinah, but in the Mellah it is
+shamefully neglected, and I have ridden through whole streets in the
+last-named quarter searching vainly for a place clean enough to permit of
+dismounting. Happily, or unhappily, as you will, the inhabitants are
+inured from birth to a state of things that must cause the weaklings to
+pay heavy toll to Death, the Lord who rules even Sultans.</p>
+
+<p>I had little thought to spare for such matters as we rode into Marrakesh
+for the first time. The spell of the city was overmastering. It is
+certainly the most African city in Morocco to-day, almost the last
+survivor of the changes that began in the latter half of the nineteenth
+century, and have brought the Dark Continent from end to end within the
+sphere of European influence. Fez and Mequinez are cities of fair men,
+while here on every side one recognised the influence of the Soudan and
+the country beyond the great desert. Not only have the wives and
+concubines brought from beyond the great sand sea darkened the skin of the
+present generation of the Marrakshis, but they have given to most if not
+to all a suggestion of relationship to the negro races that is not to be
+seen in any other Moorish city I have visited. It is not a suggestion of
+fanaticism or intolerance. By their action as well as their appearance one
+knew most of the passers for friends rather than enemies. They would
+gratify their curiosity at our expense as we gratified ours at theirs,
+convinced that all Europeans are harmless, uncivilised folk from a far
+land, where people smoke tobacco, drink wine, suffer their women-folk to
+go unveiled, and live without the True Faith.</p>
+
+<p>Marrakesh, like all other inland cities of Morocco, has neither hotel nor
+guest-house. It boasts some large fandaks, notably that of Hadj Larbi,
+where the caravans from the desert send their merchandise and chief
+merchants, but no sane European will choose to seek shelter in a fandak in
+Morocco unless there is no better place available. There are clean fandaks
+in Sunset Land, but they are few and you must travel far to find them. I
+had letters to the chief civilian resident of Marrakesh, Sidi Boubikir,
+British Political Agent, millionaire, land-owner, financier, builder of
+palaces, politician, statesman, and friend of all Englishmen who are well
+recommended to his care. I had heard much of the clever old Moor, who was
+born in very poor surroundings, started life as a camel driver, and is now
+the wealthiest and most powerful unofficial resident in Southern Morocco,
+if not in all the Moghreb, so I bade M'Barak find him without delay. The
+first person questioned directed us to one of Boubikir's fandaks, and by
+its gate, in a narrow lane, where camels jostled the camp-mules until they
+nearly foundered in the underlying filth, we found the celebrated man
+sitting within the porch, on an old packing-case.</p>
+
+<p>He looked up for a brief moment when the kaid dismounted and handed him my
+letter, and I saw a long, closely-shaven face, lighted by a pair of grey
+eyes that seemed much younger than the head in which they were set, and
+perfectly inscrutable. He read the letter, which was in Arabic, from end
+to end, and then gave me stately greeting.</p>
+
+<p>"You are very welcome," he said. "My house and all it holds are yours."</p>
+
+<p>I replied that we wanted nothing more than a modest shelter for the days
+of our sojourn in the city. He nodded.</p>
+
+<p>"Had you advised me of your visit in time," he said, "my best house should
+have been prepared. Now I will send with you my steward, who has the keys
+of all my houses. Choose which you will have." I thanked him, the steward
+appeared, a stout, well-favoured man, whose djellaba was finer than his
+master's. Sidi Boubikir pointed to certain keys, and at a word several
+servants gathered about us. The old man said that he rejoiced to serve the
+friend of his friends, and would look forward to seeing me during our
+stay. Then we followed into an ill-seeming lane, now growing dark with the
+fall of evening.</p>
+
+<p>We turned down an alley more muddy than the one just left behind, passed
+under an arch by a fruit stall with a covering of tattered palmetto,
+caught a brief glimpse of a mosque minaret, and heard the mueddin calling
+the Faithful to evening prayer. In the shadow of the mosque, at the corner
+of the high-walled lane, there was a heavy metal-studded door. The steward
+thrust a key into its lock, turned it, and we passed down a passage into
+an open patio. It was a silent place, beyond the reach of the street
+echoes; there were four rooms built round the patio on the ground floor,
+and three or four above. One side of the tower of the minaret was visible
+from the courtyard, but apart from that the place was nowhere overlooked.
+To be sure, it was very dirty, but I had an idea that the steward had
+brought his men out for business, not for an evening stroll, so I bade
+Salam assure him that this place, known to the Marrakshis as Dar al
+Kasdir,<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a> would serve our purposes.</p>
+
+<p>A thundering knock at the gate announced a visitor, one of Sidi Boubikir's
+elder sons, a civil, kindly-looking Moor, whose face inspired confidence.
+Advised of our choice he suggested we should take a stroll while the men
+cleaned and prepared the patio and the rooms opening upon it. Then the
+mules, resting for the time in his father's fandak, would bring their
+burdens home, and we could enjoy our well-earned rest.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 540px;">
+<a name="m35" id="m35"></a>
+<img src="images/m35.jpg" width="540" height="640" alt="ONE OF THE CITY GATES" title="ONE OF THE CITY GATES" />
+<br /><span class="caption">ONE OF THE CITY GATES</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>We took this good counsel, and on our return an hour later, a very
+complete transformation had been effected. Palmetto brooms, and water
+brought from an adjacent well, had made the floor look clean and clear.
+The warmth of the air had dried everything, the pack-mules had been
+relieved of their load and sent back to the stable. Two little earthen
+braziers full of charcoal were glowing merrily under the influence of the
+bellows that M'Barak wielded skilfully, and two earthen jars of water with
+palm leaves for corks had been brought in by our host's servants. In
+another hour the camp beds were unpacked and made up, a rug was set on the
+bedroom floor, and the little table and chairs were put in the middle of
+the patio. From the alcove where Salam squatted behind the twin fires came
+the pleasant scent of supper; M'Barak, his well-beloved gun at his side,
+sat silent and thoughtful in another corner, and the tiny clay bowl of the
+Maalem's long wooden kief pipe was comfortably aglow.</p>
+
+<p>There was a timid knock at the door, the soldier opened it and admitted
+the shareef. I do not know his name nor whence he came, but he walked up
+to Salam, greeted him affectionately, and offered his services while we
+were in the city. Twenty years old perhaps, at an outside estimate, very
+tall and thin and poorly clad, the shareef was not the least interesting
+figure I met in Marrakesh. A shareef is a saint in Morocco as in every
+other country of Islam, and his title implies descent from Mohammed. He
+may be very poor indeed, but he is more or less holy, devout men kiss the
+hem of his djellaba, no matter how dirty or ragged it may be, and none may
+curse a shareef's ancestors, for the Prophet was one of them. His youthful
+holiness had known Salam in Fez, and had caught sight of him by Boubikir's
+fandak in the early afternoon. Salam, himself a chief in his own land,
+though fallen on evil days then and on worse ones since, welcomed the
+newcomer and brought his offer to me, adding the significant information
+that the young shareef, who was too proud to beg, had not tasted food in
+the past forty-eight hours. He had then owed a meal to some Moor, who,
+following a well-known custom, had set a bowl of food outside his house to
+conciliate devils. I accepted the proffered service, and had no occasion
+to regret my action. The young Moor was never in the way and never out of
+the way, he went cheerfully on errands to all parts of the city, fetched
+and carried without complaint, and yet never lost the splendid dignity
+that seemed to justify his claim to saintship.</p>
+
+<p>So we took our ease in the open patio, and the shareef's long fast was
+broken, and the stars came to the aid of our lanterns, and when supper was
+over I was well content to sit and smoke, while Salam, M'Barak, the
+Maalem, and the shareef sat silent round the glowing charcoal, perhaps too
+tired to talk. It was very pleasant to feel at home after two or three
+weeks under canvas below Mediunah and along the southern road.</p>
+
+<p>The Maalem rose at last, somewhat unsteadily after his debauch of kief. He
+moved to where our provisions were stocked and took oil and bread from the
+store. Then he sought the corner of the wall by the doorway and poured out
+a little oil and scattered crumbs, repeating the performance at the far
+end of the patio. This duty done, he bade Salam tell me that it was a
+peace-offering to the souls of the departed who had inhabited this house
+before we came to it. I apprehend they might have resented the presence of
+the Infidel had they not been soothed by the Maalem's little attention. He
+was ever a firm believer in djinoon, and exorcised them with unfailing
+regularity. The abuse he heaped on Satan must have added largely to the
+burden of sorrows under which we are assured the fallen angel carries out
+his appointed work. He had been profuse in his prayers and curses when we
+entered the barren pathway of the Little Hills behind the plains of
+Hillreeli, and there were times when I had felt quite sorry for Satan.
+Oblation offered to the house spirits, the Maalem asked for his money, the
+half due at the journey's end, sober enough, despite the kief, to count
+the dollars carefully, and make his farewell with courteous eloquence. I
+parted with him with no little regret, and look forward with keen pleasure
+to the day when I shall summon him once again from the bakehouse of
+Djedida to bring his mules and guide me over the open road, perchance to
+some destination more remote. I think he will come willingly, and that the
+journey will be a happy one. The shareef drew the heavy bolt behind the
+Maalem, and we sought our beds.</p>
+
+<p>It was a brief night's rest. The voice of the mueddin, chanting the call
+to prayer and the Shehad,<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> roused me again, refreshed. The night was
+passing; even as the sonorous voice of the unseen chanted his inspiring
+"Allah Akbar," it was yielding place to the moments when "the
+Wolf-tail<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> sweeps the paling east."</p>
+
+<p>I looked out of my little room that opened on to the patio. The arch of
+heaven was swept and garnished, and from "depths blown clear of cloud"
+great stars were shining whitely. The breeze of early morning stirred,
+penetrating our barred outer gates, and bringing a subtle fragrance from
+the beflowered groves that lie beyond the city. It had a freshness that
+demanded from one, in tones too seductive for denial, prompt action.
+Moreover, we had been rising before daylight for some days past in order
+that we might cover a respectable distance before the Enemy should begin
+to blaze intolerably above our heads, commanding us to seek the shade of
+some chance fig-tree or saint's tomb.</p>
+
+<p>So I roused Salam, and together we drew the creaking bolts, bringing the
+kaid to his feet with a jump. There was plenty of time for explanation,
+because he always carried his gun, at best a harmless weapon, in the old
+flannel case secured by half a dozen pieces of string, with knots that
+defied haste. He warned us not to go out, since the djinoon were always
+abroad in the streets before daylight; but, seeing our minds set, he
+bolted the door upon us, as though to keep them from the Dar al Kasdir,
+and probably returned to his slumbers.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 461px;">
+<a name="m36" id="m36"></a>
+<img src="images/m36.jpg" width="461" height="640" alt="A BLIND BEGGAR" title="A BLIND BEGGAR" />
+<br /><span class="caption">A BLIND BEGGAR</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Beyond the house, in a faint glow that was already paling the stars, the
+African city, well-nigh a thousand years old, assumed its most mysterious
+aspect. The high walls on either side of the roads, innocent of casements
+as of glass, seemed, in the uncertain light, to be tinted with violet amid
+their dull grey. The silence was complete and weird. Never a cry from man
+or beast removed the first impression that this was a city of the dead.
+The entrances of the bazaars in the Kaisariyah, to which we turned, were
+barred and bolted, their guardians sat motionless, covered in white
+djellabas, that looked like shrouds. The city's seven gates were fast
+closed, though doubtless there were long files of camels and market men
+waiting patiently without. The great mansions of the wazeers and the
+green-tiled palace of Mulai Abd-el-Aziz&mdash;Our Victorious Master the
+Sultan&mdash;seemed unsubstantial as one of those cities that the mirage had
+set before us in the heart of the R'hamna plains. Salam, the untutored man
+from the far Riff country, felt the spell of the silent morning hour. It
+was a primitive appeal, to which he responded instantly, moving quietly by
+my side without a word.</p>
+
+<p>"O my masters, give charity; Allah helps helpers!" A blind beggar, sitting
+by the gate, like Bartim&aelig;us of old, thrust his withered hand before me.
+Lightly though we had walked, his keen ear had known the difference in
+sound between the native slipper and the European boot. It had roused him
+from his slumbers, and he had calculated the distance so nicely that the
+hand, suddenly shot out, was well within reach of mine. Salam, my almoner,
+gave him a handful of the copper money, called <i>floos</i>, of which a score
+may be worth a penny, and he sank back in his uneasy seat with voluble
+thanks, not to us, but to Allah the One, who had been pleased to move us
+to work his will. To me no thanks were due. I was no more than Allah's
+unworthy medium, condemned to burn in fires seven times heated, for
+unbelief.</p>
+
+<p>From their home on the flat house-tops two storks rose suddenly, as though
+to herald the dawn; the sun became visible above the city's time-worn
+walls, and turned their colouring from violet to gold. We heard the guards
+drawing the bars of the gate that is called Bab al Khamees, and knew that
+the daily life of Marrakesh had begun. The great birds might have given
+the signal that woke the town to activity.</p>
+
+<p>Straightway men and beasts made their way through the narrow cobbled
+lanes. Sneering camels, so bulked out by their burdens that a
+foot-passenger must shrink against the wall to avoid a bad bruising;
+well-fed horses, carrying some early-rising Moor of rank on the top of
+seven saddle-cloths; half-starved donkeys, all sores and bruises; one
+encountered every variety of Moorish traffic here, and the thoroughfare,
+that had been deserted a moment before, was soon thronged. In addition to
+the Moors and Susi traders, there were many slaves, black as coal, brought
+in times past from the Soudan. From garden and orchard beyond the city the
+fruit and flowers and vegetables were being carried into their respective
+markets, and as they passed the air grew suddenly fragrant with a scent
+that was almost intoxicating. The garbage that lay strewn over the cobbles
+had no more power to offend, and the fresh scents added in some queer
+fashion of their own to the unreality of the whole scene.</p>
+
+<p>To avoid the crush we turned to another quarter of the city, noting that
+the gates of the bazaars were opened, and that only the chains were left
+across the entrance. But the tiny shops, mere overgrown packing-cases,
+were still locked up; the merchants, who are of higher rank than the
+dealers in food-stuffs, seldom appear before the day is aired, and their
+busiest hours are in the afternoon, when the auction is held. "Custom is
+from Allah," they say, and, strong in this belief, they hold that time is
+only valuable as leisure. And, God wot, they may well be wiser herein than
+we are.</p>
+
+<p>A demented countryman, respected as a saint by reason of his madness, a
+thing of rags and tatters and woefully unkempt hair, a quite wild
+creature, more than six feet high, and gaunt as a lightning-smitten pine,
+came down the deserted bazaar of the brass-workers. He carried a long
+staff in one hand, a bright tin bowl in the other. The sight of a European
+heightened his usual frenzy&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i4">Across his sea of mind<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A thought came streaming like a blazing ship<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Upon a mighty wind.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>I saw the sinews stand out on the bare arm that gripped the staff, and his
+bright eyes were soon fixed upon me. "You do not say words to him, sir,"
+whispered Salam; "he do'n know what he do&mdash;he very holy man."</p>
+
+<p>The madman spat on my shadow, and cursed profoundly, while his passion was
+mastering him. I noted with interest in that uncomfortable moment the
+clear signs of his epileptic tendencies, the twitching of the thumb that
+grasped the stick, the rigidity of the body, the curious working of
+certain facial muscles. I stood perfectly still, though my right hand
+involuntarily sought the pocket of my coat where my revolver lay, the use
+of which save in direst necessity had been a mad and wicked act; and then
+two peace-loving Moors, whose blue selhams of fine Manchester cloth
+proclaimed their wealth and station, came forward and drew the frenzied
+creature away, very gently and persuasively. He, poor wretch, did not know
+what was taking place, but moved helplessly to the door of the bazaar and
+then fell, his fit upon him. I hurried on. Moors are kindly, as well as
+respectful, to those afflicted of Allah.</p>
+
+<p>We passed on our way to the Bab Dukala, the gate that opens out upon
+Elhara, the leper quarter. There we caught our morning view of the forest
+of date-palm that girdles the town. Moors say that in centuries long past
+Marrakesh was besieged by the men of Tafilalt, who brought dates for food,
+and cast the stones on the ground. The rain buried them, the Tensift
+nourished them, and to-day they crowd round Ibn Tachfin's ruinous city,
+'their feet in water and their heads in fire.' 'Tis an agreeable legend.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 456px;">
+<a name="m37" id="m37"></a>
+<img src="images/m37.jpg" width="456" height="640" alt="A WANDERING MINSTREL" title="A WANDERING MINSTREL" />
+<br /><span class="caption">A WANDERING MINSTREL</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Market men, half naked and very lean, were coming in from Tamsloht and
+Amsmiz, guiding their heavy-laden donkeys past the crumbling walls and the
+steep valley that separates Elhara from the town. Some scores of lepers
+had left their quarters, a few hiding terrible disfigurement under great
+straw hats, others quite careless of their deplorable disease. Beggars
+all, they were going on their daily journey to the shrine of Sidi bel
+Abbas, patron of the destitute, to sit there beneath the zowia's ample
+walls, hide their heads in their rags, and cry upon the passers to
+remember them for the sake of the saint who had their welfare so much at
+heart. And with the closing of the day they would be driven out of the
+city, and back into walled Elhara, to such of the mud huts as they called
+home. Long acquaintance with misery had made them careless of it. They
+shuffled along as though they were going to work, but from my shaded
+corner, where I could see without being seen, I noted no sign of converse
+between them, and every face that could be studied was stamped with the
+impress of unending misery.</p>
+
+<p>The scene around us was exquisite. Far away one saw the snow-capped peaks
+of the Atlas; hawks and swallows sailed to and from Elhara's walls; doves
+were cooing in the orchards, bee-eaters flitted lightly amid the palms. I
+found myself wondering if the lepers ever thought to contrast their lives
+with their surroundings, and I trusted they did not. Some few, probably,
+had not been lepers, but criminals, who preferred the horrid liberty of
+Elhara to the chance of detection and the living death of the Hib Misbah.
+Other beggars were not really lepers, but suffered from one or other of
+the kindred diseases that waste Morocco. In Marrakesh the native doctors
+are not on any terms with skilled diagnosis, and once a man ventures into
+Elhara, he acquires a reputation for leprosy that serves his purpose. I
+remember inquiring of a Moorish doctor the treatment of a certain native's
+case. "Who shall arrest Allah's decree?" he began modestly. And he went on
+to say that the best way to treat an open wound was to put powdered
+sulphur upon it, and apply a light.<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> Horrible as this remedy seems, the
+worthy doctor believed in it, and had sent many a True Believer
+to&mdash;Paradise, I hope&mdash;by treating him on these lines. Meanwhile his
+profound confidence in himself, together with his knowledge and free use
+of the Koran, kept hostile criticism at bay.<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a></p>
+
+<p>We turned back into the city, to see it in another aspect. The rapid rise
+of the sun had called the poorer workers to their daily tasks; buyers were
+congregating round the market stalls of the dealers in meat, bread,
+vegetables, and fruit. With perpetual grace to Allah for his gift of
+custom, the stall-keepers were parting with their wares at prices far
+below anything that rules even in the coast towns of the Sultan's country.
+The absence of my Lord Abd-el-Aziz and his court had tended to lower rates
+considerably. It was hard to realise that, while food cost so little,
+there were hundreds of men, women, and children within the city to whom
+one good meal a day was something almost unknown. Yet this was certainly
+the case.</p>
+
+<p>Towering above the other buyers were the trusted slaves of the wazeers in
+residence&mdash;tall negroes from the far South for the most part&mdash;hideous men,
+whose black faces were made the more black by contrast with their white
+robes. They moved with a certain sense of dignity and pride through the
+ranks of the hungry freemen round them; clearly they were well contented
+with their lot&mdash;a curious commentary upon the European notions of
+slavery&mdash;based, to be sure, upon European methods in regard to it. The
+whole formed a marvellous picture, and how the pink roses, the fresh,
+green mint and thyme, the orange flowers and other blossoms, sweetened the
+narrow ways, garbage-strewn under foot and roofed overhead with dried
+leaves of the palm!</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> "Moghreb-al-Acksa."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> Street cleaners are paid out of the proceeds of a tax
+derived from the slaughter of cattle, and the tax is known to Moorish
+butchers by a term signifying "<i>floos</i> of the throat."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> <i>I.e.</i> The Tin House.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> Declaration of Faith.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> The false dawn.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> The Sultan Mulaz-Abd-el-Aziz was once treated for persistent
+headache by a Moorish practitioner. The wise man's medicine exploded
+suddenly, and His Majesty had a narrow escape. I do not know whether the
+practitioner was equally fortunate.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> The doctors and magicians of Morocco have always been famous
+throughout the East. Nearly all the medicine men of the <i>Thousand Nights
+and a Night</i> including the uncle of Aladdin, are from the Moghreb.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>ROUND ABOUT MARRAKESH</h2>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 901px;">
+<a name="m38" id="m38"></a>
+<img src="images/m38.jpg" width="901" height="640" alt="THE ROOFS OF MARRAKESH" title="THE ROOFS OF MARRAKESH" />
+<br /><span class="caption">THE ROOFS OF MARRAKESH</span>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+
+<h3>ROUND ABOUT MARRAKESH</h3>
+
+<blockquote><p>"Speaking of thee comforts me, and thinking of thee makes me glad."</p>
+
+<p>&mdash;<i>R&acirc;od el Kartas.</i> </p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p>The charm of Marrakesh comes slowly to the traveller, but it stays with
+him always, and colours his impressions of such other cities as may
+attract his wandering footsteps. So soon as he has left the plains behind
+on his way to the coast, the town's defects are relegated to the
+background of the picture his memory paints. He forgets the dirty lanes
+that serve for roads, the heaps of refuse at every corner, the pariah curs
+that howled or snapped at his horse's heels when he rode abroad, the
+roughness and discomfort of the accommodation, the poverty and disease
+that everywhere went hand in hand around him.</p>
+
+<p>But he remembers and always will remember the city in its picturesque
+aspects. How can he forget Moorish hospitality, so lavishly exercised in
+patios where the hands of architect and gardener meet&mdash;those delightful
+gatherings of friends whose surroundings are recalled when he sees, even
+in the world of the West&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Groups under the dreaming garden trees,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And the full moon, and the white evening star.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>He will never forget the Kutubia tower flanking the mosque of the Library,
+with its three glittering balls that are solid gold, if you care to
+believe the Moors (and who should know better!), though the European
+authorities declare they are but gilded copper. He will hear, across all
+intervening sea and lands, the sonorous voices of the three blind mueddins
+who call True Believers to prayer from the adjacent minarets. By the side
+of the tower, that is a landmark almost from R'hamna's far corner to the
+Atlas Mountains, Yusuf ibn Tachfin, who built Marrakesh, enjoys his long,
+last sleep in a grave unnoticed and unhonoured by the crowds of men from
+strange, far-off lands, who pass it every day. Yet, if the conqueror of
+Fez and troubler of Spain could rise from nine centuries of rest, he would
+find but little change in the city he set on the red plain in the shadow
+of the mountains. The walls of his creation remain: even the broken bridge
+over the river dates, men say, from his time, and certainly the faith and
+works of the people have not altered greatly. Caravans still fetch and
+carry from Fez in the north to Timbuctoo and the banks of the Niger, or
+reach the Bab-er-rubb with gold and ivory and slaves from the eastern
+oases, that France has almost sealed up. The saints' houses are there
+still, though the old have yielded to the new. Storks are privileged, as
+from earliest times, to build on the flat roofs of the city houses, and,
+therefore, are still besought by amorous natives to carry love's greeting
+to the women who take their airing on the house-tops in the afternoon.
+Berber from the highlands; black man from the Draa; wiry, lean, enduring
+trader from Tarudant and other cities of the Sus; patient frugal Saharowi
+from the sea of sand,&mdash;no one of them has altered greatly since the days
+of the renowned Yusuf. And who but he among the men who built great cities
+in days before Saxon and Norman had met at Senlac, could look to find his
+work so little scarred by time, or disguised by change? Twelve miles of
+rampart surround the city still, if we include the walls that guard the
+Sultan's maze garden, and seven of the many gates Ibn Tachfin knew are
+swung open to the dawn of each day now.</p>
+
+<p>After the Library mosque, with its commanding tower and modest yet
+memorable tomb, the traveller remembers the Sultan's palace, white-walled,
+green-tiled, vast, imposing; and the lesser mosque of Sidi bel Abbas, to
+whom the beggars pray, for it is said of him that he knew God. The city's
+hospital stands beside this good man's grave. And here one pays tribute
+also to great Mulai Abd el Kader Ijjilalli, yet another saint whose name
+is very piously invoked among the poor. The mosque by the Dukala gate is
+worthy of note, and earns the salutation of all who come by way of R'hamna
+to Marrakesh. The Kaisariyah lingers in the memory, and on hot days in the
+plains, when shade is far to seek, one recalls a fine fountain with the
+legend "drink and admire," where the water-carriers fill their goat-skins
+and all beggars congregate during the hours of fire.</p>
+
+<p>The Mellah, in which the town Jews live, is reached by way of the Olive
+Garden. It is the dirtiest part of Marrakesh, and, all things considered,
+the least interesting. The lanes that run between its high walls are full
+of indescribable filth; comparison with them makes the streets of Madinah
+and Kasbah almost clean. One result of the dirt is seen in the prevalence
+of a very virulent ophthalmia, from which three out of four of the
+Mellah's inhabitants seem to suffer, slightly or seriously. Few adults
+appear to take exercise, unless they are called abroad to trade, and when
+business is in a bad way the misery is very real indeed. A skilled workman
+is pleased to earn the native equivalent of fourteenpence for a day's
+labour, beginning at sunrise, and on this miserable pittance he can
+support a wife and family. Low wages and poor living, added to centuries
+of oppression, have made the Morocco Jew of the towns a pitiable creature;
+but on the hills, particularly among the Atlas villages, the People of the
+Book are healthy, athletic, and resourceful, able to use hands as well as
+head, and the trusted intermediary between Berber hillman and town Moor.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 567px;">
+<a name="m39" id="m39"></a>
+<img src="images/m39.jpg" width="567" height="640" alt="A GATEWAY, MARRAKESH" title="A GATEWAY, MARRAKESH" />
+<br /><span class="caption">A GATEWAY, MARRAKESH</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Being of the ancient race myself, I was received in several of the
+show-houses of the Mellah&mdash;places whose splendid interiors were not at all
+suggested by the squalid surroundings in which they were set. This is
+typical to some extent of all houses in Morocco, even in the coast towns,
+and greatly misleads the globe-trotter. There was a fine carving and
+colouring in many rooms, but the European furniture was, for the most
+part, wrongly used, and at best grotesquely out of place. Hygiene has not
+passed within the Mellah's walls, but a certain amount of Western
+tawdriness has. Patriarchal Jews of good stature and commanding presence
+had their dignity hopelessly spoilt by the big blue spotted handkerchief
+worn over the head and tied under the chin; Jewesses in rich apparel
+seemed quite content with the fineness within their houses, and
+indifferent to the mire of the streets.</p>
+
+<p>I visited three synagogues, one in a private house. The approaches were in
+every case disgusting, but the synagogues themselves were well kept, very
+old, and decorated with rare and curious memorial lamps, kept alight for
+the dead through the year of mourning. The benches were of wood, with
+straw mats for cover; there was no place for women, and the seats
+themselves seemed to be set down without attempt at arrangement. The
+brasswork was old and fine, the scrolls of the Law were very ancient, but
+there was no sign of wealth, and little decoration. In the courtyard of
+the chief synagogue I found school-work in progress. Half a hundred
+intelligent youngsters were repeating the master's words, just as
+Mohammedan boys were doing in the Madinah, but even among these little
+ones ophthalmia was playing havoc, and doubtless the disease would pass
+from the unsound to the sound. Cleanliness would stamp out this trouble in
+a very little time, and preserve healthy children from infection.
+Unfortunately, the administration of this Mellah is exceedingly bad, and
+there is no reason to believe that it will improve.</p>
+
+<p>When the Elevated Court is at Marrakesh the demand for work helps the
+Jewish quarter to thrive, but since the Sultan went to Fez the heads of
+the Mellah seem to be reluctant to lay out even a few shillings daily to
+have the place kept clean. There are no statistics to tell the price that
+is paid in human life for this shocking neglect of the elementary
+decencies, but it must be a heavy one.</p>
+
+<p>Business premises seem clean enough, though the approach to them could
+hardly be less inviting. You enter a big courtyard, and, if wise, remain
+on your horse until well clear of the street. The courtyard is wide and
+cared for, an enlarged edition of a patio, with big store-rooms on either
+side and stabling or a granary. Here also is a bureau, in which the master
+sits in receipt of custom, and deals in green tea that has come from India
+via England, and white sugar in big loaves, and coffee and other
+merchandise. He is buyer and seller at once, now dealing with a native who
+wants tea, and now with an Atlas Jew who has an ouadad skin or a rug to
+sell; now talking Shilha, the language of the Berbers, now the Moghrebbin
+Arabic of the Moors, and again debased Spanish or Hebrew with his own
+brethren. He has a watchful eye for all the developments that the day may
+bring, and while attending to buyer or seller can take note of all his
+servants are doing at the stores, and what is going out or coming in. Your
+merchant of the better class has commercial relations with Manchester or
+Liverpool; he has visited England and France; perhaps some olive-skinned,
+black-eyed boy of his has been sent to an English school to get the wider
+views of life and faith, and return to the Mellah to shock his father with
+both, and to be shocked in turn by much in the home life that passed
+uncriticised before. These things lead to domestic tragedies at times, and
+yet neither son nor father is quite to blame.</p>
+
+<p>The best class of Jew in the Mellah has ideas and ideals, but outside the
+conduct of his business he lacks initiative. He believes most firmly in
+the future of the Jewish race, the ultimate return to Palestine, the
+advent of the Messiah. Immersed in these beliefs, he does not see dirt
+collecting in the streets and killing little children with the diseases it
+engenders. Gradually the grime settles on his faith too, and he loses
+sight of everything save commercial ends and the observances that
+orthodoxy demands. His, one fears, is a quite hopeless case. The attention
+of philanthropy might well turn to the little ones, however. For their
+sake some of the material benefits of modern knowledge should be brought
+to Jewry in Marrakesh. Schools are excellent, but children cannot live by
+school learning alone.</p>
+
+<p>Going from the Mellah one morning I saw a strange sight. By the entrance
+to the salted place there is a piece of bare ground stretching to the
+wall. Here sundry young Jews in black djellabas sat at their ease, their
+long hair curled over their ears, and black caps on their heads in place
+of the handkerchiefs favoured by the elders of the community. One or two
+women were coming from the Jewish market, their bright dresses and
+uncovered faces a pleasing contrast to the white robes and featureless
+aspect of the Moorish women. A little Moorish boy, seeing me regard them
+with interest, remarked solemnly, "There go those who will never look upon
+the face of God's prophet," and then a shareef, whose portion in Paradise
+was of course reserved to him by reason of his high descent, rode into the
+open ground from the Madinah. I regret to record the fact that the holy
+man was drunk, whether upon haschisch or the strong waters of the infidel,
+I know not, and to all outward seeming his holiness alone sufficed to keep
+him on the back of the spirited horse he bestrode. He went very near to
+upsetting a store of fresh vegetables belonging to a True Believer, and
+then nearly crushed an old man against the wall. He raised his voice, but
+not to pray, and the people round him were in sore perplexity. He was too
+holy to remove by force and too drunk to persuade, so the crowd, realising
+that he was divinely directed, raised a sudden shout. This served. The
+hot-blooded Barb made a rush for the arcade leading to the Madinah and
+carried the drunken saint with him, cursing at the top of his voice, but
+sticking to his unwieldy saddle in manner that was admirable and truly
+Moorish. If he had not been holy he would have been torn from his horse,
+and, in native speech, would have "eaten the stick," for drunkenness is a
+grave offence in orthodox Morocco.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 579px;">
+<a name="m40" id="m40"></a>
+<img src="images/m40.jpg" width="579" height="640" alt="A COURTYARD, MARRAKESH" title="A COURTYARD, MARRAKESH" />
+<br /><span class="caption">A COURTYARD, MARRAKESH</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>They have a short way with offenders in Moorish cities. I remember seeing
+a man brought to the Kasbah of a northern town on a charge of using false
+measures. The case was held proven by the khalifa; the culprit was
+stripped to the waist, mounted on a lame donkey, and driven through the
+streets, while two stalwart soldiers, armed with sticks, beat him until he
+dropped to the ground. He was picked up more dead than alive, and thrown
+into prison.</p>
+
+<p>There are two sorts of market in Marrakesh&mdash;the open market outside the
+walls, and the auction market in the Kaisariyah. The latter opens in the
+afternoon, by which time every little boxlike shop is tenanted by its
+proprietor. How he climbs into his place without upsetting his stores, and
+how, arrived there, he can sit for hours without cramp, are questions I
+have never been able to answer, though I have watched him scores of times.
+He comes late in the day to his shop, lets down one of the covering flaps,
+and takes his seat by the step inside it. The other flap has been raised
+and is kept up by a stick. Seated comfortably, he looks with dispassionate
+eye upon the gathering stream of life before him, and waits contentedly
+until it shall please Allah the One to send custom. Sometimes he occupies
+his time by reading in the Perspicuous Book; on rare occasions he will
+leave his little nest and make dignified way to the shop of an adool or
+scribe, who reads pious writings to a select company of devotees. In this
+way the morning passes, and in the afternoon the mart becomes crowded,
+country Moors riding right up to the entrance chains, and leaving their
+mules in the charge of slaves who have accompanied them on foot. Town
+buyers and country buyers, with a miscellaneous gathering of tribesmen
+from far-off districts, fill the bazaar, and then the merchants hand
+certain goods to dilals, as the auctioneers are called. The crowd divides
+on either side of the bazaar, leaving a narrow lane down the centre, and
+the dilals rush up and down with their wares,&mdash;linen, cotton and silk
+goods, carpets, skins or brassware, native daggers and pistols, saddles
+and saddle-cloths. The goods vary in every bazaar. The dilal announces the
+last price offered; a man who wishes to buy must raise it, and, if none
+will go better, he secures the bargain. A commission on all goods sold is
+taken at the door of the market by the municipal authorities. I notice on
+these afternoons the different aspects of the three classes represented in
+the bazaar. Shopkeepers and the officials by the gate display no interest
+at all in the proceedings: they might be miles from the scene, so far as
+their attitude is a clue. The dilals, on the other hand, are in furious
+earnest. They run up and down the narrow gangway proclaiming the last
+price at the top of their voices, thrusting the goods eagerly into the
+hands of possible purchasers, and always remembering the face and position
+of the man who made the last bid. They have a small commission on the
+price of everything sold, and assuredly they earn their wage. In contrast
+with the attitudes of both shopkeepers and auctioneers, the general public
+is inclined to regard the bazaar as a place of entertainment. Beggar lads,
+whose scanty rags constitute their sole possession, chaff the excited
+dilals, keeping carefully out of harm's way the while. Three-fourths of
+the people present are there to idle the afternoon hours, with no
+intention of making a purchase unless some unexpected bargain crosses
+their path. I notice that the dilals secure several of these doubtful
+purchasers by dint of fluent and eloquent appeals. When the last article
+has been sold and the crowd is dispersing, merchants arise, praise Allah,
+who in his wisdom sends good days and bad, step out of their shop, let
+down one flap and raise the other, lock the two with a huge key and retire
+to their homes.</p>
+
+<p>I remember asking a Moor to explain why the Jews were so ill-treated and
+despised all over Morocco. The worthy man explained that the Koran
+declares that no True Believer might take Jew or Christian to be his
+friend, that the Veracious Book also assures the Faithful that Jews will
+be turned to pigs or monkeys for their unbelief, and that the
+metamorphosis will be painful. "Moreover," said the True Believer, who did
+not know that I was of the despised race, "do you not know that one of
+these cursed people tried to seize the throne in the time of the great
+Tafilatta?"</p>
+
+<p>I pleaded ignorance.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you not know the Feast of Scribes, that is held in Marrakesh and Fez?"
+he asked.</p>
+
+<p>Again I had to make confession that, though I had heard about the Feast, I
+had never witnessed it.</p>
+
+<p>"Only Allah is omniscient," he said by way of consolation. "Doubtless
+there are some small matters known to Nazarenes and withheld from
+us&mdash;strange though that may seem to the thoughtful.</p>
+
+<p>"In the name of the Most Merciful&mdash;know that there was a ruler in Taza
+before Mulai Ismail&mdash;Prince of the Faithful, he who overcame in the name
+of God&mdash;reigned in the land. Now this ruler<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> had a Jew for wazeer. When
+it pleased Allah to take the Sultan and set him in the pavilion of Mother
+of Pearl appointed for him in Paradise, in the shadow of the Tuba tree,
+this Jew hid his death from the people until he could seize the throne of
+Taza for himself and ride out under the M'dhal.<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> Then Mulai Ismail
+protested to the people, and the Tolba (scribes) arranged to remove the
+reproach from the land. So they collected forty of their bravest men and
+packed them in boxes&mdash;one man in a box. They put two boxes on a mule and
+drove the twenty mules to the courtyard of the palace that the Jew had
+taken for himself. The man in charge of the mules declared he had a
+present for the Sultan, and the Unbeliever, whose grave was to be the
+meeting-place of all the dogs of Taza, gave orders that the boxes should
+be brought in and set before him. This was done, and the cursed Jew
+prepared to gloat over rich treasure. But as each box was opened a talib
+rose suddenly, a naked sword in his hand, and falling bravely upon the
+unbelieving one, cut his body to pieces, while Shaitan hurried his soul to
+the furnace that is seven times heated and shall never cool.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 638px;">
+<a name="m41" id="m41"></a>
+<img src="images/m41.jpg" width="638" height="640" alt="WELL IN MARRAKESH" title="WELL IN MARRAKESH" />
+<br /><span class="caption">WELL IN MARRAKESH</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"Then the Father of the Faithful, the Ever Victorious," continued the True
+Believer, "decreed that the tolba should have a festival. And every year
+they meet in Marrakesh and Fez, and choose a talib who is to rule over
+them. The post is put up to auction; he who bids highest is Sultan for a
+week. He rides abroad on a fine horse or mule, under a M'dhal, as though
+he were indeed My Lord Abd-el-Aziz himself. Black slaves on either side
+brush away the flies with their white clothes, soldiers await to do his
+bidding, he is permitted to make a request to the true Sultan, and our
+Master has open ear and full hand for the tolba, who kept the Moghreb from
+the Unbelievers, the inheritors of the Fire, against whom Sidna Mohammed
+has turned his face."</p>
+
+<p>I arrived in Marrakesh just too late to witness the reign of the talib,
+but I heard that the successful candidate had paid thirty-two dollars for
+the post&mdash;a trifle less than five pounds in our money, at the rate of
+exchange then current. This money had been divided among the tolba. The
+governor of Marrakesh had given the lucky king one hundred dollars in
+cash, thirty sheep, twenty-five cones of sugar, forty jars of butter, and
+several sacks of flour. This procedure is peculiar to the Southern
+capital. In Fez the tolba kings collect taxes in person from every
+householder.</p>
+
+<p>The talib's petition to the Sultan had been framed on a very liberal
+scale. He asked for a home in Saffi, exemption from taxes, and a place in
+the custom-house. The Sultan had not responded to the petition when I left
+the city; he was closely beleaguered in Fez, and Bu Hamara was occupying
+Taza, the ancient city where the deed of the tolba had first instituted
+the quaint custom. My informant said there was little doubt but that his
+Shareefian majesty would grant all the requests, so the talib's investment
+of thirty-two dollars must be deemed highly profitable. At the same time I
+cannot find the story I was told confirmed by Moorish historians. No
+record to which I have had access tells of a Jewish king of Taza, though
+there was a Hebrew in high favour there in the time of Rasheed II. The
+details of the story told me are, as the American scribe said, probably
+attributable to Mr. Benjamin Trovato.</p>
+
+<p>When the attractions of Kaisariyah palled, the markets beyond the walls
+never failed to revive interest in the city's life. The Thursday market
+outside the Bab al Khamees brought together a very wonderful crowd of men
+and goods. All the city's trade in horses, camels, and cattle was done
+here. The caravan traders bought or hired their camels, and there were
+fine animals for sale with one fore and one hind leg hobbled, to keep them
+from straying. The camels were always the most interesting beasts on view.
+For the most part their attendants were Saharowi, who could control them
+seemingly by voice or movement of the hand; but a camel needs no little
+care, particularly at feeding time, when he is apt to turn spiteful if
+precedence be given to an animal he does not like. They are marvellously
+touchy and fastidious creatures&mdash;quite childlike in many of their
+peculiarities.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 440px;">
+<a name="m42" id="m42"></a>
+<img src="images/m42.jpg" width="440" height="640" alt="A BAZAAR, MARRAKESH" title="A BAZAAR, MARRAKESH" />
+<br /><span class="caption">A BAZAAR, MARRAKESH</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The desert caravan trade is not what it was since the French occupied
+Timbuctoo and closed the oases of Tuat; but I saw some caravans arrive
+from the interior&mdash;one of them from the sandy region where Mons. Lebaudy
+has set up his kingdom. How happy men and beasts seemed to be. I never saw
+camels looking so contented: the customary sneer had passed from their
+faces&mdash;or accumulated dust had blotted it out. On the day when the market
+is held in the open place beyond the Bab al Khamees, there is another big
+gathering within the city walls by the Jam&aacute;a Effina. Here acrobats and
+snake-charmers and story-tellers ply their trade, and never fail to find
+an audience. The acrobats come from Tarudant and another large city of the
+Sus that is not marked in the British War Office Map of Morocco dated
+1889! Occasionally one of these clever tumblers finds his way to London,
+and is seen at the music halls there.</p>
+
+<p>I remember calling on one Hadj Abdullah when I was in the North, and to my
+surprise he told me he spoke English, French, German, Spanish, Turkish,
+Moghrebbin Arabic, and Shilha. "I know London well," he said; "I have an
+engagement to bring my troupe of acrobats to the <i>Canterbury</i> and the
+<i>Oxford</i>. I am a member of a Masonic Lodge in Camberwell." Commonplace
+enough all this, but when you have ridden out of town to a little Moorish
+house on the hillside overlooking the Mediterranean, and are drinking
+green tea flavoured with mint, on a diwan that must be used with crossed
+legs, you hardly expect the discussion to be turned to London music-halls.</p>
+
+<p>Snake-charmers make a strong appeal to the untutored Moorish crowd. Black
+cobras and spotted leffa snakes from the Sus are used for the performance.
+When the charmer allows the snakes to dart at him or even to bite, the
+onlookers put their hands to their foreheads and praise Sidi ben Aissa, a
+saint who lived in Mequinez when Mulai Ismail ruled, a pious magician
+whose power stands even to-day between snake-charmers and sudden death.
+The musician who accompanies the chief performer, and collects the <i>floos</i>
+offered by spectators, works his companion into a condition of frenzy
+until he does not seem to feel the teeth of the snakes; but as people who
+should be well informed declare that the poison bags are always removed
+before the snakes are used for exhibition, it is hard for the mere
+Unbeliever to render to Sidi ben Aissa the exact amount of credit that may
+be due to him.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 599px;">
+<a name="m43" id="m43"></a>
+<img src="images/m43.jpg" width="599" height="640" alt="A BRICKFIELD, MARRAKESH" title="A BRICKFIELD, MARRAKESH" />
+<br /><span class="caption">A BRICKFIELD, MARRAKESH</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The story-teller, whose legends are to be found in the "Thousand Nights
+and a Night," is generally a merry rogue with ready wit. His tales are
+told with a wealth of detail that would place them upon the index
+expurgatorius of the Western world, but men, women, and children crowd
+round to hear them, and if his tale lacks the ingredients most desired
+they do not hesitate to tell him so, whereupon he will respond at once to
+his critics, and add love or war in accordance with their instructions.
+One has heard of something like this in the serial market at home. His
+reward is scanty, like that of his fellow-workers, the acrobat and the
+snake charmer, but he has quite a professional manner, and stops at the
+most exciting points in his narrative for his companion to make a tour of
+the circle to collect fees. The quality of the adventures he retails is
+settled always by the price paid for them.</p>
+
+<p>It is a strange sight, and unpleasant to the European, who believes that
+his morality, like his faith, is the only genuine article, to see young
+girls with antimony on their eyelids and henna on their nails, listening
+to stories that only the late Sir Richard Burton dared to render literally
+into the English tongue. While these children are young and impressionable
+they are allowed to run wild, but from the day when they become
+self-conscious they are strictly secluded.</p>
+
+<p>Throughout Marrakesh one notes a spirit of industry. If a man has work, he
+seems to be happy and well content. Most traders are very courteous and
+gentle in their dealings, and many have a sense of humour that cannot fail
+to please. While in the city I ordered one or two lamps from a workman who
+had a little shop in the Madinah. He asked for three days, and on the
+evening of the third day I went to fetch them, in company with Salam. The
+workman, who had made them himself, drew the lamps one by one from a dark
+corner, and Salam, who has a hawk's eye, noticed that the glass of one was
+slightly cracked.</p>
+
+<p>"Have a care, O Father of Lamps," he said; "the Englishman will not take a
+cracked glass."</p>
+
+<p>"What is this," cried the Lamps' Father in great anger, "who sells cracked
+lamps? If there is a flaw in one of mine, ask me for two dollars."</p>
+
+<p>Salam held the lamp with cracked glass up against the light. "Two
+dollars," he said briefly. The tradesman's face fell. He put his tongue
+out and smote it with his open hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah," he said mournfully, when he had admonished the unruly member, "who
+can set a curb upon the tongue?"<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a></p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> Mulai Rashed II.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> The royal umbrella.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> Cf. James iii. 8. But for a mere matter of dates, one would
+imagine that Luther detected the taint of Islam in James when he rejected
+his Epistle.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>THE SLAVE MARKET AT MARRAKESH</h2>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 452px;">
+<a name="m44" id="m44"></a>
+<img src="images/m44.jpg" width="452" height="640" alt="A MOSQUE, MARRAKESH" title="A MOSQUE, MARRAKESH" />
+<br /><span class="caption">A MOSQUE, MARRAKESH</span>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE SLAVE MARKET AT MARRAKESH</h3>
+
+<blockquote><p>As to your slaves, see that ye feed them with such food as ye eat
+yourselves, and clothe them with the stuff ye wear. And if they commit
+a fault which ye are not willing to forgive, then sell them, for they
+are the servants of Allah, and are not to be tormented.</p>
+
+<p>&mdash;<i>Mohammed's last Address.</i> </p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p>In the bazaars of the brass-workers and dealers in cotton goods, in the
+bazaars of the saddlers and of the leather-sellers,&mdash;in short, throughout
+the Kaisariyah, where the most important trade of Marrakesh is carried
+on,&mdash;the auctions of the afternoon are drawing to a close. The dilals have
+carried goods to and fro in a narrow path between two lines of True
+Believers, obtaining the best prices possible on behalf of the dignified
+merchants, who sit gravely in their boxlike shops beyond the reach of
+toil. No merchant seeks custom: he leaves the auctioneers to sell for him
+on commission, while he sits at ease, a stranger to elation or
+disappointment, in the knowledge that the success or failure of the day's
+market is decreed. Many articles have changed hands, but there is now a
+greater attraction for men with money outside the limited area of the
+Kaisariyah, and I think the traffic here passes before its time.</p>
+
+<p>The hour of the sunset prayer is approaching. The wealthier members of the
+community leave many attractive bargains unpursued, and, heedless of the
+dilals' frenzied cries, set out for the Sok el Abeed. Wool market in the
+morning and afternoon, it becomes the slave market on three days of the
+week, in the two hours that precede the setting of the sun and the closing
+of the city gates; this is the rule that holds in Red Marrakesh.</p>
+
+<p>I follow the business leaders through a very labyrinth of narrow, unpaved
+streets, roofed here and there with frayed and tattered palmetto-leaves
+that offer some protection, albeit a scanty one, against the blazing sun.
+At one of the corners where the beggars congregate and call for alms in
+the name of Mulai Abd el Kader Ijjilalli, I catch a glimpse of the great
+Kutubia tower, with pigeons circling round its glittering dome, and then
+the maze of streets, shutting out the view, claims me again. The path is
+by way of shops containing every sort of merchandise known to Moors, and
+of stalls of fruit and vegetables, grateful "as water-grass to herds in
+the June days." Past a turning in the crowded thoroughfare, where many
+Southern tribesmen are assembled, and heavily-laden camels compel
+pedestrians to go warily, the gate of the slave market looms portentous.</p>
+
+<p>A crowd of penniless idlers, to whom admittance is denied, clamours
+outside the heavy door, while the city urchins fight for the privilege of
+holding the mules of wealthy Moors, who are arriving in large numbers in
+response to the report that the household of a great wazeer, recently
+disgraced, will be offered for sale. One sees portly men of the city
+wearing the blue cloth selhams that bespeak wealth, country Moors who
+boast less costly garments, but ride mules of easy pace and heavy price,
+and one or two high officials of the Dar el Makhzan. All classes of the
+wealthy are arriving rapidly, for the sale will open in a quarter of an
+hour.</p>
+
+<p>The portals passed, unchallenged, the market stands revealed&mdash;an open
+space of bare, dry ground, hemmed round with tapia walls, dust-coloured,
+crumbling, ruinous. Something like an arcade stretches across the centre
+of the ground from one side to the other of the market. Roofless now and
+broken down, as is the outer wall itself, and the sheds, like cattle pens,
+that are built all round, it was doubtless an imposing structure in days
+of old. Behind the outer walls the town rises on every side. I see mules
+and donkeys feeding, apparently on the ramparts, but really in a fandak
+overlooking the market. The minaret of a mosque rises nobly beside the
+mules' feeding-ground, and beyond there is the white tomb of a saint, with
+swaying palm trees round it. Doubtless this zowia gives the Sok el Abeed a
+sanctity that no procedure within its walls can besmirch; and, to be sure,
+the laws of the saint's religion are not so much outraged here as in the
+daily life of many places more sanctified by popular opinion.</p>
+
+<p>On the ground, by the side of the human cattle pens, the wealthy patrons
+of the market seat themselves at their ease, arrange their djellabas and
+selhams in leisurely fashion, and begin to chat, as though the place were
+the smoking-room of a club. Water-carriers&mdash;lean, half-naked men from the
+Sus&mdash;sprinkle the thirsty ground, that the tramp of slaves and auctioneers
+may not raise too much dust. Watching them as they go about their work,
+with the apathy born of custom and experience, I have a sudden reminder of
+the Spanish bull-ring, to which the slave market bears some remote
+resemblance. The gathering of spectators, the watering of the ground, the
+sense of excitement, all strengthen the impression. There are no bulls in
+the <i>torils</i>, but there are slaves in the pens. It may be that the bulls
+have the better time. Their sufferings in life are certainly brief, and
+their careless days are very long drawn out. But I would not give the
+impression that the spectators here are assembled for amusement, or that
+my view of some of their proceedings would be comprehensible to them.
+However I may feel, the other occupants of this place are here in the
+ordinary course of business, and are certainly animated by no such fierce
+passions as thrill through the air of a plaza de toros. I am in the East
+but of the West, and "never the twain shall meet."</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 718px;">
+<a name="m45" id="m45"></a>
+<img src="images/m45.jpg" width="718" height="640" alt="A WATER-SELLER, MARRAKESH" title="A WATER-SELLER, MARRAKESH" />
+<br /><span class="caption">A WATER-SELLER, MARRAKESH</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Within their sheds the slaves are huddled together. They will not face the
+light until the market opens. I catch a glimpse of bright colouring now
+and again, as some woman or child moves in the dim recesses of the
+retreats, but there is no suggestion of the number or quality of the
+penned.</p>
+
+<p>Two storks sail leisurely from their nest on the saint's tomb, and a
+little company of white ospreys passes over the burning market-place with
+such a wild, free flight, that the contrast between the birds and the
+human beings forces itself upon me. Now, however, there is no time for
+such thoughts; the crowd at the entrance parts to the right and left, to
+admit twelve grave men wearing white turbans and spotless djellabas. They
+are the dilals, in whose hands is the conduct of the sale.</p>
+
+<p>Slowly and impressively these men advance in a line almost to the centre
+of the slave market, within two or three yards of the arcade, where the
+wealthy buyers sit expectant. Then the head auctioneer lifts up his voice,
+and prays, with downcast eyes and outspread hands. He recites the glory of
+Allah, the One, who made the heaven above and the earth beneath, the sea
+and all that is therein; his brethren and the buyers say Amen. He thanks
+Allah for his mercy to men in sending Mohammed the Prophet, who gave the
+world the True Belief, and he curses Shaitan, who wages war against Allah
+and his children. Then he calls upon Sidi bel Abbas, patron saint of
+Marrakesh, friend of buyers and sellers, who praised Allah so assiduously
+in days remote, and asks the saint to bless the market and all who buy and
+sell therein, granting them prosperity and length of days. And to these
+prayers, uttered with an intensity of devotion quite Mohammedan, all the
+listeners say Amen. Only to Unbelievers like myself,&mdash;to men who have
+never known, or knowing, have rejected Islam,&mdash;is there aught repellent in
+the approaching business; and Unbelievers may well pass unnoticed. In life
+the man who has the True Faith despises them; in death they become
+children of the Fire. Is it not so set down?</p>
+
+<p>Throughout this strange ceremony of prayer I seem to see the bull-ring
+again, and in place of the dilals the cuadrillas of the Matadors coming
+out to salute, before the alguazils open the gates of the toril and the
+slaying begins. The dramatic intensity of either scene connects for me
+this slave market in Marrakesh with the plaza de toros in the shadow of
+the Giralda tower in Sevilla. Strange to remember now and here, that the
+man who built the Kutubia tower for this thousand-year-old-city of Yusuf
+ben Tachfin, gave the Giralda to Andalusia.</p>
+
+<p>Prayers are over&mdash;the last Amen is said. The dilals separate, each one
+going to the pens he presides over, and calling upon their tenants to come
+forth. These selling men move with a dignity that is quite Eastern, and
+speak in calm and impressive tones. They lack the frenzied energy of their
+brethren who traffic in the bazaars.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 915px;">
+<a name="m46" id="m46"></a>
+<img src="images/m46.jpg" width="915" height="640" alt="ON THE ROAD TO THE S&Ocirc;K EL ABEED" title="ON THE ROAD TO THE S&Ocirc;K EL ABEED" />
+<br /><span class="caption">ON THE ROAD TO THE S&Ocirc;K EL ABEED</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Obedient to the summons, the slaves face the light, the sheds yield up
+their freight, and there are a few noisy moments, bewildering to the
+novice, in which the auctioneers place their goods in line, rearrange
+dresses, give children to the charge of adults, sort out men and women
+according to their age and value, and prepare for the promenade. The
+slaves will march round and round the circle of the buyers, led by the
+auctioneers, who will proclaim the latest bid and hand over any one of
+their charges to an intending purchaser, that he may make his examination
+before raising the price. In the procession now forming for the first
+parade, five, if not six, of the seven ages set out by the melancholy
+Jaques are represented. There are men and women who can no longer walk
+upright, however the dilal may insist; there are others of middle age,
+with years of active service before them; there are young men full of
+vigour and youth, fit for the fields, and young women, moving for once
+unveiled yet unrebuked, who will pass at once to the hareem. And there are
+children of every age, from babies who will be sold with their mothers to
+girls and boys upon the threshold of manhood and womanhood. All are
+dressed in bright colours and displayed to the best advantage, that the
+hearts of bidders may be moved and their purses opened widely.</p>
+
+<p>"It will be a fine sale," says my neighbour, a handsome middle-aged Moor
+from one of the Atlas villages, who had chosen his place before I reached
+the market. "There must be well nigh forty slaves, and this is good,
+seeing that the Elevated Court is at Fez. It is because our Master&mdash;Allah
+send him more victories!&mdash;has been pleased to 'visit' Sidi Abdeslam, and
+send him to the prison of Mequinez. All the wealth he has extorted has
+been taken away from him by our Master, and he will see no more light.
+Twenty or more of these women are of his house."</p>
+
+<p>Now each dilal has his people sorted out, and the procession begins.
+Followed by their bargains the dilals march round and round the market,
+and I understand why the dust was laid before the procession commenced.</p>
+
+<p>Most of the slaves are absolutely free from emotion of any sort: they move
+round as stolidly as the blind-folded horses that work the water-wheels in
+gardens beyond the town, or the corn mills within its gates. I think the
+sensitive ones&mdash;and there are a few&mdash;must come from the household of the
+unfortunate Sidi Abdeslam, who was reputed to be a good master. Small
+wonder if the younger women shrink, and if the black visage seems to take
+on a tint of ashen grey, when a buyer, whose face is an open defiance of
+the ten commandments, calls upon the dilal to halt, and, picking one out
+as though she had been one of a flock of sheep, handles her as a butcher
+would, examining teeth and muscles, and questioning her and the dilal very
+closely about past history and present health. And yet the European
+observer must beware lest he read into incidents of this kind something
+that neither buyer nor seller would recognise. Novelty may create an
+emotion that facts and custom cannot justify.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 733px;">
+<a name="m47" id="m47"></a>
+<img src="images/m47.jpg" width="733" height="640" alt="THE SLAVE MARKET" title="THE SLAVE MARKET" />
+<br /><span class="caption">THE SLAVE MARKET</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"Ah, Tsamanni," says my gossip from the Atlas to the big dilal who led the
+prayers, and is in special charge of the children for sale, "I will speak
+to this one," and Tsamanni pushes a tiny little girl into his arms. The
+child kisses the speaker's hand. Not at all unkindly the Moor takes his
+critical survey, and Tsamanni enlarges upon her merits.</p>
+
+<p>"She does not come from the town at all," he says glibly, "but from
+Timbuctoo. It is more difficult than ever to get children from there. The
+accursed Nazarenes have taken the town, and the slave market droops. But
+this one is desirable: she understands needlework, she will be a companion
+for your house, and thirty-five dollars is the last price bid."</p>
+
+<p>"One more dollar, Tsamanni. She is not ill-favoured, but she is poor and
+thin. Nevertheless say one dollar more," says the Moor.</p>
+
+<p>"The praise to Allah, who made the world," says the dilal piously, and
+hurries round the ring, saying that the price of the child is now
+thirty-six dollars, and calling upon the buyers to go higher.</p>
+
+<p>I learn that the dilal's commission is two and a half per cent on the
+purchase price, and there is a Government tax of five per cent. Slaves are
+sold under a warranty, and are returned if they are not properly described
+by the auctioneer. Bids must not be advanced by less than a Moorish dollar
+(about three shillings) at a time, and when a sale is concluded a deposit
+must be paid at once, and the balance on or shortly after the following
+day. Thin slaves will not fetch as much money as fat ones, for corpulence
+is regarded as the outward and visible sign of health as well as wealth by
+the Moor.</p>
+
+<p>"I have a son of my house," says the Moor from the Atlas, with a burst of
+confidence quite surprising. "He is my only one, and must have a
+playfellow, so I am here to buy. In these days it is not easy to get what
+one wants. Everywhere the French. The caravans come no longer from
+Tuat&mdash;because of the French. From Timbuctoo it is the same thing. Surely
+Allah will burn these people in a fire of more than ordinary heat&mdash;a
+furnace that shall never cool. Ah, listen to the prices," The little
+girl's market-value has gone to forty-four dollars&mdash;say seven pounds ten
+shillings in English money at the current rate of exchange. It has risen
+two dollars at a time, and Tsamanni cannot quite cover his satisfaction.
+One girl, aged fourteen, has been sold for no less than ninety dollars
+after spirited bidding from two country kaids; another, two years older,
+has gone for seventy-six.</p>
+
+<p>"There is no moderation in all this," says the Atlas Moor, angrily. "But
+prices will rise until our Lord the Sultan ceases to listen to the
+Nazarenes, and purges the land. Because of their Bashadors we can no
+longer have the markets at the towns on the coasts. If we do have one
+there, it must be held secretly, and a slave must be carried in the
+darkness from house to house. This is shameful for an unconquered people."</p>
+
+<p>I am only faintly conscious of my companion's talk and action, as he bids
+for child after child, never going beyond forty dollars. Interest centres
+in the diminishing crowd of slaves who still follow the dilals round the
+market in monotonous procession.</p>
+
+<p>The attractive women and strong men have been sold, and have realised
+good prices. The old people are in little or no demand; but the
+auctioneers will persist until closing time. Up and down tramp the people
+nobody wants, burdens to themselves and their owners, the useless, or
+nearly useless men and women whose lives have been slavery for so long as
+they can remember. Even the water-carrier from the Sus country, who has
+been jingling his bright bowls together since the market opened, is moved
+to compassion, for while two old women are standing behind their dilal,
+who is talking to a client about their reserve price, I see him give them
+a free draught from his goat-skin water-barrel, and this kind action seems
+to do something to freshen the place, just as the mint and the roses of
+the gardeners freshen the alleys near the Kaisariyah in the heart of the
+city. To me, this journey round and round the market seems to be the
+saddest of the slaves' lives&mdash;worse than their pilgrimage across the
+deserts of the Wad Nun, or the Draa, in the days when they were carried
+captive from their homes, packed in panniers upon mules, forced to travel
+by night, and half starved. For then at least they were valued and had
+their lives before them, now they are counted as little more than the
+broken-down mules and donkeys left to rot by the roadside. And yet this,
+of course, is a purely Western opinion, and must be discounted
+accordingly.</p>
+
+<p>It is fair to say that auctioneers and buyers treat the slaves in a manner
+that is not unkind. They handle them just as though they were animals
+with a market value that ill-treatment will diminish, and a few of the
+women are brazen, shameless creatures&mdash;obviously, and perhaps not
+unwisely, determined to do the best they can for themselves in any
+surroundings. These women are the first to find purchasers. The unsold
+adults and little children seem painfully tired; some of the latter can
+hardly keep pace with the auctioneer, until he takes them by the hand and
+leads them along with him. Moors, as a people, are wonderfully kind to
+children.</p>
+
+<p>The procedure never varies. As a client beckons and points out a slave,
+the one selected is pushed forward for inspection, the history is briefly
+told, and if the bidding is raised the auctioneer, thanking Allah, who
+sends good prices, hurries on his way to find one who will bid a little
+more. On approaching an intending purchaser the slave seizes and kisses
+his hand, then releases it and stands still, generally indifferent to the
+rest of the proceedings.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 579px;">
+<a name="m48" id="m48"></a>
+<img src="images/m48.jpg" width="579" height="640" alt="DILALS IN THE SLAVE MARKET" title="DILALS IN THE SLAVE MARKET" />
+<br /><span class="caption">DILALS IN THE SLAVE MARKET</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"It is well for the slaves," says the Atlas Moor, rather bitterly, for the
+fifth and last girl child has gone up beyond his limit. "In the Mellah or
+the Madinah you can get labour for nothing, now the Sultan is in Fez.
+There is hunger in many a house, and it is hard for a free man to find
+food. But slaves are well fed. In times of famine and war free men die;
+slaves are in comfort. Why then do the Nazarenes talk of freeing slaves,
+as though they were prisoners, and seek to put barriers against the
+market, until at last the prices become foolish? Has not the Prophet
+said, 'He who behaveth ill to his slave shall not enter into Paradise'?
+Does that not suffice believing people? Clearly it was written, that my
+little Mohammed, my first born, my only one, shall have no playmate this
+day. No, Tsamanni: I will bid no more. Have I such store of dollars that I
+can buy a child for its weight in silver?"</p>
+
+<p>The crowd is thinning now. Less than ten slaves remain to be sold, and I
+do not like to think how many times they must have tramped round the
+market. Men and women&mdash;bold, brazen, merry, indifferent&mdash;have passed to
+their several masters; all the children have gone; the remaining oldsters
+move round and round, their shuffling gait, downcast eyes, and melancholy
+looks in pitiful contrast to the bright clothes in which they are dressed
+for the sale, in order that their own rags may not prejudice purchasers.</p>
+
+<p>Once again the storks from the saint's tomb pass over the market in large
+wide flight, as though to tell the story of the joy of freedom. It is the
+time of the evening promenade. The sun is setting rapidly and the sale is
+nearly at an end.</p>
+
+<p>"Forty-one dollars&mdash;forty-one," cries the dilal at whose heels the one
+young and pretty woman who has not found a buyer limps painfully. She is
+from the Western Soudan, and her big eyes have a look that reminds me of
+the hare that was run down by the hounds a few yards from me on the
+marshes at home in the coursing season.</p>
+
+<p>"Why is the price so low?" I ask.</p>
+
+<p>"She is sick," said the Moor coolly: "she cannot work&mdash;perhaps she will
+not live. Who will give more in such a case? She is of kaid Abdeslam's
+household, though he bought her a few weeks before his fall, and she must
+be sold. But the dilal can give no warranty, for nobody knows her
+sickness. She is one of the slaves who are bought by the dealers for the
+rock salt of El Djouf."</p>
+
+<p>Happily the woman seems too dull or too ill to feel her own position. She
+moves as though in a dream&mdash;a dream undisturbed, for the buyers have
+almost ceased to regard her. Finally she is sold for forty-three dollars
+to a very old and infirm man.</p>
+
+<p>"No slaves, no slaves," says the Atlas Moor impatiently: "and in the town
+they are slow to raise them." I want an explanation of this strange
+complaint.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you mean when you say they are slow to raise them," I ask.</p>
+
+<p>"In Marrakesh now," he explains, "dealers buy the healthiest slaves they
+can find, and raise as many children by them as is possible. Then, so soon
+as the children are old enough to sell, they are sold, and when the
+mothers grow old and have no more children, they too are sold, but they do
+not fetch much then."</p>
+
+<p>This statement takes all words from me, but my informant sees nothing
+startling in the case, and continues gravely: "From six years old they are
+sold to be companions, and from twelve they go to the hareems. Prices are
+good&mdash;too high indeed; fifty-four dollars I must have paid this afternoon
+to purchase one, and when Mulai Mohammed reigned the price would have
+been twenty, or less, and for that one would have bought fat slaves. Where
+there is one caravan now, there were ten of old times."</p>
+
+<p>Only three slaves now, and they must go back to their masters to be sent
+to the market on another day, for the sun is below the horizon, the market
+almost empty, and the guards will be gathering at the city gates. Two
+dilals make a last despairing promenade, while their companions are busy
+recording prices and other details in connection with the afternoon's
+business. The purchased slaves, the auctioneer's gaudy clothing changed
+for their own, are being taken to the houses of their masters. We who live
+within the city walls must hasten now, for the time of gate-closing is
+upon us, and one may not stay outside.</p>
+
+<p>It has been a great day. Many rich men have attended personally, or by
+their agents, to compete for the best favoured women of the household of
+the fallen kaid, and prices in one or two special cases ran beyond forty
+pounds (English money), so brisk was the bidding.</p>
+
+<p>Outside the market-place a country Moor of the middle class is in charge
+of four young boy slaves, and is telling a friend what he paid for them. I
+learn that their price averaged eleven pounds apiece in English
+currency&mdash;two hundred and eighty dollars altogether in Moorish money, that
+they were all bred in Marrakesh by a dealer who keeps a large
+establishment of slaves, as one in England might keep a stud farm, and
+sells the children as they grow up. The purchaser of the quartette is
+going to take them to the North. He will pass the coming night in a
+fandak, and leave as soon after daybreak as the gates are opened. Some ten
+days' travel on foot will bring him to a certain city, where his
+merchandise should fetch four hundred dollars. The lads do not seem to be
+disturbed by the sale, or by thoughts of their future, and the dealer
+himself seems to be as near an approach to a commercial traveller as I
+have seen in Morocco. To him the whole transaction is on a par with
+selling eggs or fruit, and while he does not resent my interest, he does
+not pretend to understand it.</p>
+
+<p>From the minaret that overlooks the mosque the mueddin calls for the
+evening prayer; from the side of the Kutubia Tower and the minaret of Sidi
+bel Abbas, as from all the lesser mosques, the cry is taken up. Lepers
+pass out of the city on their way to Elhara; beggars shuffle off to their
+dens; storks standing on the flat house-tops survey the familiar scene
+gravely but with interest. Doubtless the dilals and all who sent their
+slaves to the market to be sold this afternoon will respond to the
+mueddins' summons with grateful hearts, and Sidi bel Abbas, patron saint
+of Red Marrakesh, will hardly go unthanked.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>GREEN TEA AND POLITICS</h2>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 538px;">
+<a name="m49" id="m49"></a>
+<img src="images/m49.jpg" width="538" height="640" alt="ON THE HOUSE-TOP, MARRAKESH" title="ON THE HOUSE-TOP, MARRAKESH" />
+<br /><span class="caption">ON THE HOUSE-TOP, MARRAKESH</span>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+
+<h3>GREEN TEA AND POLITICS</h3>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Whither resorting from the vernal Heat<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Shall Old Acquaintance Old Acquaintance greet,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Under the Branch that leans above the Wall<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">To shed his Blossom over head and feet.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0"><i>The Rub&aacute;iy&aacute;t of Omar Khayy&aacute;m.</i><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<p>He was a grave personable Moor of middle age, and full of the dignity that
+would seem to be the birthright of his race. His official position gave
+him a certain knowledge of political developments without affecting his
+serene outlook upon life. Whether he sat outside the Kasbah of his native
+town and administered the law according to his lights, or, summoned to the
+capital, rode attended so far as the Dar el Makhzan, there to take his
+part in a council of the Sultan's advisers, or whether, removed for a time
+from cares of office, he rested at ease among his cushions as he was doing
+now, this Moorish gentleman's placid and unruffled features would lead the
+Western observer to suppose that he was a very simple person with no sort
+of interest in affairs. I had occasion to know him, however, for a
+statesman, after the Moorish fashion&mdash;a keen if resigned observer of the
+tragic-comedy of his country's politics, and a pious man withal, who had
+visited Mecca in the month that is called Shawall, and had cast stones on
+the hill of Arafat, as the custom is among True Believers. Some years had
+passed since our first meeting, when I was the bearer of a letter of
+introduction written by a high official in the intricate Arabic character.
+It began: "Praise be to God! The blessing of Allah on our Lord Mohammed,
+and his peace upon Friends and Followers." Irrelevant perhaps all this,
+but the letter had opened the portals of his house to me, and had let
+loose for my benefit thoughts not lightly to be expressed.</p>
+
+<p>Now we sat side by side on cushions in his patio, partly shaded by a rose
+tree that climbed over trellis-work and rioted in bud and blossom. We
+drank green tea flavoured with mint from tiny glasses that were floridly
+embossed in gilt. Beyond the patio there was a glimpse of garden ablaze
+with colour; we could hear slaves singing by the great Persian
+water-wheel, and the cooing of doves from the shaded heart of trees that
+screened a granary.</p>
+
+<p>"Since Mulai el Hasan died," said the Hadj quietly, "since that Prince of
+Believers went to his Pavilion in Paradise, set among rivers in an orchard
+of never-failing fruit, as is explained in the Most Perspicuous Book,<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a>
+troubles have swept over this land, even as El Jerad, the locust, comes
+upon it before the west wind has risen to blow him out to sea."</p>
+
+<p>He mused awhile, as though the music of the garden pleased him.</p>
+
+<p>"Even before the time of my Lord el Hasan," he went on, "there had been
+troubles enough. I can remember the war with Spain, though I was but a
+boy. My father was among those who fell at Wad Ras on the way to Tanjah of
+the Nazarenes. But then your country would not permit these Spanish dogs
+to steal our land, and even lent the money to satisfy and keep them away.
+This was a kindly deed, and Mulai Mohammed, our Victorious Master, opened
+his heart to your Bashador<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a> and took him to his innermost councils. And
+I can remember that great Bashador of yours when he came to this city and
+was received in the square by the Augdal gardens. Our Master the Sultan
+came before him on a white horse<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a> to speak gracious words under the
+M'dhal, that shades the ruling House.</p>
+
+<p>"A strong man was our Master the Sultan, and he listened carefully to all
+your Bashador said, still knowing in his heart that this country is not as
+the land of the Nazarenes, and could not be made like it in haste. His
+wazeers feared change, the Ulema<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> opposed it so far as they dared, and
+that you know is very far, and nothing could be done rapidly after the
+fashion of the West. My Lord understood this well.</p>
+
+<p>"Then that King of the Age and Prince of True Believers fulfilled his
+destiny and died, and my Lord el Hasan, who was in the South, reigned in
+his stead.<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> And the troubles that now cover the land began to grow and
+spread."</p>
+
+<p>He sipped his tea with grave pleasure. Two female slaves were peering at
+the Infidel through the branches of a lemon tree, just beyond the patio,
+but when their master dropped his voice the heads disappeared suddenly, as
+though his words had kept them in place. In the depths of the garden
+close, Oom el Hasan, the nightingale, awoke and trilled softly. We
+listened awhile to hear the notes "ring like a golden jewel down a golden
+stair."</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 614px;">
+<a name="m50" id="m50"></a>
+<img src="images/m50.jpg" width="614" height="640" alt="A HOUSE INTERIOR, MARRAKESH" title="A HOUSE INTERIOR, MARRAKESH" />
+<br /><span class="caption">A HOUSE INTERIOR, MARRAKESH</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"My Lord el Hasan," continued the Hadj, "was ever on horseback; with him
+the powder was always speaking. First Fez rejected him, and he carried
+fire and sword to that rebellious city. Then Er-Riff refused to pay
+tribute and he enforced it&mdash;Allah make his kingdom eternal. Then this
+ungrateful city rebelled against his rule and the army came south and fed
+the spikes of the city gate with the heads of the unfaithful. Before he
+had rested, Fez was insolent once again, and on the road north our Master,
+the Ever Victorious, was (so to say, as the irreligious see it) defeated
+by the Illegitimate men from Ghaita, rebels against Allah, all, and his
+house<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> was carried away. There were more campaigns in the North and in
+the South, and the Shareefian army ate up the land, so that there was a
+famine more fatal than war. After that came more fighting, and again more
+fighting. My lord sought soldiers from your people and from the French,
+and he went south to the Sus and smote the rebellious kaids from Tarudant
+to High. So it fell out that my Lord was never at peace with his servants,
+but the country went on as before, with fighting in the north and the
+south and the east and the west. The devil ships of the Nazarene nations
+came again and again to the bay of Tanjah to see if the Prince of the
+Faithful were indeed dead, as rumour so often stated. But he was strong,
+my Lord el Hasan, and not easy to kill. In the time of a brief sickness
+that visited him the French took the oases of Tuat, which belongs to the
+country just so surely as does this our Marrakesh. They have been from
+times remote a place of resting for the camels, like Tindouf in the Sus.
+But our Master recovered his lordship with his health, and the French went
+back from our land. After that my Lord el Hasan went to Tafilalt over the
+Atlas, never sparing himself. And when he returned to this city, weary and
+very sick, at the head of an army that lacked even food and clothing, the
+Spaniards were at the gates of Er-Riff once more, and the tribes were out
+like a fire of thorns over the northern roads. But because the span
+allotted him by destiny was fulfilled, and also because he was worn out
+and would not rest, my Lord Hasan died near Tadla; and Ba Ahmad, his
+chief wazeer, hid his death from the soldiers until his son Abd-el-Aziz
+was proclaimed."</p>
+
+<p>There was a pause here, as though my host were overwhelmed with
+reflections and was hard driven to give sequence to his narrative. "Our
+present Lord was young," he continued at last thoughtfully; "he was a very
+young man, and so Ba Ahmad spoke for him and acted for him, and threw into
+prison all who might have stood before his face. Also, as was natural, he
+piled up great stores of gold, and took to his hareem the women he
+desired, and oppressed the poor and the rich, so that many men cursed him
+privately. But for all that Ba Ahmad was a wise man and very strong. He
+saw the might of the French in the East, and of the Bashadors who pollute
+Tanjah in the North; he remembered the ships that came to the waters in
+the West, and he knew that the men of these ships want to seize all the
+foreign lands, until at last they rule the earth even as they rule the
+sea. Against all the wise men of the Nazarenes who dwell in Tanjah the
+wazeer fought in the name of the Exalted of God,<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a> so that no one of
+them could settle on this land to take it for himself and break into the
+bowels of the earth. To be sure, in Wazzan and far in the Eastern country
+the accursed French grew in strength and in influence, for they gave
+protection, robbing the Sultan of his subjects. But they took little land,
+they sent few to Court, the country was ours until the wazeer had
+fulfilled his destiny and died. Allah pardon him, for he was a man, and
+ruled this country, as his Master before him, with a rod of very steel."</p>
+
+<p>"But," I objected, "you told me formerly that while he lived no man's life
+or treasure was safe, that he extorted money from all, that he ground the
+faces of the rich and the poor, that when he died in this city, the
+Marrakshis said 'A dog is dead.' How now can you find words to praise
+him?"</p>
+
+<p>"The people cry out," explained the Hadj calmly; "they complain, but they
+obey. In the Moghreb it is for the people to be ruled as it is for the
+rulers to govern. Shall the hammers cease to strike because the anvil
+cries out? Truly the prisons of my Lord Abd-el-Aziz were full while Ba
+Ahmad ruled, but all who remained outside obeyed the law. No man can avoid
+his fate, even my Lord el Hasan, a fighter all the days of his life, loved
+peace and hated war. But his destiny was appointed with his birth, and he,
+the peaceful one, drove men yoked neck and neck to fight for him, even a
+whole tribe of the rebellious, as these eyes have seen. While Ba Ahmad
+ruled from Marrakesh all the Moghreb trembled, but the roads were safe, as
+in the days of Mulai Ismail,&mdash;may God have pardoned him,&mdash;the land knew
+quiet seasons of sowing and reaping, the expeditions were but few, and it
+is better for a country like ours that many should suffer than that none
+should be at rest."</p>
+
+<p>I remained silent, conscious that I could not hope to see life through my
+host's medium. It was as though we looked at his garden through glasses of
+different colour. And perhaps neither of us saw the real truth of the
+problem underlying what we are pleased to call the Moorish Question.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 901px;">
+<a name="m51" id="m51"></a>
+<img src="images/m51.jpg" width="901" height="640" alt="A GLIMPSE OF THE ATLAS MOUNTAINS" title="A GLIMPSE OF THE ATLAS MOUNTAINS" />
+<br /><span class="caption">A GLIMPSE OF THE ATLAS MOUNTAINS</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"When the days of the Grand Wazeer were fulfilled," the Hadj continued
+gravely, "his enemies came into power. His brother the War Minister and
+his brother the Chamberlain died suddenly, and he followed them within the
+week. No wise man sought too particularly to know the cause of their
+death. Christians came to the Court Elevated by Allah, and said to my Lord
+Abd-el-Aziz, 'Be as the Sultans of the West.' And they brought him their
+abominations, the wheeled things that fall if left alone, but support a
+man who mounts them, as I suppose, in the name of Shaitan; the picture
+boxes that multiply images of True Believers and, being as the work of
+painters,<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a> are wisely forbidden by the Far Seeing Book; carriages drawn
+by invisible djinoon, who scream and struggle in their fiery prison but
+must stay and work, small sprites that dance and sing.<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> The Christians
+knew that my Lord was but a young man, and so they brought these things,
+and Abd-el-Aziz gave them of the country's riches, and conversed with them
+familiarly, as though they had been of the house of a Grand Shareef. But
+in the far east of the Moghreb the French closed the oases of Tuat and
+Tidikelt without rebuke, and burnt Ksor and destroyed the Faithful with
+guns containing green devils,<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a> and said, 'We do all this that we may
+venture abroad without fear of robbers.' Then my Lord sent the War
+Minister, the kaid Maheddi el Menebhi, to London, and he saw your Sultan
+face to face. And your Sultan's wazeers said to him, 'Tell the Lord of the
+Moghreb to rule as we rule, to gather his taxes peaceably and without
+force, to open his ports, to feed his prisoners, to follow the wisdom of
+the West. If he will do this, assuredly his kingdom shall never be moved.'
+Thereafter your Sultan's great men welcomed the kaid yet more kindly, and
+showed him all that Allah the One had given them in his mercy, their
+palaces, their workplaces, their devil ships that move without sails over
+the face of the waters, and their unveiled women who pass without shame
+before the faces of men. And though the kaid said nothing, he remembered
+all these things.</p>
+
+<p>"When he returned, and by the aid of your own Bashador in Tanjah prevailed
+over the enemies who had set snares in his path while he fared abroad, he
+stood up before my Lord and told him all he had seen. Thereupon my Lord
+Abd-el-Aziz sought to change that which had gone before, to make a new
+land as quickly as the father of the red legs<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a> builds a new nest, or
+the boar of the Atlas whom the hunter has disturbed finds a new lair. And
+the land grew confused. It was no more the Moghreb, but it assuredly was
+not as the lands of the West.</p>
+
+<p>"In the beginning of the season of change the French were angry. 'All men
+shall pay an equal tax throughout my land,' said the King of the Age, and
+the Bashador of the French said, 'Our protected subjects shall not yield
+even a handful of green corn to the gatherer.' Now when the people saw
+that the tax-gatherers did not travel as they were wont to travel, armed
+and ready to kill, they hardened their hearts and said, 'We will pay no
+taxes at all, for these men cannot overcome us.' So the tribute was not
+yielded, and the French Bashador said to the Sultan, 'Thou seest that
+these people will not pay, but we out of our abundant wealth will give all
+the money that is needed. Only sign these writings that set forth our
+right to the money that is brought by Nazarenes to the seaports, and
+everything will be well.'</p>
+
+<p>"So the Sultan set his seal upon all that was brought before him, and the
+French sent gold to his treasury and more French traders came to his
+Court, and my Lord gave them the money that had come to him from their
+country, for more of the foolish and wicked things they brought. Then he
+left Marrakesh and went to Fez; and the Rogui, Bu Hamara,<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a> rose up and
+waged war against him."</p>
+
+<p>The Hadj sighed deeply, and paused while fresh tea was brought by a
+coal-black woman slave, whose colour was accentuated by the scarlet
+<i>rida</i> upon her head, and the broad silver anklets about her feet. When
+she had retired and we were left alone once more, my host continued:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You know what happened after. My Lord Abd-el-Aziz made no headway against
+the Rogui, who is surely assisted by devils of the air and by the devils
+of France. North and south, east and west, the Moors flocked to him, for
+they said, 'The Sultan has become a Christian.' And to-day my Lord has no
+more money, and no strength to fight the Infidel, and the French come
+forward, and the land is troubled everywhere. But this is clearly the
+decree of Allah the All Wise, and if it is written that the days of the
+Filali Shareefs are numbered, even my Lord will not avoid his fate."</p>
+
+<p>I said nothing, for I had seen the latter part of Morocco's history
+working itself out, and knew that the improved relations between Great
+Britain and France had their foundation in the change of front that kept
+our Foreign Office from doing for Morocco what it has done for other
+states divided against themselves, and what it had promised Morocco,
+without words, very clearly. Then, again, it was obvious to me, though I
+could not hope to explain it to my host, that the Moor, having served his
+time, had to go under before the wave of Western civilisation. Morocco has
+held out longer than any other kingdom of Africa, not by reason of its own
+strength, but because the rulers of Europe could not afford to see the
+Mediterranean balance of power seriously disturbed. Just as Mulai Ismail
+praised Allah publicly two centuries ago for giving him strength to drive
+out the Infidel, when the British voluntarily relinquished their hold upon
+Tangier, so successive Moorish Sultans have thought that they have held
+Morocco for the Moors by their own power. And yet, in very sober truth,
+Morocco has been no more than one of the pawns in the diplomatic game
+these many years past.</p>
+
+<p>We who know and love the country, finding in its patriarchal simplicity so
+much that contrasts favourably with the hopeless vulgarity of our own
+civilisation, must recognise in justice the great gulf lying between a
+country's aspect in the eyes of the traveller and in the mind of the
+politician.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 618px;">
+<a name="m52" id="m52"></a>
+<img src="images/m52.jpg" width="618" height="640" alt="A MARRAKSHI" title="A MARRAKSHI" />
+<br /><span class="caption">A MARRAKSHI</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Before we parted, the Hadj, prefacing his remark with renewed assurance of
+his personal esteem, told me that the country's error had been its
+admission of strangers. Poor man, his large simple mind could not realise
+that no power his master held could have kept them out. He told me on
+another occasion that the great wazeers who had opposed the Sultan's
+reforms were influenced by fear, lest Western ideas should alter the
+status of their womenkind. They had heard from all their envoys to Europe
+how great a measure of liberty is accorded to women, and were prepared to
+rebel against any reform that might lead to compulsory alteration of the
+system under which women live&mdash;too often as slaves and playthings&mdash;in
+Morocco. My friend's summary of his country's recent history is by no
+means complete, and, if he could revise it here would doubtless have far
+more interest. But it seemed advisable to get the Moorish point of view,
+and, having secured the curious elusive thing, to record it as nearly as
+might be.</p>
+
+<p>Sidi Boubikir seldom discussed politics. "I am in the South and the
+trouble is in the North," said he. "Alhamdolillah,<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a> I am all for my
+Lord Abd-el-Aziz. In the reign of his grandfather I made money, when my
+Lord his father ruled&mdash;upon him the Peace&mdash;I made money, and now to-day I
+make money. Shall I listen then to Pretenders and other evil men? The
+Sultan may have half my fortune."</p>
+
+<p>I did not suggest what I knew to be true, that the Sultan would have been
+more than delighted to take him at his word, for I remembered the incident
+of the lampmaker's wager. A considerable knowledge of Moghrebbin Arabic,
+in combination with hypnotic skill of a high order, would have been
+required to draw from Boubikir his real opinions of the outlook. Not for
+nothing was he appointed British political agent in South Morocco. The
+sphinx is not more inscrutable.</p>
+
+<p>One night his son came to the Dar al Kasdir and brought me an invitation
+from Sidi Boubikir to dine with him on the following afternoon. Arrived
+before the gate of his palace at the time appointed, two o'clock, we found
+the old diplomat waiting to welcome us. He wore a fine linen djellaba of
+dazzling whiteness, and carried a scarlet geranium in his hand. "You are
+welcome," he said gravely, and led the way through a long corridor,
+crying aloud as he went, "Make way, make way," for we were entering the
+house itself, and it is not seemly that a Moorish woman, whether she be
+wife or concubine, should look upon a stranger's face. Yet some few lights
+of the hareem were not disposed to be extinguished altogether by
+considerations of etiquette, and passed hurriedly along, as though bent
+upon avoiding us and uncertain of our exact direction. The women-servants
+satisfied their curiosity openly until my host suddenly commented upon the
+questionable moral status of their mothers, and then they made haste to
+disappear, only to return a moment later and peep round corners and
+doorways, and giggle and scream&mdash;as if they had been Europeans of the same
+class.</p>
+
+<p>Sidi Boubikir passed from room to room of his great establishment and
+showed some of its treasures. There were great piles of carpets and vast
+quantities of furniture that must have looked out at one time in their
+history upon the crowds that throng the Tottenham Court Road; I saw
+chairs, sofas, bedsteads, clocks, and sideboards, all of English make.
+Brought on camels through Dukala and R'hamna to Marrakesh, they were left
+to fill up the countless rooms without care or arrangement, though their
+owner's house must hold more than fifty women, without counting servants.
+Probably when they were not quarrelling or dying their finger nails, or
+painting their faces after a fashion that is far from pleasing to European
+eyes, the ladies of the hareem passed their days lying on cushions,
+playing the gimbri<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a> or eating sweetmeats.</p>
+
+<p>In one room on the ground-floor there was a great collection of
+mechanical toys. Sidi Boubikir explained that the French Commercial
+Attach&eacute; had brought a large number to the Sultan's palace, and that my
+Lord Abd-el-Aziz had rejected the ones before us. With the curious
+childish simplicity that is found so often among the Moors of high
+position, Boubikir insisted upon winding up the clock-work apparatus of
+nearly all the toys. Then one doll danced, another played a drum, a third
+went through gymnastic exercises, and the toy orchestra played the
+Marseillaise, while from every adjacent room veiled figures stole out
+cautiously, as though this room in a Moorish house were a stage and the
+shrouded visitors were the chorus entering mysteriously from unexpected
+places. The old man's merriment was very real and hearty, so genuine, in
+fact, that he did not notice how his women-folk were intruding until the
+last note sounded. Then he turned round and the swathed figures
+disappeared suddenly as ghosts at cockcrow.</p>
+
+<p>Though it was clear that Sidi Boubikir seldom saw half the rooms through
+which we hurried, the passion for building, that seizes all rich Moors,
+held him fast. He was adding wing after wing to his vast premises, and
+would doubtless order more furniture from London to fill the new rooms. No
+Moor knows when it is time to call a halt and deem his house complete, and
+so the country is full of palaces begun by men who fell from power or died
+leaving the work unfinished. The Grand Wazeer Ba Ahmad left a palace
+nearly as big as the Dar el Makhzan itself, and since he died the storks
+that build upon the flat roofs have been its only occupants. So it is with
+the gardens, whose many beauties he did not live to enjoy. I rode past
+them one morning, noted all manner of fruit trees blossoming, heard birds
+singing in their branches, and saw young storks fishing in the little
+pools that the rains of winter had left. But there was not one gardener
+there to tend the ground once so highly cultivated, and I was assured that
+the terror of the wazeer's name kept even the hungry beggars from the
+fruit in harvest time.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 874px;">
+<a name="m53" id="m53"></a>
+<img src="images/m53.jpg" width="874" height="640" alt="STREET IN MARRAKESH" title="STREET IN MARRAKESH" />
+<br /><span class="caption">STREET IN MARRAKESH</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The home and its appointments duly exhibited, Sidi Boubikir led the way to
+a diwan in a well-cushioned room that opened on to the garden. He clapped
+his hands and a small regiment of women-servants, black and for the most
+part uncomely, arrived to prepare dinner. One brought a ewer, another a
+basin, a third a towel, and water was poured out over our hands. Then a
+large earthenware bowl encased in strong basketwork was brought by a
+fourth servant, and a tray of flat loaves of fine wheat by a fifth, and we
+broke bread and said the "Bismillah,"<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a> which stands for grace. The bowl
+was uncovered and revealed a savoury stew of chicken with sweet lemon and
+olives, a very pleasing sight to all who appreciate Eastern cooking. The
+use of knives being a crime against the Faith, and the use of forks and
+spoons unknown, we plunged the fingers of the right hand into the bowl and
+sought what pleased us best, using the bread from time to time to deal
+with the sauce of the stew. It was really a delicious dish, and when
+later in the afternoon I asked my host for the recipe he said he would
+give it to me if I would fill the bowl with Bank of England notes. I had
+to explain that, in my ignorance of the full resources of Moorish cooking,
+I had not come out with sufficient money.</p>
+
+<p>So soon as the charm of the first bowl palled, it was taken away and
+others followed in quick succession, various meats and eggs being served
+with olives and spices and the delicate vegetables that come to Southern
+Morocco in early spring. It was a relief to come to the end of our duties
+and, our hands washed once more, to digest the meal with the aid of green
+tea flavoured with mint. Strong drink being forbidden to the True
+Believer, water only was served with the dinner, and as it was brought
+direct from the Tensift River, and was of rich red colour, there was no
+temptation to touch it. Sidi Boubikir was in excellent spirits, and told
+many stories of his earlier days, of his dealings with Bashadors, his
+quarrel with the great kaid Ben Daoud, the siege of the city by certain
+Illegitimate men&mdash;enemies of Allah and the Sultan&mdash;his journey to
+Gibraltar, and how he met one of the Rothschilds there and tried to do
+business with him. He spoke of his investments in consols and the poor
+return they brought him, and many other matters of equal moment.</p>
+
+<p>It was not easy to realise that the man who spoke so brightly and lightly
+about trivial affairs had one of the keenest intellects in the country,
+that he had the secret history of its political intrigues at his fingers'
+ends, that he was the trusted agent of the British Government, and lived
+and throve surrounded by enemies. As far as was consistent with courtesy I
+tried to direct his reminiscences towards politics, but he kept to purely
+personal matters, and included in them a story of his attempt to bribe a
+British Minister,<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a> to whom, upon the occasion of the arrival of a
+British Mission in Marrakesh, he went leading two mules laden with silver.
+"And when I came to him," said the old man, "I said, 'By Allah's grace I
+am rich, so I have brought you some share of my wealth.' But he would not
+even count the bags. He called with a loud voice for his wife, and cried
+to her, 'See now what this son of shame would do to me. He would give me
+his miserable money.' And then in very great anger he drove me from his
+presence and bade me never come near him again bearing a gift. What shall
+be said of a man like that, to whom Allah had given the wisdom to become a
+Bashador and the foolishness to reject a present? Two mules, remember, and
+each one with as many bags of Spanish dollars as it could carry. Truly the
+ways of your Bashadors are past belief." I agreed heartily with Sidi
+Boubikir; a day's discourse had not made clear any other aspect of the
+case.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> "In Paradise are rivers of incorruptible water; and rivers
+of milk, the taste whereof changes not; and rivers of wine, pleasant unto
+those who drink; and rivers of clarified honey; and in Paradise the
+faithful shall have all kinds of fruits, and pardon from their God."&mdash;Al
+Koran; Sura 47, "Mohammed."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> The late Sir John Drummond Hay, whose name is honourably
+remembered to this day throughout the Moghreb.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> When a Sultan appears in public on a white horse, it is for
+sign that he is pleased; a black horse, on the other hand, is ominous to
+them that understand.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> Literally "Learned Ones," a theological cabinet, the number
+of whose members is known to no man, the weight of whose decisions is felt
+throughout Morocco.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> 1873-94.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> Hareem.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> One of the titles of a Sultan. The "Lofty Portal" ("Sublime
+Porte") and the "Sublime Presence" are among the others.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> Mohammed said: "Every painter is in Hell Fire, and Allah
+will appoint a person at the day of Resurrection to punish him for every
+picture he shall have drawn, and he shall be punished in Hell. So, if ye
+must make pictures, make them of trees and things without souls."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> The reader will recognise the Hadj's reference to bicycles,
+cameras, motor-cars, and other mechanical toys.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> Melinite shells.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> The stork.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> Literally, "Father of the she-ass," the Pretender who
+conducted a successful campaign against the Sultan in 1902 and 1903, and
+is still an active enemy of the Filali dynasty.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> "The Praise to Allah."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> A Moorish lute.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> Literally, "In the name of God."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> The late Sir William Kirby Green.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>THROUGH A SOUTHERN PROVINCE</h2>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 889px;">
+<a name="m54" id="m54"></a>
+<img src="images/m54.jpg" width="889" height="640" alt="AN ARAB STEED" title="AN ARAB STEED" />
+<br /><span class="caption">AN ARAB STEED</span>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2>
+
+<h3>THROUGH A SOUTHERN PROVINCE</h3>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The full streams feed on flower of rushes,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Ripe grasses trammel a travelling foot;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The faint fresh flame of the young year flushes<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">From leaf to flower, and flower to fruit.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0"><i>Atalanta in Calydon.</i><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Even in these fugitive records of my last journey into the "Extreme West,"
+I find it hard to turn from Marrakesh. Just as the city held me within its
+gates until further sojourn was impossible, so its memories crowd upon me
+now, and I recall with an interest I may scarcely hope to communicate the
+varied and compelling appeals it made to me at every hour of the day. Yet
+I believe, at least I hope, that most of the men and women who strive to
+gather for themselves some picture of the world's unfamiliar aspects will
+understand the fascination to which I refer, despite my failure to give it
+fitting expression. Sevilla in Andalusia held me in the same way when I
+went from Cadiz to spend a week-end there, and the three days became as
+many weeks, and would have become as many months or years had I been my
+own master&mdash;which to be sure we none of us are. The hand of the Moor is
+clearly to be seen in Sevilla to-day, notably in the Alcazar and the
+Giralda tower, fashioned by the builder of the Kutubia that stands like a
+stately lighthouse in the Blad al Hamra.</p>
+
+<p>So, with the fascination of the city for excuse, I lingered in Marrakesh
+and went daily to the bazaars to make small purchases. The dealers were
+patient, friendly folk, and found no trouble too much, so that there was
+prospect of a sale at the end of it. Most of them had a collapsible set of
+values for their wares, but the dealer who had the best share of my
+Moorish or Spanish dollars was an old man in the bazaar of the
+brass-workers, who used to say proudly, "Behold in me thy servant, Abd el
+Kerim,<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a> the man of one price."</p>
+
+<p>The brass and copper workers had most of their metal brought to them from
+the Sus country, and sold their goods by weight. Woe to the dealer
+discovered with false scales. The gunsmiths, who seemed to do quite a big
+trade in flint-lock guns, worked with their feet as well as their hands,
+their dexterity being almost Japanese. Nearly every master had an
+apprentice or two, and if there are idle apprentices in the southern
+capital of my Lord Abd-el-Aziz, I was not fated to see one.</p>
+
+<p>No phase of the city's life lacked fascination, nor was the interest
+abated when life and death moved side by side. A Moorish funeral wound
+slowly along the road in the path of a morning's ride. First came a crowd
+of ragged fellows on foot singing the praises of Allah, who gives one
+life to his servants here and an eternity of bliss in Paradise at the end
+of their day's work. The body of the deceased followed, wrapped in a
+knotted shroud and partially covered with what looked like a coloured
+shawl, but was, I think, the flag from a saint's shrine. Four bearers
+carried the open bier, and following came men of high class on mules. The
+contrast between the living and the dead was accentuated by the freshness
+of the day, the life that thronged the streets, the absence of a coffin,
+the weird, sonorous chaunting of the mourners. The deceased must have been
+a man of mark, for the crowd preceding the bier was composed largely of
+beggars, on their way to the cemetery, where a gift of food would be
+distributed. Following their master's remains came two slaves, newly
+manumitted, their certificates of freedom borne aloft in cleft sticks to
+testify before all men to the generosity of the loudly lamented. Doubtless
+the shroud of the dead had been sprinkled with water brought from the well
+Zem Zem, which is by the mosque of Mecca, and is said to have been
+miraculously provided for Hagar, when Ishmael, then a little boy, was like
+to die of thirst in the wilderness.</p>
+
+<p>I watched the procession wind its way out of sight to the burial-ground by
+the mosque, whose mueddin would greet its arrival with the cry, "May Allah
+have mercy upon him." Then the dead man would be carried to the cemetery,
+laid on his right side looking towards Mecca, and the shroud would be
+untied, that there may be no awkwardness or delay upon the day of the
+Resurrection. And the Kadi or f'K'hay<a name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a> would say, "O Allah, if he did
+good, over-estimate his goodness; and if he did evil, forget his evil
+deeds; and of Thy Mercy grant that he may experience Thine Acceptance; and
+spare him the trials and troubles of the grave.... Of Thy Mercy grant him
+freedom from torment until Thou send him to Paradise, O Thou Most Pitiful
+of the pitying.... Pardon us, and him, and all Moslems, O Lord of
+Creation."</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 550px;">
+<a name="m55" id="m55"></a>
+<img src="images/m55.jpg" width="550" height="640" alt="A YOUNG MARRAKSHI" title="A YOUNG MARRAKSHI" />
+<br /><span class="caption">A YOUNG MARRAKSHI</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>On the three following mornings the men of the deceased's house would
+attend by the newly-made grave, in company with the tolba, and would
+distribute bread and fruit to the poor, and when their task was over and
+the way clear, the veiled women would bring flowers, with myrtle, willows,
+and young leaves of the palm, and lay them on the grave, and over these
+the water-carrier would empty his goat-skin. I knew that the dead man
+would have gone without flinching to his appointed end, not as one who
+fears, but rather as he who sets out joyfully to a feast prepared in his
+honour. His faith had kept all doubts at bay, and even if he had been an
+ill liver the charitable deeds wrought in his name by surviving relatives
+would enable him to face the two angels who descend to the grave on the
+night following a man's burial and sit in judgment upon his soul. This one
+who passed me on his last journey would tell the angels of the men who
+were slaves but yesterday and were now free, he would speak of the hungry
+who had been fed, and of the intercession of the righteous and learned.
+These facts and his faith, the greatest fact of all, would assuredly
+satisfy Munkir and Nakir.<a name="FNanchor_45_45" id="FNanchor_45_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a> Small wonder if no manner of life, however
+vile, stamps ill-livers in Morocco with the seal we learn to recognise in
+the Western world. For the Moslem death has no sting, and hell no victory.
+Faith, whether it be in One God, in a Trinity, in Christ, Mohammed, or
+Buddha, is surely the most precious of all possessions, so it be as virile
+and living a thing as it is in Sunset Land.</p>
+
+<p>Writing of religion, I needs must set down a word in this place of the men
+and women who work for the Southern Morocco Mission in Marrakesh. The
+beauty of the city has long ceased to hold any fresh surprises for them,
+their labour is among the people who "walk in noonday as in the night." It
+is not necessary to be of their faith to admire the steadfast devotion to
+high ideals that keeps Mr. Nairn and his companions in Marrakesh. I do not
+think that they make converts in the sense that they desire, the faith of
+Islam suits Morocco and the Moors, and it will not suffer successful
+invasion, but the work of the Mission has been effective in many ways. If
+the few Europeans who visit the city are free to wander unchallenged,
+unmolested through its every street, let them thank the missionaries; if
+the news that men from the West are straight-dealing, honourable, and
+slaves to truth, has gone from the villages on the hither side of Atlas
+down to the far cities of the Sus, let the missionaries be praised. And if
+a European woman can go unveiled yet uninsulted through Marrakesh, the
+credit is due to the ladies of the Mission. It may be said without mental
+reservation that the Southern Morocco Mission accomplishes a great work,
+and is most successful in its apparent failure. It does not make
+professing Christians out of Moors, but it teaches the Moors to live finer
+lives within the limits of their own faith, and if they are kinder and
+cleaner and more honourable by reason of their intercourse with the
+"tabibs" and "tabibas," the world gains and Morocco is well served. When
+the Sultan was in difficulties towards the end of 1902, and the star of Bu
+Hamara was in the ascendant, Sir Arthur Nicolson, our Minister in Tangier,
+ordered all British subjects to leave the inland towns for the coast. As
+soon as the news reached the Marrakshis, the houses of the missionaries
+were besieged by eager crowds of Moors and Berbers, offering to defend the
+well-beloved tabibs against all comers, and begging them not to go away.
+Very reluctantly Mr. Nairn and his companions obeyed the orders sent from
+Tangier, but, having seen their wives and children safely housed in
+Djedida, they returned to their work.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 725px;">
+<a name="m56" id="m56"></a>
+<img src="images/m56.jpg" width="725" height="640" alt="FRUIT MARKET, MARRAKESH" title="FRUIT MARKET, MARRAKESH" />
+<br /><span class="caption">FRUIT MARKET, MARRAKESH</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The Elhara or leper quarter is just outside one of the city gates, and
+after some effort of will, I conquered my repugnance and rode within its
+gate. The place proved to be a collection of poverty-stricken hovels built
+in a circle, of the native tapia, which was crumbling to pieces through
+age and neglect. Most of the inhabitants were begging in the city, where
+they are at liberty to remain until the gates are closed, but there were a
+few left at home, and I had some difficulty in restraining the keeper of
+Elhara, who wished to parade the unfortunate creatures before me that I
+might not miss any detail of their sufferings. Leper women peeped out from
+corners, as Boubikir's "house" had done; little leper children played
+merrily enough on the dry sandy ground, a few donkeys, covered with scars
+and half starved, stood in the scanty shade. In a deep cleft below the
+outer wall women and girls, very scantily clad, were washing clothes in a
+pool that is reserved apparently for the use of the stricken village. I
+was glad to leave the place behind me, after giving the unctuous keeper a
+gift for the sufferers that doubtless never reached them. They tell me
+that no sustained attempt is made to deal medically with the disease,
+though many nasty concoctions are taken by a few True Believers, whose
+faith, I fear, has not made them whole.<a name="FNanchor_46_46" id="FNanchor_46_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a></p>
+
+<p>When it became necessary for us to leave Marrakesh the young shareef went
+to the city's fandaks and inquired if they held muleteers bound for
+Mogador. The Maalem had taken his team home along the northern road, our
+path lay to the south, through the province of the Son of Lions (Oulad bou
+Sba), and thence through Shiadma and Haha to the coast. We were fortunate
+in finding the men we sought without any delay. A certain kaid of the Sus
+country, none other than El Arbi bel Hadj ben Haida, who rules over
+Tiensiert, had sent six muleteers to Marrakesh to sell his oil, in what is
+the best southern market, and he had worked out their expenses on a scale
+that could hardly be expected to satisfy anybody but himself.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 707px;">
+<a name="m57" id="m57"></a>
+<img src="images/m57.jpg" width="707" height="640" alt="IN THE FANDAK" title="IN THE FANDAK" />
+<br /><span class="caption">IN THE FANDAK</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"From Tiensiert to Marrakesh is three days journey," he had said, and,
+though it is five, no man contradicted him, perhaps because five is
+regarded as an unfortunate number, not to be mentioned in polite or
+religious society. "Three days will serve to sell the oil and rest the
+mules," he had continued, "and three days more will bring you home." Then
+he gave each man three dollars for travelling money, about nine shillings
+English, and out of it the mules were to be fed, the charges of n'zala and
+fandak to be met, and if there was anything over the men might buy food
+for themselves. They dared not protest, for El Arbi bel Hadj ben Haida had
+every man's house in his keeping, and if the muleteers had failed him he
+would have had compensation in a manner no father of a family would care
+to think about. The oil was sold, and the muleteers were preparing to
+return to their master, when Salam offered them a price considerably in
+excess of what they had received for the whole journey to take us to
+Mogador. Needless to say they were not disposed to let the chance go by,
+for it would not take them two days out of their way, so I went to the
+fandak to see mules and men, and complete the bargain. There had been a
+heavy shower some days before, and the streets were more than usually
+miry, but in the fandak, whose owner had no marked taste for cleanliness,
+the accumulated dirt of all the rainy season had been stirred, with
+results I have no wish to record. A few donkeys in the last stages of
+starvation had been sent in to gather strength by resting, one at least
+was too far gone to eat. Even the mules of the Susi tribesmen were not in
+a very promising condition. It was an easy task to count their ribs, and
+they were badly in need of rest and a few square meals. Tied in the
+covered cloisters of the fandak there was some respite for them from the
+attack of mosquitoes, but the donkeys, being cheap and of no importance,
+were left to all the torments that were bound to be associated with the
+place.</p>
+
+<p>Only one human being faced the glare of the light and trod fearlessly
+through the mire that lay eight or ten inches deep on the ground, and he
+was a madman, well-nigh as tattered and torn as the one I had angered in
+the Kaisariyah on the morning after my arrival in the city. This man's
+madness took a milder turn. He went from one donkey to another, whispering
+in its ear, a message of consolation I hope and believe, though I had no
+means of finding out. When I entered the fandak he came running up to me
+in a style suggestive of the gambols of a playful dog, and I was
+exceedingly annoyed by a thought that he might not know any difference
+between me and his other friends. There was no need to be uneasy, for he
+drew himself up to his full height, made a hissing noise in his throat,
+and spat fiercely at my shadow. Then he returned to the stricken donkeys,
+and the keeper of the fandak, coming out to welcome me, saw his more
+worthy visitor. Turning from me with "Marhababik" ("You are welcome") just
+off his lips, he ran forward and kissed the hem of the madman's djellaba.</p>
+
+<p>A madman is very often an object of veneration in Morocco, for his brain
+is in divine keeping, while his body is on the earth. And yet the Moor is
+not altogether logical in his attitude to the "afflicted of Allah." While
+so much liberty is granted to the majority of the insane that feigned
+madness is quite common among criminals in the country, less fortunate men
+who have really become mentally afflicted, but are not recognised as
+insane, are kept chained to the walls of the Marstan&mdash;half hospital, half
+prison&mdash;that is attached to the most great mosques. I have been assured
+that they suffer considerably at the hands of most gaoler-doctors, whose
+medicine is almost invariably the stick, but I have not been able to
+verify the story, which is quite opposed to Moorish tradition. The mad
+visitor to the fandak did not disturb the conversation with the keeper and
+the Susi muleteers, but he turned the head of a donkey in our direction
+and talked eagerly to the poor animal, pointing at me with outstretched
+finger the while. The keeper of the fandak, kind man, made uneasy by this
+demonstration, signed to me quietly to stretch out my hand, with palm
+open, and directed to the spot where the madman stood, for only in that
+way could I hope to avert the evil eye.</p>
+
+<p>The chief muleteer was a thin and wiry little fellow, a total stranger to
+the soap and water beloved of Unbelievers. He could not have been more
+than five feet high, and he was burnt brown. His dark outer garment of
+coarse native wool had the curious yellow patch on the back that all
+Berbers seem to favour, though none can explain its origin or purpose, and
+he carried his slippers in his hand, probably deeming them less capable of
+withstanding hard wear than his naked feet. He had no Arabic, but spoke
+only "Shilha," the language of the Berbers, so it took some time to make
+all arrangements, including the stipulation that a proper meal for all the
+mules was to be given under the superintendence of M'Barak. That worthy
+representative of Shareefian authority was having a regal time, drawing a
+dollar a day, together with three meals and a ration for his horse, in
+return for sitting at ease in the courtyard of the Tin House.</p>
+
+<p>Arrangements concluded, it was time to say good-bye to Sidi Boubikir. I
+asked delicately to be allowed to pay rent for the use of the house, but
+the hospitable old man would not hear of it. "Allah forbid that I should
+take any money," he remarked piously. "Had you told me you were going I
+would have asked you to dine with me again before you started." We sat in
+the well-remembered room, where green tea and mint were served in a
+beautiful set of china-and-gold filagree cups, presented to him by the
+British Government nearly ten years ago. He spoke at length of the places
+that should be visited, including the house of his near relative, Mulai el
+Hadj of Tamsloht, to whom he offered to send me with letters and an
+escort. Moreover, he offered an escort to see us out of the city and on
+the road to the coast, but I judged it better to decline both offers, and,
+with many high-flown compliments, left him by the entrance to his great
+house, and groped back through the mud to put the finishing touches to
+packing.</p>
+
+<p>The young shareef accepted a parting gift with grave dignity, and assured
+me of his esteem for all time and his willing service when and where I
+should need it. I had said good-bye to the "tabibs" and "tabibas," so
+nothing remained but to rearrange our goods, that nearly everything should
+be ready for the mules when they arrived before daybreak. Knowing that the
+first day's ride was a long one, some forty miles over an indifferent road
+and with second-rate animals, I was anxious to leave the city as soon as
+the gates were opened.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 711px;">
+<a name="m58" id="m58"></a>
+<img src="images/m58.jpg" width="711" height="640" alt="THE JAMA&#39;A EFFINA" title="THE JAMA&#39;A EFFINA" />
+<br /><span class="caption">THE JAMA&#39;A EFFINA</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Right above my head the mueddin in the minaret overlooking the Tin House
+called the sleeping city to its earliest prayer.<a name="FNanchor_47_47" id="FNanchor_47_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a> I rose and waked the
+others, and we dressed by a candle-light that soon became superfluous.
+When the mueddin began the chant that sounded so impressive and so
+mournful as it was echoed from every minaret in the city, the first
+approach of light would have been visible in the east, and in these
+latitudes day comes and goes upon winged feet. Before the beds were taken
+to pieces and Salam had the porridge and his "marmalade" ready, with
+steaming coffee, for early breakfast, we heard the mules clattering down
+the stony street. Within half an hour the packing comedy had commenced.
+The Susi muleteer, who was accompanied by a boy and four men, one a slave,
+and all quite as frowzy, unwashed, and picturesque as himself, swore that
+we did not need four pack-mules but eight. Salam, his eyes flaming, and
+each separate hair of his beard standing on end, cursed the shameless
+women who gave such men as the Susi muleteer and his fellows to the
+kingdom of my Lord Abd-el-Aziz, threw the <i>shwarris</i> on the ground,
+rejected the ropes, and declared that with proper fittings the mules, if
+these were mules at all, and he had his very serious doubts about the
+matter, could run to Mogador in three days. Clearly Salam intended to be
+master from the start, and when I came to know something more about our
+company, the wisdom of the procedure was plain. Happily for one and all
+Mr. Nairn came along at this moment. It was not five o'clock, but the hope
+of serving us had brought him into the cold morning air, and his thorough
+knowledge of the Shilha tongue worked wonders. He was able to send for
+proper ropes at an hour when we could have found no trader to supply them,
+and if we reached the city gate that looks out towards the south almost as
+soon as the camel caravan that had waited without all night, the
+accomplishment was due to my kind friend who, with Mr. Alan Lennox, had
+done so much to make the stay in Marrakesh happily memorable.</p>
+
+<p>It was just half-past six when the last pack-mule passed the gate, whose
+keeper said graciously, "Allah prosper the journey," and, though the sun
+was up, the morning was cool, with a delightfully fresh breeze from the
+west, where the Atlas Mountains stretched beyond range of sight in all
+their unexplored grandeur. They seemed very close to us in that clear
+atmosphere, but their foot hills lay a day's ride away, and the natives
+would be prompt to resent the visit of a stranger who did not come to them
+with the authority of a kaid or governor whose power and will to punish
+promptly were indisputable. With no little regret I turned, when we had
+been half an hour on the road, for a last look at Ibn Tachfin's city.
+Distance had already given it the indefinite attraction that comes when
+the traveller sees some city of old time in a light that suggests every
+charm and defines none. I realised that I had never entered an Eastern
+city with greater pleasure, or left one with more sincere regret, and that
+if time and circumstance had been my servants I would not have been so
+soon upon the road.</p>
+
+<p>The road from Marrakesh to Mogador is as pleasant as traveller could wish,
+lying for a great part of the way through fertile land, but it is seldom
+followed, because of the two unbridged rivers N'fiss and Sheshoua. If
+either is in flood (and both are fed by the melting snows from the Atlas
+Mountains), you must camp on the banks for days together, until it shall
+please Allah to abate the waters. Our lucky star was in the ascendant; we
+reached Wad N'fiss at eleven o'clock to find its waters low and clear. On
+the far side of the banks we stayed to lunch by the border of a thick belt
+of sedge and bulrushes, a marshy place stretching over two or three acres,
+and glowing with the rich colour that comes to southern lands in April and
+in May. It recalled to me the passage in one of the stately choruses of
+Mr. Swinburne's <i>Atalanta in Calydon</i>, that tells how "blossom by blossom
+the spring begins."</p>
+
+<p>The intoxication that lies in colour and sound has ever had more
+fascination for me than the finest wine could bring: the colour of the
+vintage is more pleasing than the taste of the grape. In this forgotten
+corner the eye and ear were assailed and must needs surrender. Many tiny
+birds of the warbler family sang among the reeds, where I set up what I
+took to be a Numidian crane, and, just beyond the river growths, some
+splendid oleanders gave an effective splash of scarlet to the surrounding
+greens and greys. In the waters of the marsh the bullfrogs kept up a loud
+sustained croak, as though they were True Believers disturbed by the
+presence of the Infidels. The N'fiss is a fascinating river from every
+point of view. Though comparatively small, few Europeans have reached the
+source, and it passes through parts of the country where a white man's
+presence would be resented effectively. The spurs of the Atlas were still
+clearly visible on our left hand, and needless to say we had the place to
+ourselves. There was not so much as a tent in sight.</p>
+
+<p>At last M'Barak, who had resumed his place at the head of our little
+company, and now realised that we had prolonged our stay beyond proper
+limits, mounted his horse rather ostentatiously, and the journey was
+resumed over level land that was very scantily covered with grass or
+clumps of irises. The mountains seemed to recede and the plain to spread
+out; neither eye nor glass revealed a village; we were apparently riding
+towards the edge of the plains. The muleteer and his companions strode
+along at a round pace, supporting themselves with sticks and singing
+melancholy Shilha love-songs. Their mules, recollection of their good meal
+of the previous evening being forgotten, dropped to a pace of something
+less than four miles an hour, and as the gait of our company had to be
+regulated by the speed of its slowest member, it is not surprising that
+night caught us up on the open and shut out a view of the billowy plain
+that seemingly held no resting-place. How I missed the little Maalem,
+whose tongue would have been a spur to the stumbling beasts! But as
+wishing would bring nothing, we dismounted and walked by the side of our
+animals, the kaid alone remaining in the saddle. Six o'clock became seven,
+and seven became eight, and then I found it sweet to hear the watch-dog's
+honest bark. Of course it was not a "deep-mouthed welcome:" it was no more
+than a cry of warning and defiance raised by the colony of pariah dogs
+that guarded Ain el Baidah, our destination.</p>
+
+<p>In the darkness, that had a pleasing touch of purple colouring lent it by
+the stars, Ain el Baidah's headman loomed very large and imposing. "Praise
+to Allah that you have come and in health," he remarked, as though we
+were old friends. He assured me of my welcome, and said his village had a
+guest-house that would serve instead of the tent. Methought he protested
+too much, but knowing that men and mules were dead beat, and that we had a
+long way to go, I told Salam that the guest-house would serve, and the
+headman lead the way to a tapia building that would be called a very small
+barn, or a large fowl-house, in England. A tiny clay lamp, in which a
+cotton wick consumed some mutton fat, revealed a corner of the darkness
+and the dirt, and when our own lamps banished the one, they left the other
+very clearly to be seen. But we were too tired to utter a complaint. I saw
+the mules brought within the zariba, helped to set up my camp bed, took
+the cartridges out of my shot gun, and, telling Salam to say when supper
+was ready, fell asleep at once. Eighteen busy hours had passed since the
+mueddin called to "feyer" from the minaret above the Tin House, but my
+long-sought rest was destined to be brief.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> Literally, "Slave of the Merciful."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> Priest attached to the Mosque.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_45_45" id="Footnote_45_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> The Angels of Judgment.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_46_46" id="Footnote_46_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> So many lepers come from the Argan Forest provinces of Haha
+and Shiadma that leprosy is believed by many Moors to result from the free
+use of Argan oil. There is no proper foundation for this belief.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_47_47" id="Footnote_47_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> This is the most important of the five supplications. The
+Sura of Al Koran called "The Night Journey" says, "To the prayer of
+daybreak the Angels themselves bear witness."</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>"SONS OF LIONS" AND OTHER TRUE BELIEVERS</h2>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 576px;">
+<a name="m59" id="m59"></a>
+<img src="images/m59.jpg" width="576" height="640" alt="EVENING IN CAMP" title="EVENING IN CAMP" />
+<br /><span class="caption">EVENING IN CAMP</span>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2>
+
+<h3>"SONS OF LIONS" AND OTHER TRUE BELIEVERS</h3>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Falstaff</span>&mdash;"Four rogues in buckram let drive at me."<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0"><i>King Henry IV.</i>, Act II. Scene 4.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<p>By the time Salam had roused me from a dream in which I was being torn
+limb from limb in a Roman amphitheatre, whose terraced seats held
+countless Moors all hugely enjoying my dismemberment, I realised that a
+night in that guest-house would be impossible. The place was already
+over-populated.</p>
+
+<p>A brief meal was taken in the open, and we sat with our feet thrust to the
+edge of the nearest charcoal fire, for the night was cold. Our animals,
+tethered and watered, stood anxiously waiting for the barley the chief
+muleteer had gone to buy. Supper over, I sat on a chair in the open, and
+disposed myself for sleep as well as the conditions permitted. Round me,
+on the bare ground, the men and the boy from the Sus lay wrapped in their
+haiks&mdash;the dead could not have slept more soundly than they. The two fires
+were glimmering very faintly now, M'Barak was stretching a blanket for
+himself, while Salam collected the tin plates and dishes, his last task
+before retiring. Somewhere in the far outer darkness I heard the wail of
+a hy&aelig;na, and a light cold breeze sighed over the plain. Half asleep and
+half awake I saw the village headman approaching from out the darkness; a
+big bag of barley was on his shoulder, and he was followed closely by the
+muleteer. They came into the little circle of the fast falling light; I
+was nodding drowsily toward unconsciousness, and wondering, with a vague
+resentment that exhausted all my remaining capacity to think, why the
+headman should be speaking so loudly. Suddenly, I saw the muleteer go to
+earth as if he had been pole-axed, and in that instant I was wide awake
+and on my feet. So was Salam.</p>
+
+<p>The headman delivered himself of a few incisive rasping sentences. The
+muleteer rose slowly and wiped a little blood from his face.</p>
+
+<p>Salam explained: his capacity for fathoming a crisis was ever remarkable.
+"Headman he charge three dollars for barley and he don't worth more than
+one. Muleteer he speaks for that, and headman 'e knock him down."</p>
+
+<p>"Ask him how he dares interfere with our people," I said. "Tell him his
+kaid shall hear of it."</p>
+
+<p>The headman replied haughtily to Salam's questions and strode away. "He
+say," said Salam, beginning to get angry, "Pay first and talk
+afterwards&mdash;to Allah, if you will. He say he wait long time for man like
+muleteer an' cut 'im throat. What he's bin done that be nothing. What he's
+goin' to do, that all Moors is goin' to see. He come back soon, sir."</p>
+
+<p>Then Salam slipped noiselessly into the guest-house and fetched my
+repeating shot gun, from which I had previously drawn all cartridges. He
+sat down outside with the weapon across his knees, and the bruised
+muleteer safely behind him. I coaxed the charcoal to a further effort and
+returned to my chair, wondering whether trouble that had been so long in
+coming had arrived at last. Some five minutes later we heard a sound of
+approaching footsteps, and I could not help noting how Salam brightened.
+He was spoiling for a fight. I watched dim figures coming into the area of
+light, they took shape and showed Ain al Baidah's chief and two of his
+men&mdash;tall, sturdy fellows, armed with thick sticks. Seeing Salam sitting
+with gun levelled full on them they came to a sudden halt, and listened
+while he told them, in a voice that shook and sometimes broke with rage,
+their character, their characteristics, the moral standing of their
+parents and grandparents, the probable fate of their sons, and the certain
+and shameful destiny of their daughters. He invited them, with finger on
+trigger, to advance one step and meet the death that should enable him to
+give their ill-favoured bodies one by one to the pariahs and the hawks,
+before he proceeded to sack Ain al Baidah and overcome single-handed the
+whole of its fighting men. And, absurd though his rodomontade may sound to
+Europeans, who read it in cold print, it was a vastly different matter
+there in the dark of the Plain, when Salam stood, believing he held a
+loaded gun in his hand, and allowed his fierce temper rein. The headman
+and his two attendants slunk off like whipped curs, and we proceeded to
+feed our animals, replenish both fires, and sleep with one eye open.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 605px;">
+<a name="m60" id="m60"></a>
+<img src="images/m60.jpg" width="605" height="640" alt="PREPARING SUPPER" title="PREPARING SUPPER" />
+<br /><span class="caption">PREPARING SUPPER</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Morning came over the hills to Ain al Baidah in cold and cheerless guise.
+The villagers crowded round to stare at us in the familiar fashion. But
+there were grim looks and dark scowls among them, and, failing the
+truculent and determined bearing of Salam and the presence of the kaid we
+should have had a lively quarter of an hour. As it was, we were not ready
+to leave before eight o'clock, and then Salam went, money in hand, to
+where the thieving headman stood. The broken night's rest had not made my
+companion more pleased with Ain al Baidah's chief. He threw the dollars
+that had been demanded on to the ground before the rogue's feet, and then
+his left hand flew up and outward. With one swift, irresistible movement
+he had caught his foe by the beard, drawn down the shrinking, vicious face
+to within a few inches of his own, and so holding him, spoke earnestly for
+half a minute, of what the Prophet has said about hospitality to
+travellers, and the shocking fate that awaits headmen who rob those who
+come seeking shelter, and beat them when they complain. Ain al Baidah's
+chief could not but listen, and listening, he could not but shudder. So it
+fell out that, when Salam's harangue was finished, we left a speechless,
+irresolute, disgraced headman, and rode away slowly, that none might say
+we knew fear. If the village had any inclination to assist its chief, the
+sight of the blessed one's weapon, in its fierce red cloth covering, must
+have awed them. Some days later, in Mogador, I was told that the Ain al
+Baidah man is a terror to travellers and a notorious robber, but I made no
+complaint to our Consul. If the headman's overlord had been told to punish
+him, the method chosen would assuredly have been to rob every man in the
+douar, and if they resisted, burn their huts over their heads. It seemed
+better to trust that the memory of Salam will lead Ain al Baidah's chief
+to lessen his proud looks.</p>
+
+<p>We made slow progress to Sheshoua, where the river that might have barred
+our road to the coast was as friendly as the N'fiss had been on the
+previous day. The track to its banks had been flat and uninteresting
+enough; what good work the winter rains had done by way of weaving a
+flower carpet on the plains, the summer sun had destroyed. There was a
+considerable depression in the plain, though we could not notice it at the
+slow pace forced upon us, and this accounted for the absence of water
+between the rivers, and for the great extent of the calcareous gravel, in
+which few plants could thrive. Only the <i>zizyphus lotus</i>, from whose
+branches little white snails hung like flowers, seemed to find real
+nourishment in the dry ground, though colocynth and wild lavender were to
+be seen now and again. But by the Sheshoua River the change was very
+sudden and grateful to the eye.</p>
+
+<p>A considerable olive grove, whose grey-green leaves shone like silver in
+the light breeze, offered shade and shelter to a large colony of doves.
+There was a thriving village, with a saint's tomb for chief attraction,
+and solid walls to suggest that the place does not enjoy perennial
+tranquillity. But even though there are strangers who trouble these good
+folk, their home could not have looked more charmingly a haunt of peace
+than it did. All round the village one saw orchards of figs, apricots, and
+pomegranate trees; the first with the leaves untouched by the summer heat,
+the apricots just at the end of their blossoming, and the pomegranates
+still in flower. In place of the dry, hard soil that was so trying to the
+feet of man and beast, there were here meadows in plenty, from which the
+irises had only lately died. I saw the common English dandelion growing
+within stone's throw of a clump of feathery palms.</p>
+
+<p>Tired after the vigil of the previous night and the long hours that had
+led up to it, we reclined at our ease under the olives, determined to
+spend the night at Sidi el Muktar, some fifteen or twenty miles away. From
+there one can hunt the great bustard, and I had hoped to do so until I saw
+the animals that were to take us to the coast. Neither the bustard nor the
+gazelle, that sometimes roams Sidi el Muktar's plains, had anything to
+fear from those noble creatures. The kaid alone might have pursued bird or
+beast, but as his gun was innocent of powder and shot there would have
+been nothing but exercise to seek.</p>
+
+<p>After a two-hours' rest, given in one case more to sleep than lunch, we
+moved on towards the village of Sidi el Muktar, passing some curious
+flat-topped hills called by the natives Haunk Ijjimmal.<a name="FNanchor_48_48" id="FNanchor_48_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_48_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a> The oasis had
+ceased as suddenly as it had begun, and the road became as uninteresting
+as was our own crawling gait. I noticed that the Susi muleteers were
+travelling very sadly, that they had not among them an echo of the songs
+that had sounded so strangely on the previous day, and I bade Salam find
+the cause of the depression, and ask whether the young lad whose features
+had become pinched and drawn felt ill. Within a few moments the truth was
+out. The six men had eaten nothing save a little of the mules' barley
+since they left Marrakesh, and as they had been on short rations between
+Tiensiert and the Southern capital, their strength was beginning to give
+out. It was no part of my business to feed them; they had received
+"something in the hand" before they left the city, and could well have
+bought supplies for the road, but they had preferred to trust Providence,
+and hoped to live on a small part of the mules' barley and the daily gift
+of tea that had been promised. Under the circumstances, and though I had
+found reason to believe that they were lazy, feckless rogues enough, who
+really needed an iron-handed kaid to rule over them, I told Salam to pass
+word round that their wants would be supplied at the day's end. Then they
+picked up their old stride, and one by one resumed the love-songs of
+yesterday as we moved slowly over the plains to where, in the far
+distance, Sidi el Muktar stood between us and the fast setting sun, placed
+near to the junction of three provinces&mdash;Oulad bou Sba, through which we
+travelled, M'touga, famous for fleet horses, and Shiadma, where our road
+lay.</p>
+
+<p>But we were to find no rest in the shade of Sidi el Muktar's stately
+zowia. The "Sons of Lions" had raided the place on the previous day,
+hoping to terminate alike the rule and the existence of a kaid whose hand
+had rested too heavily upon them. Some friend of the kaid having given him
+due notice of the raiders' intentions&mdash;treachery is a painfully common
+feature of these forays&mdash;he had been well prepared to meet these godless
+men. Powder had spoken, and was to speak again, for the kaid, having
+driven off the raiders, was going to carry war into the enemy's country,
+and was busy preparing to start on the morrow at daybreak. At such a time
+as this it had not been wise to pitch tent within sound or sight of men
+with the killing lust upon them. Very reluctantly we rode on for another
+two hours and then Ain Umast, a douar that is famous for its possession of
+a well of pure water, received us with nightfall. There our troubles were
+over, for though the place was more than commonly dirty, the inhabitants
+were peaceable and disposed to be friendly. A few crops were raised on the
+surrounding fields, and small herds of sheep and goats managed to pick up
+some sort of a living on the surrounding lands, but poverty reigned there,
+and Ain Umast is of small account by the side of Sidi el Muktar, which is
+the burial-place of a saint, whose miracles are still acknowledged by all
+the faithful who happen to have met with good luck of any sort.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 906px;">
+<a name="m61" id="m61"></a>
+<img src="images/m61.jpg" width="906" height="640" alt="A GOATHERD" title="A GOATHERD" />
+<br /><span class="caption">A GOATHERD</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Bread, butter, and eggs were brought for the muleteers, and I was greatly
+surprised by the cleanliness of the men. Before they broke an egg for the
+omelette they washed it with greatest care. They themselves stood far more
+in need of a washing than the eggs did, but perhaps they could not be
+expected to think of everything. Barley was bought, at half the price
+charged at Ain el Baidah, and I noticed that the cunning Susi hid some of
+it in the long bag they kept at the bottom of one of the <i>shwarris</i>.
+Clearly they intended to make the supply we paid for serve to take them
+all the way to Tiensiert. This was annoying, since one of the objects of
+ordering a good supply each night was to enable the long-suffering beasts
+to compass a better speed on the following day.</p>
+
+<p>That evening there was great excitement in the douar. The elders came
+round our fire after supper and sought to know if it were true that the
+"Sons of Lions" had blotted out Sidi el Muktar, and put all its
+inhabitants to the sword. When we declared that the little town was still
+where it had stood since they were born, they appeared distinctly
+surprised, and gave the praise and credit to the patron saint. They said
+the kaid's hand was a very heavy one, that his men went to the Wednesday
+market and were the terror of the country folks who came to buy and sell.
+The absence of the Court Elevated by Allah was to be deplored, for had my
+Lord Abd-el-Aziz been in residence at Marrakesh some other kaid would have
+made him a bid for the place of the ruler of Sidi el Muktar, basing his
+offer upon the fact that the present governor could not keep order. A
+change might have been for the better&mdash;it could hardly have been for the
+worse. One or two of the men of Ain Umast spoke Shilha, and the Susi men,
+hearing the cruelties of Sidi el Muktar's ruler discussed, claimed to have
+a far better specimen of the genus kaid in Tiensiert. He was a man indeed,
+ready with fire and sword at the shortest notice; his subjects called him
+Father of Locusts, so thoroughly did he deal with all things that could be
+eaten up.</p>
+
+<p>It was a curious but instructive attitude. These miserable men were quite
+proud to think that the tyranny of their kaid, the great El Arbi bel Hadj
+ben Haida, was not to be rivalled by anything Shiadma could show. They
+instanced his treatment of them and pointed to the young boy who was of
+their company. His father had been kaid in years past, but the late Grand
+Wazeer Ba Ahmad sold his office to El Arbi, who threw the man into prison
+and kept him there until he died. To show his might, El Arbi had sent the
+boy with them, that all men might know how the social scales of Tiensiert
+held the kaid on one side and the rest of the people on the other. The
+black slave who accompanied them had been brought up by the late kaid's
+father, and was devoted to the boy. In his mercy El Arbi allowed him to
+live with the lad and work a small farm, the harvest of which was strictly
+tithed by Tiensiert's chief&mdash;who took a full nine-tenths. Before the
+evening was over the elders of Ain Umast had acknowledged, rather
+regretfully I thought, that the tyrant of Sidi el Muktar must hide a
+diminished head before his brother of the Sus. The triumph of the grimy
+men from Tiensiert was then complete.</p>
+
+<p>They were a sorry set of fellows enough, to outward seeming, but how shall
+a European judge them fairly? Stevenson says in one of his Essays,
+"Justice is not done to the versatility and the unplumbed childishness of
+man's imagination. His life from without may seem but a rude mound of mud;
+there will be some golden chamber at the heart of it, in which he dwells
+delighted; and for as dark as his pathway seems to the observer, he will
+have some kind of bull's-eye at his belt." So, doubtless, had I had the
+eyes that see below the surface, these hardy traders, the best of whose
+hopes and actions were hidden from me, would have been no less interesting
+than the Maalem or the young shareef.</p>
+
+<p>In view of the disturbed state of the country I thought of having a few
+extra guards, but finding the two already engaged sleeping peacefully
+before our tent was closed, it seemed likely that a couple of sleeping men
+would be as useful as four. I fear they had a troubled night, for though
+the "Sons of Lions" did not trouble us, a short, sharp shower came with
+the small hours and woke the poor fellows, who asked for extra money in
+the morning by way of consolation for their broken rest. By five o'clock
+we were astir, and soon after we were on the road again, bound for the
+village of Hanchen, where a small Sok Thalata<a name="FNanchor_49_49" id="FNanchor_49_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_49_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a> is held. After a brief
+mid-day rest we reached the outskirts of the Argan Forest.</p>
+
+<p>This great forest is quite the distinctive feature of Southern Morocco.
+The argan tree, that gives a name to it, is the indigenous olive of the
+country, and is found only in the zone between the Tensift river and the
+river Sus. Argan wood is exceedingly hard and slow growing, thus differing
+materially from the olive, to which it seems so nearly related. The trunk
+divides low down, sometimes within six feet of the roots, and the branches
+grow horizontally. If the Moors are right, the age of the elders of the
+forest is to be counted in centuries, and the wood can defy the attacks of
+insects that make short-work of other trees. The leaves of the argan
+recall those of the olive, but have even a lighter silvery aspect on the
+underside; the fruit is like the olive, but considerably larger, and is
+sought after by many animals. Goats climb among the branches in search of
+the best nuts. Camels and cows will not pass an argan tree if given the
+slightest chance to linger. The animals that eat the nuts reject their
+kernels, and the Moors collect these in order to extract the oil, which is
+used in cooking, for lighting purposes, and as medicine. After extraction
+the pulp is eagerly accepted by cattle, so no part of the valued fruit is
+wasted. One of the giants of the forest, said to be four hundred years
+old, has before now given shade to a regiment of soldiers; I saw for
+myself that the circumference of its branches was more than two hundred
+feet.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 892px;">
+<a name="m62" id="m62"></a>
+<img src="images/m62.jpg" width="892" height="640" alt="COMING FROM THE MOSQUE, HANCHEN" title="COMING FROM THE MOSQUE, HANCHEN" />
+<br /><span class="caption">COMING FROM THE MOSQUE, HANCHEN</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>But it must not be thought that the Argan Forest is composed entirely of
+these trees. The argan dominates the forest but does not account for its
+beauty. The r'tam is almost as plentiful, and lends far more to the wood's
+colour scheme, for its light branches are stirred by every breeze.
+Dwarf-palm is to be found on all sides, together with the arar or citrus,
+and the double-thorned lotus. The juniper, wild pear, and cork trees are
+to be met with now and again, and the ground is for the most part a sea of
+flowers almost unknown to me, though I could recognise wild thyme,
+asphodel, and lavender amid the tamarisk and myrtle undergrowth. At
+intervals the forest opens, showing some large douar that was built
+probably on the site of a well, and there industrious village folks have
+reclaimed the land, raised crops, and planted orchards. Olive, fig, and
+pomegranate seem to be the most popular trees, and corn is grown in the
+orchards too, possibly in order that it may have the benefit of the trees'
+shade. The soil that can raise corn and fruit trees together must have
+exceptional vitality and richness, particularly in view of the fact that
+it is in no way fed, and is rather scraped or scratched than truly
+ploughed.</p>
+
+<p>The village of Hanchen, known for miles round as "Sok Thalata" by reason
+of its weekly gathering, might well serve to justify a halt. It straggles
+over a hill surrounded on all sides by the forest, it has a saint's shrine
+of fair size and imposing aspect, a good supply of water, and very
+peaceful inhabitants. At the base of the slope, some fifty yards from the
+broad track leading to the coast, there was an orchard of more than common
+beauty, even for Southern Morocco. The pomegranates, aflower above the
+ripening corn, had finer blossoms than any I had seen before, the
+fig-trees were Biblical in their glossy splendour. Mules were footsore,
+the Susi men were tired, the weather was perfect, time was our own for a
+day or two, and I was aching to take my gun down the long glades that
+seemed to stretch to the horizon. So we off-saddled, and pitched our tent
+in the shadow of a patriarchal fig-tree. Then the mules were eased of
+their burdens and fed liberally, Salam standing between the poor beasts
+and the muleteers, who would have impounded a portion of their hard-earned
+meal.</p>
+
+<p>The heat of the afternoon was passing; I loaded my gun and started out. At
+first sight of the weapon some score of lads from the village&mdash;athletic,
+vigorous boys, ready to go anywhere and do anything&mdash;made signs that they
+would come and beat for me. With Salam's help I gave them proper
+instructions; my idea was to shoot enough of fur and feather to give the
+muleteers a good supper.</p>
+
+<p>At the outset a sorry accident befell. A fat pigeon came sailing overhead,
+so well fed that it was hard to believe he was a pigeon at all. This being
+the sort of bird that suits hungry men, I fired and was well pleased to
+note the swift direct fall, and to hear the thud that tells of a clean
+kill. To my surprise the beaters remained where they were, none offering
+to pick up the bird. There were glum and serious looks on every side. I
+motioned one lad to go forward, and, to my amazement, he made the sign
+that is intended to avert the evil eye, and declared that he took refuge
+from me with Allah.</p>
+
+<p>I sent for Salam, and, as he approached, a chorus of explanations came to
+him from all sides. The pigeon came from the zowia of El Hanchen. It was
+sacred&mdash;that is why it was so fat. This was a bad beginning, and a matter
+that demanded careful handling. So I sent M'Barak, representing official
+Morocco, to express to El Hanchen's headman my extreme sorrow and sincere
+regret. The blessed one was instructed to assure the village that I had no
+suspicion of the bird's holiness, and that it was my rule in life to
+respect everything that other men respected. It seemed courteous to await
+the kaid's return before resuming operations, and he came back in half an
+hour with word that the headman, while deeply regretting the incident,
+recognised the absence of bad intention. He asked that the sacred slain
+might not be eaten. I sent back word thanking him for his courteous
+acceptance of my explanations, and promising that the fat pigeon should
+receive decent burial. A small hole was dug on the sunny side of the
+fig-tree, and there the sacred bird was interred. I hope that the worms
+proved as particular as we had been.</p>
+
+<p>Duty done, we went off to the woods, the beaters, now quite reassured,
+driving stock-doves over in quantities that left no reason to fear about
+the muleteers' supper. While birds were the quarry the lads worked well,
+but now and again a hare would start from her form, and every boy would
+join in the headlong, hopeless chase that ensued. It was impossible to
+check them, and equally impossible to shoot at the hare. While she was
+within gunshot the lads were close on her heels, and by the time she had
+distanced them or dashed into the long grasses and scrub she was out of
+range or out of sight. In vain I waved them back and complained when they
+returned panting; as soon as another hare got up they went after her in
+the same way, until at last, taking advantage of a wild chase that had
+carried them rather a longer distance than usual, I took a sharp turn and
+strolled away quite by myself. I heard the excited cries die away in the
+distance, and then for some few moments the forest silence was broken only
+by the rustle of the breeze through the grass, and the sudden scream of a
+startled jay. Doves went happily from tree to tree and I never put my gun
+up. I had heard a very familiar sound, and wanted to be assured that my
+ears were not deceived. No, I was right; I could hear the cuckoo, calling
+through the depth of the forest, as though it were my favourite Essex
+copse at home. It was pleasant, indeed, to hear the homely notes so far
+from any other object, even remotely, connected with England.</p>
+
+<p>I strolled for an hour or more, listening to the "wandering voice,"
+heedless of what passed me by, at peace with all the world, and resolved
+to shoot no more. Alas, for good intentions! Coming suddenly into a great
+clearing girdled by argan trees, I flushed two large birds some forty
+yards away. The first was missed, the second came down and proved to be a
+Lesser Bustard or <i>boozerat</i>&mdash;quite a prize. Well content, I emptied the
+gun to avoid temptation and walked back to the camp, where there was
+quite a fair bag.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell the muleteers, Salam," I said, "that they may have these birds for
+their supper, and that I hope they will enjoy themselves."</p>
+
+<p>Salam wore a rather troubled expression, I thought, as he went to the head
+muleteer and pointed to the spoils. Then he came back and explained to me
+that their dietary laws did not allow the Susi to eat anything that had
+not been killed by bleeding in the orthodox fashion. Had they been with
+me, to turn wounded birds to the East and cut their throats in the name of
+Allah, all would have been well, but birds shot dead were an abomination
+to the righteous Susi. They scorned to avail themselves of the excuse
+afforded by their needs.<a name="FNanchor_50_50" id="FNanchor_50_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_50_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a> So my labour had been in vain, and I did not
+know what to do with the spoil. But I left the slain in a little heap out
+of the way of insects and flies, and when we rose in the morning the
+unorthodox among Hanchen's inhabitants had apparently solved the problem.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_48_48" id="Footnote_48_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> The Camel's Jaw.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_49_49" id="Footnote_49_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> "Tuesday market."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_50_50" id="Footnote_50_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> "I find not in that which hath been revealed to me anything
+forbidden unto the eater ... except it be that which dieth of itself ...
+or that which is profane, having been slain in the name of some other than
+God. But whoso shall be compelled of necessity to eat these things, not
+lusting nor wilfully transgressing, verily thy Lord will be gracious unto
+him and merciful."&mdash;Al Koran, Sura, "Cattle."</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>IN THE ARGAN FOREST</h2>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 781px;">
+<a name="m63" id="m63"></a>
+<img src="images/m63.jpg" width="781" height="640" alt="EVENING AT HANCHEN" title="EVENING AT HANCHEN" />
+<br /><span class="caption">EVENING AT HANCHEN</span>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2>
+
+<h3>IN THE ARGAN FOREST</h3>
+
+<blockquote><p>Life, even at its greatest and best, may be compared to a froward
+child, who must be humoured and played with till he falls asleep, and
+then the care is over.</p>
+
+<p>&mdash;<i>Goldsmith.</i> </p></blockquote>
+
+
+<p>Early morning found the Tuesday market in full swing, and the town of
+Hanchen already astir in honour of the occasion. To realise the importance
+of the weekly gathering, it is well to remember that a market in the
+country here is the only substitute for the bazaar of the towns. Every
+douar within a ten-mile radius of Hanchen sends men and women to the
+Tuesday market to buy and sell. So it befell that the hillside slope,
+which was bare on the previous afternoon, hummed now like a hive, and was
+well nigh as crowded. Rough tents of goats' or camels'-hair cloth
+sheltered everything likely to appeal to the native mind and
+resources,&mdash;tea, sugar, woollen and cotton goods, pottery, sieves,
+padlocks, and nails being to all appearance the goods most sought after by
+the country Moor. Quite a brisk demand for candles prevailed; they were
+highly-coloured things, thick at the base and tapering to the wick. There
+was a good sale too for native butter, that needed careful straining
+before it could be eaten with comfort, and there were eggs in plenty,
+fetching from twopence to threepence the dozen, a high price for Morocco,
+and brought about by the export trade that has developed so rapidly in the
+last few years. For the most part the traders seemed to be Berbers or of
+evident Berber extraction, being darker and smaller than the Arabs, and in
+some cases wearing the dark woollen outer garment, with its distinctive
+orange-coloured mark on the back. Women and little children took no small
+part in the market, but were perhaps most concerned with the sale of the
+chickens that they brought from their homes, tied by the legs in bundles
+without regard to the suffering entailed. The women did rather more than a
+fair share of porters' work too. Very few camels were to be seen, but I
+noticed one group of half a dozen being carefully fed on a cloth, because,
+like all their supercilious breed, they were too dainty to eat from the
+ground. They gurgled quite angrily over the question of precedence. A
+little way from the tents in which hardware was exposed for sale, bread
+was being baked in covered pans over a charcoal fire fanned by bellows,
+while at the bottom of the hill a butcher had put up the rough tripod of
+wooden poles, from which meat is suspended. The slaughter of sheep was
+proceeding briskly. A very old Moor was the official slaughter-man, and he
+sat in the shade of a wall, a bloody knife in hand, and conversed gravely
+with villagers of his own age. When the butcher's assistants had brought
+up three or four fresh sheep and stretched them on the ground, the old man
+would rise to his feet with considerable effort, cut the throats that
+were waiting for him very cleanly and expeditiously, and return to his
+place in the shade, while another assistant spread clean earth over the
+reeking ground. Some of the sheep after being dressed were barbecued.</p>
+
+<p>I saw many women and girls bent under the weight of baskets of charcoal,
+or firewood, or loads of hay, and some late arrivals coming in heavily
+burdened in this fashion were accompanied by their husband, who rode at
+ease on a donkey and abused them roundly because they did not go quickly
+enough. Mules and donkeys, with fore and hind leg hobbled, were left in
+one corner of the market-place, to make up in rest what they lacked in
+food. Needless to say that the marketing was very brisk, but I noted with
+some interest that very little money changed hands. Barter was more common
+than sale, partly because the Government had degraded its own currency
+until the natives were fighting shy of it, and partly because the owners
+of the sheep and goats were a company of true Bedouins from the extreme
+South. These Bedouins were the most interesting visitors to the Tuesday
+market, and I was delighted when one of them recognised Salam as a friend.
+The two had met in the days when an adventurous Scot set up in business at
+Cape Juby in the extreme South, where I believe his Majesty Lebaudy the
+First is now king.</p>
+
+<p>The Saharowi was an exceedingly thin man, of wild aspect, with flowing
+hair and scanty beard. His skin was burnt deep brown, and he was dressed
+in a blue cotton garment of guinea cloth made in simplest fashion. He was
+the chief of a little party that had been travelling for two months with
+faces set toward the North. He reminded Salam of Sidi<a name="FNanchor_51_51" id="FNanchor_51_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_51_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a> Mackenzie, the
+Scot who ruled Cape Juby, and how the great manager, whose name was known
+from the fort to Tindouf, had nearly poisoned him by giving him bread to
+eat when he was faint with hunger. These true Bedouins live on milk and
+cheese, with an occasional piece of camel or goat flesh, and a rare taste
+of mutton. When Salam's friend came starving to Cape Juby, Sidi Mackenzie
+had given him bread. The hungry man ate some and at once became violently
+ill, his stomach could not endure such solid fare. Having no milk in the
+fort, they managed to keep him alive on rice-water. It would appear that
+the Saharowi can easily live on milk for a week, and with milk and cheese
+can thrive indefinitely, as indeed could most other folk, if they cared to
+forswear luxury and try.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 563px;">
+<a name="m64" id="m64"></a>
+<img src="images/m64.jpg" width="563" height="640" alt="ON THE ROAD TO ARGAN FOREST" title="ON THE ROAD TO ARGAN FOREST" />
+<br /><span class="caption">ON THE ROAD TO ARGAN FOREST</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>The little party was travelling with some hundreds of sheep and goats,
+which were being tended a little way off by the children, and, large
+though their flocks seemed, they were in truth sadly reduced by the
+drought that had driven one and all to the North. The Saharowi explained
+to Salam that all the wandering Arabs were trekking northwards in search
+of land that had seen the rain; and that their path was strewn with the
+skeletons of animals fallen by the way. These nomads carried their wives
+and little ones, together with tents and household impedimenta, on the
+camels, and walked on foot with the grown children in charge of the
+flocks. The sheep they had sold to the butcher were in fair condition, and
+fetched from four to five shillings in English money, or the equivalent of
+this sum in goods, for when a Saharowi approaches civilised lands he is
+generally in need of some of the products of civilisation, or thinks he
+is, though, at need, he manages excellently well without them.</p>
+
+<p>Among the miscellaneous gathering that the Tuesday market had attracted to
+Hanchen I noticed a small company of acrobats from the Sus, and a medicine
+man of fierce aspect, who sat by himself under a rough tent, muttering
+charms and incantations, and waiting for Allah to send victims. This
+wonder-worker had piercing eyes, that seemed to examine the back of your
+head, long matted hair and a beard to match. He wore a white djellaba and
+a pair of new slippers, and was probably more dangerous than any disease
+he aided and abetted.</p>
+
+<p>For the amusement of the people who did not care for acrobatic feats and
+stood in no need of the primitive methods of the physician, there was a
+story-teller, who addressed a somewhat attenuated circle of phlegmatic
+listeners, and a snake-charmer who was surrounded by children. Sidi ben
+Aissa undoubtedly kept the snakes&mdash;spotted leffas from the Sus&mdash;from
+hurting his follower, but not even the saint could draw <i>floos</i> from poor
+youngsters whose total wealth would probably have failed to yield
+threepence to the strictest investigator. Happily for them the charmer was
+an artist in his way; he loved his work for its own sake, and abated no
+part of his performance, although the reward would hardly buy him and his
+assistant a meal of mutton and bread at their labour's end. The boys of
+Hanchen were doing brisk business in the brass cases of cartridges that
+had been fired on the previous day, and without a doubt the story of the
+wonders of a repeating gun lost nothing in the telling.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 531px;">
+<a name="m65" id="m65"></a>
+<img src="images/m65.jpg" width="531" height="640" alt="THE SNAKE-CHARMER" title="THE SNAKE-CHARMER" />
+<br /><span class="caption">THE SNAKE-CHARMER</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>There was no interval for rest when the hours of greatest heat came round.
+Late arrivals who travelled in on mule- or donkey-back renewed business
+when it slackened, and brought fresh goods to be sold or exchanged. The
+"Sons of Lions" had broken up the market at Sidi el Muktar on the previous
+Friday before it was properly concluded, and many natives, disappointed
+there, had come out to Hanchen to do their business, until there seemed to
+be nothing in any stall that lacked buyers. Even the old man who had a
+heap of scrap-iron when the market opened had sold every piece of it by
+four o'clock, though it would have puzzled a European to find any use for
+such rubbish. The itinerant mender of slippers was hard at work with three
+young lads, and I never saw any one of the party idle. Hawks and corbies
+fluttered over the butcher's ground, and I noticed a vulture in the deep
+vault of the sky. Pariah dogs would clear every bit of refuse from the
+ground before another day dawned, and in their nasty fashion would serve
+their country, for the weather was very hot and the odours were
+overpowering. Flies covered all unprotected meat until it ceased to look
+red, and the stall of the seller of sweetmeats was a study in black and
+white: black when the swarms settled, and white for a brief moment when he
+switched them off with his feathery bamboo brush. Yet, in spite of the
+many difficulties under which trade was carried on, one could not help
+feeling that buyers and sellers alike were enjoying themselves hugely. The
+market did more than help them to make a living. It was at once their
+club, their newspaper, and their theatre, and supplied the one recreation
+of lives that&mdash;perhaps only to European seeming&mdash;were tedious as a
+twice-told tale.</p>
+
+<p>Here the village folk were able to keep themselves posted in the country's
+contemporary history, for traders had come from all points of the compass,
+and had met men at other markets who, in their turn, brought news from
+places still more remote. Consequently you might learn in Hanchen's
+Tuesday market what the Sultan was doing in Fez, and how the Rogui was
+occupied in Er-Riff. French penetration in the far-off districts of no
+man's land beyond Tafilalt was well-known to these travelling market-folk;
+the Saharowi had spoken with the heads of a caravan that had come with
+slaves from Ghadames, by way of the Tuat, bound for Marrakesh. Resting by
+day and travelling by night, they had passed without challenge through the
+French lines. A visitor knowing Arabic and Shilha, and able to discount
+the stories properly, might have had a faithful picture of Morocco as its
+own people see it, had he been admitted to join the weather-worn, hardy
+traders who sat complacently eyeing their diminished store towards the
+close of day. Truth is nowhere highly esteemed in Morocco,<a name="FNanchor_52_52" id="FNanchor_52_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_52_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a> and the
+colouring superimposed upon most stories must have destroyed their
+original hue, but it served to please the Moors and Berbers who, like the
+men of other countries one knows, have small use for unadorned facts.
+Perhaps the troubles that were reported from every side of the doomed
+country accounted for the professional story-teller's thin audience. By
+the side of tales that had some connection with fact the salt of his
+legends lost its savour.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 595px;">
+<a name="m66" id="m66"></a>
+<img src="images/m66.jpg" width="595" height="640" alt="IN CAMP" title="IN CAMP" />
+<br /><span class="caption">IN CAMP</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Towards evening the crowd melted away silently, as it had come. A few
+mules passed along the road to Mogador, the Bedouin and his company moved
+off in the direction of Saffi, and the greater part of the traders turned
+south-east to M'touga, where there was a Thursday market that could be
+reached in comfort. Hanchen retired within its boundaries, rich in the
+proceeds of the sale of fodder, which had been in great demand throughout
+the day. Small companies of boys roamed over the market-place, seeking to
+snap up any trifles that had been left behind, just as English boys will
+at the Crystal Palace or Alexandra Park, after a firework display. The
+Moorish youngsters had even less luck than their English brethren, for in
+Morocco, where life is simple and men need and have little, everything has
+its use, and a native throws nothing away. The dogs, eager to forestall
+the vultures, were still fighting among themselves for the offal left by
+the butcher, when the villagers, who had come to take a late cup of tea
+with Salam and M'Barak, resumed their slippers, testified to the Unity of
+Allah, and turned to ascend Hanchen's steep hill.</p>
+
+<p>Among the stories circulated in the Tuesday market was one to the effect
+that a lion had come down from the Atlas, and after taking toll of the
+cattle belonging to the douars on its road, had been shot at the western
+end of the forest. This tale was told with so much circumstance that it
+seemed worth inquiry, and I found in Mogador that a great beast had indeed
+come from the hills and wrought considerable harm; but it was a leopard,
+not a lion. It may be doubted whether lions are to be found anywhere north
+of the Atlas to-day, though they were common enough in times past, and one
+is said to have been shot close to Tangier in the middle of last century.
+If they still exist it is in the farthest Atlas range, in the country of
+the Beni M'gild, a district that cannot be approached from the west at
+all, and in far lands beyond, that have been placed under observation
+lately by the advance-columns of the French Algerian army, which does not
+suffer from scruples where its neighbour's landmarks are concerned. Most
+of the old writers gave the title of lion or tiger to leopards, panthers,
+and lemurs; indeed, the error flourishes to-day.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 599px;">
+<a name="m67" id="m67"></a>
+<img src="images/m67.jpg" width="599" height="640" alt="A COUNTRYMAN" title="A COUNTRYMAN" />
+<br /><span class="caption">A COUNTRYMAN</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>On the road once again, I found myself wondering at the way in which
+British sportsmen have neglected the Argan Forest. If they had to reach it
+as we did, after long days and nights in a country that affords little
+attraction for sportsmen, it would be no matter for wonder that they stay
+away. But the outskirts of the forest can be reached from Mogador at the
+expense of a five-mile ride across the miniature Sahara that cuts off Sidi
+M'godol's city from the fertile lands, and Mogador has a weekly service of
+steamers coming direct from London by way of the other Moorish ports. No
+part of the forest is preserved, gun licenses are unknown, and the woods
+teem with game. Stories about the ouadad or moufflon may be disregarded,
+for this animal is only found in the passes of the Atlas Mountains, miles
+beyond the forest's boundaries. But, on the other hand, the wild boar is
+plentiful, while lynx, porcupine, hy&aelig;na, jackal, and hare are by no means
+rare. Sand-grouse and partridge thrive in large quantities. There are
+parts of the forest that recall the Highlands of Scotland, though the
+vegetation is richer than any that Scotland can show, and in these places,
+unknown save to a very few, the streams are full of trout, and the otter
+may be hunted along the banks. The small quantity and poor quality of
+native guns may be held to account for the continual presence of birds and
+beasts in a part of the world that may not fairly be deemed remote, and
+where, save in times of stress, a sportsman who will treat the natives
+with courtesy and consideration may be sure of a hearty welcome and all
+the assistance he deserves. Withal, no man who has once enjoyed a few days
+in the Argan Forest can sincerely regret Europe's neglect of it: human
+nature is not unselfish enough for that.</p>
+
+<p>The ride through the last part of the forest was uneventful. Argan,
+kharob, and lotus, with the help of a few of the "arar" or gum sandarac
+trees, shut off the view to the right and left. Below them dwarf-palm,
+aloe, cactus, and sweet broom made a dense undergrowth, and where the
+woodland opened suddenly the ground was aflame with flowers that recalled
+England as clearly as the cuckoo's note. Pimpernel, convolvulus,
+mignonette, marigold, and pansy were English enough, and in addition to
+these the ox-daisies of our meadows were almost as common here. Many
+companies of the true Bedouins passed us on the road, heralded by great
+flocks of sheep and goats, the sheep pausing to eat the tops of the
+dwarf-palms, the goats to climb the low-lying argan trees, while their
+owners stayed to ask about the water supply and the state of the country
+beyond.</p>
+
+<p>Though we might consider ourselves far removed from civilisation, these
+Bedouins felt that they were all too near it. The change from their desert
+land, with its few and far-scattered oases, to this country where there
+was a douar at the end of every day's journey, was like a change from the
+country to the town. They could not view without concern a part of the
+world in which men wore several garments, ate bread and vegetables, and
+slept under cover in a walled village, and one wild fellow, who carried a
+very old flint-lock musket, lamented the drought that had forced them from
+their homes to a place so full of men. So far as I was able to observe the
+matter, the Berber muleteers of El Arbi bel Hadj ben Haidah looked with
+great scorn upon these Bedouins, and their contempt was reciprocated. In
+the eyes of the Berbers these men were outcasts and "eaters of sand," and
+in the eyes of the Bedouins the muleteers were puling, town-bred slaves,
+who dared not say their right hands were their own.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps the difficulty in the way of a proper understanding was largely
+physical. The Berbers believe they came to Morocco from Canaan, forced out
+of Palestine by the movement of the Jews under Joshua. They settled in the
+mountains of the "Far West," and have never been absorbed or driven out by
+their Arab conquerors. Strong, sturdy, temperate men, devoid of
+imagination, and of the impulse to create or develop an artistic side to
+their lives, they can have nothing in common with the slenderly built,
+far-seeing Arab of the plains, who dreams dreams and sees visions all the
+days of his life. Between Salam and the Bedouins, on the other hand, good
+feeling came naturally. The poor travellers, whose worldly wealth was ever
+in their sight&mdash;a camel or two, a tent with scanty furniture, and a few
+goats and sheep&mdash;had all the unexplored places of the world to wander in,
+and all the heavens for their canopy. That is the life the Arabs love, and
+it had tempted Salam many hundreds of miles from his native place, the
+sacred city of Sheshawan, on the border of Er-Riff. The wandering instinct
+is never very far from any of us who have once passed east of Suez, and
+learned that the highest end and aim of life is not to live in a town,
+however large and ugly, and suffer without complaining the inevitable
+visits of the tax collector.</p>
+
+<p>Our tent was set for the night in a valley that we reached by a path
+half-buried in undergrowth and known only to the head muleteer. It was a
+spot far removed from the beaten tracks of the travellers. In times past a
+great southern kaid had set his summer-house there: its skeleton, changed
+from grey to pink in the rosy light of sun-setting, stood before us, just
+across a tiny stream fringed by rushes, willows, and oleanders. When the
+Court Elevated by Allah left Marrakesh for the north some years ago, the
+sorely-tried natives had risen against their master, they had captured and
+plundered his house, and he had been fortunate in getting away with a
+whole skin. Thereafter the tribesmen had fought among themselves for the
+spoils of war, the division of the china and cutlery accounting for
+several deaths. All the land round our little camp had been a garden, a
+place famous for roses and jessamine, verbena and the geraniums that grow
+in bushes, together with countless other flowers, that make the garden of
+Sunset Land suggest to Moors the beauties of the paradise that is to come.
+Now the flowers that had been so carefully tended ran wild, the boar
+rooted among them, and the porcupine made a home in their shade. As
+evening closed in, the wreck of the great house became vague and shadowy,
+a thing without outline, the wraith of the home that had been. Grey owls
+and spectral bats sailed or fluttered from the walls. They might have been
+past owners or servitors who had suffered metamorphosis. The sight set me
+thinking of the mutual suspicions of the Bedouins and the Susi traders,
+the raiding of Sidi el Muktar, the other signs of tribal fighting that had
+been apparent on the road, the persecution of the Moor by his protected
+fellow-subjects,&mdash;in short, the whole failure of the administration to
+which the ruin that stood before me seemed to give fitting expression.
+This house had not stood, and, after all, I thought Morocco was but a
+house divided against itself.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 640px;">
+<a name="m68" id="m68"></a>
+<img src="images/m68.jpg" width="640" height="640" alt="MOONLIGHT" title="MOONLIGHT" />
+<br /><span class="caption">MOONLIGHT</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>In the face of all the difficulties and dangers that beset the state, the
+Sultan's subjects are concerned only with their own private animosities.
+Berber cannot unite with Moor, village still wars against village, each
+province is as a separate kingdom, so far as the adjacent province is
+concerned. As of old, the kaids are concerned only with filling their
+pockets; the villagers, when not fighting, are equally engrossed in saving
+some small portion of their earnings and taking advantage of the inability
+of the central Government to collect taxes. They all know that the land is
+in confusion, that the Europeans at the Court are intriguing against its
+independence. In camp and market-place men spread the news of the French
+advance from the East. Yet if the forces of the country could be
+organised,&mdash;if every official would but respond to the needs of the
+Government and the people unite under their masters,&mdash;Morocco might still
+hold Europe at bay, to the extent at least of making its subjection too
+costly and difficult a task for any European Government to undertake. If
+Morocco could but find its Abd el Kadr, the day of its partition might
+even yet be postponed indefinitely. But next year, or the next&mdash;who shall
+say?</p>
+
+<p>My journey was well nigh over. I had leisure now to recall all seen and
+heard in the past few weeks and contrast it with the mental notes I had
+made on the occasion of previous visits. And the truth was forced upon me
+that Morocco was nearer the brink of dissolution than it had ever
+been&mdash;that instability was the dominant note of social and political life.
+I recalled my glimpses of the Arabs who live in Algeria and Tunisia, and
+even Egypt under European rule, and thought of the servility and
+dependence of the lower classes and the gross, unintelligent lives of the
+rest. Morocco alone had held out against Europe, aided, to be sure, by the
+accident of her position at the corner of the Mediterranean where no one
+European Power could permit another to secure permanent foothold. And with
+the change, all the picturesque quality of life would go from the Moghreb,
+and the kingdom founded by Mulai Idrees a thousand years ago would become
+as vulgar as Algeria itself.</p>
+
+<p>There is something very solemn about the passing of a great kingdom&mdash;and
+Morocco has been renowned throughout Europe. It has preserved for us the
+essence of the life recorded in the Pentateuch; it has lived in the light
+of its own faith and enforced respect for its prejudices upon one and all.
+In days when men overrun every square mile of territory in the sacred name
+of progress, and the company promoter in London, Paris, or Berlin
+acquires wealth he cannot estimate by juggling with mineralised land he
+has never seen, Morocco has remained intact, and though her soil teems
+with evidences of mineral wealth, no man dares disturb it. There is
+something very fascinating about this defiance of all that the great
+Powers of the world hold most dear.</p>
+
+<p>One could not help remembering, too, the charm and courtesy, the simple
+faith and chivalrous life, of the many who would be swallowed up in the
+relentless maw of European progress, deliberately degraded, turned
+literally or morally into hewers of wood and drawers of
+water&mdash;misunderstood, made miserable and discontented. And to serve what
+end? Only that the political and financial ambitions of a restless
+generation might be gratified&mdash;that none might be able to say, "A weak
+race has been allowed to follow its path in peace."</p>
+
+<p>Salam disturbed my meditations.</p>
+
+<p>"Everything shut up, sir," he said. "I think you have forgot: to-morrow we
+go early to hunt the wild boar, sir."</p>
+
+<p>So I left Morocco to look after its own business and turned in.</p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_51_51" id="Footnote_51_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51_51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> Sidi is a Moorish title, and means "my Lord."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_52_52" id="Footnote_52_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_52_52"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> It is related of one Sultan that when a "Bashador"
+remonstrated with him for not fulfilling a contract, he replied, "Am I
+then a Nazarene, that I should be bound by my word?"</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>TO THE GATE OF THE PICTURE CITY</h2>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 456px;">
+<a name="m69" id="m69"></a>
+<img src="images/m69.jpg" width="456" height="640" alt="A MOORISH GIRL" title="A MOORISH GIRL" />
+<br /><span class="caption">A MOORISH GIRL</span>
+</div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2>
+
+<h3>TO THE GATE OF THE PICTURE CITY</h3>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Is it Pan's breath, fierce in the tremulous maiden-hair,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">That bids fear creep as a snake through the woodlands, felt<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In the leaves that it stirs not yet, in the mute bright air,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">In the stress of the sun?<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0"><i>A Nympholept.</i><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<p>By the time the little camp was astir and the charcoal fires had done
+their duty to eggs, coffee, and porridge, Pepe Ratto, accompanied by two
+of his Berber trackers, rode into the valley, and dismounted on the level
+ground where our tent was pitched. At first sight the sportsman stood
+revealed in our welcome visitor. The man whose name will be handed down to
+future generations in the annals of Morocco's sport would attract
+attention anywhere. Tall, straight, sunburnt, grizzled, with keen grey
+eyes and an alert expression, suggesting the easy and instantaneous change
+from thought to action, Pepe Ratto is in every inch of him a sportsman.
+Knowing South Morocco as few Europeans know it, and having an acquaintance
+with the forest that is scarcely exceeded by either Moor or Berber, he
+gives as much of his life as he can spare to the pursuit of the boar, and
+he had ridden out with his hunters this morning from his forest home, the
+Palm Tree House, to meet us before we left the Argans behind, so that we
+might turn awhile on the track of a "solitaire" tusker.</p>
+
+<p>So the mules were left to enjoy an unexpected rest while their owners
+enjoyed an uninterrupted breakfast, and the kaid was given ample time in
+which to groom his horse and prepare it and himself for sufficiently
+imposing entrance into the Picture City<a name="FNanchor_53_53" id="FNanchor_53_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_53_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a> that evening. Salam was
+instructed to pack tents and boxes at his leisure, before he took one of
+my sporting guns and went to pursue fur and feather in parts of the forest
+immediately adjacent to the camp. A straight shot and a keen sportsman, I
+knew that Salam would not bother about the hares that might cross his
+path, or birds that rose in sudden flight away from it. His is the Moorish
+method of shooting, and he is wont to stalk his quarry and fire before it
+rises. I protested once that this procedure was unsportsmanlike.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir," he replied simply. "If I wait for bird to fly may be I miss
+him, an' waste cartridge."</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 570px;">
+<a name="m70" id="m70"></a>
+<img src="images/m70.jpg" width="570" height="640" alt="A NARROW STREET IN MOGADOR" title="A NARROW STREET IN MOGADOR" />
+<br /><span class="caption">A NARROW STREET IN MOGADOR</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>This argument was, of course, unanswerable. He would follow birds slowly
+and deliberately, taking advantage of wind and cover, patient in pursuit
+and deadly in aim. Our points of view were different. I shot for sport,
+and he, and all Moors, for the bag. In this I felt he was my superior.
+But, barring storks, all creatures were game that came within Salam's
+range.</p>
+
+<p>No Moor will harm a stork. Even Moorish children, whose taste for
+destruction and slaughter is as highly developed as any European's, will
+pick up a young stork that has fallen from its nest and return it to the
+mother bird if they can. Storks sit at peace among the women of the hareem
+who come for their afternoon airing to the flat roof-tops of Moorish
+houses. Moorish lovers in the streets below tell the story of their hopes
+and fears to the favoured bird, who, when he is chattering with his
+mandibles, is doing what he can to convey the message. Every True Believer
+knows that the stork was once a Sultan, or a Grand Wazeer at least, who,
+being vain and irreligious, laughed in the beards of the old men of his
+city on a sacred day when they came to pay their respects to him. By so
+doing he roused the wrath of Allah, who changed him suddenly to his
+present form. But in spite of misdeeds, the Moors love the stately bird,
+and there are hospitals for storks in Fez and Marrakesh, where men whose
+sanctity surpasses their ignorance are paid to minister to the wants of
+the sick or injured among them. Many a time Salam, in pursuit of birds,
+has passed within a few-yards of the father of the red legs or his
+children, but it has never occurred to him to do them harm. Strange fact,
+but undeniable, that in great cities of the East, where Muslims and
+Christians dwell, the storks will go to the quarter occupied by True
+Believers, and leave the other districts severely alone. I have been
+assured by Moors that the first of these birds having been a Muslim, the
+storks recognise the True Faith, and wish to testify to their preference
+for it. It is hard to persuade a Moor to catch a stork or take an egg from
+the nest, though in pursuit of other birds and beasts he is a stranger to
+compunction in any form.</p>
+
+<p>One of the trackers gave me his horse, and Pepe Ratto led the way down the
+stream for a short distance and then into thick scrub that seemed to be
+part of wild life's natural sanctuary, so quiet it lay, so dense and
+undisturbed. After the first five minutes I was conscious of the forest in
+an aspect hitherto unknown to me; I was aware that only a man who knew the
+place intimately could venture to make a path through untrodden growths
+that were left in peace from year to year. It was no haphazard way, though
+bushes required careful watching, the double-thorned lotus being too
+common for comfort.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 735px;">
+<a name="m71" id="m71"></a>
+<img src="images/m71.jpg" width="735" height="640" alt="A NIGHT SCENE, MOGADOR" title="A NIGHT SCENE, MOGADOR" />
+<br /><span class="caption">A NIGHT SCENE, MOGADOR</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>My companion's eye, trained to the observation of the woodlands in every
+aspect, noted the stories told by the bushes, the gravel, and the sand
+with a rapidity that was amazing. Twenty-five years of tireless hunting
+have given Pepe Ratto an instinct that seems to supplement the ordinary
+human gifts of sight and hearing. Our forefathers, who hunted for their
+living, must have had this gift so developed, and while lying dormant in
+Europeans, whose range of sports is compassed by the life of cities and
+limited game preserves, it persists among the men who devote the best
+years of their life to pitting their intelligence against that of the
+brute creation. The odds are of course very much in favour of the human
+being, but we may not realise readily the extreme cunning of hunted
+animals. The keen sportsman, who rode by my side pointing out the track of
+boar or porcupine, showing where animals had been feeding, and judging how
+recently they had passed by difference in the marks too faint for my eyes
+to see, confessed that he had spent months on the track of a single
+animal, baffled over and over again, but getting back to his quarry
+because he had with him the mark of the feet as copied when he tracked it
+for the first time.</p>
+
+<p>"No boar has four feet absolutely identical with those of another boar,"
+he said, "so when once you have the prints the animal must leave the
+forest altogether and get off to the Atlas, or you will find him in the
+end. He may double repeatedly on his own tracks, he may join a herd and
+travel with them for days into the thick scrub, where the dogs are badly
+torn in following him, but he can never get away, and the hunter following
+his tracks learns to realise in the frenzied changes and manoeuvres of the
+beast pursued, its consciousness of his pursuit." In these matters the
+trained and confirmed hunter's heart grows cold as the physiologist's,
+while his senses wax more and more acute, and near to the level of those
+of his prey.</p>
+
+<p>That is but a small part of the hunter's lore. As his eyes and ears
+develop a power beyond the reach of dwellers of cities with stunted sight
+and spoiled hearing, he grows conscious of the great forest laws that rule
+the life of birds and beasts&mdash;laws yet unwritten in any language. He
+finds all living things pursuing their destiny by the light of customs
+that appeal as strongly to them as ours to us, and learns to know that the
+order and dignity of the lower forms of life are not less remarkable in
+their way than the phenomena associated with our own.</p>
+
+<p>To me, the whirring of a covey of sand-grouse or partridges could express
+little more than the swift passage of birds to a place of security. To the
+man who grew almost as a part of the forest, the movement was something
+well defined, clearly initiated, and the first step in a sequence that he
+could trace without hesitation. One part of the forest might be the same
+as another to the casual rider, or might at best vary in its purely
+picturesque quality. To the long trained eye, on the other hand, it was a
+place that would or would not be the haunt of certain beasts or birds at
+certain hours of the day, by reason of its aspect with regard to the sun,
+its soil, cover, proximity to the river or other source of water supply,
+its freedom from certain winds and accessibility to others, its distance
+from any of the tracks that led to the country beyond the forest and were
+frequented at certain seasons of the year. The trained hunter reads all
+this as in a book, but the most of us can do no more than recognise the
+writing when it has been pointed out to us.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 954px;">
+<a name="m72" id="m72"></a>
+<img src="images/m72.jpg" width="954" height="640" alt="HOUSE-TOPS, MOGADOR" title="HOUSE-TOPS, MOGADOR" />
+<br /><span class="caption">HOUSE-TOPS, MOGADOR</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>So it happened that my morning ride with the hardy hunter, whose
+achievements bulk next to those of the late Sir John Drummond Hay in the
+history of Moorish sport, had an interest that did not depend altogether
+upon the wild forest paths through which he led the way. He told me how
+at daybreak the pack of cross-bred hounds came from garden, copse, and
+woodland, racing to the steps of the Palm Tree House, and giving tongue
+lustily, as though they knew there was sport afoot. One or two grizzled
+huntsmen who had followed every track in the Argan Forest were waiting in
+the patio for his final instructions, and he told them of hoof prints that
+had revealed to his practised eye a "solitaire" boar of more than ordinary
+size. He had tracked it for more than three hours on the previous day,
+past the valley where our tents were set, and knew now where the lair was
+chosen.</p>
+
+<p>"He has been lying under an argan tree, one standing well away from the
+rest at a point where the stream turns sharply, about a mile from the old
+kasbah in the wood, and he has moved now to make a new lair. I have made a
+note of his feet in my book; he had been wallowing less than twenty-four
+hours before when I found him. To-morrow, when we hunt the beast I hope to
+track to-day, the pack will follow in charge of the huntsmen. They will be
+taken through the wood all the way, for it is necessary to avoid villages
+and cattle pasture when you have more than a score of savage dogs that
+have not been fed since three o'clock on the previous afternoon. They are
+by no means averse from helping themselves to a sheep or a goat at such
+times."</p>
+
+<p>We had ridden in single file through a part where the lotus, now a tree
+instead of a bush, snatched at us on either side, and the air was
+fragrant with broom, syringa, and lavender. Behind us the path closed and
+was hidden; before us it was too thick to see more than a few yards ahead.
+Here and there some bird would scold and slip away, with a flutter of
+feathers and a quiver of the leaves through which it fled; while ever
+present, though never in sight, the cuckoo followed us the whole day long.
+Suddenly and abruptly the path ended by the side of a stream where great
+oleanders spread their scarlet blossoms to the light, and kingfishers
+darted across the pools that had held tiny fish in waters left by the
+rainy season. When we pushed our horses to the brink the bushes on either
+hand showered down their blossoms as though to greet the first visitors to
+the rivulet's bank. Involuntarily we drew rein by the water's edge,
+acknowledging the splendour of the scene with a tribute of silence. If you
+have been in the Western Highlands of Scotland, and along the Levantine
+Riviera, and can imagine a combination of the most fascinating aspects of
+both districts, you have but to add to them the charm of silence and
+complete seclusion, the sense of virgin soil, and the joy of a perfect day
+in early summer, and then some faint picture of the scene may present
+itself. It remains with me always, and the mere mention of the Argan
+Forest brings it back.</p>
+
+<p>Pepe Ratto soon recovered himself.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 567px;">
+<a name="m73" id="m73"></a>
+<img src="images/m73.jpg" width="567" height="640" alt="SELLING GRAIN IN MOGADOR" title="SELLING GRAIN IN MOGADOR" />
+<br /><span class="caption">SELLING GRAIN IN MOGADOR</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"Yes," he said, in reply to my unspoken thoughts, "one seldom sees country
+like this anywhere else. But the boar went this way."</p>
+
+<p>So saying, the hunter uppermost again, he wheeled round, and we followed
+the stream quite slowly while he looked on either hand for signs of the
+large tusker. "We must find where he has settled," he continued. "Now the
+weather is getting so warm he will move to some place that is sandy and
+moist, within reach of the puddles he has chosen to wallow in. And he
+won't go far from this part, because the maize is not yet ripe."</p>
+
+<p>"Do they grow maize in this province?" I asked.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," replied the hunter. "I give the farmers the seed and they plant it,
+for a boar is as fond of green maize as a fox is of chickens." He paused
+and showed me the marks of a herd that had come to the water within the
+past two days to drink and wallow. While I could see the marks of many
+feet, he could tell me all about the herd, the approximate numbers, the
+ages, and the direction they were taking. Several times we dismounted, and
+he examined the banks very carefully until, at the fourth or fifth
+attempt, tracks that were certainly larger than any we had seen revealed
+the long-sought tusker.</p>
+
+<p>We went through the wood, the hunter bending over a trail lying too faint
+on the green carpet of the forest for me to follow. We moved over
+difficult ground, often under the blaze of the African sun, and, intent
+upon the pursuit, noted neither the heat nor the flight of time. For some
+two miles of the dense scrub, the boar had gone steadily enough until the
+ground opened into a clearing, where the soil was sandy and vegetation
+correspondingly light. Here at last the track moved in a circle.</p>
+
+<p>"See," said the hunter, a suspicion of enthusiasm in his tone, "he has
+been circling; that means he is looking for a lair. Stay here, if you
+will, with the horses while I follow him home." And in a minute he was out
+of sight.</p>
+
+<p>I waited patiently enough for what seemed a long time, trying to catch the
+undersong that thrilled through the forest, "the horns of elf-land faintly
+blowing," the hum such as bees at home make when late May sees the
+chestnut trees in flower. Here the song was a veritable psalm of life, in
+which every tree, bird, bush, and insect had its own part to play. It
+might have been a primeval forest; even the horses were grazing quietly,
+as though their spirits had succumbed to the solemn influences around us.
+The great god Pan himself could not have been far away, and I felt that he
+might have shown himself&mdash;that it was fitting indeed for him to appear in
+such a place and at such a season.</p>
+
+<p>The hunter came back silently as he had gone.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 722px;">
+<a name="m74" id="m74"></a>
+<img src="images/m74.jpg" width="722" height="640" alt="SELLING ORANGES" title="SELLING ORANGES" />
+<br /><span class="caption">SELLING ORANGES</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"All's well," he said as he remounted; "he is a fine fellow, and has his
+lair most comfortably placed. And you should have come with me, but your
+creaking English gaiters would have disturbed him, while my soft native
+ones let me go within thirty or forty yards of his new home in safety." My
+companion was wearing the Moorish gaiters of the sort his trackers
+used&mdash;things made of palmetto. When they follow on foot the trackers wear
+leather aprons too, in order to deaden the sound made by their passage
+through the resisting undergrowth.</p>
+
+<p>Then we rode back by another route, down paths that only an Arab horse
+could have hoped to negotiate, through densely wooded forest tracks that
+shut out the sun, but allowed its brightness to filter through a leafy
+sieve and work a pattern of dappled light and shadow on the grass, for our
+delectation. Most of the way had been made familiar in pursuit of some
+wild boar that would not stand and fight but hurried into the wildest and
+most difficult part of the forest, charging through every bush, however
+thick and thorny, in vain endeavour to shake off the pitiless pack. For my
+companion no corner of the forest lacked memories, some recent, some
+remote, but all concerned with the familiar trial of skill in which the
+boar had at last yielded up his pleasant life.</p>
+
+<p>We came quite suddenly upon the stream and past a riot of green bamboo and
+rushes, saw the kaid's house, more than ever gaunt and dishevelled by
+daylight, with the shining water in front, the wild garden beyond, and on
+the other bank the Susi muleteers sitting with the black slave in pleasant
+contemplation of the work Salam had done. Kaid M'Barak dozed on one of the
+boxes, nursing his beloved gun, while the horse equally dear to him stood
+quietly by, enjoying the lush grasses. Salam and the tracker were not far
+away, a rendezvous was appointed for the hunt, and Pepe Ratto, followed by
+his men, cantered off, leaving me to a delightful spell of rest, while
+Salam persuaded the muleteers to load the animals for the last few miles
+of the road between us and Mogador.</p>
+
+<p>Then, not without regret, I followed the pack-mules out of the valley,
+along the track leading to a broad path that has been worn by the feet of
+countless nomads, travelling with their flocks and herds, from the heat
+and drought of the extreme south to the markets that receive the trade of
+the country, or making haste from the turbulent north to escape the heavy
+hand of the oppressor.</p>
+
+<p>It was not pleasant to ride away from the forest, to see the great open
+spaces increasing and the trees yielding slowly but surely to the dwarf
+bushes that are the most significant feature of the southern country,
+outside the woodland and oases. I thought of the seaport town we were so
+soon to see&mdash;a place where the civilisation we had dispensed with happily
+enough for some weeks past would be forced into evidence once more, where
+the wild countrymen among whom we had lived at our ease would be seen only
+on market days, and the native Moors would have assimilated just enough of
+the European life and thought to make them uninteresting, somewhat
+vicious, and wholly ill-content.</p>
+
+<p>The forest was left behind, the land grew bare, and from a hill-top I saw
+the Atlantic some five or six miles away, a desert of sand stretching
+between. We were soon on these sands&mdash;light, shifting, and intensely
+hot&mdash;a Sahara in miniature save for the presence of the fragrant broom in
+brief patches here and there. It was difficult riding, and reduced the
+pace of the pack-mules to something under three miles an hour. As we
+ploughed across the sand I saw Suera itself, the Picture City of Sidi
+M'godol, a saint of more than ordinary repute, who gave the city the name
+by which it is known to Europe. Suera or Mogador is built on a little
+tongue of land, and threatens sea and sandhills with imposing
+fortifications that are quite worthless from a soldier's point of view.
+Though the sight of a town brought regretful recollection that the time of
+journeying was over, Mogador, it must be confessed, did much to atone for
+the inevitable. It looked like a mirage city that the sand and sun had
+combined to call into brief existence&mdash;Moorish from end to end, dazzling
+white in the strong sun of early summer, and offering some suggestion of
+social life in the flags that were fluttering from the roof-tops of
+Consuls' houses. A prosperous city, one would have thought, the emporium
+for the desert trade with Europe, and indeed it was all this for many
+years. Now it has fallen from its high commercial estate; French
+enterprise has cut into and diverted the caravan routes, seeking to turn
+all the desert traffic to Dakkar, the new Bizerta in Senegal, or to the
+Algerian coast.</p>
+
+<p>Salam and M'Barak praised Sidi M'godol, whose zowia lay plainly to be seen
+below the Marrakesh gate; the Susi muleteers, the boy, and the slave
+renewed their Shilha songs, thinking doubtless of the store of dollars
+awaiting them; but I could not conquer my regrets, though I was properly
+obliged to Sidi M'godol for bringing me in safety to his long home. Just
+before us a caravan from the South was pushing its way to the gates. The
+ungainly camels, seeing a resting-place before them, had plucked up their
+spirits and were shuffling along at a pace their drivers could hardly have
+enforced on the previous day. We caught them up, and the leaders explained
+that they were coming in from Tindouf in the Draa country, a place
+unexplored as yet by Europeans. They had suffered badly from lack of water
+on the way, and confirmed the news that the Bedouins had brought, of a
+drought unparalleled in the memory of living man. Sociable fellows all,
+full of contentment, pluck, and endurance, they lightened the last hour
+upon a tedious road.</p>
+
+<p>At length we reached the strip of herbage that divides the desert from the
+town, a vegetable garden big enough to supply the needs of the Picture
+City, and full of artichokes, asparagus, egg plants, sage, and thyme. The
+patient labour of many generations had gone to reclaim this little patch
+from the surrounding waste.</p>
+
+<p>We passed the graveyard of the Protestants and Catholics, a retired place
+that pleaded eloquently in its peacefulness for the last long rest that
+awaits all mortal travellers. Much care had made it less a cemetery than a
+garden, and it literally glowed and blazed with flowers&mdash;roses, geraniums,
+verbena, and nasturtiums being most in evidence. A kindly priest of the
+order of St. Francis invited us to rest, and enjoy the colour and
+fragrance of his lovingly-tended oasis. And while we rested, he talked
+briefly of his work in the town, and asked me of our journey. The place
+reminded me strongly of a garden belonging to another Brotherhood of the
+Roman Catholic Church, and set at Capernaum on the Sea of Galilee, where,
+a few years ago, I saw the monks labouring among their flowers, with
+results no less happy than I found here.</p>
+
+<p>After a brief rest we rode along the beach towards the city gate. Just
+outside, the camels had come to a halt and some town traders had gathered
+round the Bedouins to inquire the price of the goods brought from the
+interior, in anticipation of the morrow's market. Under the frowning
+archway of the water-port, where True Believers of the official class sit
+in receipt of custom, I felt the town's cobbled road under foot, and the
+breath of the trade-winds blowing in from the Atlantic. Then I knew that
+Sunset Land was behind me, my journey at an end.</p>
+
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_53_53" id="Footnote_53_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_53_53"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> Mogador, called by the Moors "Suera," <i>i.e.</i> "The Picture."</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>THE END</h2>
+
+
+<p class="center"><i>Printed by</i> R. &amp; R. <span class="smcap">Clark, Limited,</span> <i>Edinburgh</i>.</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Morocco, by S.L. Bensusan
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+</body>
+</html>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Morocco, by S.L. Bensusan
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Morocco
+
+Author: S.L. Bensusan
+
+Illustrator: A.S. Forrest
+
+Release Date: August 13, 2005 [EBook #16526]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MOROCCO ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Melissa Er-Raqabi and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net.
+
+
+
+
+
+MOROCCO
+
+PAINTED BY
+A.S. FORREST
+
+DESCRIBED BY
+S.L. BENSUSAN
+
+[Illustration: Stamp]
+
+LONDON
+ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK
+1904
+
+[Illustration: IN DJEDIDA]
+
+Transcriber's Note:
+
+The following apparent printer's errors were changed:
+  from appearonce to appearance
+  from everthing to everything
+  from kindgom to kingdom
+  from "Tuesday market. to "Tuesday market."
+Other inconsistencies in spelling have been left as in the original.
+
+
+
+
+"As I have felt, so I have written."
+
+EOTHEN.
+
+
+
+
+Preface
+
+
+It has been a pleasant task to recall the little journey set out in the
+following pages, but the writer can hardly escape the thought that the
+title of the book promises more than he has been able to perform. While
+the real Morocco remains a half-known land to-day, this book does not take
+the traveller from the highroad. The mere idler, the wayfarer to whom
+Morocco is no more than one of many places of pilgrimage, must needs deal
+modestly with his task, even though modesty be an unfashionable virtue;
+and the painstaking folk who pass through this world pelting one another
+with hard facts will find here but little to add to their store of
+ammunition. This appeal is of set purpose a limited one, made to the few
+who are content to travel for the sake of the pleasures of the road, free
+from the comforts that beset them at home, and free also from the popular
+belief that their city, religion, morals, and social laws are the best in
+the world. The qualifications that fit a man to make money and acquire the
+means for modern travel are often fatal to proper appreciation of the
+unfamiliar world he proposes to visit. To restore the balance of things,
+travel agents and other far-seeing folks have contrived to inflict upon
+most countries within the tourist's reach all the modern conveniences by
+which he lives and thrives. So soon as civilising missions and
+missionaries have pegged out their claims, even the desert is deemed
+incomplete without a modern hotel or two, fitted with electric light,
+monstrous tariff, and served by a crowd of debased guides. In the wake of
+these improvements the tourist follows, finds all the essentials of the
+life he left at home, and, knowing nothing of the life he came to see, has
+no regrets. So from Algiers, Tunis, Cairo--ay, even from Jerusalem itself,
+all suggestion of great history has passed, and one hears among ruins,
+once venerable, the globe-trotter's cry of praise. "Hail Cook," he cries,
+as he seizes the coupons that unveil Isis and read the riddle of the
+Sphinx, "those about to tour salute thee."
+
+But of the great procession that steams past Gibraltar, heavily armed with
+assurance and circular tickets, few favour Morocco at all, and the most of
+these few go no farther than Tangier. Once there, they descend upon some
+modern hotel, often with no more than twenty-four hours in which to master
+the secrets of Sunset Land.
+
+After dinner a few of the bolder spirits among the men take counsel of a
+guide, who leads them to the Moorish coffee-house by the great Mosque.
+There they listen to the music of ghaitah and gimbri, pay a peseta for a
+cup of indifferent coffee, and buy an unmusical instrument or two for many
+times the proper price. Thereafter they retire to their hotel to consider
+how fancy can best embellish the bare facts of the evening's amusement,
+while the True Believers of the coffee-house (debased in the eyes of all
+other Believers, and, somewhat, too, in fact, by reason of their contact
+with the Infidel) gather up the pesetas, curse the Unbeliever and his
+shameless relations, and praise Allah the One who, even in these
+degenerate days, sends them a profit.
+
+On the following morning the tourists ride on mules or donkeys to the
+showplaces of Tangier, followed by scores of beggar boys. The ladies are
+shown over some hareem that they would enter less eagerly did they but
+know the exact status of the odalisques hired to meet them. One and all
+troop to the bazaars, where crafty men sit in receipt of custom and
+relieve the Nazarene of the money whose value he does not know. Lunch
+follows, and then the ship's siren summons the travellers away from
+Morocco, to speak and write with authority for all time of the country and
+its problems.
+
+With these facts well in mind, it seemed best for me to let the pictures
+suffice for Tangier, and to choose for the text one road and one city. For
+if the truth be told there is little more than a single path to all the
+goals that the undisguised European may reach.
+
+Morocco does not change save by compulsion, and there is no area of
+European influence below Tangier. Knowing one highway well you know
+something of all; consequently whether Fez, Mequinez, Wazzan, or Marrakesh
+be the objective, the travel story does not vary greatly. But to-day,
+Marrakusha-al-Hamra, Red Marrakesh, is the most African of all cities in
+Morocco, and seemed therefore best suited to the purpose of this book.
+Moreover, at the time when this journey was made, Bu Hamara was holding
+the approaches to Fez, and neither Mequinez nor Wazzan was in a mood to
+receive strangers.
+
+So it falls out that the record of some two or three hundred miles of
+inland travel is all that awaits the reader here. In time to come, when
+Morocco has been purged of its offences of simplicity and primitiveness,
+the tourist shall accomplish in forty-eight hours the journey that
+demanded more than a month of last year's spring. For Sunset Land has no
+railway lines, nor can it boast--beyond the narrow limits of
+Tangier--telegraphs, telephones, electric light, modern hotels, or any of
+the other delights upon which the pampered traveller depends. It is as a
+primeval forest in the hour before the dawn. When the sun of France
+penetrates pacifically to all its hidden places, the forest will wake to a
+new life. Strange birds of bright plumage, called in Europe _gens
+d'armes_, will displace the storks upon the battlements of its ancient
+towns, the _commis voyageur_ will appear where wild boar and hyaena now
+travel in comparative peace, the wild cat (_felis Throgmortonensis_) will
+arise from all mineralised districts. Arab and Berber will disappear
+slowly from the Moroccan forest as the lions have done before them, and in
+the place of their _douars_ and _ksor_ there shall be a multitude of small
+towns laid out with mathematical precision, reached by rail, afflicted
+with modern improvements, and partly filled with Frenchmen who strive to
+drown in the cafe their sorrow at being so far away from home. The real
+Morocco is so lacking in all the conveniences that would commend it to
+wealthy travellers that the writer feels some apology is due for the
+appearance of his short story of an almost unknown country in so fine a
+setting. Surely a simple tale of Sunset Land was never seen in such
+splendid guise before, and will not be seen again until, with past
+redeemed and forgotten, future assured, and civilisation modernised,
+Morocco ceases to be what it is to-day.
+
+S.L. BENSUSAN.
+
+_July 1904._
+
+
+
+
+Contents
+
+CHAPTER I                                 page
+By Cape Spartel                              3
+
+CHAPTER II
+From Tangier to Djedida                     21
+
+CHAPTER III
+On the Moorish Road                         41
+
+CHAPTER IV
+To the Gates of Marrakesh                   57
+
+CHAPTER V
+In Red Marrakesh                            77
+
+CHAPTER VI
+Round about Marrakesh                      101
+
+CHAPTER VII
+The Slave Market at Marrakesh              121
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+Green Tea and Politics                     139
+
+CHAPTER IX
+Through a Southern Province                159
+
+CHAPTER X
+"Sons of Lions"                            179
+
+CHAPTER XI
+In the Argan Forest                        199
+
+CHAPTER XII
+To the Gate of the Picture City            217
+
+
+
+
+List of Illustrations
+
+ 1. In Djedida                           _Frontispiece_
+                                            FACING PAGE
+ 2. A Shepherd, Cape Spartel                          2
+ 3. The Courtyard of the Lighthouse, Cape Spartel     4
+ 4. A Street, Tangier                                 6
+ 5. In Tangier                                        8
+ 6. A Street in Tangier                              10
+ 7. A Guide, Tangier                                 12
+ 8. The Road to the Kasbah, Tangier                  14
+ 9. Head of a Boy from Mediunah                      16
+10. The Goatherd from Mediunah                       18
+11. Old Buildings, Tangier                           20
+12. Moorish House, Cape Spartel                      22
+13. A Patriarch                                      24
+14. Pilgrims on a Steamer                            26
+15. The Hour of Sale                                 28
+16. Evening, Magazan                                 30
+17. Sunset off the Coast                             32
+18. A Veranda at Magazan                             34
+19. A Blacksmith's Shop                              36
+20. A Saint's Tomb                                   40
+21. Near a Well in the Country                       42
+22. Near a Well in the Town                          44
+23. Moorish Woman and Child                          46
+24. Evening on the Plains                            48
+25. Travellers by Night                              52
+26. The R'Kass                                       56
+27. A Traveller on the Plains                        58
+28. The Mid-day Halt                                 60
+29. On Guard                                         64
+30. A Village at Dukala                              68
+31. The Approach to Marrakesh                        72
+32. Date Palms near Marrakesh                        76
+33. On the Road to Marrakesh                         80
+34. A Minstrel                                       84
+35. One of the City Gates                            86
+36. A Blind Beggar                                   90
+37. A Wandering Minstrel                             94
+38. The Roofs of Marrakesh                          100
+39. A Gateway, Marrakesh                            104
+40. A Courtyard, Marrakesh                          108
+41. A Well in Marrakesh                             112
+42. A Bazaar, Marrakesh                             114
+43. A Brickfield, Marrakesh                         116
+44. A Mosque, Marrakesh                             120
+45. A Water Seller, Marrakesh                       124
+46. On the Road to the Sok el Abeed                 126
+47. The Slave Market                                128
+48. Dilals in the Slave Market                      132
+49. On the House-top, Marrakesh                     138
+50. A House Interior, Marrakesh                     142
+51. A Glimpse of the Atlas Mountains                146
+52. A Marrakshi                                     150
+53. Street in Marrakesh                             154
+54. An Arab Steed                                   158
+55. A Young Marrakshi                               162
+56. Fruit Market, Marrakesh                         164
+57. In the Fandak                                   166
+58. The Jama'a Effina                               170
+59. Evening in Camp                                 178
+60. Preparing Supper                                182
+61. A Goatherd                                      186
+62. Coming from the Mosque, Hanchen                 190
+63. Evening at Hanchen                              198
+64. On the Road to Argan Forest                     202
+65. The Snake Charmer                               204
+66. In Camp                                         206
+67. A Countryman                                    208
+68. Moonlight                                       212
+69. A Moorish Girl                                  216
+70. A Narrow Street in Mogador                      218
+71. Night Scene, Mogador                            220
+72. House Tops, Mogador                             222
+73. Selling Grain in Mogador                        224
+74. Selling Oranges                                 226
+
+_The Illustrations in this volume have been engraved in England by the
+Hentschel Colourtype Process._
+
+
+
+
+BY CAPE SPARTEL
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: A SHEPHERD, CAPE SPARTEL]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+BY CAPE SPARTEL
+
+    Over the meadows that blossom and wither
+      Rings but the note of a sea-bird's song,
+    Only the sun and the rain come hither
+          All year long.
+
+    _The Deserted Garden._
+
+
+Before us the Atlantic rolls to the verge of the "tideless, dolorous
+inland sea." In the little bay lying between Morocco's solitary lighthouse
+and the famous Caves of Spartel, the waters shine in colours that recall
+in turn the emerald, the sapphire, and the opal. There is just enough
+breeze to raise a fine spray as the baby waves reach the rocks, and to
+fill the sails of one or two tiny vessels speeding toward the coast of
+Spain. There is just enough sun to warm the water in the pools to a point
+that makes bathing the most desirable mid-day pastime, and over land and
+sea a solemn sense of peace is brooding. From where the tents are set no
+other human habitation is in sight. A great spur of rock, with the green
+and scarlet of cactus sprawling over it at will, shuts off lighthouse and
+telegraph station, while the towering hills above hide the village of
+Mediunah, whence our supplies are brought each day at dawn and
+sun-setting.
+
+Two fishermen, clinging to the steep side of the rock, cast their lines
+into the water. They are from the hills, and as far removed from our
+twentieth century as their prototypes who were fishing in the sparkling
+blue not so very far away when, the world being young, Theocritus passed
+and gave them immortality. In the valley to the right, the atmosphere of
+the Sicilian Idylls is preserved by two half-clad goatherds who have
+brought their flock to pasture from hillside Mediunah, in whose pens they
+are kept safe from thieves at night. As though he were a reincarnation of
+Daphnis or Menalcas, one of the brown-skinned boys leans over a little
+promontory and plays a tuneless ghaitah, while his companion, a younger
+lad, gives his eyes to the flock and his ears to the music. The last rains
+of this favoured land's brief winter have passed; beyond the plateau the
+sun has called flowers to life in every nook and cranny. Soon the light
+will grow too strong and blinding, the flowers will fade beneath it, the
+shepherds will seek the shade, but in these glad March days there is no
+suggestion of the intolerable heat to come.
+
+[Illustration: THE COURT-YARD OF THE LIGHTHOUSE, CAPE SPARTEL]
+
+On the plot of level ground that Nature herself has set in position for a
+camp, the tents are pitched. Two hold the impedimenta of travel; in the
+third Salam and his assistant work in leisurely fashion, as befits the
+time and place. Tangier lies no more than twelve miles away, over a
+road that must be deemed uncommonly good for Morocco, but I have chosen to
+live in camp for a week or two in this remote place, in preparation for a
+journey to the southern country. At first the tents were the cynosure of
+native eyes. Mediunah came down from its fastness among the hilltops to
+investigate discreetly from secure corners, prepared for flight so soon as
+occasion demanded it, if not before. Happily Salam's keen glance pierced
+the cover of the advance-guard and reassured one and all. Confidence
+established, the village agreed after much solemn debate to supply eggs,
+chickens, milk, and vegetables at prices doubtless in excess of those
+prevailing in the country markets, but quite low enough for Europeans.
+
+This little corner of the world, close to the meeting of the Atlantic and
+Mediterranean waters, epitomises in its own quiet fashion the story of the
+land's decay. Now it is a place of wild bees and wilder birds, of flowers
+and bushes that live fragrant untended lives, seen by few and appreciated
+by none. It is a spot so far removed from human care that I have seen, a
+few yards from the tents, fresh tracks made by the wild boar as he has
+rooted o' nights; and once, as I sat looking out over the water when the
+rest of the camp was asleep, a dark shadow passed, not fifty yards
+distant, going head to wind up the hill, and I knew it for "tusker"
+wending his way to the village gardens, where the maize was green.
+
+Yet the district has not always been solitary. Where now the tents are
+pitched, there was an orange grove in the days when Mulai Abd er Rahman
+ruled at Fez and Marrakesh, and then Mediunah boasted quite a thriving
+connection with the coasts of Portugal and Spain. The little bay wherein
+one is accustomed to swim or plash about at noonday, then sheltered
+furtive sailing-boats from the sleepy eyes of Moorish authority, and a
+profitable smuggling connection was maintained with the Spanish villages
+between Algeciras and Tarifa Point. Beyond the rocky caverns, where
+patient countrymen still quarry for millstones, a bare coast-line leads to
+the spot where legend places the Gardens of the Hesperides; indeed, the
+millstone quarries are said to be the original Caves of Hercules, and the
+golden fruit the hero won flourished, we are assured, not far away. Small
+wonder then that the place has an indefinable quality of enchantment that
+even the twentieth century cannot quite efface.
+
+[Illustration: A STREET, TANGIER]
+
+Life in camp is exquisitely simple. We rise with the sun. If in the raw
+morning hours a donkey brays, the men are very much perturbed, for they
+know that the poor beast has seen a djin. They will remain ill-at-ease
+until, somewhere in the heights where Mediunah is preparing for another
+day, a cock crows. This is a satisfactory omen, atoning for the donkey's
+performance. A cock only crows when he sees an angel, and, if there are
+angels abroad, the ill intentions of the djinoon will be upset. When I was
+travelling in the country some few years ago, it chanced one night that
+the heavens were full of shooting stars. My camp attendants ceased work at
+once. Satan and all his host were assailing Paradise, they said, and we
+were spectators of heaven's artillery making counter-attack upon the
+djinoon.[1] The wandering meteors passed, the fixed stars shone out with
+such a splendour as we may not hope to see in these western islands, and
+the followers of the great Camel Driver gave thanks and praise to His
+Master Allah, who had conquered the powers of darkness once again.
+
+While I enjoy a morning stroll over the hills, or a plunge in the sea,
+Salam, squatting at the edge of the cooking tent behind two small charcoal
+fires, prepares the breakfast. He has the true wayfarer's gift that
+enables a man to cook his food in defiance of wind or weather. Some wisps
+of straw and charcoal are arranged in a little hole scooped out of the
+ground, a match is struck, the bellows are called into play, and the fire
+is an accomplished fact. The kettle sings as cheerfully as the cicadas in
+the tree tops, eggs are made into what Salam calls a "marmalade," in spite
+of my oft-repeated assurance that he means omelette, porridge is cooked
+and served with new milk that has been carefully strained and boiled. For
+bread we have the flat brown loaves of Mediunah, and they are better than
+they look--ill-made indeed, but vastly more nutritious than the pretty
+emasculated products of our modern bakeries.
+
+Bargain and sale are concluded before the morning walk is over. The
+village folk send a deputation carrying baskets of eggs and charcoal, with
+earthen jars of milk or butter, fresh vegetables, and live chickens. I
+stayed one morning to watch the procedure.
+
+The eldest of the party, a woman who seems to be eighty and is probably
+still on the sunny side of fifty, comes slowly forward to where Salam sits
+aloof, dignified and difficult to approach. He has been watching her out
+of one corner of an eye, but feigns to be quite unconscious of her
+presence. He and she know that we want supplies and must have them from
+the village, but the facts of the case have nothing to do with the
+conventions of trading in Sunset Land.
+
+"The Peace of the Prophet on all True Believers. I have brought food from
+Mediunah," says the elderly advance-guard, by way of opening the campaign.
+
+"Allah is indeed merciful, O my Aunt," responds Salam with lofty
+irrelevance. Then follows a prolonged pause, somewhat trying, I apprehend,
+to Aunt, and struggling with a yawn Salam says at length, "I will see what
+you would sell."
+
+She beckons the others, and they lay their goods at our steward's feet.
+Salam turns his head away meanwhile, and looks out across the Atlantic as
+though anxious to assure himself about the state of agriculture in Spain.
+At last he wheels about, and with a rapid glance full of contempt surveys
+the village produce. He has a cheapening eye.
+
+"How much?" he asks sternly.
+
+[Illustration: IN TANGIER]
+
+Item by item the old dame prices the goods. The little group of young
+married women, with babies tied in a bundle behind them, or half-naked
+children clinging to their loin-cloths, nods approval. But Salam's face is
+a study. In place of contemptuous indifference there is now rising anger,
+terrible to behold. His brows are knitted, his eyes flame, his beard seems
+to bristle with rage. The tale of prices is hardly told before, with a
+series of rapid movements, he has tied every bundle up, and is thrusting
+the good things back into the hands of their owners. His vocabulary is
+strained to its fullest extent; he stands up, and with outspread hands
+denounces Mediunah and all its ways. The men of the village are cowards;
+the women have no shame. Their parents were outcasts. They have no fear of
+the Prophet who bade True Believers deal fairly with the stranger within
+their gates. In a year at most, perhaps sooner, "Our Master the Sultan"
+will assuredly be among these people who shame Al Moghreb,[2] he will eat
+them up, dogs will make merry among their graves, and their souls will go
+down to the pit. In short, everything is too dear.
+
+Only the little children are frightened by this outburst, which is no more
+than a prelude to bargaining. The women extol and Salam decries the goods
+on offer; both praise Allah. Salam assures them that the country of the
+"Ingliz" would be ruined if its inhabitants had to pay the prices they ask
+for such goods as they have to sell. He will see his master starve by
+inches, he will urge him to return to Tangier and eat there at a fair
+price, before he will agree to sacrifices hitherto unheard of in Sunset
+Land. This bargaining proceeds for a quarter of an hour without
+intermission, and by then the natives have brought their prices down and
+Salam has brought his up. Finally the money is paid in Spanish pesetas or
+Moorish quarters, and carefully examined by the simple folk, who retire to
+their ancestral hills, once more praising Allah who sends custom. Salam,
+his task accomplished, complains that the villagers have robbed us
+shamefully, but a faint twinkle in his eye suggests that he means less
+than he says.
+
+Breakfast over, I seek a hillside cave where there is a double gift of
+shade and a wonderful view, content to watch the pageantry of the morning
+hours and dream of hard work. Only the goatherds and their charges suggest
+that the district is inhabited, unless some vessel passing on its way to
+or from the southern coast can be seen communicating with the signal
+station round the bend of the rocks. There a kindly old Scot lives, with
+his Spanish wife and little children, in comparative isolation, from the
+beginning to the end of the year.
+
+"I've almost forgotten my own tongue," he said to me one evening when he
+came down to the camp to smoke the pipe of peace and tell of the fur and
+feather that pass in winter time. It was on a day when a great flight of
+wild geese had been seen winging its way to the unknown South, and the
+procession had fired the sporting instinct in one of us at least.
+
+[Illustration: A STREET IN TANGIER]
+
+Mid-day, or a little later, finds Salam in charge of a light meal, and,
+that discussed, one may idle in the shade until the sun is well on the way
+to the West. Then books and papers are laid aside. We set out for a tramp,
+or saddle the horses and ride for an hour or so in the direction of the
+mountain, an unexplored Riviera of bewildering and varied loveliness. The
+way lies through an avenue of cork trees, past which the great hills slope
+seaward, clothed with evergreen oak and heath, and a species of sundew,
+with here and there yellow broom, gum cistus, and an unfamiliar plant with
+blue flowers. Trees and shrubs fight for light and air, the fittest
+survive and thrive, sheltering little birds from the keen-eyed, quivering
+hawks above them. The road makes me think of what the French Mediterranean
+littoral must have been before it was dotted over with countless vulgar
+villas, covered with trees and shrubs that are not indigenous to the soil,
+and tortured into trim gardens that might have strayed from a prosperous
+suburb of London or Paris. Save a few charcoal burners, or stray women
+bent almost double beneath the load of wood they have gathered for some
+village on the hills, we see nobody. These evening rides are made into a
+country as deserted as the plateau that holds the camp, for the mountain
+houses of wealthy residents are half a dozen miles nearer Tangier.[3]
+
+On other evenings the road chosen lies in the direction of the Caves of
+Hercules, where the samphire grows neglected, and wild ferns thrive in
+unexpected places. I remember once scaring noisy seabirds from what seemed
+to be a corpse, and how angrily the gorged, reluctant creatures rose from
+what proved to be the body of a stranded porpoise, that tainted the air
+for fifty yards around. On another evening a storm broke suddenly.
+Somewhere in the centre rose a sand column that seemed to tell, in its
+brief moment of existence, the secret of the origin of the djinoon that
+roam at will through Eastern legendary lore.
+
+It is always necessary to keep a careful eye upon the sun during these
+excursions past the caves. The light fails with the rapidity associated
+with all the African countries, tropical and semi-tropical alike. A sudden
+sinking, as though the sun had fallen over the edge of the world, a brief
+after-glow, a change from gold to violet, and violet to grey, a chill in
+the air, and the night has fallen. Then there is a hurried scamper across
+sand, over rocks and past boulders, before the path that stretches in a
+faint fading line becomes wholly obliterated. In such a place as this one
+might wander for hours within a quarter of a mile of camp, and then only
+find the road by lucky accident, particularly if the senses have been
+blunted by very long residence in the heart of European civilisation.
+
+[Illustration: A GUIDE, TANGIER]
+
+I think that dinner brings the most enjoyable hour of the day. Work is
+over, the sights of sea and shore have been enjoyed, we have taken
+exercise in plenty. Salam and his helpers having dined, the kitchen tent
+becomes the scene of an animated conversation that one hears without
+understanding. Two or three old headmen, finding their way in the dark
+like cats, have come down from Mediunah to chat with Salam and the town
+Moor. The social instinct pervades Morocco. On the plains of R'hamna,
+where fandaks are unknown and even the n'zalas[4] are few and far between;
+in the fertile lands of Dukala, Shiadma, and Haha; in M'touga, on whose
+broad plains the finest Arab horses are reared and thrive,--I have found
+this instinct predominant. As soon as the evening meal is over, the
+headmen of the nearest village come to the edge of the tent, remove their
+slippers, praise God, and ask for news of the world without. It may be
+that they are going to rob the strangers in the price of food for mules
+and horses, or even over the tent supplies. It may be that they would cut
+the throats of all foreign wayfarers quite cheerfully, if the job could be
+accomplished without fear of reprisals. It is certain that they despise
+them for Unbelievers, _i.e._ Christians or Jews, condemned to the pit; but
+in spite of all considerations they must have news of the outer world.
+
+When the moon comes out and the Great Bear constellation is shining above
+our heads as though its sole duty in heaven were to light the camp, there
+is a strong temptation to ramble. I am always sure that I can find the
+track, or that Salam will be within hail should it be lost. How quickly
+the tents pass out of sight. The path to the hills lies by way of little
+pools where the frogs have a croaking chorus that Aristophanes might have
+envied. On the approach of strange footsteps they hurry off the flat rocks
+by the pool, and one hears a musical plash as they reach water. Very soon
+the silence is resumed, and presently becomes so oppressive that it is a
+relief to turn again and see our modest lights twinkling as though in
+welcome.
+
+It is hopeless to wait for wild boar now. One or two pariah dogs, hailing
+from nowhere, have been attracted to the camp, Salam has given them the
+waste food, and they have installed themselves as our protectors, whether
+out of a feeling of gratitude or in hope of favours to come I cannot tell,
+but probably from a mixture of wise motives. They are alert, savage
+beasts, of a hopelessly mixed breed, but no wild boar will come rooting
+near the camp now, nor will any thief, however light-footed, yield to the
+temptation our tents afford.
+
+[Illustration: THE ROAD TO THE KASBAH, TANGIER]
+
+We have but one visitor after the last curtain has been drawn, a strange
+bird with a harsh yet melancholy note, that reminds me of the night-jar of
+the fen lands in our own country. The hills make a semicircle round the
+camp, and the visitor seems to arrive at the corner nearest Spartel about
+one o'clock in the morning. It cries persistently awhile, and then flies
+to the middle of the semicircle, just at the back of the tents, where the
+note is very weird and distinct. Finally it goes to the other horn of the
+crescent and resumes the call--this time, happily, a much more subdued
+affair. What is it? Why does it come to complain to the silence night
+after night? One of the men says it is a djin, and wants to go back to
+Tangier, but Salam, whose loyalty outweighs his fears, declares that
+even though it be indeed a devil and eager to devour us, it cannot come
+within the charmed range of my revolver. Hence its regret, expressed so
+unpleasantly. I have had to confess to Salam that I have no proof that he
+is wrong.
+
+Now and again in the afternoon the tribesmen call to one another from the
+hill tops. They possess an extraordinary power of carrying their voices
+over a space that no European could span. I wonder whether the real secret
+of the powers ascribed to the half-civilised tribes of Africa has its
+origin in this gift. Certain it is that news passes from village to
+village across the hills, and that no courier can keep pace with it. In
+this way rumours of great events travel from one end of the Dark Continent
+to the other, and if the tales told me of the passage of news from South
+to North Africa during the recent war were not so extravagant as they seem
+at first hearing, I would set them down here, well assured that they would
+startle if they could not convince. In the south of Morocco, during the
+latter days of my journey, men spoke with quiet conviction of the doings
+of Sultan and Pretender in the North, just as though Morocco possessed a
+train or telegraph service, or a native newspaper. It does not seem
+unreasonable that, while the deserts and great rolling plains have
+extended men's vision to a point quite outside the comprehension of
+Europe, other senses may be at least equally stimulated by a life we
+Europeans shall: never know intimately. Perhaps the fear of believing too
+readily makes us unduly sceptical, and inclined to forget that our
+philosophy cannot compass one of the many mysteries that lie at our door.
+
+If any proof were required that Morocco in all its internal disputes is
+strictly tribal, our safe residence here would supply one. On the other
+side of Tangier, over in the direction of Tetuan, the tribes are out and
+the roads are impassable. Europeans are forbidden to ride by way of Angera
+to Tetuan. Even a Minister, the representative of a great European Power,
+was warned by old Hadj Mohammed Torres, the resident Secretary for Foreign
+Affairs, that the Moorish Administration would not hold itself responsible
+for his safety if he persisted in his intention to go hunting among the
+hills. And here we remain unmolested day after day, while the headmen of
+the Mediunah tribe discuss with perfect tranquillity the future of the
+Pretender's rebellion, or allude cheerfully to the time when, the Jehad
+(Holy War) being proclaimed, the Moslems will be permitted to cut the
+throats of all the Unbelievers who trouble the Moghreb. In the fatalism of
+our neighbours lies our safety. If Allah so wills, never a Nazarene will
+escape the more painful road to eternal fire; if it is written otherwise,
+Nazarene torment will be posthumous. They do not know, nor, in times when
+the land is preparing for early harvest, do they greatly care, what or
+when the end may be. Your wise Moor waits to gather in his corn and see it
+safely hoarded in the clay-lined and covered pits called mat'moras. That
+work over, he is ready and willing, nay, he is even anxious, to fight, and
+if no cause of quarrel is to be found he will make one.
+
+[Illustration: HEAD OF A BOY FROM MEDIUNA]
+
+Every year or two a party of travellers settles on this plateau, says
+the headman of Mediunah. From him I hear of a fellow writer from England
+who was camped here six years ago.[5] Travellers stay sometimes for three
+or four days, sometimes for as many weeks, and he has been told by men who
+have come many miles from distant markets, that the Nazarenes are to be
+found here and there throughout the Moroccan highlands towards the close
+of the season of the winter rains. Clearly their own land is not a very
+desirable abiding place, or they have sinned against the law, or their
+Sultan has confiscated their worldly goods, remarks the headman. My
+suggestion that other causes than these may have been at work, yields no
+more than an assertion that all things are possible, if Allah wills them.
+It is his polite method of expressing reluctance to believe everything he
+is told.
+
+From time to time, when we are taking our meals in the open air, I see the
+shepherd boys staring at us from a respectful distance. To them we must
+seem no better than savages. In the first place, we sit on chairs and not
+on the ground. We cut our bread, which, as every True Believer knows, is a
+wicked act and defies Providence, since bread is from Allah and may be
+broken with the hand but never touched with a knife. Then we do not know
+how to eat with our fingers, but use knives and forks and spoons that,
+after mere washing, are common property. We do not have water poured out
+over our fingers before the meal begins,--the preliminary wash in the tent
+is invisible and does not count,--and we do not say "Bismillah" before we
+start eating. We are just heathens, they must say to themselves. Our daily
+bathing seems to puzzle them greatly. I do not notice that little Larbi or
+his brother Kasem ever tempt the sea to wash or drown them. Yet they look
+healthy enough, and are full of dignity. You may offer them fruit or
+sweetmeats or anything tempting that may be on the table, and they will
+refuse it. I fancy they regard the invitation to partake of Nazarene's
+food as a piece of impertinence, only excusable because Nazarenes are mad.
+
+The days slip away from the plateau below Mediunah. March has yielded
+place to April. To-morrow the pack-mules will be here at sunrise. In the
+afternoon, when the cool hours approach, camp will be struck, and we shall
+ride down the avenue of cork trees for the last time on the way to "Tanjah
+of the Nazarenes," whence, at the week end, the boat will carry us to some
+Atlantic port, there to begin a longer journey.
+
+[Illustration: THE GOATHERD FROM MEDIUNA]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] "Moreover, we have decked the lower heaven with lamps, and have made
+them for pelting the devils."--Al Koran; Sura, "The Kingdom."
+
+[2] "The Far West", the native name for Morocco.
+
+[3] One of the most charming of these houses is "Aidonia," belonging to
+Mr. Ion Perdicaris. He was seized there by the brigand Rais Uli in May
+last.
+
+[4] Shelters provided by the Government for travellers.
+
+[5] A.J. Dawson, whose novels dealing with Morocco are full of rare charm
+and distinction.
+
+
+
+
+FROM TANGIER TO DJEDIDA
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: OLD BUILDINGS, TANGIER]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+FROM TANGIER TO DJEDIDA
+
+    Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote
+    The droghte of March hath perced to the roote
+
+           *       *       *       *       *
+
+    Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages.
+
+    _The Canterbury Tales._
+
+We have rounded the north-west corner of Africa, exchanged farewell
+signals with our friend on Lloyd's station,--who must now return to his
+Spanish and Arabic or live a silent life,--and I have taken a last look
+through field-glasses at the plateau that held our little camp. Since then
+we have raced the light for a glimpse of El Araish, where the Gardens of
+the Hesperides were set by people of old time. The sun was too swift in
+its decline; one caught little more than an outline of the white city,
+with the minarets of its mosques that seemed to pierce the sky, and flags
+flying in the breeze on the flat roofs of its Consuls' houses. The river
+Lekkus showed up whitely on the eastern side, a rising wind having whipped
+its waters into foam, and driven the light coasting vessels out to sea. So
+much I saw from the good ship _Zweena's_ upper deck, and then evening
+fell, as though to hide from me the secret of the gardens where the
+Golden Apples grew.
+
+Alas, that modern knowledge should have destroyed all faith in old legend!
+The fabled fruits of the Hesperides turn to oranges in the hands of our
+wise men, the death-dealing dragon becomes Wad Lekkus itself, so ready
+even to-day to snarl and roar at the bidding of the wind that comes up out
+of the south-west, and the dusky maidens of surpassing loveliness are no
+more than simple Berber girls, who, whilst doubtless dusky, and possibly
+maidenly as ever, have not inherited much of the storied beauty of their
+forbears. In spite of this modern perversion of the old tale I find that
+the oranges of the dining-table have a quite rare charm for me
+to-night,--such an attraction as they have had hitherto only when I have
+picked them in the gardens of Andalusia, or in the groves that perfume the
+ancient town of Jaffa at the far eastern end of the Mediterranean. Now I
+have one more impression to cherish, and the scent of a blossoming orange
+tree will recall for me El Araish as I saw it at the moment when the
+shroud of evening made the mosques and the kasbah of Mulai al Yazeed melt,
+with the great white spaces between them, into a blurred pearly mass
+without salient feature.
+
+[Illustration: MOORISH HOUSE, CAPE SPARTEL]
+
+You shall still enjoy the sense of being in touch with past times and
+forgotten people, if you will walk the deck of a ship late at night. Your
+fellow-passengers are abed, the watch, if watch there be, is invisible,
+the steady throbbing movement of the screw resolves itself into a
+pleasing rhythmic melody. So far as the senses can tell, the world is your
+closet, a silent pleasaunce for your waking dreams. The coast-line has no
+lights, nor is any other vessel passing over the waters within range of
+eye or glass. The hosts of heaven beam down upon a silent universe in
+which you are the only waking soul. On a sudden eight bells rings out
+sharply from the forecastle head, and you spring back from your world of
+fancy as hurriedly as Cinderella returned to her rags when long-shore
+midnight chimed. The officer of the middle watch and a hand for the wheel
+come aft to relieve their companions, the illusion has passed, and you go
+below to turn in, feeling uncomfortably sure that your pretty thoughts
+will appear foolish and commonplace enough when regarded in the
+matter-of-fact light of the coming day.
+
+Dar el Baida, most Moorish of seaports, received us in the early morning.
+The wind had fallen, and the heavy surf-boats of the port could land us
+easily. We went on shore past the water-gate and the custom-house that
+stands on the site of the stores erected by the society of the Gremios
+Majores when Charles V. ruled Spain. Dar el Baida seemed to have straggled
+over as much ground as Tangier, but the ground itself was flat and full of
+refuse. The streets were muddy and unpaved, cobble stones strove
+ineffectually to disguise drains, and one felt that the sea breezes alone
+stood between the city and some such virulent epidemic as that which smote
+Tangier less than ten years ago. But withal there was a certain
+picturesque quality about Dar el Baida that atoned for more obvious
+faults, and the market-place afforded a picture as Eastern in its main
+features as the tired Western eye could seek. Camel caravans had come in
+from the interior for the Monday market. They had tramped from the
+villages of the Zair and the Beni Hassan tribes, bringing ripe barley for
+sale, though the spring months had not yet passed. From places near at
+hand the husbandmen had brought all the vegetables that flourish after the
+March rains,--peas and beans and lettuces; pumpkins, carrots and turnips,
+and the tender leaves of the date-palm. The first fruits of the year and
+the dried roses of a forgotten season were sold by weight, and charcoal
+was set in tiny piles at prices within the reach of the poorest customers.
+
+Wealthy merchants had brought their horses within the shadow of the
+sok's[6] high walls and loosened the many-clothed saddles. Slaves walked
+behind their masters or trafficked on their behalf. The snake-charmer, the
+story-teller, the beggar, the water-carrier, the incense seller, whose
+task in life is to fumigate True Believers, all who go to make the typical
+Moorish crowd, were to be seen indolently plying their trade. But
+inquiries for mules, horses, and servants for the inland journey met with
+no ready response. Dar el Baida, I was assured, had nothing to offer;
+Djedida, lower down along the coast, might serve, or Saffi, if Allah
+should send weather of a sort that would permit the boat to land.
+
+[Illustration: A PATRIARCH]
+
+As it happened, Djedida was the steamer's next port of call, so we made
+haste to return to her hospitable decks. I carried with me a vivid
+impression of Dar el Baida, of the market-place with its varied goods, and
+yet more varied people, the white Arabs, the darker Berbers, the black
+slaves from the Soudan and the Draa. Noticeable in the market were the
+sweet stores, where every man sat behind his goods armed with a feather
+brush, and waged ceaseless war with the flies, while a corner of his eye
+was kept for small boys, who were well nigh as dangerous. I remember the
+gardens, one particularly well. It belongs to the French Consul, and has
+bananas growing on the trees that face the road; from beyond the hedge one
+caught delightful glimpses of colour and faint breaths of exquisite
+perfume.
+
+I remember, too, the covered shed containing the mill that grinds the
+flour for the town, and the curious little bakehouse to which Dar el Baida
+takes its flat loaves, giving the master of the establishment one loaf in
+ten by way of payment. I recall the sale of horses, at which a fine raking
+mare with her foal at foot fetched fifty-four dollars in Moorish silver, a
+sum less than nine English pounds.
+
+And I seem to see, even now as I write, the Spanish woman with cruel
+painted face, sitting at the open casement of an old house near the
+Spanish church, thrumming her guitar, and beneath her, by the roadside, a
+beggar clad, like the patriarch of old, in a garment of many colours, that
+made his black face seem blacker than any I have seen in Africa. Then Dar
+el Baida sinks behind the water-port gate, the strong Moorish rowers bend
+to their oars, their boat laps through the dark-blue water, and we are
+back aboard the ship again, in another atmosphere, another world.
+Passengers are talking as it might be they had just returned from their
+first visit to a Zoological Garden. Most of them have seen no more than
+the dirt and ugliness--their vision noted no other aspect--of the
+old-world port. The life that has not altered for centuries, the things
+that make it worth living to all the folk we leave behind,--these are
+matters in which casual visitors to Morocco have no concern. They resent
+suggestion that the affairs of "niggers" can call for serious
+consideration, far less for appreciation or interest of any sort.
+
+Happily Djedida is not far away. At daybreak we are securely anchored
+before the town whose possession by the Portuguese is recorded to this
+hour by the fine fortifications and walls round the port. We slip over the
+smooth water in haste, that we may land before the sun is too high in the
+heavens. It is not without a thrill of pleasure that I hear the ship's
+shrill summons and see the rest of the passengers returning.
+
+[Illustration: PILGRIMS ON A STEAMER]
+
+By this time it is afternoon, but the intervening hours have not been
+wasted. I have found the Maalem, master of a bakehouse, a short,
+olive-skinned, wild, and wiry little man, whose yellowed eyes and
+contracting pupils tell a tale of haschisch and kief that his twitching
+fingers confirm. But he knows the great track stretching some hundred and
+twenty miles into the interior up to Red Marrakesh; he is "the father
+and mother" of mules and horses, animals that brighten the face of man by
+reason of their superlative qualities, and he is prepared to undertake the
+charge of all matters pertaining to a journey over this roadless country.
+His beasts are fit to journey to Tindouf in the country of the Draa, so
+fine is their condition; their saddles and accoutrements would delight the
+Sultan's own ministers. By Allah, the inland journey will be a picnic!
+Quite gravely, I have professed to believe all he says, and my
+reservations, though many, are all mental.
+
+In the days that precede departure--and in Morocco they are always apt to
+be numerous--I seek to enter into the life of Djedida. Sometimes we stroll
+to the custom-house, where grave and dignified Moors sit in the bare,
+barnlike office that opens upon the waste ground beyond the port. There
+they deliver my shot guns after long and dubious scrutiny of the order
+from the British Consulate at Tangier. They also pass certain boxes of
+stores upon production of a certificate testifying that they paid duty on
+arrival at the Diplomatic Capital. These matters, trivial enough to the
+Western mind, are of weight and moment here, not to be settled lightly or
+without much consultation.
+
+Rotting in the stores of this same custom-house are two grand pianos and
+an electric omnibus. The Sultan ordered them, the country paid for
+them,--so much was achieved by the commercial energy of the infidel,--and
+native energy sufficed to land them; it was exhausted by the effort. If
+Mulai Abd-el-Aziz wants his dearly purchased treasure, the ordering and
+existence of which he has probably forgotten, he must come to Mazagan for
+it, I am afraid, and unless he makes haste it will not be worth much. But
+there are many more such shipments in other ports, not to mention the
+unopened and forgotten packing cases at Court.
+
+[Illustration: THE HOUR OF SALE]
+
+The Basha of Djedida is a little old man, very rich indeed, and the terror
+of the entire Dukala province. I like to watch him as he sits day by day
+under the wall of the Kasbah by the side of his own palace, administering
+what he is pleased to call justice. Soldiers and slaves stand by to
+enforce his decree if need be, plaintiff and defendant lie like tombstones
+or advertisements of patent medicines, or telegrams from the seat of war,
+but no sign of an emotion lights the old man's face. He tempers justice
+with--let us say, diplomacy. The other afternoon a French-protected
+subject was charged with sheep-stealing, and I went to the trial. Salam
+acted as interpreter for me. The case was simple enough. The defendant had
+received some hundred sheep from plaintiff to feed and tend at an agreed
+price. From time to time he sent plaintiff the sad news of the death of
+certain rams, always among the finest in the flock. Plaintiff, a farmer in
+good circumstances, testified to the Unity of Allah and was content to
+pray for better luck, until news was brought to him that most of the sheep
+reported dead were to be seen in the Friday market fetching good prices.
+The news proved true, the report of their death was no more than the
+defendant's intelligent anticipation of events, and the action arose
+out of it. To be sure, the plaintiff had presented a fine sheep to the
+Basha, but the defendant was a French subject by protection, and the
+Vice-Consul of his adopted nation was there to see fair play. Under these
+circumstances the defendant lied with an assurance that must have helped
+to convince himself; his friends arrived in the full number required by
+the law, and testified with cheerful mendacity in their companion's
+favour. The Basha listened with attention while the litigants swore
+strange oaths and abused each other very thoroughly. Then he silenced both
+parties with a word, and gave judgment for the defendant. There was no
+appeal, though, had the defendant been an unprotected subject, the
+plaintiff's knife had assuredly entered into the final settlement of this
+little matter. But the plaintiff knew that an attack upon a French protege
+would lead to his own indefinite imprisonment and occasional torture, to
+the confiscation of his goods, and to sundry other penalties that may be
+left unrecorded, as they would not look well in cold print. He knew,
+moreover, that everything is predestined, that no man may avoid Allah's
+decree. These matters of faith are real, not pale abstractions, in
+Morocco. So he was less discontented with the decision than one of his
+European brethren would have been in similar case--and far more
+philosophic regarding it.
+
+[Illustration: EVENING, MAZAGAN]
+
+Quite slowly we completed our outfit for the inland journey. Heaven aid
+the misguided Nazarene who seeks to accomplish such matters swiftly in
+this land of eternal afternoon. I bought an extraordinary assortment of
+what our American friends call "dry-goods" in the Jewish stores, from the
+very business-like gentlemen in charge of them. These all wore black
+gaberdines, black slippers, stockings that were once white, and black
+skull-caps over suspiciously shining love-locks. Most of the Jewish men
+seemed to have had smallpox; in their speech they relied upon a very base
+Arabic, together with worse Spanish or quite barbarous French. Djedida
+having no Mellah, as the Moorish ghetto is called, they were free to trade
+all over the town, and for rather less than a pound sterling I bought
+quite an imposing collection of cutlery, plate, and dishes for use on the
+road. It is true, as I discovered subsequently, that the spoons and forks
+might be crushed out of shape with one hand, that the knives would cut
+nothing rougher than Danish butter, and were imported from Germany with a
+Sheffield mark on them to deceive the natives, and that the plates and
+dishes were not too good to go with the cutlery. But nothing had been
+bought without bargaining of a more or less exciting and interesting sort,
+and for the bargaining no extra charge whatever was made. The little
+boxlike shops, with flaps that served as shutters, were ill-adapted for
+private purchase; there was no room for more than the owner inside, and
+before we had been at one for five minutes the roadway became impassable.
+All the idlers and beggars in that district gathered to watch the
+strangers, and the Maalem was the only one who could keep them at bay.
+Salam would merely threaten to cuff an importunate rogue who pestered
+us, but the Maalem would curse him so fluently and comprehensively, and
+extend the anathema so far in either direction, from forgotten ancestors
+to unborn descendants, that no native could stand up for long against the
+flashing eye, the quivering forefinger, the foul and bitter tongue of him.
+There were times, then and later on, when the Maalem seemed to be some
+Moorish connection of Captain Kettle's family, and after reflecting upon
+my experience among hard-swearing men of many nations, seafarers,
+land-sharks, beach-combers and the rest, I award the Maalem pride of
+place. You will find him to-day in Djedida, baking his bread with the aid
+of the small apprentice who looks after the shop when he goes abroad, or
+enjoying the dreams of the haschisch eater when his work is done. He is no
+man's enemy, and the penalty of his shortcomings will probably fall upon
+no body or soul save his own. A picturesque figure, passionate yet a
+philosopher, patiently tolerant of blinding heat, bad roads, uncomfortable
+sleeping quarters and short commons, the Maalem will remain alive and real
+in my memory long after the kaids and wazeers and other high dignitaries
+of his country are no more than dimly splendid shadows, lacking altogether
+in individuality.
+
+I learned to enjoy Djedida by night. Then the town was almost as silent as
+our camp below Mediunah had been. The ramparts left by the Portuguese and
+the white walls of the city itself became all of a piece, indistinct and
+mysterious as the darkness blended them. Late camels coming into the town
+to seek the security of some fandak would pad noiselessly past me; weird
+creatures from the under-world they seemed, on whom the ghostlike Arabs in
+their white djellabas were ordered to attend. Children would flit to and
+fro like shadows, strangely quiet, as though held in thrall even in the
+season of their play by the solemn aspect of the surroundings. The
+market-place and road to the landing-stage would be deserted, the gates of
+the city barred, and there was never a light to be seen save where some
+wealthy Moor attended by lantern-bearing slaves passed to and from his
+house. One night by the Kasbah the voice of a watchman broke upon the
+city's silence, at a time when the mueddin was at rest, and it was not
+incumbent upon the faithful to pray. "Be vigilant, O guardians," he
+cried,--"be vigilant and do not sleep." Below, by my side, on the ground,
+the guardians, wrapped warm in their djellabas, dreamed on, all
+undisturbed.
+
+By night, too, the pariah dogs, scavengers of all Mohammedan cities,
+roamed at their ease and leisure through Djedida, so hungry and so free
+from daintiness that no garbage would be left on the morrow. Moorish
+houses have no windows fronting the road--decency forbids, and though
+there might have been ample light within, the bare walls helped to darken
+the pathway, and it was wise to walk warily lest one should tumble over
+some beggar asleep on the ground.
+
+[Illustration: SUNSET OFF THE COAST]
+
+On nights like these and through streets not greatly different, Harun
+al Raschid fared abroad in Baghdad and lighted upon the wonderful folk who
+live for all time in the pages of the _Arabian Nights_. Doubtless I passed
+some twentieth-century descendants of the fisher-folk, the Calendars, the
+slaves, and the merchants who move in their wonderful pageantry along the
+glittering road of the "Thousand Nights and a Night,"--the type is
+marvellously unchanging in Al Moghreb; but, alas, they spoke, if at all,
+to deaf ears, and Salam was ever more anxious to see me safely home than
+to set out in search of adventure. By day I knew that Djedida had little
+of the charm associated even in this year of grace with the famous city on
+the Tigris, but, all over the world that proclaims the inspiration of
+Mohammed, the old times come back by night, and then "a thousand years are
+but as yesterday."
+
+Happily we were right below the area of rebellion. In the north, round Fez
+and Taza, there was severe fighting, spreading thence to the Riff country.
+Here, people did no more than curse the Pretender in public or the Sultan
+in private, according to the state of their personal feelings.
+Communication with the south, said the Maalem, was uninterrupted; only in
+the north were the sons of the Illegitimate, the rebels against Allah,
+troubling Our Lord the Sultan. From Djedida down to the Atlas the tribes
+were peaceful, and would remain at rest unless Our Master should attempt
+to collect his taxes, in which case, without doubt, there would be
+trouble.
+
+[Illustration: A VERANDAH AT MAZAGAN]
+
+He was a busy man in these days, was the Maalem. When he was not baking
+bread or smoking kief he was securing mules and bringing them for our
+inspection. To Mr. T. Spinney, son of the British Vice-Consul in Mazagan,
+we owed our salvation. A master of Moghrebbin Arabic, on intimate terms
+with the Moors, and thoroughly conversant with the road and its
+requirements, he stood between me and the fiery-tongued Maalem. This mule
+was rejected, that saddle was returned, stirrups tied with string were
+disqualified, the little man's claim to have all "the money in the hand"
+was overruled, and the Maalem, red-hot sputtering iron in my hands, was as
+wax in Mr. Spinney's. My good friend and host also found Kaid M'Barak,[7]
+the soldier, a tall, scorched, imperturbable warrior, who rode a brave
+horse, and carried a gun done up in a very tattered, old, flannel case
+tied with half a dozen pieces of string. The kaid's business was to strike
+terror into the hearts of evil men in return for a Moorish dollar a day,
+and to help with tent setting and striking, or anything else that might be
+required, in return for his food. He was a lean, gaunt, taciturn man, to
+whom twelve hours in the saddle brought no discomfort, and though he
+strove earnestly to rob me, it was only at the journey's end, when he had
+done his work faithfully and well. His gun seemed to be a constant source
+of danger to somebody, for he carried it at right angles to his horse
+across the saddle, and often on the road I would start to consciousness
+that the kaid was covering me with his be-frocked weapon. After a time
+one grew accustomed and indifferent to the danger, but when I went
+shooting in the Argan forest I left the blessed one in camp. He was
+convinced that he carried his gun in proper fashion, and that his duty was
+well done. And really he may have been right, for upon a day, when a hint
+of possible danger threatened, I learned to my amusement and relief that
+the valiant man carried no ammunition of any sort, and that the barrel of
+his gun was stuffed full of red calico.
+
+Our inland tramp over, he took one day's rest at Mogador, then gathered
+the well-earned store of dollars into his belt and started off to follow
+the coast road back to Djedida. Perhaps by now the Basha has had his
+dollars, or the Sultan has summoned him to help fight Bu Hamara. In any
+case I like to think that his few weeks with us will rank among the
+pleasant times of his life, for he proved a patient, enduring man, and
+though silent, a not unedifying companion.
+
+Among the strange stories I heard in Djedida while preparing for the
+journey was one relating to the then War Minister, Kaid Mahedi el Menebhi,
+some-time envoy to the Court of St. James's. In his early days Menebhi,
+though a member of the great Atlas Kabyle of that name, had been a poor
+lad running about Djedida's streets, ready and willing to earn a handful
+of _floos_[8] by hard work of any description. Then he set up in business
+as a mender of old shoes and became notorious, not because of his skill as
+a cobbler, but on account of his quick wit and clever ideas. In all
+Mohammedan countries a Believer may rise without any handicap on account
+of lowly origin, and so it fell out that the late Grand Wazeer, Ba Ahmad,
+during a visit to Djedida heard of the young cobbler's gifts, and
+straightway gave him a place in his household. Thereafter promotion was
+rapid and easy for Menebhi, and the lad who had loafed about the streets
+with the outcasts of the city became, under the Sultan, the first man in
+Morocco. "To-day," concluded my informant, "he has palaces and slaves and
+a great hareem, he is a Chief Wazeer and head of the Sultan's forces, but
+he still owes a merchant in Djedida some few dollars on account of leather
+he had bought and forgot to pay for when Ba Ahmad took him to
+Marrakesh."[9]
+
+[Illustration: A BLACKSMITH'S SHOP]
+
+In the R'hamna country, on the way to the southern capital, we pitched our
+tents one night in a Government n'zala, or guarded camping-ground, one of
+many that are spread about the country for the safety of travellers. The
+price of corn, eggs, and chickens was amazingly high, and the Maalem
+explained that the n'zala was kept by some of the immediate family of
+Mahedi el Menebhi, who had put them there, presumably to make what profit
+they could. I looked very carefully at our greedy hosts. They were a rough
+unprepossessing crowd, but their wealth in sheep and goats alone was
+remarkable, and their stock was safe from molestation, for they were
+known to be relatives of the Sultan's chief minister, a man whose arm is
+long and hard-hitting. Since last autumn Menebhi has resigned his high
+office, reduced his household, manumitted many slaves, and gone on the
+great pilgrimage to Mecca, so it may be presumed that his relatives in the
+forsaken R'hamna country have lowered their prices. Yet, 'tis something to
+have a great wazeer for relative even though, for the time being, loss of
+favour has given him leisure for pious observances.
+
+At length the evening came, when the last mule was selected, the last
+package made up, and nothing lay between us and the open road. Sleep was
+hard to woo. I woke before daylight, and was in the patio before the first
+animal arrived, or the sleepy porter had fumbled at the door of the
+warehouse where the luggage was stacked.
+
+    Morn in the white wake of the morning star
+    Came furrowing all the orient into gold,
+
+and gave to the tops of walls and battlements a momentary tinge of rose
+colour, a sight well worth the effort demanded by early rising.
+Sparrow-hawks and pigeons were fluttering over their nests on the deserted
+battlements, a stork eyed me with solemn curiosity from the minaret of a
+near mosque, and only the earliest wayfarers were astir. How slowly the
+men seemed to do their work, and how rapidly the morning wore on. Ropes
+and palmetto baskets refused to fit at the last moment, two mules were
+restive until their "father," the Maalem, very wide awake and energetic,
+cursed their religion, and reminded them that they were the children of
+asses renowned throughout the Moghreb for baseness and immorality. One
+animal was found at the last moment to be saddle-galled, and was rejected
+summarily, despite its "father's" frenzied assurances. Though I had been
+astir shortly before three, and at work soon after four, it was nearly
+seven o'clock when the last crooked way had been made straight, the last
+shwarri[10] balanced, and the luggage mules were moving to the Dukala
+gate.
+
+The crowd of curious onlookers then gave way, some few wishing us well on
+the journey. I daresay there were many among them, tied by their daily
+toil to the town, who thought with longing of the pleasant road before us,
+through fertile lands where all the orchards were aflower and the peasants
+were gathering the ripe barley, though April had yet some days to revel
+in. Small boys waved their hands to us, the water-carrier carrying his
+tight goat-skin from the wells set his cups a-tinkling, as though by way
+of a God-speed, and then M'Barak touched his horse with the spur to induce
+the bravery of a caracole, and led us away from Djedida. I drew a long
+breath of pleasure and relief; we were upon the road.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[6] The sok is the market-place.
+
+[7] Kaid is a complimentary title--he was a common soldier. M'Barak means
+"the blessed one," and is one of the names usually set apart for slaves.
+
+[8] Base copper coins, of which a penny will purchase a score.
+
+[9] It is fair to say that this is no more than one of many stories
+relating to the great Wazeer's early days. Another says that he started
+life as a soldier. There is no doubt that he is a man of extraordinary
+talent.
+
+[10] A pannier made of palmetto.
+
+
+
+
+ON THE MOORISH ROAD
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: A SAINT'S TOMB]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+ON THE MOORISH ROAD
+
+    With the brief gladness of the Palms,
+        that tower and sway o'er seething plain,
+    Fraught with the thoughts of rustling shade,
+        and welling spring, and rushing rain;
+    'Tis their's to pass with joy and hope,
+        whose souls shall ever thrill and fill
+    Dreams of the Birthplace and the Tomb,--
+        visions of Allah's Holy Hill.
+
+    _The Kasidah._
+
+
+We travel slowly, for the Maalem "father" of the pack-mules--guide,
+philosopher, and trusted companion--says that haste kills strong men, and
+often repeats a Moorish proverb which tells us that walking is better than
+running, and that of all things sitting still is best. If Salam and I,
+reaching a piece of level sward by the side of some orchard or arable land
+when the heat of the day has passed, venture to indulge in a brisk canter,
+the Maalem's face grows black as his eyes.
+
+"Have a care," he said to me one evening, "for this place is peopled by
+djinoon, and if they are disturbed they will at least kill the horses and
+mules, and leave us to every robber among the hills." Doubtless the
+Maalem prophesied worse things than this, but I have no Arabic worth
+mention, and Salam, who acts as interpreter, possesses a very fair amount
+of tact. I own to a vulgar curiosity that urges me to see a djin if I can,
+so, after this warning, Salam and I go cantering every late afternoon when
+the Enemy, as some Moors call the sun, is moving down towards the west,
+and the air gets its first faint touch of evening cool. Fortunately or
+unfortunately, the evil spirits never appear however, unless unnoticed by
+me in the harmless forms of storks, stock-doves, or sparrow-hawks.
+
+[Illustration: NEAR A WELL IN THE COUNTRY]
+
+In this fertile province of the Dukala, in the little-known kingdom of the
+victorious Sultan, Mulai Abd-el-Aziz, there are delightful stretches of
+level country, and the husbandman's simplest toil suffices to bring about
+an abundant harvest. Unhappily a great part of the province is not in
+permanent cultivation at all. For miles and miles, often as far as the eye
+can see, the land lies fallow, never a farmhouse or village to be seen,
+nothing save some zowia or saint's tomb, with white dome rising within
+four white walls to stare undaunted at the fierce African sun, while the
+saint's descendants in the shelter of the house live by begging from pious
+visitors. Away from the fertility that marks the neighbourhood of the
+douars, one finds a few spare bushes, suddra, retam, or colocynth, a few
+lizards darting here and there, and over all a supreme silence that may be
+felt, even as the darkness that troubled Egypt in days of old. The main
+track, not to be dignified by the name of road, is always to be discerned
+clearly enough, at least the Maalem is never in doubt when stray paths,
+leading from nowhere to the back of beyond, intersect it.
+
+At long intervals we pass a n'zala, a square empty space surrounded by a
+zariba of thorn and prickly pear. The village, a few wattled huts with
+conical roofs, stands by its side. Every n'zala is a Government shelter
+for travellers; you may pitch your tent within the four walls, and even if
+you remain outside and hire guards the owners of the huts are responsible
+for your safety, with their worldly goods, perhaps with their lives. I
+have tried the interior of the Moorish n'zalas, where all too frequently
+you must lie on unimagined filth, often almost within reach of
+camel-drivers and muleteers, who are so godly that they have no time to be
+clean, and I have concluded that the drawbacks outweigh the advantages.
+Now I pitch my tent on some cleaner spot, and pay guards from the village
+to stretch their blankets under its lee and go to sleep. If there are
+thieves abroad the zariba will not keep them out, and if there are no
+thieves a tired traveller may forget his fatigue.
+
+On the road we meet few wayfarers, and those we encounter are full of
+suspicion. Now and again we pass some country kaid or khalifa out on
+business. As many as a dozen well-armed slaves and retainers may follow
+him, and, as a rule, he rides a well-fed Barb with a fine crimson saddle
+and many saddle cloths. Over his white djellaba is a blue selham that
+came probably from Manchester; his stirrups are silver or plated. He
+travels unarmed and seldom uses spurs--a packing needle serves as an
+effective substitute. When he has spurs they are simply spear-heads--sharp
+prongs without rowels. The presence of Unbelievers in the country of the
+True Faith is clearly displeasing to him, but he is nearly always diplomat
+enough to return my laboured greeting, though doubtless he curses me
+heartily enough under his breath. His road lies from village to village,
+his duty to watch the progress of the harvest for his overlord. Even the
+locusts are kinder than the country kaids. But so soon as the kaid has
+amassed sufficient wealth, the governor of his province, or one of the
+high wazeers in the Sultan's capital, will despoil him and sell his place
+to the highest bidder, and in the fulness of time the Sultan will send for
+that wazeer or governor, and treat him in similar fashion. "Mektub," it is
+written, and who shall avoid destiny?[11]
+
+[Illustration: NEAR A WELL IN THE TOWN]
+
+When the way is long and the sun hot, pack and saddle animals come
+together, keeping a level pace of some five miles an hour, and Salam or
+the Maalem beguiles the tedium of the way with song or legend. The Maalem
+has a song that was taught him by one of his grandfather's slaves, in the
+far-off days when Mulai Mohammed reigned in Red Marrakesh. In this chant,
+with its weird monotonous refrain, the slaves sing of their journey
+from the lands of the South, the terrors of the way, the lack of food and
+water. It is a dismal affair enough, but the Maalem likes it, and Salam,
+riding under a huge Tetuan hat, carrying my shot gun, in case some fresh
+meat should come along, and keeping watchful eye on the mules, joins
+lustily in the refrain. Salam has few songs of his own, and does not care
+to sing them, lest his importance should suffer in the native eyes, but he
+possesses a stock of Arabian Nights' legends, and quotes them as though
+they were part of Al Koran.
+
+Now and again, in some of the waste and stony places beyond Dukala's
+boundaries, we come across a well, literally a well in the desert, with
+husbandmen gathered about it and drawing water in their goat-skin buckets,
+that are tied to long palmetto ropes made by the men of the neighbouring
+villages. The water is poured into flat, puddled troughs, and the thirsty
+flocks and herds drink in turn, before they march away to hunt for such
+scanty herbage as the land affords. The scene round these wells is
+wonderfully reminiscent of earliest Bible times, particularly so where the
+wandering Bedouins bring their flocks to water from the inhospitable
+territory of the Wad Nun and deserts below the Sus.
+
+I note with pleasure the surprising dignity of the herdsmen, who make far
+less comment upon the appearance of the stranger in these wild places than
+we should make upon the appearance of a Moor or Berber in a London street.
+
+The most unmistakable tribute to the value of the water is paid by the
+skeletons of camels, mules, sheep and goats that mark the road to the
+well. They tell the tale of animals beaten by the Enemy in their last
+stride. It is not easy for a European to realise the suffering these
+strange lands must see when the summer drought is upon the face of the
+earth. Perhaps they are lessened among the human sufferers by the very
+real fatalism that accepts evil as it accepts good, without grief and
+without gladness, but always with philosophic calm; at least we should
+call it philosophic in a European; superstitious fatalism, of course, in a
+Moor.
+
+[Illustration: MOORISH WOMAN AND CHILD]
+
+The earliest and latest hours of our daily journey are, I think, the best.
+When afternoon turns toward evening in the fertile lands, and the great
+heat begins to pass, countless larks resume their song, while from every
+orchard one hears the subdued murmur of doves or the mellow notes of the
+nightingale. Storks sweep in wide circles overhead or teach their awkward
+young the arts of flight, or wade solemnly in search of supper to some
+marsh where the bull-frogs betray their presence by croaking as loudly as
+they can. The decline of the sun is quite rapid--very often the afterglow
+lights us to our destination. It is part of the Maalem's duty to decide
+upon the place of our nightly sojourn, and so to regulate the time of
+starting, the pace, and the mid-day rest, that he may bring us to the
+village or n'zala in time to get the tent up before darkness has fallen.
+The little man is master of every turn in the road, and has only failed
+once--when he brought us to a large village, where the bulk of the
+inhabitants of outlying douars had attacked the Governor's house, with
+very little success, on the previous day, and were now about to be
+attacked in their turn by the Governor and his bodyguard. There had been
+much firing and more shouting, but nobody was badly hurt. Prudence
+demanded that the journey be resumed forthwith, and for three hours the
+Maalem kept his eyes upon the stars and cursed the disturbers of the
+land's peace. Then we reached the desired haven, and passed unscathed
+through the attacks of the native dogs that guarded its approaches.
+
+The procedure when we approach a n'zala in the evening is highly
+interesting. Some aged headman, who has seen our little company
+approaching, stands by the edge of the road and declares we are
+welcome.[12] Salam or the Maalem responds and presents me, a traveller
+from the far country of the Ingliz, carrying letters to the great sheikhs
+of the South. The headman repeats his welcome and is closely questioned
+concerning the existing supplies of water, corn, milk, eggs, and poultry.
+These points being settled, Salam asks abouts guards. The strangers would
+sleep outside the n'zala: Can they have guards at a fair price? Three are
+promised for a payment of about sevenpence apiece, and then the headman
+precedes us and we turn from the main track to the place of shelter.
+
+Instantly the village is astir. The dogs are driven off. Every wattled
+hut yields its quota of men, women, and children, spectral in their white
+djellabas and all eager to see the strangers and their equipment. The men
+collect in one group and talk seriously of the visit, well assured that it
+has some significance, probably unpleasant; the women, nervous by nature
+and training, do not venture far from their homes and remain veiled to the
+eyes. But the children--dark, picturesque, half-naked boys and girls--are
+nearly free from fear if not from doubt. The tattoo marks on their chins
+keep them safe from the evil eye; so they do not run much risk from chance
+encounter with a European. They approach in a constantly shifting group,
+no detail of the unpacking is lost to them, they are delighted with the
+tent and amazed at the number of articles required to furnish it, they
+refuse biscuits and sugar, though Salam assures them that both are good to
+eat, and indeed sugar is one of the few luxuries of their simple lives.
+
+[Illustration: EVENING ON THE PLAINS]
+
+By the headman's direction our wants are supplied. The patriarch, with his
+long white beard and clear far-seeing eyes, receives the respect and
+obedience of all the village, settles all disputes, and is personally
+responsible to the kaid of the district for the order and safety of the
+n'zala. Three men come from the well, each bearing a big clay amphora of
+water that must be boiled before we drink it. One brings an ample measure
+of barley, costing about four shillings or a little more in English money,
+another bends under a great load of straw. Closely-veiled women carry
+small jars of milk and hand them to their lord, who brings them up to
+Salam and states the price demanded. Milk is dear throughout Morocco in
+the late spring and summer, for, herbage being scanty, cows are small and
+poor. Eggs, on the other hand, are cheap; we can buy a dozen for twopence
+or its equivalent in Spanish or Moorish money, and chickens cost about
+fivepence apiece. If Salam, M'Barak and the Maalem were travelling alone
+they would pay less, but a European is rarely seen, and his visit must be
+made memorable.
+
+Provisions purchased, the tent up, mules and horses tethered together in
+full view of the tent, a great peace falls upon our little party. I am
+permitted to lie at full length on a horse rug and stare up at the dark,
+star-spangled sky; Salam has dug a little hole in the ground, made a
+charcoal fire, and begun to prepare soup and boil the water for coffee.
+The Maalem smokes kief in furtive manner, as though orthodox enough to be
+ashamed of the practice, while M'Barak prepares plates and dishes for the
+evening meal. Around, in a semicircle, some ten yards away, the men and
+boys of the village sit observing us solemnly. They have little to say,
+but their surprise and interest are expressed quite adequately by their
+keen unfailing regard. The afterglow passes and charcoal fires are lighted
+at the edge of most of the native huts, in preparation for the evening
+meal, for the young shepherds have come from the fields and the flocks are
+safely penned. In the gathering dusk the native women, passing through the
+smoke or by the flame of their fire, present a most weird picture, as it
+might be they were participating in a Witches' Sabbath. Darkness envelops
+all the surrounding country, hiding the road by which we came, sealing up
+the track we have to follow, striking a note of loneliness that is awesome
+without being unpleasant. With what we call civilisation hundreds of miles
+away, in a country where law and order are to be regarded more as names
+than facts, one has a great joy in mere living, intensified doubtless by
+long hours spent in the saddle, by occasional hard work and curtailed
+rest, and by the daily sight of the rising sun.
+
+The evening meal is a simple affair of soup, a chicken, and some coffee to
+follow, and when it is over I make my way to the kitchen tent, where the
+men have supped, and send M'Barak with an invitation to the headman and
+his sons. The blessed one makes his way to the headman's hut, while Salam
+clears up the debris of the meal, and the Maalem, conscious that no more
+work will be expected of him, devotes his leisure to the combustion of
+hemp, openly and unashamed. With many compliments the headman arrives, and
+I stand up to greet and bid him welcome--an effort that makes heavy call
+upon my scanty store of Arabic. The visitors remove their slippers and sit
+at ease, while Salam makes a savoury mess of green tea, heavily sweetened
+and flavoured with mint. My visitors are too simply pious to smoke, and
+regard the Maalem with displeasure and surprise, but he is quite beyond
+the reach of their reproaches now. His eyes are staring glassily, his lips
+have a curious ashen colour, his hands are twitching--the hemp god has
+him by the throat. The village men turn their backs upon this degraded
+Believer, and return thanks to Allah the One for sending an infidel who
+gives them tea. Broadly speaking, it is only coast Moors, who have
+suffered what is to them the contamination of European influences, that
+smoke in Morocco.
+
+Like the Walrus and the Carpenter, we talk of many things, Salam acting as
+interpreter. The interests of my guests are simple: good harvests,
+abundant rain, and open roads are all they desire. They have never seen
+the sea or even a big Moorish town, but they have heard of these things
+from travellers and traders who have passed their nights in the n'zala in
+times recent or remote, and sometimes they appeal to me to say if these
+tales are true. Are there great waters of which no man may drink--waters
+that are never at rest? Do houses with devils (? steam engines) in them go
+to and fro upon the face of these waters? Are there great cities so big
+that a man cannot walk from end to end in half a day? I testify to the
+truth of these things, and the headman praises Allah, who has done what
+seemed good to him in lands both near and far. It is, I fear, the
+headman's polite way of saying that Saul is among the prophets. My
+revolver, carefully unloaded, is passed from hand to hand, its uses and
+capacities are known even to these wild people, and the weapon creates
+more interest than the tent and all its varied equipment. Naturally
+enough, it turns the talk to war and slaughter, and I learn that the local
+kaid has an endless appetite for thieves and other children of shameless
+women, that guns are fired very often within his jurisdiction, and baskets
+full of heads have been collected after a purely local fight. All this is
+said with a quiet dignity, as though to remind me that I have fallen among
+people of some distinction, and the effect is only spoilt by the
+recollection that nearly every headman has the same tale to tell. Sultans,
+pretenders, wazeers, and high court functionaries are passed in critical
+review, their faults and failings noted. I cannot avoid the conclusion
+that the popular respect is for the strong hand--that civilised government
+would take long to clear itself of the imputation of cowardice. The local
+kaid is always a tyrant, but he is above all things a man, keen-witted,
+adventurous, prompt to strike, and determined to bleed his subjects white.
+So the men of the village, while suffering so keenly from his arbitrary
+methods, look with fear and wonder at their master, respect him secretly,
+and hope the day will come when by Allah's grace they too will be allowed
+to have mastery over their fellows and to punish others as they have been
+punished. Strength is the first and greatest of all virtues, so far as
+they can see, and cunning and ferocity are necessary gifts in a land where
+every man's hand is against his neighbour.
+
+[Illustration: TRAVELLERS BY NIGHT]
+
+The last cup of green tea has been taken, the charcoal, no longer
+refreshed by the bellows, has ceased to glow, around us the native fires
+are out. The hour of repose is upon the night, and the great athletic
+villagers rise, resume their slippers, and pass with civil salutation
+to their homes. Beyond the tent our guards are sleeping soundly in their
+blankets; the surrounding silence is overwhelming. The grave itself could
+hardly be more still. Even the hobbled animals are at rest, and we enter
+into the enveloping silence for five or six dreamless hours.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The horses stir and wake me; I open the tent and call the men. Our guards
+rouse themselves and retire to their huts. The Maalem, no worse, to
+outward seeming, for the night's debauch, lights the charcoal. It is about
+half-past three, the darkness has past but the sun has not risen, the land
+seems plunged in heavy sleep, the air is damp and chill. Few pleasures
+attach to this early rising, but it is necessary to be on the road before
+six o'clock in order to make good progress before the vertical rays of the
+sun bid us pause and seek what shelter we can find. Two hours is not a
+long time in which to strike tents, prepare breakfast,--a solid affair of
+porridge, omelette, coffee, marmalade and biscuits,--pack everything, and
+load the mules. We must work with a will, or the multi-coloured pageant in
+the eastern sky will have passed before we are on the road again.
+
+Early as it is we are not astir much before the village. Almost as soon as
+I am dressed the shepherd boys and girls are abroad, playing on their reed
+flutes as they drive the flocks to pasture from the pens to which they
+were brought at sundown. They go far afield for food if not for water, but
+evening must see their animals safely secured once more, for if left out
+overnight the nearest predatory tribesmen would carry them off. There is
+no security outside the village, and no village is safe from attack when
+there is unrest in the province. A cattle raid is a favourite form of
+amusement among the warlike tribes of the Moorish country, being
+profitable, exciting, and calculated to provoke a small fight.
+
+A group of interested observers assembles once more, reinforced by the
+smallest children, who were too frightened to venture out of doors last
+night. Nothing disturbs the little company before we leave the camp. The
+headman, grave and dignified as ever, receives payment for corn, straw,
+chickens, milk, eggs, water, and guards, a matter of about ten shillings
+in English money, and a very large sum indeed for such a tiny village to
+receive. The last burden is fastened on the patient mules, girths and
+straps and belts are examined, and we pass down the incline to the main
+road and turn the horses' heads to the Atlas Mountains.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[11] "There happeneth no misfortune on the earth or to yourselves, but it
+is written in the Book before we created it: verily that is easy to
+Allah."--Al Koran; Sura, "The Tree."
+
+[12] This courtesy is truly Eastern, and has many variants. I remember
+meeting two aged rabbis who were seated on stones by the roadside half a
+mile from the city of Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee. They rose as I
+approached, and said in Hebrew, "Blessed be he who cometh."
+
+
+
+
+TO THE GATES OF MARRAKESH
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THE R'KASS]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+TO THE GATES OF MARRAKESH
+
+    In hawthorn-time the heart grows bright,
+    The world is sweet in sound and sight,
+    Glad thoughts and birds take flower and flight,
+    The heather kindles toward the light,
+    The whin is frankincense and flame.
+
+    _The Tale of Balen._
+
+
+If you would savour the true sense of Morocco, and enjoy glimpses of a
+life that belongs properly to the era of Genesis, journey through Dukala,
+Shiadma, or Haha in April. Rise early, fare simply, and travel far enough
+to appreciate whatever offers for a camping-ground, though it be no more
+than the grudging shadow of a wall at mid-day, or a n'zala not overclean,
+when from north, south, east, and west the shepherd boys and girls are
+herding their flocks along the homeward way. You will find the natives
+kind and leisured enough to take interest in your progress, and, their
+confidence gained, you shall gather, if you will, some knowledge of the
+curious, alluring point of view that belongs to fatalists. I have been
+struck by the dignity, the patience, and the endurance of the Moor, by
+whom I mean here the Arab who lives in Morocco, and not the aboriginal
+Berber, or the man with black blood preponderating in his veins. To the
+Moor all is for the best. He knows that Allah has bound the fate of each
+man about his neck, so he moves fearlessly and with dignity to his
+appointed end, conscious that his God has allotted the palace or the
+prison for his portion, and that fellow-men can no more than fulfil the
+divine decree. Here lies the secret of the bravery that, when disciplined,
+may yet shake the foundations of Western civilisation. How many men pass
+me on the road bound on missions of life or death, yet serene and placid
+as the mediaeval saints who stand in their niches in some cathedral at
+home. Let me recall a few fellow-wayfarers and pass along the roadless way
+in their company once again.
+
+[Illustration: A TRAVELLER ON THE PLAINS]
+
+First and foremost stands out a khalifa, lieutenant of a great country
+kaid, met midmost Dukala, in a place of level barley fields new cut with
+the _media luna_. Brilliant poppies and irises stained the meadows on all
+sides, and orchards whose cactus hedges, planted for defence, were now
+aflame with blood-red flowers, became a girdle of beauty as well as
+strength. The khalifa rode a swiftly-ambling mule, a beast of price, his
+yellow slippers were ostentatiously new, and his ample girth proclaimed
+the wealthy man in a land where all the poor are thin. "Peace," was his
+salutation to M'Barak, who led the way, and when he reached us he again
+invoked the Peace of Allah upon Our Lord Mohammed and the Faithful of
+the Prophet's House, thereby and with malice aforethought excluding the
+infidel. Like others of his class who passed us he was but ill-pleased to
+see the stranger in the land; unlike the rest he did not conceal his
+convictions. Behind him came three black slaves, sleek, armed, proud in
+the pride of their lord, and with this simple retinue the khalifa was on
+his way to tithe the newly-harvested produce of the farmers who lived in
+that district. Dangerous work, I thought, to venture thus within the
+circle of the native douars and claim the lion's share of the hard-won
+produce of the husbandmen. He and his little company would be outnumbered
+in the proportion of thirty or forty to one, they had no military
+following, and yet went boldly forth to rob on the kaid's behalf. I
+remembered how, beyond Tangier, the men of the hills round Anjera had
+risen against an unpopular khalifa, had tortured him in atrocious fashion,
+and left him blind and hideously maimed, to be a warning to all tyrants.
+Doubtless our prosperous fellow-traveller knew all about it, doubtless he
+realised that the Sultan's authority was only nominal, but he knew that
+his immediate master, the Basha, still held his people in an iron grip
+while, above and beyond all else, he knew by the living faith that
+directed his every step in life, that his own fate, whether good or evil,
+was already assigned to him. I heard the faint echo of the greeting
+offered by the dogs of the great douar into which he passed, and felt well
+assured that the protests of the village folk, if they ventured to
+protest, would move him no more than the barking of those pariahs. The
+hawks we saw poised in the blue above our heads when small birds sang at
+sunsetting, were not more cheerfully devoid of sentiment than our khalifa,
+though it may be they had more excuse than he.
+
+On another afternoon we sat at lunch in the grateful sombre shade of a
+fig-tree. Beyond the little stone dyke that cut the meadow from the arable
+land a negro ploughed with an ox and an ass, in flat defiance of Biblical
+injunction. The beasts were weary or lazy, or both, and the slave cursed
+them with an energy that was wonderful for the time of day. Even the birds
+had ceased to sing, the cicadas were silent in the tree tops, and when one
+of the mules rolled on the ground and scattered its pack upon all sides,
+the Maalem was too exhausted to do more than call it the "son of a
+Christian and a Jew."
+
+[Illustration: THE MID-DAY HALT]
+
+Down the track we had followed came a fair man, of slight build, riding a
+good mule. He dismounted by the tree to adjust his saddle, tighten a
+stirrup thong, and say a brief prayer. Then, indifferent to the heat, he
+hurried on, and Salam, who had held short converse with him, announced
+that he was an emissary of Bu Hamara the Pretender, speeding southward to
+preach the rising to the Atlas tribes. He carried his life in his hands
+through the indifferently loyal southern country, but the burden was not
+heavy enough to trouble him. Bu Hamara, the man no bullets could injure,
+the divinely directed one, who could call the dead from their pavilion in
+Paradise to encourage the living, had bade him go rouse the sleeping
+southerners, and so he went, riding fearlessly into the strong glare that
+wrapt and hid him. His work was for faith or for love: it was not for
+gain. If he succeeded he would not be rewarded, if he failed he would be
+forgotten.
+
+Very often, at morning, noon, and sunset, we would meet the r'kass or
+native letter-carrier, a wiry man from the Sus country, more often than
+not, with naked legs and arms. In his hand he would carry the long pole
+that served as an aid to his tired limbs when he passed it behind his
+shoulders, and at other times helped him to ford rivers or defend himself
+against thieves. An eager, hurrying fellow was the r'kass, with rarely
+enough breath to respond to a salutation as he passed along, his letters
+tied in a parcel on his back, a lamp at his girdle to guide him through
+the night, and in his wallet a little bread or parched flour, a tiny pipe,
+and some kief. Only if travelling in our direction would he talk, repaying
+himself for the expenditure of breath by holding the stirrup of mule or
+horse. Resting for three to five hours in the twenty-four, sustaining
+himself more with kief than with bread, hardened to a point of endurance
+we cannot realise, the r'kass is to be met with on every Moorish road that
+leads to a big city--a solitary, brave, industrious man, who runs many
+risks for little pay. His letters delivered, he goes to the nearest house
+of public service, there to sleep, to eat sparingly and smoke incessantly,
+until he is summoned to the road again. No matter if the tribes are out on
+the warpath, so that the caravans and merchants may not pass,--no matter
+if the powder "speaks" from every hill,--the r'kass slips through with
+his precious charge, passing lightly as a cloud over a summer meadow,
+often within a few yards of angry tribesmen who would shoot him at sight
+for the mere pleasure of killing. If the luck is against him he must pay
+the heaviest penalty, but this seldom occurs unless the whole country-side
+is aflame. At other times, when there is peace in the land, and the wet
+season has made the unbridged rivers impassable, whole companies of
+travellers camp on either side of some river--a silver thread in the dry
+season, a rushing torrent now. But the r'kass knows every ford, and, his
+long pole aiding him, manages to reach his destination. It is his business
+to defy Nature if necessary, just as he defies man in the pursuit of his
+task. He is a living proof of the capacity and dogged endurance still
+surviving in a race Europeans affect to despise.
+
+We met slaves-dealers too from time to time, carrying women and children
+on mules, while the men slaves walked along at a good pace. And the
+dealers by no means wore the villainous aspect that conventional observers
+look to see, but were plainly men bent upon business, travelling to make
+money. They regarded the slaves as merchandise, to be kept in tolerably
+fair condition for the sake of good sales, and unless Ruskin was right
+when he said that all who are not actively kind are cruel, there seemed
+small ground on which to condemn them. To be sure, they were taking slaves
+from market to market, and not bringing Soudanese captives from the
+extreme South, so we saw no trace of the trouble that comes of forced
+travel in the desert, but even that is equally shared by dealers and slave
+alike.
+
+The villages of Morocco are no more than collections of conical huts built
+of mud and wattle and palmetto, or goat and camel skins. These huts are
+set in a circle all opening to the centre, where the live-stock and
+agricultural implements are kept at night. The furniture of a tent is
+simple enough. Handloom and handmill, earthenware jars, clay lamps, a
+mattress, and perhaps a tea-kettle fulfil all requirements.
+
+A dazzling, white-domed saint's shrine within four square walls lights the
+landscape here and there, and gives to some douar such glory as a holy man
+can yield when he has been dead so long that none can tell the special
+direction his holiness took. The zowia serves several useful purposes. The
+storks love to build upon it, and perhaps the influence of its rightful
+owner has something to do with the good character of the interesting young
+birds that we see plashing about in the marshes, and trying to catch fish
+or frogs with something of their parents' skill. Then, again, the zowia
+shelters the descendants of the holy man, who prey upon passers in the
+name of Allah and of the departed.
+
+Beyond one of the villages graced with the shrine of a forgotten saint, I
+chanced upon a poor Moorish woman washing clothes at the edge of a pool.
+She used a native grass-seed in place of soap, and made the linen very
+white with it. On a great stone by the water's edge sat a very old and
+very black slave, and I tried with Salam's aid to chat with him. But he
+had no more than one sentence. "I have seen many Sultans," he cried
+feebly, and to every question he responded with these same words. Two tiny
+village boys stood hand in hand before him and repeated his words,
+wondering. It was a curious picture and set in striking colour, for the
+fields all round us were full of rioting irises, poppies, and convolvuli;
+the sun that gilded them was blazing down upon the old fellow's
+unprotected head. Gnats were assailing him in legions, singing their
+flattering song as they sought to draw his blood.[13] Before us on a hill
+two meadows away stood the douar, its conical huts thatched with black
+straw and striped palmetto, its zowia with minaret points at each corner
+of the protecting walls, and a stork on one leg in the foreground. It cost
+me some effort to tear myself away from the place, and as I remounted and
+prepared to ride off the veteran cried once more, "I have seen many
+Sultans." Then the stork left his perch on the zowia's walls, and settled
+by the marsh, clapping his mandibles as though to confirm the old man's
+statement, and the little boys took up the cry, not knowing what they
+said. He had seen many Sultans. The Praise to Allah, so had not I.
+
+[Illustration: ON GUARD]
+
+By another douar, this time on the outskirts of the R'hamna country, we
+paused for a mid-day rest, and entered the village in search of milk and
+eggs. All the men save one were at work on the land, and he, the
+guardian of the village, an old fellow and feeble, stood on a sandy
+mound within the zariba. He carried a very antiquated flint-lock, that may
+have been own brother to Kaid M'Barak's trusted weapon. I am sure he could
+not have had the strength to fire, even had he enjoyed the knowledge and
+possessed the material to load it. It was his business to mount guard over
+the village treasure. The mound he stood upon was at once the mat'mora
+that hid the corn store, and the bank that sheltered the silver dollars
+for whose protection every man of the village would have risked his life
+cheerfully. The veteran took no notice of our arrival: had we been thieves
+he could have offered no resistance. He remained silent and stationary,
+unconscious that the years in which he might have fulfilled his trust had
+gone for ever. All along the way the boundaries of arable land were marked
+by little piles of stones and I looked anxiously for some sign of the
+curious festival that greets the coming of the new corn, a ceremony in
+which a figure is made for worship by day and sacrifice by night; we were
+just too late for it. For the origin of this sacrifice the inquirer must
+go back to the time of nature worship. It was an old practice, of course,
+in the heyday of Grecian civilisation, and might have been seen in
+England, I believe, little more than twenty years ago.
+
+Claims for protection are made very frequently upon the road. There are
+few of the dramatic moments in which a man rushes up, seizes your stirrup
+and puts himself "beneath the hem of your garment," but there are
+numerous claims for protection of another sort. In Morocco all the Powers
+that signed the Treaty of Madrid are empowered to grant the privilege.
+France has protected subjects by the thousand. They pay no taxes, they are
+not to be punished by the native authorities until their Vice-Consul has
+been cited to appear in their defence, and, in short, they are put above
+the law of their own country and enabled to amass considerable wealth. The
+fact that the foreigner who protects them is often a knave and a thief is
+a draw-back, but the popularity of protection is immense, for the
+protector may possibly not combine cunning with his greed, while the
+native Basha or his khalifa quite invariably does. British subjects may
+not give protection,--happily the British ideals of justice and fair-play
+have forbidden the much-abused practice,--and the most the Englishman can
+do is to enter into a trading partnership with a Moor and secure for him a
+certificate of limited protection called "mukhalat," from the name of the
+person who holds it. Great Britain has never abused the Protection system,
+and there are fewer protected Moors in the service or partnership of
+Britons throughout all Morocco than France has in any single town of
+importance.
+
+If I had held the power and the will to give protection, I might have been
+in Morocco to-day, master of a house and a household, drawing half the
+produce of many fields and half the price of flocks of sheep and herds of
+goats. Few mornings passed without bringing some persecuted farmer to the
+camp, generally in the heat of the day, when we rested on his land. He
+would be a tall, vigorous man, burnt brown by the sun, and he would point
+to his fields and flocks, "I have so many sheep and goats, so many oxen
+for the plough, so many mules and horses, so much grain unharvested, so
+much in store. Give me protection, that I may live without fear of my
+kaid, and half of all I own shall be yours." Then I had to explain through
+Salam that I had no power to help him, that my Government would do no more
+than protect me. It was hard for the applicants to learn that they must go
+unaided. The harvest was newly gathered, it had survived rain and blight
+and locusts, and now they had to wait the arrival of their kaid or his
+khalifa, who would seize all they could not conceal,--hawk, locust, and
+blight in one.
+
+At the village called after its patron saint, Sidi B'noor, a little
+deputation of tribesmen brought grievances for an airing. We sat in the
+scanty shade of the zowia wall. M'Barak, wise man, remained by the side of
+a little pool born of the winter rains; he had tethered his horse and was
+sleeping patiently in the shadow cast by this long-suffering animal. The
+headman, who had seen my sporting guns, introduced himself by sending a
+polite message to beg that none of the birds that fluttered or brooded by
+the shrine might be shot, for that they were all sacred. Needless perhaps
+to say that the idea of shooting at noonday in Southern Morocco was far
+enough from my thoughts, and I sent back an assurance that brought half a
+dozen of the village notables round us as soon as lunch was over.
+Strangely enough, they wanted protection--but it was sought on account of
+the Sultan's protected subjects. "The men who have protection between
+this place and Djedida," declared their spokesman, sorrowfully, "have no
+fear of Allah or His Prophet. They brawl in our markets and rob us of our
+goods. They insult our houses,[14] they are without shame, and because of
+their protection our lives have become very bitter."
+
+"Have you been to your Basha?" I asked the headman.
+
+"I went bearing a gift in my hand, O Highly Favoured," replied the
+headman, "and he answered me, 'Foolish farmer, shall I bring the Sultan to
+visit me by interfering with these rebels against Allah who have taken the
+protection from Nazarenes?' And then he cursed me and drove me forth from
+his presence. But if you will give protection to us also we will face
+these misbegotten ones, and there shall be none to come between us."
+
+[Illustration: A VILLAGE AT DUKALA]
+
+I could do no more than deliver messages of consolation to the poor
+tribesmen, who sat in a semicircle, patient in the quivering heat. The old
+story of goodwill and inability had to be told again, and I never saw men
+more dejected. At the moment of leave-taking, however, I remembered that
+we had some empty mineral-water bottles and a large collection of
+gunmaker's circulars, that had been used as padding for a case of
+cartridges. So I distributed the circulars and empty bottles among the
+protection hunters, and they received them with wonder and delight. When I
+turned to take a last look round, the pages that had pictures of guns
+were being passed reverently from hand to hand; to outward seeming the
+farmers had forgotten their trouble. Thus easily may kindnesses be wrought
+among the truly simple of this world.
+
+The market of Sidi B'noor is famous for its sales of slaves and
+horses,[15] but I remember it best by its swarm of blue rock-pigeons and
+sparrow-hawks, that seemed to live side by side in the walls surrounding
+the saint's white tomb. For reasons best known to themselves they lived
+without quarrelling, perhaps because the saint was a man of peace. Surely
+a sparrow-hawk in our island would not build his nest and live in perfect
+amity with pigeons. But, as is well known, the influence of the saintly
+endures after the flesh of the saint has returned to the dust whence it
+came.
+
+The difference between Dukala and R'hamna, two adjacent provinces, is very
+marked. All that the first enjoys the second lacks. We left the fertile
+lands for great stony plains, wind-swept, bare and dry. Skeletons of
+camels, mules, and donkeys told their story of past sufferings, and the
+water supply was as scanty as the herbage upon which the R'hamna flocks
+fare so poorly. In place of prosperous douars, set in orchards amid rich
+arable land, there were Government n'zalas at long intervals in the waste,
+with wattled huts, and lean, hungry tribesmen, whose poverty was as plain
+to see as their ribs. Neither Basha nor Kaid could well grow fat now in
+such a place, and yet there was a time when R'hamna was a thriving
+province after its kind. But it had a warlike people and fierce, to whom
+the temptation of plundering the caravans that made their way to the
+Southern capital was irresistible. So the Court Elevated by Allah, taking
+advantage of a brief interval of peace, turned its forces loose against
+R'hamna early in the last decade of the nineteenth century. From end to
+end of its plains the powder "spoke," and the burning douars lighted the
+roads that their owners had plundered so often. Neither old nor young were
+spared, and great basketsful of human heads were sent to Red Marrakesh, to
+be spiked upon the wall by the J'maa Effina. When the desolation was
+complete from end to end of the province, the Shareefian troops were
+withdrawn, the few remaining folk of R'hamna were sent north and south to
+other provinces, the n'zalas were established in place of the forgotten
+douars, and the Elevated Court knew that there would be no more
+complaints. That was Mulai el Hassan's method of ruling--may Allah have
+pardoned him--and his grand wazeer's after him. It is perhaps the only
+method that is truly understood by the people in Morocco. R'hamna reminded
+me of the wildest and bleakest parts of Palestine, and when the Maalem
+said solemnly it was tenanted by djinoon since the insurrection, I felt he
+must certainly be right.
+
+One evening we met an interesting procession. An old farmer was making his
+way from the jurisdiction of the local kaid. His "house" consisted of two
+wives and three children. A camel, whose sneering contempt for mankind
+was very noticeable, shuffled cumbrously beneath a very heavy load of
+mattresses, looms, rugs, copper kettles, sacks of corn, and other
+impedimenta. The wives, veiled to the eyes, rode on mules, each carrying a
+young child; the third child, a boy, walked by his father's side. The
+barley harvest had not been good in their part of the country, so after
+selling what he could, the old man had packed his goods on to the camel's
+back and was flying from the tax-gatherer. To be sure, he might meet
+robbers on the way to the province of M'touga, which was his destination,
+but they would do no more than the kaid of his own district; they might
+even do less. He had been many days upon the road, and was quaintly
+hopeful. I could not help thinking of prosperous men one meets at home,
+who declare, in the intervals of a costly dinner, that the Income Tax is
+an imposition that justifies the strongest protest, even to the point of
+repudiating the Government that puts it up by twopence in the pound. Had
+anybody been able to assure this old wanderer that his kaid or khalifa
+would be content with half the produce of his land, how cheerfully would
+he have returned to his native douar, how readily he would have--devised
+plans to avoid payment. A little later the track would be trodden by other
+families, moving, like the true Bedouins, in search of fresh pasture. It
+is the habit of the country to leave land to lie fallow when it has
+yielded a few crops.
+
+There were days when the mirage did for the plain the work that man had
+neglected. It set great cities on the waste land as though for our sole
+benefit. I saw walls and battlements, stately mosques, cool gardens, and
+rivers where caravans of camels halted for rest and water. Several times
+we were deceived and hurried on, only to find that the wonder city, like
+the _ignis fatuus_ of our own marshlands, receded as we approached and
+finally melted away altogether. Then the Maalem, after taking refuge with
+Allah from Satan the Stoned, who set false cities before the eyes of tired
+travellers, would revile the mules and horses for needing a mirage to urge
+them on the way; he would insult the fair fame of their mothers and swear
+that their sires were such beasts as no Believer would bestride. It is a
+fact that when the Maalem lashed our animals with his tongue they made
+haste to improve their pace, if only for a few minutes, and Salam,
+listening with an expression of some concern at the sad family history of
+the beasts--he had a stinging tongue for oaths himself--assured me that
+their sense of shame hurried them on. Certainly no sense of shame, or
+duty, or even compassion, ever moved the Maalem. By night he would repair
+to the kitchen tent and smoke kief or eat haschisch, but the troubles of
+preparing beds and supper did not worry him.
+
+[Illustration: THE APPROACH TO MARRAKESH]
+
+"Until the feast is prepared, why summon the guest," he said on a night
+when the worthy M'Barak, opening his lips for once, remonstrated with him.
+That evening the feast consisted of some soup made from meat tablets, and
+two chickens purchased for elevenpence the pair, of a market woman we met
+on the road. Yet if it was not the feast the Maalem's fancy painted it,
+our long hours in the open air had served to make it more pleasant than
+many a more elaborate meal.
+
+We rode one morning through the valley of the Little Hills, once a place
+of unrest notorious by reason of several murders committed there, and
+deserted now by everything save a few birds of prey. There were gloomy
+rocks on all sides, the dry bed of a forgotten river offered us an
+uncomfortable and often perilous path, and we passed several cairns of
+small stones. The Maalem left his mule in order to pick up stones and add
+one to each cairn, and as he did so he cursed Satan with great
+fluency.[16]
+
+It was a great relief to leave the Little Hills and emerge on to the
+plains of Hillreeli beyond. We had not far to go then before the view
+opened out, the haze in the far distance took faint shape of a city
+surrounded by a forest of palms on the western side, a great town with the
+minarets of many mosques rising from it. At this first view of Red
+Marrakesh, Salam, the Maalem, and M'Barak extolled Allah, who had renewed
+to them the sight of Yusuf ibn Tachfin's thousand-year-old city. Then they
+praised Sidi bel Abbas, the city's patron saint, who by reason of his love
+for righteous deeds stood on one leg for forty years, praying diligently
+all the time.
+
+We each and all rendered praise and thanks after our separate fashions,
+and for me, I lit my last cigarette, careless of the future and well
+pleased.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[13] As the gnat settles he cries, "Habibi," _i.e._ "O my beloved." His,
+one fears, is but a carnal affection.
+
+[14] _I.e._ Wives and children, to whom no Moor refers by name.
+
+[15] It is said to be the largest market in the Sultan's dominions. As
+many as two thousand camels have been counted at one of the weekly
+gatherings here.
+
+[16] The cairns are met frequently in Morocco. Some mark the place from
+which the traveller may obtain his first view of a near city; others are
+raised to show where a murder was committed. The cairns in the Little
+Hills are of the former kind.
+
+
+
+
+IN RED MARRAKESH
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: DATE PALMS NEAR MARRAKESH]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+IN RED MARRAKESH
+
+    Think, in this batter'd Caravanserai,
+    Whose portals are alternate Night and Day,
+    How Sultan after Sultan with his pomp
+    Abode his destined hour and went his way.
+
+    _The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam._
+
+
+There are certain cities that cannot be approached for the first time by
+any sympathetic traveller without a sense of solemnity and reverence that
+is not far removed from awe. Athens, Rome, Constantinople, Damascus, and
+Jerusalem may be cited as examples; each in its turn has filled me with
+great wonder and deep joy. But all of these are to be reached nowadays by
+the railway, that great modern purge of sensibility. Even Jerusalem is not
+exempt. A single line stretches from Jaffa by the sea to the very gates of
+the Holy City, playing hide-and-seek among the mountains of Judaea by the
+way, because the Turk was too poor to tunnel a direct path.
+
+In Morocco, on the other hand, the railway is still unknown. He who seeks
+any of the country's inland cities must take horse or mule, camel or
+donkey, or, as a last resource, be content with a staff to aid him, and
+walk. Whether he fare to Fez, the city of Mulai Idrees, in which, an old
+writer assures us, "all the beauties of the earth are united"; or to
+Mequinez, where great Mulai Ismail kept a stream of human blood flowing
+constantly from his palace that all might know he ruled; or to Red
+Marrakesh, which Yusuf ibn Tachfin built nine hundred years ago,--his own
+exertion must convoy him. There must be days and nights of scant fare and
+small comfort, with all those hundred and one happenings of the road that
+make for pleasant memories. So far as I have been able to gather in the
+nine years that have passed since I first visited Morocco, one road is
+like another road, unless you have the Moghrebbin Arabic at your command
+and can go off the beaten track in Moorish dress. Walter Harris, the
+resourceful traveller and _Times_ correspondent, did this when he sought
+the oases of Tafilalt, so also, in his fashion, did R.B. Cunninghame
+Graham when he tried in vain to reach Tarudant, and set out the record of
+his failure in one of the most fascinating travel books published since
+_Eothen_.[17]
+
+For the rank and file of us the Government roads and the harmless
+necessary soldier must suffice, until the Gordian knot of Morocco's future
+has been untied or cut. Then perhaps, as a result of French pacific
+penetration, flying railway trains loaded with tourists, guide-book in
+hand and camera at the ready, will pierce the secret places of the land,
+and men will speak of "doing" Morocco, as they "do" other countries in
+their rush across the world, seeing all the stereotyped sights and
+appreciating none. For the present, by Allah's grace, matters are quite
+otherwise.
+
+Marrakesh unfolded its beauties to us slowly and one by one as we pushed
+horses and mules into a canter over the level plains of Hillreeli. Forests
+of date-palm took definite shape; certain mosques, those of Sidi ben Yusuf
+and Bab Dukala, stood out clearly before us without the aid of glasses,
+but the Library mosque dominated the landscape by reason of the Kutubia
+tower by its side. The Atlas Mountains came out of the clouds and revealed
+the snows that would soon melt and set every southern river aflood, and
+then the town began to show limits to the east and west where, at first,
+there was nothing but haze. One or two caravans passed us, northward
+bound, their leaders hoping against hope that the Pretender, the
+"dog-descended," as a Susi trader called him, would not stand between them
+and the Sultan's camp, where the profits of the journey lay. By this time
+we could see the old grey wall of Marrakesh more plainly, with towers here
+and there, ruinous as the wall itself, and storks' nests on the
+battlements, their red-legged inhabitants fulfilling the duty of sentries.
+To the right, beyond the town, the great rock of Djebel Geelez suggested
+infinite possibilities in days to come, when some conqueror armed with
+modern weapons and a pacific mission should wish to bombard the walls in
+the sacred cause of civilisation. Then the view was lost in the date-palm
+forest, through which tiny tributaries of the Tensift run babbling over
+the red earth, while the kingfisher or dragon-fly, "a ray of living
+light," flashes over the shallow water, and young storks take their first
+lessons in the art of looking after themselves.
+
+When a Moor has amassed wealth he praises God, builds a palace, and plants
+a garden; or, is suspected, accused--despotic authority is not
+particular--and cast into prison! In and round Marrakesh many Moors have
+gained riches and some have held them. The gardens stretch for miles.
+There are the far-spreading Augdal plantations of the Sultans of Morocco,
+in part public and elsewhere so private that to intrude would be to court
+death. The name signifies "the Maze," and they are said to justify it. In
+the outer or public grounds of this vast pleasaunce the fruit is sold by
+auction to the merchants of the city in late spring, when blossoming time
+is over, and, after the sale, buyers must watch and guard the trees until
+harvest brings them their reward.
+
+[Illustration: ON THE ROAD TO MARRAKESH]
+
+We rode past the low-walled gardens, where pomegranate and apricot trees
+were flowering, and strange birds I did not know sang in the deep shade.
+Doves flitted from branch to branch, bee-eaters darted about among
+mulberry and almond trees. There was an overpowering fragrance from the
+orange groves, where blossom and unplucked fruit showed side by side; the
+jessamine bushes were scarcely less fragrant. Spreading fig-trees called
+every passer to enjoy their shade, and the little rivulets, born of the
+Tensift's winter floods to sparkle through the spring and die in June,
+were fringed with willows. It was delightful to draw rein and listen to
+the plashing of water and the cooing of doves, while trying in vain to
+recognise the most exquisite among many sweet scents.
+
+Under one of the fig-trees in a garden three Moors sat at tea. A carpet
+was spread, and I caught a glimpse of the copper kettle, the squat
+charcoal brazier tended by a slave, the quaint little coffer filled no
+doubt with fine green tea, the porcelain dish of cakes. It was a quite
+pleasing picture, at which, had courtesy permitted, I would have enjoyed
+more than a brief glance.
+
+The claim of the Moors upon our sympathy and admiration is made greater by
+reason of their love for gardens. As a matter of fact, their devotion may
+be due in part to the profit yielded by the fruit, but one could afford to
+forget that fact for the time being, when Nature seemed to be giving
+praise to the Master of all seasons for the goodly gifts of the spring.
+
+We crossed the Tensift by the bridge, one of the very few to be found in
+Southern Morocco. It has nearly thirty arches, all dilapidated as the city
+walls themselves, yet possessing their curious gift of endurance. Even the
+natives realise that their bridge is crumbling into uselessness, after
+nearly eight centuries of service, but they do no more than shrug their
+shoulders, as though to cast off the burden of responsibility and give it
+to destiny. On the outskirts of the town, where gardens end and open
+market-squares lead to the gates, a small group of children gathered to
+watch the strangers with an interest in which fear played its part. We
+waited now to see the baggage animals before us, and then M'Barak led the
+way past the mosque at the side of the Bab el Khamees and through the
+brass-covered doors that were brought by the Moors from Spain. Within the
+Khamees gate, narrow streets with windowless walls frowning on either side
+shut out all view, save that which lay immediately before us.
+
+[Illustration: A MINSTREL]
+
+No untrained eye can follow the winding maze of streets in Marrakesh, and
+it is from the Moors we learn that the town, like ancient Gaul of Caesar's
+_Commentaries_, has three well defined divisions. The Kasbah is the
+official quarter, where the soldiers and governing officials have their
+home, and the prison called Hib Misbah receives all evil-doers, and men
+whose luck is ill. The Madinah is the general Moorish quarter, and
+embraces the Kaisariyah or bazaar district, where the streets are
+parallel, well cleaned, thatched with palm and palmetto against the light,
+and barred with a chain at either end to keep the animals from entering.
+The Mellah (literally "salted place") is the third great division of
+Marrakesh, and is the Jewish quarter. In this district, or just beyond it,
+are a few streets that seem reserved to the descendants of Mulai Ismail's
+black guards, from whom our word "blackguard" should have come to us, but
+did not. Within these divisions streets, irregular and without a name,
+turn and twist in manner most bewildering, until none save old residents
+may hope to know their way about. Pavements are unknown, drainage is in
+its most dangerous infancy, the rainy season piles mud in every
+direction, and, as though to test the principle embodied in the
+homoeopathic theory, the Marrakshis heap rubbish and refuse in every
+street, where it decomposes until the enlightened authorities who dwell in
+the Kasbah think to give orders for its removal. Then certain men set out
+with donkeys and carry the sweepings of the gutters beyond the gates.[18]
+This work is taken seriously in the Madinah, but in the Mellah it is
+shamefully neglected, and I have ridden through whole streets in the
+last-named quarter searching vainly for a place clean enough to permit of
+dismounting. Happily, or unhappily, as you will, the inhabitants are
+inured from birth to a state of things that must cause the weaklings to
+pay heavy toll to Death, the Lord who rules even Sultans.
+
+I had little thought to spare for such matters as we rode into Marrakesh
+for the first time. The spell of the city was overmastering. It is
+certainly the most African city in Morocco to-day, almost the last
+survivor of the changes that began in the latter half of the nineteenth
+century, and have brought the Dark Continent from end to end within the
+sphere of European influence. Fez and Mequinez are cities of fair men,
+while here on every side one recognised the influence of the Soudan and
+the country beyond the great desert. Not only have the wives and
+concubines brought from beyond the great sand sea darkened the skin of the
+present generation of the Marrakshis, but they have given to most if not
+to all a suggestion of relationship to the negro races that is not to be
+seen in any other Moorish city I have visited. It is not a suggestion of
+fanaticism or intolerance. By their action as well as their appearance one
+knew most of the passers for friends rather than enemies. They would
+gratify their curiosity at our expense as we gratified ours at theirs,
+convinced that all Europeans are harmless, uncivilised folk from a far
+land, where people smoke tobacco, drink wine, suffer their women-folk to
+go unveiled, and live without the True Faith.
+
+Marrakesh, like all other inland cities of Morocco, has neither hotel nor
+guest-house. It boasts some large fandaks, notably that of Hadj Larbi,
+where the caravans from the desert send their merchandise and chief
+merchants, but no sane European will choose to seek shelter in a fandak in
+Morocco unless there is no better place available. There are clean fandaks
+in Sunset Land, but they are few and you must travel far to find them. I
+had letters to the chief civilian resident of Marrakesh, Sidi Boubikir,
+British Political Agent, millionaire, land-owner, financier, builder of
+palaces, politician, statesman, and friend of all Englishmen who are well
+recommended to his care. I had heard much of the clever old Moor, who was
+born in very poor surroundings, started life as a camel driver, and is now
+the wealthiest and most powerful unofficial resident in Southern Morocco,
+if not in all the Moghreb, so I bade M'Barak find him without delay. The
+first person questioned directed us to one of Boubikir's fandaks, and by
+its gate, in a narrow lane, where camels jostled the camp-mules until they
+nearly foundered in the underlying filth, we found the celebrated man
+sitting within the porch, on an old packing-case.
+
+He looked up for a brief moment when the kaid dismounted and handed him my
+letter, and I saw a long, closely-shaven face, lighted by a pair of grey
+eyes that seemed much younger than the head in which they were set, and
+perfectly inscrutable. He read the letter, which was in Arabic, from end
+to end, and then gave me stately greeting.
+
+"You are very welcome," he said. "My house and all it holds are yours."
+
+I replied that we wanted nothing more than a modest shelter for the days
+of our sojourn in the city. He nodded.
+
+"Had you advised me of your visit in time," he said, "my best house should
+have been prepared. Now I will send with you my steward, who has the keys
+of all my houses. Choose which you will have." I thanked him, the steward
+appeared, a stout, well-favoured man, whose djellaba was finer than his
+master's. Sidi Boubikir pointed to certain keys, and at a word several
+servants gathered about us. The old man said that he rejoiced to serve the
+friend of his friends, and would look forward to seeing me during our
+stay. Then we followed into an ill-seeming lane, now growing dark with the
+fall of evening.
+
+We turned down an alley more muddy than the one just left behind, passed
+under an arch by a fruit stall with a covering of tattered palmetto,
+caught a brief glimpse of a mosque minaret, and heard the mueddin calling
+the Faithful to evening prayer. In the shadow of the mosque, at the corner
+of the high-walled lane, there was a heavy metal-studded door. The steward
+thrust a key into its lock, turned it, and we passed down a passage into
+an open patio. It was a silent place, beyond the reach of the street
+echoes; there were four rooms built round the patio on the ground floor,
+and three or four above. One side of the tower of the minaret was visible
+from the courtyard, but apart from that the place was nowhere overlooked.
+To be sure, it was very dirty, but I had an idea that the steward had
+brought his men out for business, not for an evening stroll, so I bade
+Salam assure him that this place, known to the Marrakshis as Dar al
+Kasdir,[19] would serve our purposes.
+
+A thundering knock at the gate announced a visitor, one of Sidi Boubikir's
+elder sons, a civil, kindly-looking Moor, whose face inspired confidence.
+Advised of our choice he suggested we should take a stroll while the men
+cleaned and prepared the patio and the rooms opening upon it. Then the
+mules, resting for the time in his father's fandak, would bring their
+burdens home, and we could enjoy our well-earned rest.
+
+[Illustration: ONE OF THE CITY GATES]
+
+We took this good counsel, and on our return an hour later, a very
+complete transformation had been effected. Palmetto brooms, and water
+brought from an adjacent well, had made the floor look clean and clear.
+The warmth of the air had dried everything, the pack-mules had been
+relieved of their load and sent back to the stable. Two little earthen
+braziers full of charcoal were glowing merrily under the influence of the
+bellows that M'Barak wielded skilfully, and two earthen jars of water with
+palm leaves for corks had been brought in by our host's servants. In
+another hour the camp beds were unpacked and made up, a rug was set on the
+bedroom floor, and the little table and chairs were put in the middle of
+the patio. From the alcove where Salam squatted behind the twin fires came
+the pleasant scent of supper; M'Barak, his well-beloved gun at his side,
+sat silent and thoughtful in another corner, and the tiny clay bowl of the
+Maalem's long wooden kief pipe was comfortably aglow.
+
+There was a timid knock at the door, the soldier opened it and admitted
+the shareef. I do not know his name nor whence he came, but he walked up
+to Salam, greeted him affectionately, and offered his services while we
+were in the city. Twenty years old perhaps, at an outside estimate, very
+tall and thin and poorly clad, the shareef was not the least interesting
+figure I met in Marrakesh. A shareef is a saint in Morocco as in every
+other country of Islam, and his title implies descent from Mohammed. He
+may be very poor indeed, but he is more or less holy, devout men kiss the
+hem of his djellaba, no matter how dirty or ragged it may be, and none may
+curse a shareef's ancestors, for the Prophet was one of them. His youthful
+holiness had known Salam in Fez, and had caught sight of him by Boubikir's
+fandak in the early afternoon. Salam, himself a chief in his own land,
+though fallen on evil days then and on worse ones since, welcomed the
+newcomer and brought his offer to me, adding the significant information
+that the young shareef, who was too proud to beg, had not tasted food in
+the past forty-eight hours. He had then owed a meal to some Moor, who,
+following a well-known custom, had set a bowl of food outside his house to
+conciliate devils. I accepted the proffered service, and had no occasion
+to regret my action. The young Moor was never in the way and never out of
+the way, he went cheerfully on errands to all parts of the city, fetched
+and carried without complaint, and yet never lost the splendid dignity
+that seemed to justify his claim to saintship.
+
+So we took our ease in the open patio, and the shareef's long fast was
+broken, and the stars came to the aid of our lanterns, and when supper was
+over I was well content to sit and smoke, while Salam, M'Barak, the
+Maalem, and the shareef sat silent round the glowing charcoal, perhaps too
+tired to talk. It was very pleasant to feel at home after two or three
+weeks under canvas below Mediunah and along the southern road.
+
+The Maalem rose at last, somewhat unsteadily after his debauch of kief. He
+moved to where our provisions were stocked and took oil and bread from the
+store. Then he sought the corner of the wall by the doorway and poured out
+a little oil and scattered crumbs, repeating the performance at the far
+end of the patio. This duty done, he bade Salam tell me that it was a
+peace-offering to the souls of the departed who had inhabited this house
+before we came to it. I apprehend they might have resented the presence of
+the Infidel had they not been soothed by the Maalem's little attention. He
+was ever a firm believer in djinoon, and exorcised them with unfailing
+regularity. The abuse he heaped on Satan must have added largely to the
+burden of sorrows under which we are assured the fallen angel carries out
+his appointed work. He had been profuse in his prayers and curses when we
+entered the barren pathway of the Little Hills behind the plains of
+Hillreeli, and there were times when I had felt quite sorry for Satan.
+Oblation offered to the house spirits, the Maalem asked for his money, the
+half due at the journey's end, sober enough, despite the kief, to count
+the dollars carefully, and make his farewell with courteous eloquence. I
+parted with him with no little regret, and look forward with keen pleasure
+to the day when I shall summon him once again from the bakehouse of
+Djedida to bring his mules and guide me over the open road, perchance to
+some destination more remote. I think he will come willingly, and that the
+journey will be a happy one. The shareef drew the heavy bolt behind the
+Maalem, and we sought our beds.
+
+It was a brief night's rest. The voice of the mueddin, chanting the call
+to prayer and the Shehad,[20] roused me again, refreshed. The night was
+passing; even as the sonorous voice of the unseen chanted his inspiring
+"Allah Akbar," it was yielding place to the moments when "the
+Wolf-tail[21] sweeps the paling east."
+
+I looked out of my little room that opened on to the patio. The arch of
+heaven was swept and garnished, and from "depths blown clear of cloud"
+great stars were shining whitely. The breeze of early morning stirred,
+penetrating our barred outer gates, and bringing a subtle fragrance from
+the beflowered groves that lie beyond the city. It had a freshness that
+demanded from one, in tones too seductive for denial, prompt action.
+Moreover, we had been rising before daylight for some days past in order
+that we might cover a respectable distance before the Enemy should begin
+to blaze intolerably above our heads, commanding us to seek the shade of
+some chance fig-tree or saint's tomb.
+
+So I roused Salam, and together we drew the creaking bolts, bringing the
+kaid to his feet with a jump. There was plenty of time for explanation,
+because he always carried his gun, at best a harmless weapon, in the old
+flannel case secured by half a dozen pieces of string, with knots that
+defied haste. He warned us not to go out, since the djinoon were always
+abroad in the streets before daylight; but, seeing our minds set, he
+bolted the door upon us, as though to keep them from the Dar al Kasdir,
+and probably returned to his slumbers.
+
+[Illustration: A BLIND BEGGAR]
+
+Beyond the house, in a faint glow that was already paling the stars, the
+African city, well-nigh a thousand years old, assumed its most mysterious
+aspect. The high walls on either side of the roads, innocent of casements
+as of glass, seemed, in the uncertain light, to be tinted with violet amid
+their dull grey. The silence was complete and weird. Never a cry from
+man or beast removed the first impression that this was a city of the
+dead. The entrances of the bazaars in the Kaisariyah, to which we turned,
+were barred and bolted, their guardians sat motionless, covered in white
+djellabas, that looked like shrouds. The city's seven gates were fast
+closed, though doubtless there were long files of camels and market men
+waiting patiently without. The great mansions of the wazeers and the
+green-tiled palace of Mulai Abd-el-Aziz--Our Victorious Master the
+Sultan--seemed unsubstantial as one of those cities that the mirage had
+set before us in the heart of the R'hamna plains. Salam, the untutored man
+from the far Riff country, felt the spell of the silent morning hour. It
+was a primitive appeal, to which he responded instantly, moving quietly by
+my side without a word.
+
+"O my masters, give charity; Allah helps helpers!" A blind beggar, sitting
+by the gate, like Bartimaeus of old, thrust his withered hand before me.
+Lightly though we had walked, his keen ear had known the difference in
+sound between the native slipper and the European boot. It had roused him
+from his slumbers, and he had calculated the distance so nicely that the
+hand, suddenly shot out, was well within reach of mine. Salam, my almoner,
+gave him a handful of the copper money, called _floos_, of which a score
+may be worth a penny, and he sank back in his uneasy seat with voluble
+thanks, not to us, but to Allah the One, who had been pleased to move us
+to work his will. To me no thanks were due. I was no more than Allah's
+unworthy medium, condemned to burn in fires seven times heated, for
+unbelief.
+
+From their home on the flat house-tops two storks rose suddenly, as though
+to herald the dawn; the sun became visible above the city's time-worn
+walls, and turned their colouring from violet to gold. We heard the guards
+drawing the bars of the gate that is called Bab al Khamees, and knew that
+the daily life of Marrakesh had begun. The great birds might have given
+the signal that woke the town to activity.
+
+Straightway men and beasts made their way through the narrow cobbled
+lanes. Sneering camels, so bulked out by their burdens that a
+foot-passenger must shrink against the wall to avoid a bad bruising;
+well-fed horses, carrying some early-rising Moor of rank on the top of
+seven saddle-cloths; half-starved donkeys, all sores and bruises; one
+encountered every variety of Moorish traffic here, and the thoroughfare,
+that had been deserted a moment before, was soon thronged. In addition to
+the Moors and Susi traders, there were many slaves, black as coal, brought
+in times past from the Soudan. From garden and orchard beyond the city the
+fruit and flowers and vegetables were being carried into their respective
+markets, and as they passed the air grew suddenly fragrant with a scent
+that was almost intoxicating. The garbage that lay strewn over the cobbles
+had no more power to offend, and the fresh scents added in some queer
+fashion of their own to the unreality of the whole scene.
+
+To avoid the crush we turned to another quarter of the city, noting that
+the gates of the bazaars were opened, and that only the chains were left
+across the entrance. But the tiny shops, mere overgrown packing-cases,
+were still locked up; the merchants, who are of higher rank than the
+dealers in food-stuffs, seldom appear before the day is aired, and their
+busiest hours are in the afternoon, when the auction is held. "Custom is
+from Allah," they say, and, strong in this belief, they hold that time is
+only valuable as leisure. And, God wot, they may well be wiser herein than
+we are.
+
+A demented countryman, respected as a saint by reason of his madness, a
+thing of rags and tatters and woefully unkempt hair, a quite wild
+creature, more than six feet high, and gaunt as a lightning-smitten pine,
+came down the deserted bazaar of the brass-workers. He carried a long
+staff in one hand, a bright tin bowl in the other. The sight of a European
+heightened his usual frenzy--
+
+        Across his sea of mind
+    A thought came streaming like a blazing ship
+        Upon a mighty wind.
+
+I saw the sinews stand out on the bare arm that gripped the staff, and his
+bright eyes were soon fixed upon me. "You do not say words to him, sir,"
+whispered Salam; "he do'n know what he do--he very holy man."
+
+The madman spat on my shadow, and cursed profoundly, while his passion was
+mastering him. I noted with interest in that uncomfortable moment the
+clear signs of his epileptic tendencies, the twitching of the thumb that
+grasped the stick, the rigidity of the body, the curious working of
+certain facial muscles. I stood perfectly still, though my right hand
+involuntarily sought the pocket of my coat where my revolver lay, the use
+of which save in direst necessity had been a mad and wicked act; and then
+two peace-loving Moors, whose blue selhams of fine Manchester cloth
+proclaimed their wealth and station, came forward and drew the frenzied
+creature away, very gently and persuasively. He, poor wretch, did not know
+what was taking place, but moved helplessly to the door of the bazaar and
+then fell, his fit upon him. I hurried on. Moors are kindly, as well as
+respectful, to those afflicted of Allah.
+
+We passed on our way to the Bab Dukala, the gate that opens out upon
+Elhara, the leper quarter. There we caught our morning view of the forest
+of date-palm that girdles the town. Moors say that in centuries long past
+Marrakesh was besieged by the men of Tafilalt, who brought dates for food,
+and cast the stones on the ground. The rain buried them, the Tensift
+nourished them, and to-day they crowd round Ibn Tachfin's ruinous city,
+'their feet in water and their heads in fire.' 'Tis an agreeable legend.
+
+[Illustration: A WANDERING MINSTREL]
+
+Market men, half naked and very lean, were coming in from Tamsloht and
+Amsmiz, guiding their heavy-laden donkeys past the crumbling walls and the
+steep valley that separates Elhara from the town. Some scores of lepers
+had left their quarters, a few hiding terrible disfigurement under
+great straw hats, others quite careless of their deplorable disease.
+Beggars all, they were going on their daily journey to the shrine of Sidi
+bel Abbas, patron of the destitute, to sit there beneath the zowia's ample
+walls, hide their heads in their rags, and cry upon the passers to
+remember them for the sake of the saint who had their welfare so much at
+heart. And with the closing of the day they would be driven out of the
+city, and back into walled Elhara, to such of the mud huts as they called
+home. Long acquaintance with misery had made them careless of it. They
+shuffled along as though they were going to work, but from my shaded
+corner, where I could see without being seen, I noted no sign of converse
+between them, and every face that could be studied was stamped with the
+impress of unending misery.
+
+The scene around us was exquisite. Far away one saw the snow-capped peaks
+of the Atlas; hawks and swallows sailed to and from Elhara's walls; doves
+were cooing in the orchards, bee-eaters flitted lightly amid the palms. I
+found myself wondering if the lepers ever thought to contrast their lives
+with their surroundings, and I trusted they did not. Some few, probably,
+had not been lepers, but criminals, who preferred the horrid liberty of
+Elhara to the chance of detection and the living death of the Hib Misbah.
+Other beggars were not really lepers, but suffered from one or other of
+the kindred diseases that waste Morocco. In Marrakesh the native doctors
+are not on any terms with skilled diagnosis, and once a man ventures into
+Elhara, he acquires a reputation for leprosy that serves his purpose. I
+remember inquiring of a Moorish doctor the treatment of a certain native's
+case. "Who shall arrest Allah's decree?" he began modestly. And he went on
+to say that the best way to treat an open wound was to put powdered
+sulphur upon it, and apply a light.[22] Horrible as this remedy seems, the
+worthy doctor believed in it, and had sent many a True Believer
+to--Paradise, I hope--by treating him on these lines. Meanwhile his
+profound confidence in himself, together with his knowledge and free use
+of the Koran, kept hostile criticism at bay.[23]
+
+We turned back into the city, to see it in another aspect. The rapid rise
+of the sun had called the poorer workers to their daily tasks; buyers were
+congregating round the market stalls of the dealers in meat, bread,
+vegetables, and fruit. With perpetual grace to Allah for his gift of
+custom, the stall-keepers were parting with their wares at prices far
+below anything that rules even in the coast towns of the Sultan's country.
+The absence of my Lord Abd-el-Aziz and his court had tended to lower rates
+considerably. It was hard to realise that, while food cost so little,
+there were hundreds of men, women, and children within the city to whom
+one good meal a day was something almost unknown. Yet this was certainly
+the case.
+
+Towering above the other buyers were the trusted slaves of the wazeers in
+residence--tall negroes from the far South for the most part--hideous men,
+whose black faces were made the more black by contrast with their white
+robes. They moved with a certain sense of dignity and pride through the
+ranks of the hungry freemen round them; clearly they were well contented
+with their lot--a curious commentary upon the European notions of
+slavery--based, to be sure, upon European methods in regard to it. The
+whole formed a marvellous picture, and how the pink roses, the fresh,
+green mint and thyme, the orange flowers and other blossoms, sweetened the
+narrow ways, garbage-strewn under foot and roofed overhead with dried
+leaves of the palm!
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[17] "Moghreb-al-Acksa."
+
+[18] Street cleaners are paid out of the proceeds of a tax derived from
+the slaughter of cattle, and the tax is known to Moorish butchers by a
+term signifying "_floos_ of the throat."
+
+[19] _I.e._ The Tin House.
+
+[20] Declaration of Faith.
+
+[21] The false dawn.
+
+[22] The Sultan Mulaz-Abd-el-Aziz was once treated for persistent headache
+by a Moorish practitioner. The wise man's medicine exploded suddenly, and
+His Majesty had a narrow escape. I do not know whether the practitioner
+was equally fortunate.
+
+[23] The doctors and magicians of Morocco have always been famous
+throughout the East. Nearly all the medicine men of the _Thousand Nights
+and a Night_ including the uncle of Aladdin, are from the Moghreb.
+
+
+
+
+ROUND ABOUT MARRAKESH
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: THE ROOFS OF MARRAKESH]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+ROUND ABOUT MARRAKESH
+
+    "Speaking of thee comforts me, and thinking of thee makes me glad."
+
+    --_Raod el Kartas._
+
+
+The charm of Marrakesh comes slowly to the traveller, but it stays with
+him always, and colours his impressions of such other cities as may
+attract his wandering footsteps. So soon as he has left the plains behind
+on his way to the coast, the town's defects are relegated to the
+background of the picture his memory paints. He forgets the dirty lanes
+that serve for roads, the heaps of refuse at every corner, the pariah curs
+that howled or snapped at his horse's heels when he rode abroad, the
+roughness and discomfort of the accommodation, the poverty and disease
+that everywhere went hand in hand around him.
+
+But he remembers and always will remember the city in its picturesque
+aspects. How can he forget Moorish hospitality, so lavishly exercised in
+patios where the hands of architect and gardener meet--those delightful
+gatherings of friends whose surroundings are recalled when he sees, even
+in the world of the West--
+
+    Groups under the dreaming garden trees,
+    And the full moon, and the white evening star.
+
+He will never forget the Kutubia tower flanking the mosque of the Library,
+with its three glittering balls that are solid gold, if you care to
+believe the Moors (and who should know better!), though the European
+authorities declare they are but gilded copper. He will hear, across all
+intervening sea and lands, the sonorous voices of the three blind mueddins
+who call True Believers to prayer from the adjacent minarets. By the side
+of the tower, that is a landmark almost from R'hamna's far corner to the
+Atlas Mountains, Yusuf ibn Tachfin, who built Marrakesh, enjoys his long,
+last sleep in a grave unnoticed and unhonoured by the crowds of men from
+strange, far-off lands, who pass it every day. Yet, if the conqueror of
+Fez and troubler of Spain could rise from nine centuries of rest, he would
+find but little change in the city he set on the red plain in the shadow
+of the mountains. The walls of his creation remain: even the broken bridge
+over the river dates, men say, from his time, and certainly the faith and
+works of the people have not altered greatly. Caravans still fetch and
+carry from Fez in the north to Timbuctoo and the banks of the Niger, or
+reach the Bab-er-rubb with gold and ivory and slaves from the eastern
+oases, that France has almost sealed up. The saints' houses are there
+still, though the old have yielded to the new. Storks are privileged, as
+from earliest times, to build on the flat roofs of the city houses, and,
+therefore, are still besought by amorous natives to carry love's greeting
+to the women who take their airing on the house-tops in the afternoon.
+Berber from the highlands; black man from the Draa; wiry, lean, enduring
+trader from Tarudant and other cities of the Sus; patient frugal Saharowi
+from the sea of sand,--no one of them has altered greatly since the days
+of the renowned Yusuf. And who but he among the men who built great cities
+in days before Saxon and Norman had met at Senlac, could look to find his
+work so little scarred by time, or disguised by change? Twelve miles of
+rampart surround the city still, if we include the walls that guard the
+Sultan's maze garden, and seven of the many gates Ibn Tachfin knew are
+swung open to the dawn of each day now.
+
+After the Library mosque, with its commanding tower and modest yet
+memorable tomb, the traveller remembers the Sultan's palace, white-walled,
+green-tiled, vast, imposing; and the lesser mosque of Sidi bel Abbas, to
+whom the beggars pray, for it is said of him that he knew God. The city's
+hospital stands beside this good man's grave. And here one pays tribute
+also to great Mulai Abd el Kader Ijjilalli, yet another saint whose name
+is very piously invoked among the poor. The mosque by the Dukala gate is
+worthy of note, and earns the salutation of all who come by way of R'hamna
+to Marrakesh. The Kaisariyah lingers in the memory, and on hot days in the
+plains, when shade is far to seek, one recalls a fine fountain with the
+legend "drink and admire," where the water-carriers fill their goat-skins
+and all beggars congregate during the hours of fire.
+
+The Mellah, in which the town Jews live, is reached by way of the Olive
+Garden. It is the dirtiest part of Marrakesh, and, all things considered,
+the least interesting. The lanes that run between its high walls are full
+of indescribable filth; comparison with them makes the streets of Madinah
+and Kasbah almost clean. One result of the dirt is seen in the prevalence
+of a very virulent ophthalmia, from which three out of four of the
+Mellah's inhabitants seem to suffer, slightly or seriously. Few adults
+appear to take exercise, unless they are called abroad to trade, and when
+business is in a bad way the misery is very real indeed. A skilled workman
+is pleased to earn the native equivalent of fourteenpence for a day's
+labour, beginning at sunrise, and on this miserable pittance he can
+support a wife and family. Low wages and poor living, added to centuries
+of oppression, have made the Morocco Jew of the towns a pitiable creature;
+but on the hills, particularly among the Atlas villages, the People of the
+Book are healthy, athletic, and resourceful, able to use hands as well as
+head, and the trusted intermediary between Berber hillman and town Moor.
+
+[Illustration: A GATEWAY, MARRAKESH]
+
+Being of the ancient race myself, I was received in several of the
+show-houses of the Mellah--places whose splendid interiors were not at all
+suggested by the squalid surroundings in which they were set. This is
+typical to some extent of all houses in Morocco, even in the coast towns,
+and greatly misleads the globe-trotter. There was a fine carving and
+colouring in many rooms, but the European furniture was, for the most
+part, wrongly used, and at best grotesquely out of place. Hygiene has
+not passed within the Mellah's walls, but a certain amount of Western
+tawdriness has. Patriarchal Jews of good stature and commanding presence
+had their dignity hopelessly spoilt by the big blue spotted handkerchief
+worn over the head and tied under the chin; Jewesses in rich apparel
+seemed quite content with the fineness within their houses, and
+indifferent to the mire of the streets.
+
+I visited three synagogues, one in a private house. The approaches were in
+every case disgusting, but the synagogues themselves were well kept, very
+old, and decorated with rare and curious memorial lamps, kept alight for
+the dead through the year of mourning. The benches were of wood, with
+straw mats for cover; there was no place for women, and the seats
+themselves seemed to be set down without attempt at arrangement. The
+brasswork was old and fine, the scrolls of the Law were very ancient, but
+there was no sign of wealth, and little decoration. In the courtyard of
+the chief synagogue I found school-work in progress. Half a hundred
+intelligent youngsters were repeating the master's words, just as
+Mohammedan boys were doing in the Madinah, but even among these little
+ones ophthalmia was playing havoc, and doubtless the disease would pass
+from the unsound to the sound. Cleanliness would stamp out this trouble in
+a very little time, and preserve healthy children from infection.
+Unfortunately, the administration of this Mellah is exceedingly bad, and
+there is no reason to believe that it will improve.
+
+When the Elevated Court is at Marrakesh the demand for work helps the
+Jewish quarter to thrive, but since the Sultan went to Fez the heads of
+the Mellah seem to be reluctant to lay out even a few shillings daily to
+have the place kept clean. There are no statistics to tell the price that
+is paid in human life for this shocking neglect of the elementary
+decencies, but it must be a heavy one.
+
+Business premises seem clean enough, though the approach to them could
+hardly be less inviting. You enter a big courtyard, and, if wise, remain
+on your horse until well clear of the street. The courtyard is wide and
+cared for, an enlarged edition of a patio, with big store-rooms on either
+side and stabling or a granary. Here also is a bureau, in which the master
+sits in receipt of custom, and deals in green tea that has come from India
+via England, and white sugar in big loaves, and coffee and other
+merchandise. He is buyer and seller at once, now dealing with a native who
+wants tea, and now with an Atlas Jew who has an ouadad skin or a rug to
+sell; now talking Shilha, the language of the Berbers, now the Moghrebbin
+Arabic of the Moors, and again debased Spanish or Hebrew with his own
+brethren. He has a watchful eye for all the developments that the day may
+bring, and while attending to buyer or seller can take note of all his
+servants are doing at the stores, and what is going out or coming in. Your
+merchant of the better class has commercial relations with Manchester or
+Liverpool; he has visited England and France; perhaps some olive-skinned,
+black-eyed boy of his has been sent to an English school to get the wider
+views of life and faith, and return to the Mellah to shock his father with
+both, and to be shocked in turn by much in the home life that passed
+uncriticised before. These things lead to domestic tragedies at times, and
+yet neither son nor father is quite to blame.
+
+The best class of Jew in the Mellah has ideas and ideals, but outside the
+conduct of his business he lacks initiative. He believes most firmly in
+the future of the Jewish race, the ultimate return to Palestine, the
+advent of the Messiah. Immersed in these beliefs, he does not see dirt
+collecting in the streets and killing little children with the diseases it
+engenders. Gradually the grime settles on his faith too, and he loses
+sight of everything save commercial ends and the observances that
+orthodoxy demands. His, one fears, is a quite hopeless case. The attention
+of philanthropy might well turn to the little ones, however. For their
+sake some of the material benefits of modern knowledge should be brought
+to Jewry in Marrakesh. Schools are excellent, but children cannot live by
+school learning alone.
+
+Going from the Mellah one morning I saw a strange sight. By the entrance
+to the salted place there is a piece of bare ground stretching to the
+wall. Here sundry young Jews in black djellabas sat at their ease, their
+long hair curled over their ears, and black caps on their heads in place
+of the handkerchiefs favoured by the elders of the community. One or two
+women were coming from the Jewish market, their bright dresses and
+uncovered faces a pleasing contrast to the white robes and featureless
+aspect of the Moorish women. A little Moorish boy, seeing me regard them
+with interest, remarked solemnly, "There go those who will never look upon
+the face of God's prophet," and then a shareef, whose portion in Paradise
+was of course reserved to him by reason of his high descent, rode into the
+open ground from the Madinah. I regret to record the fact that the holy
+man was drunk, whether upon haschisch or the strong waters of the infidel,
+I know not, and to all outward seeming his holiness alone sufficed to keep
+him on the back of the spirited horse he bestrode. He went very near to
+upsetting a store of fresh vegetables belonging to a True Believer, and
+then nearly crushed an old man against the wall. He raised his voice, but
+not to pray, and the people round him were in sore perplexity. He was too
+holy to remove by force and too drunk to persuade, so the crowd, realising
+that he was divinely directed, raised a sudden shout. This served. The
+hot-blooded Barb made a rush for the arcade leading to the Madinah and
+carried the drunken saint with him, cursing at the top of his voice, but
+sticking to his unwieldy saddle in manner that was admirable and truly
+Moorish. If he had not been holy he would have been torn from his horse,
+and, in native speech, would have "eaten the stick," for drunkenness is a
+grave offence in orthodox Morocco.
+
+[Illustration: A COURTYARD, MARRAKESH]
+
+They have a short way with offenders in Moorish cities. I remember
+seeing a man brought to the Kasbah of a northern town on a charge of using
+false measures. The case was held proven by the khalifa; the culprit was
+stripped to the waist, mounted on a lame donkey, and driven through the
+streets, while two stalwart soldiers, armed with sticks, beat him until he
+dropped to the ground. He was picked up more dead than alive, and thrown
+into prison.
+
+There are two sorts of market in Marrakesh--the open market outside the
+walls, and the auction market in the Kaisariyah. The latter opens in the
+afternoon, by which time every little boxlike shop is tenanted by its
+proprietor. How he climbs into his place without upsetting his stores, and
+how, arrived there, he can sit for hours without cramp, are questions I
+have never been able to answer, though I have watched him scores of times.
+He comes late in the day to his shop, lets down one of the covering flaps,
+and takes his seat by the step inside it. The other flap has been raised
+and is kept up by a stick. Seated comfortably, he looks with dispassionate
+eye upon the gathering stream of life before him, and waits contentedly
+until it shall please Allah the One to send custom. Sometimes he occupies
+his time by reading in the Perspicuous Book; on rare occasions he will
+leave his little nest and make dignified way to the shop of an adool or
+scribe, who reads pious writings to a select company of devotees. In this
+way the morning passes, and in the afternoon the mart becomes crowded,
+country Moors riding right up to the entrance chains, and leaving their
+mules in the charge of slaves who have accompanied them on foot. Town
+buyers and country buyers, with a miscellaneous gathering of tribesmen
+from far-off districts, fill the bazaar, and then the merchants hand
+certain goods to dilals, as the auctioneers are called. The crowd divides
+on either side of the bazaar, leaving a narrow lane down the centre, and
+the dilals rush up and down with their wares,--linen, cotton and silk
+goods, carpets, skins or brassware, native daggers and pistols, saddles
+and saddle-cloths. The goods vary in every bazaar. The dilal announces the
+last price offered; a man who wishes to buy must raise it, and, if none
+will go better, he secures the bargain. A commission on all goods sold is
+taken at the door of the market by the municipal authorities. I notice on
+these afternoons the different aspects of the three classes represented in
+the bazaar. Shopkeepers and the officials by the gate display no interest
+at all in the proceedings: they might be miles from the scene, so far as
+their attitude is a clue. The dilals, on the other hand, are in furious
+earnest. They run up and down the narrow gangway proclaiming the last
+price at the top of their voices, thrusting the goods eagerly into the
+hands of possible purchasers, and always remembering the face and position
+of the man who made the last bid. They have a small commission on the
+price of everything sold, and assuredly they earn their wage. In contrast
+with the attitudes of both shopkeepers and auctioneers, the general public
+is inclined to regard the bazaar as a place of entertainment. Beggar lads,
+whose scanty rags constitute their sole possession, chaff the excited
+dilals, keeping carefully out of harm's way the while. Three-fourths of
+the people present are there to idle the afternoon hours, with no
+intention of making a purchase unless some unexpected bargain crosses
+their path. I notice that the dilals secure several of these doubtful
+purchasers by dint of fluent and eloquent appeals. When the last article
+has been sold and the crowd is dispersing, merchants arise, praise Allah,
+who in his wisdom sends good days and bad, step out of their shop, let
+down one flap and raise the other, lock the two with a huge key and retire
+to their homes.
+
+I remember asking a Moor to explain why the Jews were so ill-treated and
+despised all over Morocco. The worthy man explained that the Koran
+declares that no True Believer might take Jew or Christian to be his
+friend, that the Veracious Book also assures the Faithful that Jews will
+be turned to pigs or monkeys for their unbelief, and that the
+metamorphosis will be painful. "Moreover," said the True Believer, who did
+not know that I was of the despised race, "do you not know that one of
+these cursed people tried to seize the throne in the time of the great
+Tafilatta?"
+
+I pleaded ignorance.
+
+"Do you not know the Feast of Scribes, that is held in Marrakesh and Fez?"
+he asked.
+
+Again I had to make confession that, though I had heard about the Feast, I
+had never witnessed it.
+
+"Only Allah is omniscient," he said by way of consolation. "Doubtless
+there are some small matters known to Nazarenes and withheld from
+us--strange though that may seem to the thoughtful.
+
+"In the name of the Most Merciful--know that there was a ruler in Taza
+before Mulai Ismail--Prince of the Faithful, he who overcame in the name
+of God--reigned in the land. Now this ruler[24] had a Jew for wazeer. When
+it pleased Allah to take the Sultan and set him in the pavilion of Mother
+of Pearl appointed for him in Paradise, in the shadow of the Tuba tree,
+this Jew hid his death from the people until he could seize the throne of
+Taza for himself and ride out under the M'dhal.[25] Then Mulai Ismail
+protested to the people, and the Tolba (scribes) arranged to remove the
+reproach from the land. So they collected forty of their bravest men and
+packed them in boxes--one man in a box. They put two boxes on a mule and
+drove the twenty mules to the courtyard of the palace that the Jew had
+taken for himself. The man in charge of the mules declared he had a
+present for the Sultan, and the Unbeliever, whose grave was to be the
+meeting-place of all the dogs of Taza, gave orders that the boxes should
+be brought in and set before him. This was done, and the cursed Jew
+prepared to gloat over rich treasure. But as each box was opened a talib
+rose suddenly, a naked sword in his hand, and falling bravely upon the
+unbelieving one, cut his body to pieces, while Shaitan hurried his soul to
+the furnace that is seven times heated and shall never cool.
+
+[Illustration: WELL IN MARRAKESH]
+
+"Then the Father of the Faithful, the Ever Victorious," continued the True
+Believer, "decreed that the tolba should have a festival. And every year
+they meet in Marrakesh and Fez, and choose a talib who is to rule over
+them. The post is put up to auction; he who bids highest is Sultan for a
+week. He rides abroad on a fine horse or mule, under a M'dhal, as though
+he were indeed My Lord Abd-el-Aziz himself. Black slaves on either side
+brush away the flies with their white clothes, soldiers await to do his
+bidding, he is permitted to make a request to the true Sultan, and our
+Master has open ear and full hand for the tolba, who kept the Moghreb from
+the Unbelievers, the inheritors of the Fire, against whom Sidna Mohammed
+has turned his face."
+
+I arrived in Marrakesh just too late to witness the reign of the talib,
+but I heard that the successful candidate had paid thirty-two dollars for
+the post--a trifle less than five pounds in our money, at the rate of
+exchange then current. This money had been divided among the tolba. The
+governor of Marrakesh had given the lucky king one hundred dollars in
+cash, thirty sheep, twenty-five cones of sugar, forty jars of butter, and
+several sacks of flour. This procedure is peculiar to the Southern
+capital. In Fez the tolba kings collect taxes in person from every
+householder.
+
+The talib's petition to the Sultan had been framed on a very liberal
+scale. He asked for a home in Saffi, exemption from taxes, and a place in
+the custom-house. The Sultan had not responded to the petition when I left
+the city; he was closely beleaguered in Fez, and Bu Hamara was occupying
+Taza, the ancient city where the deed of the tolba had first instituted
+the quaint custom. My informant said there was little doubt but that his
+Shareefian majesty would grant all the requests, so the talib's investment
+of thirty-two dollars must be deemed highly profitable. At the same time I
+cannot find the story I was told confirmed by Moorish historians. No
+record to which I have had access tells of a Jewish king of Taza, though
+there was a Hebrew in high favour there in the time of Rasheed II. The
+details of the story told me are, as the American scribe said, probably
+attributable to Mr. Benjamin Trovato.
+
+When the attractions of Kaisariyah palled, the markets beyond the walls
+never failed to revive interest in the city's life. The Thursday market
+outside the Bab al Khamees brought together a very wonderful crowd of men
+and goods. All the city's trade in horses, camels, and cattle was done
+here. The caravan traders bought or hired their camels, and there were
+fine animals for sale with one fore and one hind leg hobbled, to keep them
+from straying. The camels were always the most interesting beasts on view.
+For the most part their attendants were Saharowi, who could control them
+seemingly by voice or movement of the hand; but a camel needs no little
+care, particularly at feeding time, when he is apt to turn spiteful if
+precedence be given to an animal he does not like. They are marvellously
+touchy and fastidious creatures--quite childlike in many of their
+peculiarities.
+
+[Illustration: A BAZAAR, MARRAKESH]
+
+The desert caravan trade is not what it was since the French occupied
+Timbuctoo and closed the oases of Tuat; but I saw some caravans arrive
+from the interior--one of them from the sandy region where Mons. Lebaudy
+has set up his kingdom. How happy men and beasts seemed to be. I never saw
+camels looking so contented: the customary sneer had passed from their
+faces--or accumulated dust had blotted it out. On the day when the market
+is held in the open place beyond the Bab al Khamees, there is another big
+gathering within the city walls by the Jamaa Effina. Here acrobats and
+snake-charmers and story-tellers ply their trade, and never fail to find
+an audience. The acrobats come from Tarudant and another large city of the
+Sus that is not marked in the British War Office Map of Morocco dated
+1889! Occasionally one of these clever tumblers finds his way to London,
+and is seen at the music halls there.
+
+I remember calling on one Hadj Abdullah when I was in the North, and to my
+surprise he told me he spoke English, French, German, Spanish, Turkish,
+Moghrebbin Arabic, and Shilha. "I know London well," he said; "I have an
+engagement to bring my troupe of acrobats to the _Canterbury_ and the
+_Oxford_. I am a member of a Masonic Lodge in Camberwell." Commonplace
+enough all this, but when you have ridden out of town to a little Moorish
+house on the hillside overlooking the Mediterranean, and are drinking
+green tea flavoured with mint, on a diwan that must be used with crossed
+legs, you hardly expect the discussion to be turned to London music-halls.
+
+Snake-charmers make a strong appeal to the untutored Moorish crowd. Black
+cobras and spotted leffa snakes from the Sus are used for the performance.
+When the charmer allows the snakes to dart at him or even to bite, the
+onlookers put their hands to their foreheads and praise Sidi ben Aissa, a
+saint who lived in Mequinez when Mulai Ismail ruled, a pious magician
+whose power stands even to-day between snake-charmers and sudden death.
+The musician who accompanies the chief performer, and collects the _floos_
+offered by spectators, works his companion into a condition of frenzy
+until he does not seem to feel the teeth of the snakes; but as people who
+should be well informed declare that the poison bags are always removed
+before the snakes are used for exhibition, it is hard for the mere
+Unbeliever to render to Sidi ben Aissa the exact amount of credit that may
+be due to him.
+
+[Illustration: A BRICKFIELD, MARRAKESH]
+
+The story-teller, whose legends are to be found in the "Thousand Nights
+and a Night," is generally a merry rogue with ready wit. His tales are
+told with a wealth of detail that would place them upon the index
+expurgatorius of the Western world, but men, women, and children crowd
+round to hear them, and if his tale lacks the ingredients most desired
+they do not hesitate to tell him so, whereupon he will respond at once to
+his critics, and add love or war in accordance with their instructions.
+One has heard of something like this in the serial market at home. His
+reward is scanty, like that of his fellow-workers, the acrobat and the
+snake charmer, but he has quite a professional manner, and stops at the
+most exciting points in his narrative for his companion to make a tour of
+the circle to collect fees. The quality of the adventures he retails is
+settled always by the price paid for them.
+
+It is a strange sight, and unpleasant to the European, who believes that
+his morality, like his faith, is the only genuine article, to see young
+girls with antimony on their eyelids and henna on their nails, listening
+to stories that only the late Sir Richard Burton dared to render literally
+into the English tongue. While these children are young and impressionable
+they are allowed to run wild, but from the day when they become
+self-conscious they are strictly secluded.
+
+Throughout Marrakesh one notes a spirit of industry. If a man has work, he
+seems to be happy and well content. Most traders are very courteous and
+gentle in their dealings, and many have a sense of humour that cannot fail
+to please. While in the city I ordered one or two lamps from a workman who
+had a little shop in the Madinah. He asked for three days, and on the
+evening of the third day I went to fetch them, in company with Salam. The
+workman, who had made them himself, drew the lamps one by one from a dark
+corner, and Salam, who has a hawk's eye, noticed that the glass of one was
+slightly cracked.
+
+"Have a care, O Father of Lamps," he said; "the Englishman will not take a
+cracked glass."
+
+"What is this," cried the Lamps' Father in great anger, "who sells cracked
+lamps? If there is a flaw in one of mine, ask me for two dollars."
+
+Salam held the lamp with cracked glass up against the light. "Two
+dollars," he said briefly. The tradesman's face fell. He put his tongue
+out and smote it with his open hand.
+
+"Ah," he said mournfully, when he had admonished the unruly member, "who
+can set a curb upon the tongue?"[26]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[24] Mulai Rashed II.
+
+[25] The royal umbrella.
+
+[26] Cf. James iii. 8. But for a mere matter of dates, one would imagine
+that Luther detected the taint of Islam in James when he rejected his
+Epistle.
+
+
+
+
+THE SLAVE MARKET AT MARRAKESH
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: A MOSQUE, MARRAKESH]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE SLAVE MARKET AT MARRAKESH
+
+    As to your slaves, see that ye feed them with such food as ye eat
+    yourselves, and clothe them with the stuff ye wear. And if they commit
+    a fault which ye are not willing to forgive, then sell them, for they
+    are the servants of Allah, and are not to be tormented.
+
+    --_Mohammed's last Address._
+
+
+In the bazaars of the brass-workers and dealers in cotton goods, in the
+bazaars of the saddlers and of the leather-sellers,--in short, throughout
+the Kaisariyah, where the most important trade of Marrakesh is carried
+on,--the auctions of the afternoon are drawing to a close. The dilals have
+carried goods to and fro in a narrow path between two lines of True
+Believers, obtaining the best prices possible on behalf of the dignified
+merchants, who sit gravely in their boxlike shops beyond the reach of
+toil. No merchant seeks custom: he leaves the auctioneers to sell for him
+on commission, while he sits at ease, a stranger to elation or
+disappointment, in the knowledge that the success or failure of the day's
+market is decreed. Many articles have changed hands, but there is now a
+greater attraction for men with money outside the limited area of the
+Kaisariyah, and I think the traffic here passes before its time.
+
+The hour of the sunset prayer is approaching. The wealthier members of the
+community leave many attractive bargains unpursued, and, heedless of the
+dilals' frenzied cries, set out for the Sok el Abeed. Wool market in the
+morning and afternoon, it becomes the slave market on three days of the
+week, in the two hours that precede the setting of the sun and the closing
+of the city gates; this is the rule that holds in Red Marrakesh.
+
+I follow the business leaders through a very labyrinth of narrow, unpaved
+streets, roofed here and there with frayed and tattered palmetto-leaves
+that offer some protection, albeit a scanty one, against the blazing sun.
+At one of the corners where the beggars congregate and call for alms in
+the name of Mulai Abd el Kader Ijjilalli, I catch a glimpse of the great
+Kutubia tower, with pigeons circling round its glittering dome, and then
+the maze of streets, shutting out the view, claims me again. The path is
+by way of shops containing every sort of merchandise known to Moors, and
+of stalls of fruit and vegetables, grateful "as water-grass to herds in
+the June days." Past a turning in the crowded thoroughfare, where many
+Southern tribesmen are assembled, and heavily-laden camels compel
+pedestrians to go warily, the gate of the slave market looms portentous.
+
+A crowd of penniless idlers, to whom admittance is denied, clamours
+outside the heavy door, while the city urchins fight for the privilege of
+holding the mules of wealthy Moors, who are arriving in large numbers in
+response to the report that the household of a great wazeer, recently
+disgraced, will be offered for sale. One sees portly men of the city
+wearing the blue cloth selhams that bespeak wealth, country Moors who
+boast less costly garments, but ride mules of easy pace and heavy price,
+and one or two high officials of the Dar el Makhzan. All classes of the
+wealthy are arriving rapidly, for the sale will open in a quarter of an
+hour.
+
+The portals passed, unchallenged, the market stands revealed--an open
+space of bare, dry ground, hemmed round with tapia walls, dust-coloured,
+crumbling, ruinous. Something like an arcade stretches across the centre
+of the ground from one side to the other of the market. Roofless now and
+broken down, as is the outer wall itself, and the sheds, like cattle pens,
+that are built all round, it was doubtless an imposing structure in days
+of old. Behind the outer walls the town rises on every side. I see mules
+and donkeys feeding, apparently on the ramparts, but really in a fandak
+overlooking the market. The minaret of a mosque rises nobly beside the
+mules' feeding-ground, and beyond there is the white tomb of a saint, with
+swaying palm trees round it. Doubtless this zowia gives the Sok el Abeed a
+sanctity that no procedure within its walls can besmirch; and, to be sure,
+the laws of the saint's religion are not so much outraged here as in the
+daily life of many places more sanctified by popular opinion.
+
+On the ground, by the side of the human cattle pens, the wealthy patrons
+of the market seat themselves at their ease, arrange their djellabas and
+selhams in leisurely fashion, and begin to chat, as though the place were
+the smoking-room of a club. Water-carriers--lean, half-naked men from the
+Sus--sprinkle the thirsty ground, that the tramp of slaves and auctioneers
+may not raise too much dust. Watching them as they go about their work,
+with the apathy born of custom and experience, I have a sudden reminder of
+the Spanish bull-ring, to which the slave market bears some remote
+resemblance. The gathering of spectators, the watering of the ground, the
+sense of excitement, all strengthen the impression. There are no bulls in
+the _torils_, but there are slaves in the pens. It may be that the bulls
+have the better time. Their sufferings in life are certainly brief, and
+their careless days are very long drawn out. But I would not give the
+impression that the spectators here are assembled for amusement, or that
+my view of some of their proceedings would be comprehensible to them.
+However I may feel, the other occupants of this place are here in the
+ordinary course of business, and are certainly animated by no such fierce
+passions as thrill through the air of a plaza de toros. I am in the East
+but of the West, and "never the twain shall meet."
+
+[Illustration: A WATER-SELLER, MARRAKESH]
+
+Within their sheds the slaves are huddled together. They will not face the
+light until the market opens. I catch a glimpse of bright colouring now
+and again, as some woman or child moves in the dim recesses of the
+retreats, but there is no suggestion of the number or quality of the
+penned.
+
+Two storks sail leisurely from their nest on the saint's tomb, and a
+little company of white ospreys passes over the burning market-place with
+such a wild, free flight, that the contrast between the birds and the
+human beings forces itself upon me. Now, however, there is no time for
+such thoughts; the crowd at the entrance parts to the right and left, to
+admit twelve grave men wearing white turbans and spotless djellabas. They
+are the dilals, in whose hands is the conduct of the sale.
+
+Slowly and impressively these men advance in a line almost to the centre
+of the slave market, within two or three yards of the arcade, where the
+wealthy buyers sit expectant. Then the head auctioneer lifts up his voice,
+and prays, with downcast eyes and outspread hands. He recites the glory of
+Allah, the One, who made the heaven above and the earth beneath, the sea
+and all that is therein; his brethren and the buyers say Amen. He thanks
+Allah for his mercy to men in sending Mohammed the Prophet, who gave the
+world the True Belief, and he curses Shaitan, who wages war against Allah
+and his children. Then he calls upon Sidi bel Abbas, patron saint of
+Marrakesh, friend of buyers and sellers, who praised Allah so assiduously
+in days remote, and asks the saint to bless the market and all who buy and
+sell therein, granting them prosperity and length of days. And to these
+prayers, uttered with an intensity of devotion quite Mohammedan, all the
+listeners say Amen. Only to Unbelievers like myself,--to men who have
+never known, or knowing, have rejected Islam,--is there aught repellent in
+the approaching business; and Unbelievers may well pass unnoticed. In life
+the man who has the True Faith despises them; in death they become
+children of the Fire. Is it not so set down?
+
+Throughout this strange ceremony of prayer I seem to see the bull-ring
+again, and in place of the dilals the cuadrillas of the Matadors coming
+out to salute, before the alguazils open the gates of the toril and the
+slaying begins. The dramatic intensity of either scene connects for me
+this slave market in Marrakesh with the plaza de toros in the shadow of
+the Giralda tower in Sevilla. Strange to remember now and here, that the
+man who built the Kutubia tower for this thousand-year-old-city of Yusuf
+ben Tachfin, gave the Giralda to Andalusia.
+
+Prayers are over--the last Amen is said. The dilals separate, each one
+going to the pens he presides over, and calling upon their tenants to come
+forth. These selling men move with a dignity that is quite Eastern, and
+speak in calm and impressive tones. They lack the frenzied energy of their
+brethren who traffic in the bazaars.
+
+[Illustration: ON THE ROAD TO THE SOK EL ABEED]
+
+Obedient to the summons, the slaves face the light, the sheds yield up
+their freight, and there are a few noisy moments, bewildering to the
+novice, in which the auctioneers place their goods in line, rearrange
+dresses, give children to the charge of adults, sort out men and women
+according to their age and value, and prepare for the promenade. The
+slaves will march round and round the circle of the buyers, led by the
+auctioneers, who will proclaim the latest bid and hand over any one of
+their charges to an intending purchaser, that he may make his examination
+before raising the price. In the procession now forming for the first
+parade, five, if not six, of the seven ages set out by the melancholy
+Jaques are represented. There are men and women who can no longer walk
+upright, however the dilal may insist; there are others of middle age,
+with years of active service before them; there are young men full of
+vigour and youth, fit for the fields, and young women, moving for once
+unveiled yet unrebuked, who will pass at once to the hareem. And there are
+children of every age, from babies who will be sold with their mothers to
+girls and boys upon the threshold of manhood and womanhood. All are
+dressed in bright colours and displayed to the best advantage, that the
+hearts of bidders may be moved and their purses opened widely.
+
+"It will be a fine sale," says my neighbour, a handsome middle-aged Moor
+from one of the Atlas villages, who had chosen his place before I reached
+the market. "There must be well nigh forty slaves, and this is good,
+seeing that the Elevated Court is at Fez. It is because our Master--Allah
+send him more victories!--has been pleased to 'visit' Sidi Abdeslam, and
+send him to the prison of Mequinez. All the wealth he has extorted has
+been taken away from him by our Master, and he will see no more light.
+Twenty or more of these women are of his house."
+
+Now each dilal has his people sorted out, and the procession begins.
+Followed by their bargains the dilals march round and round the market,
+and I understand why the dust was laid before the procession commenced.
+
+Most of the slaves are absolutely free from emotion of any sort: they move
+round as stolidly as the blind-folded horses that work the water-wheels in
+gardens beyond the town, or the corn mills within its gates. I think the
+sensitive ones--and there are a few--must come from the household of the
+unfortunate Sidi Abdeslam, who was reputed to be a good master. Small
+wonder if the younger women shrink, and if the black visage seems to take
+on a tint of ashen grey, when a buyer, whose face is an open defiance of
+the ten commandments, calls upon the dilal to halt, and, picking one out
+as though she had been one of a flock of sheep, handles her as a butcher
+would, examining teeth and muscles, and questioning her and the dilal very
+closely about past history and present health. And yet the European
+observer must beware lest he read into incidents of this kind something
+that neither buyer nor seller would recognise. Novelty may create an
+emotion that facts and custom cannot justify.
+
+[Illustration: THE SLAVE MARKET]
+
+"Ah, Tsamanni," says my gossip from the Atlas to the big dilal who led the
+prayers, and is in special charge of the children for sale, "I will speak
+to this one," and Tsamanni pushes a tiny little girl into his arms. The
+child kisses the speaker's hand. Not at all unkindly the Moor takes his
+critical survey, and Tsamanni enlarges upon her merits.
+
+"She does not come from the town at all," he says glibly, "but from
+Timbuctoo. It is more difficult than ever to get children from there. The
+accursed Nazarenes have taken the town, and the slave market droops. But
+this one is desirable: she understands needlework, she will be a companion
+for your house, and thirty-five dollars is the last price bid."
+
+"One more dollar, Tsamanni. She is not ill-favoured, but she is poor and
+thin. Nevertheless say one dollar more," says the Moor.
+
+"The praise to Allah, who made the world," says the dilal piously, and
+hurries round the ring, saying that the price of the child is now
+thirty-six dollars, and calling upon the buyers to go higher.
+
+I learn that the dilal's commission is two and a half per cent on the
+purchase price, and there is a Government tax of five per cent. Slaves are
+sold under a warranty, and are returned if they are not properly described
+by the auctioneer. Bids must not be advanced by less than a Moorish dollar
+(about three shillings) at a time, and when a sale is concluded a deposit
+must be paid at once, and the balance on or shortly after the following
+day. Thin slaves will not fetch as much money as fat ones, for corpulence
+is regarded as the outward and visible sign of health as well as wealth by
+the Moor.
+
+"I have a son of my house," says the Moor from the Atlas, with a burst of
+confidence quite surprising. "He is my only one, and must have a
+playfellow, so I am here to buy. In these days it is not easy to get what
+one wants. Everywhere the French. The caravans come no longer from
+Tuat--because of the French. From Timbuctoo it is the same thing. Surely
+Allah will burn these people in a fire of more than ordinary heat--a
+furnace that shall never cool. Ah, listen to the prices," The little
+girl's market-value has gone to forty-four dollars--say seven pounds ten
+shillings in English money at the current rate of exchange. It has risen
+two dollars at a time, and Tsamanni cannot quite cover his satisfaction.
+One girl, aged fourteen, has been sold for no less than ninety dollars
+after spirited bidding from two country kaids; another, two years older,
+has gone for seventy-six.
+
+"There is no moderation in all this," says the Atlas Moor, angrily. "But
+prices will rise until our Lord the Sultan ceases to listen to the
+Nazarenes, and purges the land. Because of their Bashadors we can no
+longer have the markets at the towns on the coasts. If we do have one
+there, it must be held secretly, and a slave must be carried in the
+darkness from house to house. This is shameful for an unconquered people."
+
+I am only faintly conscious of my companion's talk and action, as he bids
+for child after child, never going beyond forty dollars. Interest centres
+in the diminishing crowd of slaves who still follow the dilals round the
+market in monotonous procession.
+
+The attractive women and strong men have been sold, and have realised
+good prices. The old people are in little or no demand; but the
+auctioneers will persist until closing time. Up and down tramp the people
+nobody wants, burdens to themselves and their owners, the useless, or
+nearly useless men and women whose lives have been slavery for so long as
+they can remember. Even the water-carrier from the Sus country, who has
+been jingling his bright bowls together since the market opened, is moved
+to compassion, for while two old women are standing behind their dilal,
+who is talking to a client about their reserve price, I see him give them
+a free draught from his goat-skin water-barrel, and this kind action seems
+to do something to freshen the place, just as the mint and the roses of
+the gardeners freshen the alleys near the Kaisariyah in the heart of the
+city. To me, this journey round and round the market seems to be the
+saddest of the slaves' lives--worse than their pilgrimage across the
+deserts of the Wad Nun, or the Draa, in the days when they were carried
+captive from their homes, packed in panniers upon mules, forced to travel
+by night, and half starved. For then at least they were valued and had
+their lives before them, now they are counted as little more than the
+broken-down mules and donkeys left to rot by the roadside. And yet this,
+of course, is a purely Western opinion, and must be discounted
+accordingly.
+
+It is fair to say that auctioneers and buyers treat the slaves in a manner
+that is not unkind. They handle them just as though they were animals
+with a market value that ill-treatment will diminish, and a few of the
+women are brazen, shameless creatures--obviously, and perhaps not
+unwisely, determined to do the best they can for themselves in any
+surroundings. These women are the first to find purchasers. The unsold
+adults and little children seem painfully tired; some of the latter can
+hardly keep pace with the auctioneer, until he takes them by the hand and
+leads them along with him. Moors, as a people, are wonderfully kind to
+children.
+
+The procedure never varies. As a client beckons and points out a slave,
+the one selected is pushed forward for inspection, the history is briefly
+told, and if the bidding is raised the auctioneer, thanking Allah, who
+sends good prices, hurries on his way to find one who will bid a little
+more. On approaching an intending purchaser the slave seizes and kisses
+his hand, then releases it and stands still, generally indifferent to the
+rest of the proceedings.
+
+[Illustration: DILALS IN THE SLAVE MARKET]
+
+"It is well for the slaves," says the Atlas Moor, rather bitterly, for the
+fifth and last girl child has gone up beyond his limit. "In the Mellah or
+the Madinah you can get labour for nothing, now the Sultan is in Fez.
+There is hunger in many a house, and it is hard for a free man to find
+food. But slaves are well fed. In times of famine and war free men die;
+slaves are in comfort. Why then do the Nazarenes talk of freeing slaves,
+as though they were prisoners, and seek to put barriers against the
+market, until at last the prices become foolish? Has not the Prophet
+said, 'He who behaveth ill to his slave shall not enter into Paradise'?
+Does that not suffice believing people? Clearly it was written, that my
+little Mohammed, my first born, my only one, shall have no playmate this
+day. No, Tsamanni: I will bid no more. Have I such store of dollars that I
+can buy a child for its weight in silver?"
+
+The crowd is thinning now. Less than ten slaves remain to be sold, and I
+do not like to think how many times they must have tramped round the
+market. Men and women--bold, brazen, merry, indifferent--have passed to
+their several masters; all the children have gone; the remaining oldsters
+move round and round, their shuffling gait, downcast eyes, and melancholy
+looks in pitiful contrast to the bright clothes in which they are dressed
+for the sale, in order that their own rags may not prejudice purchasers.
+
+Once again the storks from the saint's tomb pass over the market in large
+wide flight, as though to tell the story of the joy of freedom. It is the
+time of the evening promenade. The sun is setting rapidly and the sale is
+nearly at an end.
+
+"Forty-one dollars--forty-one," cries the dilal at whose heels the one
+young and pretty woman who has not found a buyer limps painfully. She is
+from the Western Soudan, and her big eyes have a look that reminds me of
+the hare that was run down by the hounds a few yards from me on the
+marshes at home in the coursing season.
+
+"Why is the price so low?" I ask.
+
+"She is sick," said the Moor coolly: "she cannot work--perhaps she will
+not live. Who will give more in such a case? She is of kaid Abdeslam's
+household, though he bought her a few weeks before his fall, and she must
+be sold. But the dilal can give no warranty, for nobody knows her
+sickness. She is one of the slaves who are bought by the dealers for the
+rock salt of El Djouf."
+
+Happily the woman seems too dull or too ill to feel her own position. She
+moves as though in a dream--a dream undisturbed, for the buyers have
+almost ceased to regard her. Finally she is sold for forty-three dollars
+to a very old and infirm man.
+
+"No slaves, no slaves," says the Atlas Moor impatiently: "and in the town
+they are slow to raise them." I want an explanation of this strange
+complaint.
+
+"What do you mean when you say they are slow to raise them," I ask.
+
+"In Marrakesh now," he explains, "dealers buy the healthiest slaves they
+can find, and raise as many children by them as is possible. Then, so soon
+as the children are old enough to sell, they are sold, and when the
+mothers grow old and have no more children, they too are sold, but they do
+not fetch much then."
+
+This statement takes all words from me, but my informant sees nothing
+startling in the case, and continues gravely: "From six years old they are
+sold to be companions, and from twelve they go to the hareems. Prices are
+good--too high indeed; fifty-four dollars I must have paid this afternoon
+to purchase one, and when Mulai Mohammed reigned the price would have
+been twenty, or less, and for that one would have bought fat slaves. Where
+there is one caravan now, there were ten of old times."
+
+Only three slaves now, and they must go back to their masters to be sent
+to the market on another day, for the sun is below the horizon, the market
+almost empty, and the guards will be gathering at the city gates. Two
+dilals make a last despairing promenade, while their companions are busy
+recording prices and other details in connection with the afternoon's
+business. The purchased slaves, the auctioneer's gaudy clothing changed
+for their own, are being taken to the houses of their masters. We who live
+within the city walls must hasten now, for the time of gate-closing is
+upon us, and one may not stay outside.
+
+It has been a great day. Many rich men have attended personally, or by
+their agents, to compete for the best favoured women of the household of
+the fallen kaid, and prices in one or two special cases ran beyond forty
+pounds (English money), so brisk was the bidding.
+
+Outside the market-place a country Moor of the middle class is in charge
+of four young boy slaves, and is telling a friend what he paid for them. I
+learn that their price averaged eleven pounds apiece in English
+currency--two hundred and eighty dollars altogether in Moorish money, that
+they were all bred in Marrakesh by a dealer who keeps a large
+establishment of slaves, as one in England might keep a stud farm, and
+sells the children as they grow up. The purchaser of the quartette is
+going to take them to the North. He will pass the coming night in a
+fandak, and leave as soon after daybreak as the gates are opened. Some ten
+days' travel on foot will bring him to a certain city, where his
+merchandise should fetch four hundred dollars. The lads do not seem to be
+disturbed by the sale, or by thoughts of their future, and the dealer
+himself seems to be as near an approach to a commercial traveller as I
+have seen in Morocco. To him the whole transaction is on a par with
+selling eggs or fruit, and while he does not resent my interest, he does
+not pretend to understand it.
+
+From the minaret that overlooks the mosque the mueddin calls for the
+evening prayer; from the side of the Kutubia Tower and the minaret of Sidi
+bel Abbas, as from all the lesser mosques, the cry is taken up. Lepers
+pass out of the city on their way to Elhara; beggars shuffle off to their
+dens; storks standing on the flat house-tops survey the familiar scene
+gravely but with interest. Doubtless the dilals and all who sent their
+slaves to the market to be sold this afternoon will respond to the
+mueddins' summons with grateful hearts, and Sidi bel Abbas, patron saint
+of Red Marrakesh, will hardly go unthanked.
+
+
+
+
+GREEN TEA AND POLITICS
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: ON THE HOUSE-TOP, MARRAKESH]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+GREEN TEA AND POLITICS
+
+    Whither resorting from the vernal Heat
+    Shall Old Acquaintance Old Acquaintance greet,
+      Under the Branch that leans above the Wall
+    To shed his Blossom over head and feet.
+
+    _The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam._
+
+
+He was a grave personable Moor of middle age, and full of the dignity that
+would seem to be the birthright of his race. His official position gave
+him a certain knowledge of political developments without affecting his
+serene outlook upon life. Whether he sat outside the Kasbah of his native
+town and administered the law according to his lights, or, summoned to the
+capital, rode attended so far as the Dar el Makhzan, there to take his
+part in a council of the Sultan's advisers, or whether, removed for a time
+from cares of office, he rested at ease among his cushions as he was doing
+now, this Moorish gentleman's placid and unruffled features would lead the
+Western observer to suppose that he was a very simple person with no sort
+of interest in affairs. I had occasion to know him, however, for a
+statesman, after the Moorish fashion--a keen if resigned observer of the
+tragic-comedy of his country's politics, and a pious man withal, who had
+visited Mecca in the month that is called Shawall, and had cast stones on
+the hill of Arafat, as the custom is among True Believers. Some years had
+passed since our first meeting, when I was the bearer of a letter of
+introduction written by a high official in the intricate Arabic character.
+It began: "Praise be to God! The blessing of Allah on our Lord Mohammed,
+and his peace upon Friends and Followers." Irrelevant perhaps all this,
+but the letter had opened the portals of his house to me, and had let
+loose for my benefit thoughts not lightly to be expressed.
+
+Now we sat side by side on cushions in his patio, partly shaded by a rose
+tree that climbed over trellis-work and rioted in bud and blossom. We
+drank green tea flavoured with mint from tiny glasses that were floridly
+embossed in gilt. Beyond the patio there was a glimpse of garden ablaze
+with colour; we could hear slaves singing by the great Persian
+water-wheel, and the cooing of doves from the shaded heart of trees that
+screened a granary.
+
+"Since Mulai el Hasan died," said the Hadj quietly, "since that Prince of
+Believers went to his Pavilion in Paradise, set among rivers in an orchard
+of never-failing fruit, as is explained in the Most Perspicuous Book,[27]
+troubles have swept over this land, even as El Jerad, the locust, comes
+upon it before the west wind has risen to blow him out to sea."
+
+He mused awhile, as though the music of the garden pleased him.
+
+"Even before the time of my Lord el Hasan," he went on, "there had been
+troubles enough. I can remember the war with Spain, though I was but a
+boy. My father was among those who fell at Wad Ras on the way to Tanjah of
+the Nazarenes. But then your country would not permit these Spanish dogs
+to steal our land, and even lent the money to satisfy and keep them away.
+This was a kindly deed, and Mulai Mohammed, our Victorious Master, opened
+his heart to your Bashador[28] and took him to his innermost councils. And
+I can remember that great Bashador of yours when he came to this city and
+was received in the square by the Augdal gardens. Our Master the Sultan
+came before him on a white horse[29] to speak gracious words under the
+M'dhal, that shades the ruling House.
+
+"A strong man was our Master the Sultan, and he listened carefully to all
+your Bashador said, still knowing in his heart that this country is not as
+the land of the Nazarenes, and could not be made like it in haste. His
+wazeers feared change, the Ulema[30] opposed it so far as they dared, and
+that you know is very far, and nothing could be done rapidly after the
+fashion of the West. My Lord understood this well.
+
+"Then that King of the Age and Prince of True Believers fulfilled his
+destiny and died, and my Lord el Hasan, who was in the South, reigned in
+his stead.[31] And the troubles that now cover the land began to grow and
+spread."
+
+He sipped his tea with grave pleasure. Two female slaves were peering at
+the Infidel through the branches of a lemon tree, just beyond the patio,
+but when their master dropped his voice the heads disappeared suddenly, as
+though his words had kept them in place. In the depths of the garden
+close, Oom el Hasan, the nightingale, awoke and trilled softly. We
+listened awhile to hear the notes "ring like a golden jewel down a golden
+stair."
+
+[Illustration: A HOUSE INTERIOR, MARRAKESH]
+
+"My Lord el Hasan," continued the Hadj, "was ever on horseback; with him
+the powder was always speaking. First Fez rejected him, and he carried
+fire and sword to that rebellious city. Then Er-Riff refused to pay
+tribute and he enforced it--Allah make his kingdom eternal. Then this
+ungrateful city rebelled against his rule and the army came south and fed
+the spikes of the city gate with the heads of the unfaithful. Before he
+had rested, Fez was insolent once again, and on the road north our Master,
+the Ever Victorious, was (so to say, as the irreligious see it) defeated
+by the Illegitimate men from Ghaita, rebels against Allah, all, and his
+house[32] was carried away. There were more campaigns in the North and in
+the South, and the Shareefian army ate up the land, so that there was a
+famine more fatal than war. After that came more fighting, and again more
+fighting. My lord sought soldiers from your people and from the French,
+and he went south to the Sus and smote the rebellious kaids from Tarudant
+to High. So it fell out that my Lord was never at peace with his servants,
+but the country went on as before, with fighting in the north and the
+south and the east and the west. The devil ships of the Nazarene nations
+came again and again to the bay of Tanjah to see if the Prince of the
+Faithful were indeed dead, as rumour so often stated. But he was strong,
+my Lord el Hasan, and not easy to kill. In the time of a brief sickness
+that visited him the French took the oases of Tuat, which belongs to the
+country just so surely as does this our Marrakesh. They have been from
+times remote a place of resting for the camels, like Tindouf in the Sus.
+But our Master recovered his lordship with his health, and the French went
+back from our land. After that my Lord el Hasan went to Tafilalt over the
+Atlas, never sparing himself. And when he returned to this city, weary and
+very sick, at the head of an army that lacked even food and clothing, the
+Spaniards were at the gates of Er-Riff once more, and the tribes were out
+like a fire of thorns over the northern roads. But because the span
+allotted him by destiny was fulfilled, and also because he was worn out
+and would not rest, my Lord Hasan died near Tadla; and Ba Ahmad, his
+chief wazeer, hid his death from the soldiers until his son Abd-el-Aziz
+was proclaimed."
+
+There was a pause here, as though my host were overwhelmed with
+reflections and was hard driven to give sequence to his narrative. "Our
+present Lord was young," he continued at last thoughtfully; "he was a very
+young man, and so Ba Ahmad spoke for him and acted for him, and threw into
+prison all who might have stood before his face. Also, as was natural, he
+piled up great stores of gold, and took to his hareem the women he
+desired, and oppressed the poor and the rich, so that many men cursed him
+privately. But for all that Ba Ahmad was a wise man and very strong. He
+saw the might of the French in the East, and of the Bashadors who pollute
+Tanjah in the North; he remembered the ships that came to the waters in
+the West, and he knew that the men of these ships want to seize all the
+foreign lands, until at last they rule the earth even as they rule the
+sea. Against all the wise men of the Nazarenes who dwell in Tanjah the
+wazeer fought in the name of the Exalted of God,[33] so that no one of
+them could settle on this land to take it for himself and break into the
+bowels of the earth. To be sure, in Wazzan and far in the Eastern country
+the accursed French grew in strength and in influence, for they gave
+protection, robbing the Sultan of his subjects. But they took little land,
+they sent few to Court, the country was ours until the wazeer had
+fulfilled his destiny and died. Allah pardon him, for he was a man, and
+ruled this country, as his Master before him, with a rod of very steel."
+
+"But," I objected, "you told me formerly that while he lived no man's life
+or treasure was safe, that he extorted money from all, that he ground the
+faces of the rich and the poor, that when he died in this city, the
+Marrakshis said 'A dog is dead.' How now can you find words to praise
+him?"
+
+"The people cry out," explained the Hadj calmly; "they complain, but they
+obey. In the Moghreb it is for the people to be ruled as it is for the
+rulers to govern. Shall the hammers cease to strike because the anvil
+cries out? Truly the prisons of my Lord Abd-el-Aziz were full while Ba
+Ahmad ruled, but all who remained outside obeyed the law. No man can avoid
+his fate, even my Lord el Hasan, a fighter all the days of his life, loved
+peace and hated war. But his destiny was appointed with his birth, and he,
+the peaceful one, drove men yoked neck and neck to fight for him, even a
+whole tribe of the rebellious, as these eyes have seen. While Ba Ahmad
+ruled from Marrakesh all the Moghreb trembled, but the roads were safe, as
+in the days of Mulai Ismail,--may God have pardoned him,--the land knew
+quiet seasons of sowing and reaping, the expeditions were but few, and it
+is better for a country like ours that many should suffer than that none
+should be at rest."
+
+I remained silent, conscious that I could not hope to see life through my
+host's medium. It was as though we looked at his garden through glasses of
+different colour. And perhaps neither of us saw the real truth of the
+problem underlying what we are pleased to call the Moorish Question.
+
+[Illustration: A GLIMPSE OF THE ATLAS MOUNTAINS]
+
+"When the days of the Grand Wazeer were fulfilled," the Hadj continued
+gravely, "his enemies came into power. His brother the War Minister and
+his brother the Chamberlain died suddenly, and he followed them within the
+week. No wise man sought too particularly to know the cause of their
+death. Christians came to the Court Elevated by Allah, and said to my Lord
+Abd-el-Aziz, 'Be as the Sultans of the West.' And they brought him their
+abominations, the wheeled things that fall if left alone, but support a
+man who mounts them, as I suppose, in the name of Shaitan; the picture
+boxes that multiply images of True Believers and, being as the work of
+painters,[34] are wisely forbidden by the Far Seeing Book; carriages drawn
+by invisible djinoon, who scream and struggle in their fiery prison but
+must stay and work, small sprites that dance and sing.[35] The Christians
+knew that my Lord was but a young man, and so they brought these things,
+and Abd-el-Aziz gave them of the country's riches, and conversed with them
+familiarly, as though they had been of the house of a Grand Shareef.
+But in the far east of the Moghreb the French closed the oases of Tuat and
+Tidikelt without rebuke, and burnt Ksor and destroyed the Faithful with
+guns containing green devils,[36] and said, 'We do all this that we may
+venture abroad without fear of robbers.' Then my Lord sent the War
+Minister, the kaid Maheddi el Menebhi, to London, and he saw your Sultan
+face to face. And your Sultan's wazeers said to him, 'Tell the Lord of the
+Moghreb to rule as we rule, to gather his taxes peaceably and without
+force, to open his ports, to feed his prisoners, to follow the wisdom of
+the West. If he will do this, assuredly his kingdom shall never be moved.'
+Thereafter your Sultan's great men welcomed the kaid yet more kindly, and
+showed him all that Allah the One had given them in his mercy, their
+palaces, their workplaces, their devil ships that move without sails over
+the face of the waters, and their unveiled women who pass without shame
+before the faces of men. And though the kaid said nothing, he remembered
+all these things.
+
+"When he returned, and by the aid of your own Bashador in Tanjah prevailed
+over the enemies who had set snares in his path while he fared abroad, he
+stood up before my Lord and told him all he had seen. Thereupon my Lord
+Abd-el-Aziz sought to change that which had gone before, to make a new
+land as quickly as the father of the red legs[37] builds a new nest, or
+the boar of the Atlas whom the hunter has disturbed finds a new lair. And
+the land grew confused. It was no more the Moghreb, but it assuredly was
+not as the lands of the West.
+
+"In the beginning of the season of change the French were angry. 'All men
+shall pay an equal tax throughout my land,' said the King of the Age, and
+the Bashador of the French said, 'Our protected subjects shall not yield
+even a handful of green corn to the gatherer.' Now when the people saw
+that the tax-gatherers did not travel as they were wont to travel, armed
+and ready to kill, they hardened their hearts and said, 'We will pay no
+taxes at all, for these men cannot overcome us.' So the tribute was not
+yielded, and the French Bashador said to the Sultan, 'Thou seest that
+these people will not pay, but we out of our abundant wealth will give all
+the money that is needed. Only sign these writings that set forth our
+right to the money that is brought by Nazarenes to the seaports, and
+everything will be well.'
+
+"So the Sultan set his seal upon all that was brought before him, and the
+French sent gold to his treasury and more French traders came to his
+Court, and my Lord gave them the money that had come to him from their
+country, for more of the foolish and wicked things they brought. Then he
+left Marrakesh and went to Fez; and the Rogui, Bu Hamara,[38] rose up and
+waged war against him."
+
+The Hadj sighed deeply, and paused while fresh tea was brought by a
+coal-black woman slave, whose colour was accentuated by the scarlet
+_rida_ upon her head, and the broad silver anklets about her feet. When
+she had retired and we were left alone once more, my host continued:--
+
+"You know what happened after. My Lord Abd-el-Aziz made no headway against
+the Rogui, who is surely assisted by devils of the air and by the devils
+of France. North and south, east and west, the Moors flocked to him, for
+they said, 'The Sultan has become a Christian.' And to-day my Lord has no
+more money, and no strength to fight the Infidel, and the French come
+forward, and the land is troubled everywhere. But this is clearly the
+decree of Allah the All Wise, and if it is written that the days of the
+Filali Shareefs are numbered, even my Lord will not avoid his fate."
+
+I said nothing, for I had seen the latter part of Morocco's history
+working itself out, and knew that the improved relations between Great
+Britain and France had their foundation in the change of front that kept
+our Foreign Office from doing for Morocco what it has done for other
+states divided against themselves, and what it had promised Morocco,
+without words, very clearly. Then, again, it was obvious to me, though I
+could not hope to explain it to my host, that the Moor, having served his
+time, had to go under before the wave of Western civilisation. Morocco has
+held out longer than any other kingdom of Africa, not by reason of its own
+strength, but because the rulers of Europe could not afford to see the
+Mediterranean balance of power seriously disturbed. Just as Mulai Ismail
+praised Allah publicly two centuries ago for giving him strength to drive
+out the Infidel, when the British voluntarily relinquished their hold upon
+Tangier, so successive Moorish Sultans have thought that they have held
+Morocco for the Moors by their own power. And yet, in very sober truth,
+Morocco has been no more than one of the pawns in the diplomatic game
+these many years past.
+
+We who know and love the country, finding in its patriarchal simplicity so
+much that contrasts favourably with the hopeless vulgarity of our own
+civilisation, must recognise in justice the great gulf lying between a
+country's aspect in the eyes of the traveller and in the mind of the
+politician.
+
+[Illustration: A MARRAKSHI]
+
+Before we parted, the Hadj, prefacing his remark with renewed assurance of
+his personal esteem, told me that the country's error had been its
+admission of strangers. Poor man, his large simple mind could not realise
+that no power his master held could have kept them out. He told me on
+another occasion that the great wazeers who had opposed the Sultan's
+reforms were influenced by fear, lest Western ideas should alter the
+status of their womenkind. They had heard from all their envoys to Europe
+how great a measure of liberty is accorded to women, and were prepared to
+rebel against any reform that might lead to compulsory alteration of the
+system under which women live--too often as slaves and playthings--in
+Morocco. My friend's summary of his country's recent history is by no
+means complete, and, if he could revise it here would doubtless have
+far more interest. But it seemed advisable to get the Moorish point of
+view, and, having secured the curious elusive thing, to record it as
+nearly as might be.
+
+Sidi Boubikir seldom discussed politics. "I am in the South and the
+trouble is in the North," said he. "Alhamdolillah,[39] I am all for my
+Lord Abd-el-Aziz. In the reign of his grandfather I made money, when my
+Lord his father ruled--upon him the Peace--I made money, and now to-day I
+make money. Shall I listen then to Pretenders and other evil men? The
+Sultan may have half my fortune."
+
+I did not suggest what I knew to be true, that the Sultan would have been
+more than delighted to take him at his word, for I remembered the incident
+of the lampmaker's wager. A considerable knowledge of Moghrebbin Arabic,
+in combination with hypnotic skill of a high order, would have been
+required to draw from Boubikir his real opinions of the outlook. Not for
+nothing was he appointed British political agent in South Morocco. The
+sphinx is not more inscrutable.
+
+One night his son came to the Dar al Kasdir and brought me an invitation
+from Sidi Boubikir to dine with him on the following afternoon. Arrived
+before the gate of his palace at the time appointed, two o'clock, we found
+the old diplomat waiting to welcome us. He wore a fine linen djellaba of
+dazzling whiteness, and carried a scarlet geranium in his hand. "You are
+welcome," he said gravely, and led the way through a long corridor,
+crying aloud as he went, "Make way, make way," for we were entering the
+house itself, and it is not seemly that a Moorish woman, whether she be
+wife or concubine, should look upon a stranger's face. Yet some few lights
+of the hareem were not disposed to be extinguished altogether by
+considerations of etiquette, and passed hurriedly along, as though bent
+upon avoiding us and uncertain of our exact direction. The women-servants
+satisfied their curiosity openly until my host suddenly commented upon the
+questionable moral status of their mothers, and then they made haste to
+disappear, only to return a moment later and peep round corners and
+doorways, and giggle and scream--as if they had been Europeans of the same
+class.
+
+Sidi Boubikir passed from room to room of his great establishment and
+showed some of its treasures. There were great piles of carpets and vast
+quantities of furniture that must have looked out at one time in their
+history upon the crowds that throng the Tottenham Court Road; I saw
+chairs, sofas, bedsteads, clocks, and sideboards, all of English make.
+Brought on camels through Dukala and R'hamna to Marrakesh, they were left
+to fill up the countless rooms without care or arrangement, though their
+owner's house must hold more than fifty women, without counting servants.
+Probably when they were not quarrelling or dying their finger nails, or
+painting their faces after a fashion that is far from pleasing to European
+eyes, the ladies of the hareem passed their days lying on cushions,
+playing the gimbri[40] or eating sweetmeats.
+
+In one room on the ground-floor there was a great collection of
+mechanical toys. Sidi Boubikir explained that the French Commercial
+Attache had brought a large number to the Sultan's palace, and that my
+Lord Abd-el-Aziz had rejected the ones before us. With the curious
+childish simplicity that is found so often among the Moors of high
+position, Boubikir insisted upon winding up the clock-work apparatus of
+nearly all the toys. Then one doll danced, another played a drum, a third
+went through gymnastic exercises, and the toy orchestra played the
+Marseillaise, while from every adjacent room veiled figures stole out
+cautiously, as though this room in a Moorish house were a stage and the
+shrouded visitors were the chorus entering mysteriously from unexpected
+places. The old man's merriment was very real and hearty, so genuine, in
+fact, that he did not notice how his women-folk were intruding until the
+last note sounded. Then he turned round and the swathed figures
+disappeared suddenly as ghosts at cockcrow.
+
+Though it was clear that Sidi Boubikir seldom saw half the rooms through
+which we hurried, the passion for building, that seizes all rich Moors,
+held him fast. He was adding wing after wing to his vast premises, and
+would doubtless order more furniture from London to fill the new rooms. No
+Moor knows when it is time to call a halt and deem his house complete, and
+so the country is full of palaces begun by men who fell from power or died
+leaving the work unfinished. The Grand Wazeer Ba Ahmad left a palace
+nearly as big as the Dar el Makhzan itself, and since he died the storks
+that build upon the flat roofs have been its only occupants. So it is with
+the gardens, whose many beauties he did not live to enjoy. I rode past
+them one morning, noted all manner of fruit trees blossoming, heard birds
+singing in their branches, and saw young storks fishing in the little
+pools that the rains of winter had left. But there was not one gardener
+there to tend the ground once so highly cultivated, and I was assured that
+the terror of the wazeer's name kept even the hungry beggars from the
+fruit in harvest time.
+
+[Illustration: STREET IN MARRAKESH]
+
+The home and its appointments duly exhibited, Sidi Boubikir led the way to
+a diwan in a well-cushioned room that opened on to the garden. He clapped
+his hands and a small regiment of women-servants, black and for the most
+part uncomely, arrived to prepare dinner. One brought a ewer, another a
+basin, a third a towel, and water was poured out over our hands. Then a
+large earthenware bowl encased in strong basketwork was brought by a
+fourth servant, and a tray of flat loaves of fine wheat by a fifth, and we
+broke bread and said the "Bismillah,"[41] which stands for grace. The bowl
+was uncovered and revealed a savoury stew of chicken with sweet lemon and
+olives, a very pleasing sight to all who appreciate Eastern cooking. The
+use of knives being a crime against the Faith, and the use of forks and
+spoons unknown, we plunged the fingers of the right hand into the bowl and
+sought what pleased us best, using the bread from time to time to deal
+with the sauce of the stew. It was really a delicious dish, and when
+later in the afternoon I asked my host for the recipe he said he would
+give it to me if I would fill the bowl with Bank of England notes. I had
+to explain that, in my ignorance of the full resources of Moorish cooking,
+I had not come out with sufficient money.
+
+So soon as the charm of the first bowl palled, it was taken away and
+others followed in quick succession, various meats and eggs being served
+with olives and spices and the delicate vegetables that come to Southern
+Morocco in early spring. It was a relief to come to the end of our duties
+and, our hands washed once more, to digest the meal with the aid of green
+tea flavoured with mint. Strong drink being forbidden to the True
+Believer, water only was served with the dinner, and as it was brought
+direct from the Tensift River, and was of rich red colour, there was no
+temptation to touch it. Sidi Boubikir was in excellent spirits, and told
+many stories of his earlier days, of his dealings with Bashadors, his
+quarrel with the great kaid Ben Daoud, the siege of the city by certain
+Illegitimate men--enemies of Allah and the Sultan--his journey to
+Gibraltar, and how he met one of the Rothschilds there and tried to do
+business with him. He spoke of his investments in consols and the poor
+return they brought him, and many other matters of equal moment.
+
+It was not easy to realise that the man who spoke so brightly and lightly
+about trivial affairs had one of the keenest intellects in the country,
+that he had the secret history of its political intrigues at his fingers'
+ends, that he was the trusted agent of the British Government, and lived
+and throve surrounded by enemies. As far as was consistent with courtesy I
+tried to direct his reminiscences towards politics, but he kept to purely
+personal matters, and included in them a story of his attempt to bribe a
+British Minister,[42] to whom, upon the occasion of the arrival of a
+British Mission in Marrakesh, he went leading two mules laden with silver.
+"And when I came to him," said the old man, "I said, 'By Allah's grace I
+am rich, so I have brought you some share of my wealth.' But he would not
+even count the bags. He called with a loud voice for his wife, and cried
+to her, 'See now what this son of shame would do to me. He would give me
+his miserable money.' And then in very great anger he drove me from his
+presence and bade me never come near him again bearing a gift. What shall
+be said of a man like that, to whom Allah had given the wisdom to become a
+Bashador and the foolishness to reject a present? Two mules, remember, and
+each one with as many bags of Spanish dollars as it could carry. Truly the
+ways of your Bashadors are past belief." I agreed heartily with Sidi
+Boubikir; a day's discourse had not made clear any other aspect of the
+case.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[27] "In Paradise are rivers of incorruptible water; and rivers of milk,
+the taste whereof changes not; and rivers of wine, pleasant unto those who
+drink; and rivers of clarified honey; and in Paradise the faithful shall
+have all kinds of fruits, and pardon from their God."--Al Koran; Sura 47,
+"Mohammed."
+
+[28] The late Sir John Drummond Hay, whose name is honourably remembered
+to this day throughout the Moghreb.
+
+[29] When a Sultan appears in public on a white horse, it is for sign that
+he is pleased; a black horse, on the other hand, is ominous to them that
+understand.
+
+[30] Literally "Learned Ones," a theological cabinet, the number of whose
+members is known to no man, the weight of whose decisions is felt
+throughout Morocco.
+
+[31] 1873-94.
+
+[32] Hareem.
+
+[33] One of the titles of a Sultan. The "Lofty Portal" ("Sublime Porte")
+and the "Sublime Presence" are among the others.
+
+[34] Mohammed said: "Every painter is in Hell Fire, and Allah will appoint
+a person at the day of Resurrection to punish him for every picture he
+shall have drawn, and he shall be punished in Hell. So, if ye must make
+pictures, make them of trees and things without souls."
+
+[35] The reader will recognise the Hadj's reference to bicycles, cameras,
+motor-cars, and other mechanical toys.
+
+[36] Melinite shells.
+
+[37] The stork.
+
+[38] Literally, "Father of the she-ass," the Pretender who conducted a
+successful campaign against the Sultan in 1902 and 1903, and is still an
+active enemy of the Filali dynasty.
+
+[39] "The Praise to Allah."
+
+[40] A Moorish lute.
+
+[41] Literally, "In the name of God."
+
+[42] The late Sir William Kirby Green.
+
+
+
+
+THROUGH A SOUTHERN PROVINCE
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: AN ARAB STEED]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THROUGH A SOUTHERN PROVINCE
+
+    The full streams feed on flower of rushes,
+      Ripe grasses trammel a travelling foot;
+    The faint fresh flame of the young year flushes
+      From leaf to flower, and flower to fruit.
+
+    _Atalanta in Calydon._
+
+Even in these fugitive records of my last journey into the "Extreme West,"
+I find it hard to turn from Marrakesh. Just as the city held me within its
+gates until further sojourn was impossible, so its memories crowd upon me
+now, and I recall with an interest I may scarcely hope to communicate the
+varied and compelling appeals it made to me at every hour of the day. Yet
+I believe, at least I hope, that most of the men and women who strive to
+gather for themselves some picture of the world's unfamiliar aspects will
+understand the fascination to which I refer, despite my failure to give it
+fitting expression. Sevilla in Andalusia held me in the same way when I
+went from Cadiz to spend a week-end there, and the three days became as
+many weeks, and would have become as many months or years had I been my
+own master--which to be sure we none of us are. The hand of the Moor is
+clearly to be seen in Sevilla to-day, notably in the Alcazar and the
+Giralda tower, fashioned by the builder of the Kutubia that stands like a
+stately lighthouse in the Blad al Hamra.
+
+So, with the fascination of the city for excuse, I lingered in Marrakesh
+and went daily to the bazaars to make small purchases. The dealers were
+patient, friendly folk, and found no trouble too much, so that there was
+prospect of a sale at the end of it. Most of them had a collapsible set of
+values for their wares, but the dealer who had the best share of my
+Moorish or Spanish dollars was an old man in the bazaar of the
+brass-workers, who used to say proudly, "Behold in me thy servant, Abd el
+Kerim,[43] the man of one price."
+
+The brass and copper workers had most of their metal brought to them from
+the Sus country, and sold their goods by weight. Woe to the dealer
+discovered with false scales. The gunsmiths, who seemed to do quite a big
+trade in flint-lock guns, worked with their feet as well as their hands,
+their dexterity being almost Japanese. Nearly every master had an
+apprentice or two, and if there are idle apprentices in the southern
+capital of my Lord Abd-el-Aziz, I was not fated to see one.
+
+No phase of the city's life lacked fascination, nor was the interest
+abated when life and death moved side by side. A Moorish funeral wound
+slowly along the road in the path of a morning's ride. First came a crowd
+of ragged fellows on foot singing the praises of Allah, who gives one
+life to his servants here and an eternity of bliss in Paradise at the end
+of their day's work. The body of the deceased followed, wrapped in a
+knotted shroud and partially covered with what looked like a coloured
+shawl, but was, I think, the flag from a saint's shrine. Four bearers
+carried the open bier, and following came men of high class on mules. The
+contrast between the living and the dead was accentuated by the freshness
+of the day, the life that thronged the streets, the absence of a coffin,
+the weird, sonorous chaunting of the mourners. The deceased must have been
+a man of mark, for the crowd preceding the bier was composed largely of
+beggars, on their way to the cemetery, where a gift of food would be
+distributed. Following their master's remains came two slaves, newly
+manumitted, their certificates of freedom borne aloft in cleft sticks to
+testify before all men to the generosity of the loudly lamented. Doubtless
+the shroud of the dead had been sprinkled with water brought from the well
+Zem Zem, which is by the mosque of Mecca, and is said to have been
+miraculously provided for Hagar, when Ishmael, then a little boy, was like
+to die of thirst in the wilderness.
+
+I watched the procession wind its way out of sight to the burial-ground by
+the mosque, whose mueddin would greet its arrival with the cry, "May Allah
+have mercy upon him." Then the dead man would be carried to the cemetery,
+laid on his right side looking towards Mecca, and the shroud would be
+untied, that there may be no awkwardness or delay upon the day of the
+Resurrection. And the Kadi or f'K'hay[44] would say, "O Allah, if he did
+good, over-estimate his goodness; and if he did evil, forget his evil
+deeds; and of Thy Mercy grant that he may experience Thine Acceptance; and
+spare him the trials and troubles of the grave.... Of Thy Mercy grant him
+freedom from torment until Thou send him to Paradise, O Thou Most Pitiful
+of the pitying.... Pardon us, and him, and all Moslems, O Lord of
+Creation."
+
+[Illustration: A YOUNG MARRAKSHI]
+
+On the three following mornings the men of the deceased's house would
+attend by the newly-made grave, in company with the tolba, and would
+distribute bread and fruit to the poor, and when their task was over and
+the way clear, the veiled women would bring flowers, with myrtle, willows,
+and young leaves of the palm, and lay them on the grave, and over these
+the water-carrier would empty his goat-skin. I knew that the dead man
+would have gone without flinching to his appointed end, not as one who
+fears, but rather as he who sets out joyfully to a feast prepared in his
+honour. His faith had kept all doubts at bay, and even if he had been an
+ill liver the charitable deeds wrought in his name by surviving relatives
+would enable him to face the two angels who descend to the grave on the
+night following a man's burial and sit in judgment upon his soul. This one
+who passed me on his last journey would tell the angels of the men who
+were slaves but yesterday and were now free, he would speak of the hungry
+who had been fed, and of the intercession of the righteous and learned.
+These facts and his faith, the greatest fact of all, would assuredly
+satisfy Munkir and Nakir.[45] Small wonder if no manner of life, however
+vile, stamps ill-livers in Morocco with the seal we learn to recognise in
+the Western world. For the Moslem death has no sting, and hell no victory.
+Faith, whether it be in One God, in a Trinity, in Christ, Mohammed, or
+Buddha, is surely the most precious of all possessions, so it be as virile
+and living a thing as it is in Sunset Land.
+
+Writing of religion, I needs must set down a word in this place of the men
+and women who work for the Southern Morocco Mission in Marrakesh. The
+beauty of the city has long ceased to hold any fresh surprises for them,
+their labour is among the people who "walk in noonday as in the night." It
+is not necessary to be of their faith to admire the steadfast devotion to
+high ideals that keeps Mr. Nairn and his companions in Marrakesh. I do not
+think that they make converts in the sense that they desire, the faith of
+Islam suits Morocco and the Moors, and it will not suffer successful
+invasion, but the work of the Mission has been effective in many ways. If
+the few Europeans who visit the city are free to wander unchallenged,
+unmolested through its every street, let them thank the missionaries; if
+the news that men from the West are straight-dealing, honourable, and
+slaves to truth, has gone from the villages on the hither side of Atlas
+down to the far cities of the Sus, let the missionaries be praised. And if
+a European woman can go unveiled yet uninsulted through Marrakesh, the
+credit is due to the ladies of the Mission. It may be said without mental
+reservation that the Southern Morocco Mission accomplishes a great work,
+and is most successful in its apparent failure. It does not make
+professing Christians out of Moors, but it teaches the Moors to live finer
+lives within the limits of their own faith, and if they are kinder and
+cleaner and more honourable by reason of their intercourse with the
+"tabibs" and "tabibas," the world gains and Morocco is well served. When
+the Sultan was in difficulties towards the end of 1902, and the star of Bu
+Hamara was in the ascendant, Sir Arthur Nicolson, our Minister in Tangier,
+ordered all British subjects to leave the inland towns for the coast. As
+soon as the news reached the Marrakshis, the houses of the missionaries
+were besieged by eager crowds of Moors and Berbers, offering to defend the
+well-beloved tabibs against all comers, and begging them not to go away.
+Very reluctantly Mr. Nairn and his companions obeyed the orders sent from
+Tangier, but, having seen their wives and children safely housed in
+Djedida, they returned to their work.
+
+[Illustration: FRUIT MARKET, MARRAKESH]
+
+The Elhara or leper quarter is just outside one of the city gates, and
+after some effort of will, I conquered my repugnance and rode within its
+gate. The place proved to be a collection of poverty-stricken hovels built
+in a circle, of the native tapia, which was crumbling to pieces through
+age and neglect. Most of the inhabitants were begging in the city, where
+they are at liberty to remain until the gates are closed, but there were a
+few left at home, and I had some difficulty in restraining the keeper
+of Elhara, who wished to parade the unfortunate creatures before me that I
+might not miss any detail of their sufferings. Leper women peeped out from
+corners, as Boubikir's "house" had done; little leper children played
+merrily enough on the dry sandy ground, a few donkeys, covered with scars
+and half starved, stood in the scanty shade. In a deep cleft below the
+outer wall women and girls, very scantily clad, were washing clothes in a
+pool that is reserved apparently for the use of the stricken village. I
+was glad to leave the place behind me, after giving the unctuous keeper a
+gift for the sufferers that doubtless never reached them. They tell me
+that no sustained attempt is made to deal medically with the disease,
+though many nasty concoctions are taken by a few True Believers, whose
+faith, I fear, has not made them whole.[46]
+
+When it became necessary for us to leave Marrakesh the young shareef went
+to the city's fandaks and inquired if they held muleteers bound for
+Mogador. The Maalem had taken his team home along the northern road, our
+path lay to the south, through the province of the Son of Lions (Oulad bou
+Sba), and thence through Shiadma and Haha to the coast. We were fortunate
+in finding the men we sought without any delay. A certain kaid of the Sus
+country, none other than El Arbi bel Hadj ben Haida, who rules over
+Tiensiert, had sent six muleteers to Marrakesh to sell his oil, in what is
+the best southern market, and he had worked out their expenses on a scale
+that could hardly be expected to satisfy anybody but himself.
+
+[Illustration: IN THE FANDAK]
+
+"From Tiensiert to Marrakesh is three days journey," he had said, and,
+though it is five, no man contradicted him, perhaps because five is
+regarded as an unfortunate number, not to be mentioned in polite or
+religious society. "Three days will serve to sell the oil and rest the
+mules," he had continued, "and three days more will bring you home." Then
+he gave each man three dollars for travelling money, about nine shillings
+English, and out of it the mules were to be fed, the charges of n'zala and
+fandak to be met, and if there was anything over the men might buy food
+for themselves. They dared not protest, for El Arbi bel Hadj ben Haida had
+every man's house in his keeping, and if the muleteers had failed him he
+would have had compensation in a manner no father of a family would care
+to think about. The oil was sold, and the muleteers were preparing to
+return to their master, when Salam offered them a price considerably in
+excess of what they had received for the whole journey to take us to
+Mogador. Needless to say they were not disposed to let the chance go by,
+for it would not take them two days out of their way, so I went to the
+fandak to see mules and men, and complete the bargain. There had been a
+heavy shower some days before, and the streets were more than usually
+miry, but in the fandak, whose owner had no marked taste for
+cleanliness, the accumulated dirt of all the rainy season had been
+stirred, with results I have no wish to record. A few donkeys in the last
+stages of starvation had been sent in to gather strength by resting, one
+at least was too far gone to eat. Even the mules of the Susi tribesmen
+were not in a very promising condition. It was an easy task to count their
+ribs, and they were badly in need of rest and a few square meals. Tied in
+the covered cloisters of the fandak there was some respite for them from
+the attack of mosquitoes, but the donkeys, being cheap and of no
+importance, were left to all the torments that were bound to be associated
+with the place.
+
+Only one human being faced the glare of the light and trod fearlessly
+through the mire that lay eight or ten inches deep on the ground, and he
+was a madman, well-nigh as tattered and torn as the one I had angered in
+the Kaisariyah on the morning after my arrival in the city. This man's
+madness took a milder turn. He went from one donkey to another, whispering
+in its ear, a message of consolation I hope and believe, though I had no
+means of finding out. When I entered the fandak he came running up to me
+in a style suggestive of the gambols of a playful dog, and I was
+exceedingly annoyed by a thought that he might not know any difference
+between me and his other friends. There was no need to be uneasy, for he
+drew himself up to his full height, made a hissing noise in his throat,
+and spat fiercely at my shadow. Then he returned to the stricken donkeys,
+and the keeper of the fandak, coming out to welcome me, saw his more
+worthy visitor. Turning from me with "Marhababik" ("You are welcome") just
+off his lips, he ran forward and kissed the hem of the madman's djellaba.
+
+A madman is very often an object of veneration in Morocco, for his brain
+is in divine keeping, while his body is on the earth. And yet the Moor is
+not altogether logical in his attitude to the "afflicted of Allah." While
+so much liberty is granted to the majority of the insane that feigned
+madness is quite common among criminals in the country, less fortunate men
+who have really become mentally afflicted, but are not recognised as
+insane, are kept chained to the walls of the Marstan--half hospital, half
+prison--that is attached to the most great mosques. I have been assured
+that they suffer considerably at the hands of most gaoler-doctors, whose
+medicine is almost invariably the stick, but I have not been able to
+verify the story, which is quite opposed to Moorish tradition. The mad
+visitor to the fandak did not disturb the conversation with the keeper and
+the Susi muleteers, but he turned the head of a donkey in our direction
+and talked eagerly to the poor animal, pointing at me with outstretched
+finger the while. The keeper of the fandak, kind man, made uneasy by this
+demonstration, signed to me quietly to stretch out my hand, with palm
+open, and directed to the spot where the madman stood, for only in that
+way could I hope to avert the evil eye.
+
+The chief muleteer was a thin and wiry little fellow, a total stranger to
+the soap and water beloved of Unbelievers. He could not have been more
+than five feet high, and he was burnt brown. His dark outer garment of
+coarse native wool had the curious yellow patch on the back that all
+Berbers seem to favour, though none can explain its origin or purpose, and
+he carried his slippers in his hand, probably deeming them less capable of
+withstanding hard wear than his naked feet. He had no Arabic, but spoke
+only "Shilha," the language of the Berbers, so it took some time to make
+all arrangements, including the stipulation that a proper meal for all the
+mules was to be given under the superintendence of M'Barak. That worthy
+representative of Shareefian authority was having a regal time, drawing a
+dollar a day, together with three meals and a ration for his horse, in
+return for sitting at ease in the courtyard of the Tin House.
+
+Arrangements concluded, it was time to say good-bye to Sidi Boubikir. I
+asked delicately to be allowed to pay rent for the use of the house, but
+the hospitable old man would not hear of it. "Allah forbid that I should
+take any money," he remarked piously. "Had you told me you were going I
+would have asked you to dine with me again before you started." We sat in
+the well-remembered room, where green tea and mint were served in a
+beautiful set of china-and-gold filagree cups, presented to him by the
+British Government nearly ten years ago. He spoke at length of the places
+that should be visited, including the house of his near relative, Mulai el
+Hadj of Tamsloht, to whom he offered to send me with letters and an
+escort. Moreover, he offered an escort to see us out of the city and on
+the road to the coast, but I judged it better to decline both offers, and,
+with many high-flown compliments, left him by the entrance to his great
+house, and groped back through the mud to put the finishing touches to
+packing.
+
+The young shareef accepted a parting gift with grave dignity, and assured
+me of his esteem for all time and his willing service when and where I
+should need it. I had said good-bye to the "tabibs" and "tabibas," so
+nothing remained but to rearrange our goods, that nearly everything should
+be ready for the mules when they arrived before daybreak. Knowing that the
+first day's ride was a long one, some forty miles over an indifferent road
+and with second-rate animals, I was anxious to leave the city as soon as
+the gates were opened.
+
+[Illustration: THE JAMA'A EFFINA]
+
+Right above my head the mueddin in the minaret overlooking the Tin House
+called the sleeping city to its earliest prayer.[47] I rose and waked the
+others, and we dressed by a candle-light that soon became superfluous.
+When the mueddin began the chant that sounded so impressive and so
+mournful as it was echoed from every minaret in the city, the first
+approach of light would have been visible in the east, and in these
+latitudes day comes and goes upon winged feet. Before the beds were
+taken to pieces and Salam had the porridge and his "marmalade" ready, with
+steaming coffee, for early breakfast, we heard the mules clattering down
+the stony street. Within half an hour the packing comedy had commenced.
+The Susi muleteer, who was accompanied by a boy and four men, one a slave,
+and all quite as frowzy, unwashed, and picturesque as himself, swore that
+we did not need four pack-mules but eight. Salam, his eyes flaming, and
+each separate hair of his beard standing on end, cursed the shameless
+women who gave such men as the Susi muleteer and his fellows to the
+kingdom of my Lord Abd-el-Aziz, threw the _shwarris_ on the ground,
+rejected the ropes, and declared that with proper fittings the mules, if
+these were mules at all, and he had his very serious doubts about the
+matter, could run to Mogador in three days. Clearly Salam intended to be
+master from the start, and when I came to know something more about our
+company, the wisdom of the procedure was plain. Happily for one and all
+Mr. Nairn came along at this moment. It was not five o'clock, but the hope
+of serving us had brought him into the cold morning air, and his thorough
+knowledge of the Shilha tongue worked wonders. He was able to send for
+proper ropes at an hour when we could have found no trader to supply them,
+and if we reached the city gate that looks out towards the south almost as
+soon as the camel caravan that had waited without all night, the
+accomplishment was due to my kind friend who, with Mr. Alan Lennox, had
+done so much to make the stay in Marrakesh happily memorable.
+
+It was just half-past six when the last pack-mule passed the gate, whose
+keeper said graciously, "Allah prosper the journey," and, though the sun
+was up, the morning was cool, with a delightfully fresh breeze from the
+west, where the Atlas Mountains stretched beyond range of sight in all
+their unexplored grandeur. They seemed very close to us in that clear
+atmosphere, but their foot hills lay a day's ride away, and the natives
+would be prompt to resent the visit of a stranger who did not come to them
+with the authority of a kaid or governor whose power and will to punish
+promptly were indisputable. With no little regret I turned, when we had
+been half an hour on the road, for a last look at Ibn Tachfin's city.
+Distance had already given it the indefinite attraction that comes when
+the traveller sees some city of old time in a light that suggests every
+charm and defines none. I realised that I had never entered an Eastern
+city with greater pleasure, or left one with more sincere regret, and that
+if time and circumstance had been my servants I would not have been so
+soon upon the road.
+
+The road from Marrakesh to Mogador is as pleasant as traveller could wish,
+lying for a great part of the way through fertile land, but it is seldom
+followed, because of the two unbridged rivers N'fiss and Sheshoua. If
+either is in flood (and both are fed by the melting snows from the Atlas
+Mountains), you must camp on the banks for days together, until it shall
+please Allah to abate the waters. Our lucky star was in the ascendant; we
+reached Wad N'fiss at eleven o'clock to find its waters low and clear. On
+the far side of the banks we stayed to lunch by the border of a thick belt
+of sedge and bulrushes, a marshy place stretching over two or three acres,
+and glowing with the rich colour that comes to southern lands in April and
+in May. It recalled to me the passage in one of the stately choruses of
+Mr. Swinburne's _Atalanta in Calydon_, that tells how "blossom by blossom
+the spring begins."
+
+The intoxication that lies in colour and sound has ever had more
+fascination for me than the finest wine could bring: the colour of the
+vintage is more pleasing than the taste of the grape. In this forgotten
+corner the eye and ear were assailed and must needs surrender. Many tiny
+birds of the warbler family sang among the reeds, where I set up what I
+took to be a Numidian crane, and, just beyond the river growths, some
+splendid oleanders gave an effective splash of scarlet to the surrounding
+greens and greys. In the waters of the marsh the bullfrogs kept up a loud
+sustained croak, as though they were True Believers disturbed by the
+presence of the Infidels. The N'fiss is a fascinating river from every
+point of view. Though comparatively small, few Europeans have reached the
+source, and it passes through parts of the country where a white man's
+presence would be resented effectively. The spurs of the Atlas were still
+clearly visible on our left hand, and needless to say we had the place to
+ourselves. There was not so much as a tent in sight.
+
+At last M'Barak, who had resumed his place at the head of our little
+company, and now realised that we had prolonged our stay beyond proper
+limits, mounted his horse rather ostentatiously, and the journey was
+resumed over level land that was very scantily covered with grass or
+clumps of irises. The mountains seemed to recede and the plain to spread
+out; neither eye nor glass revealed a village; we were apparently riding
+towards the edge of the plains. The muleteer and his companions strode
+along at a round pace, supporting themselves with sticks and singing
+melancholy Shilha love-songs. Their mules, recollection of their good meal
+of the previous evening being forgotten, dropped to a pace of something
+less than four miles an hour, and as the gait of our company had to be
+regulated by the speed of its slowest member, it is not surprising that
+night caught us up on the open and shut out a view of the billowy plain
+that seemingly held no resting-place. How I missed the little Maalem,
+whose tongue would have been a spur to the stumbling beasts! But as
+wishing would bring nothing, we dismounted and walked by the side of our
+animals, the kaid alone remaining in the saddle. Six o'clock became seven,
+and seven became eight, and then I found it sweet to hear the watch-dog's
+honest bark. Of course it was not a "deep-mouthed welcome:" it was no more
+than a cry of warning and defiance raised by the colony of pariah dogs
+that guarded Ain el Baidah, our destination.
+
+In the darkness, that had a pleasing touch of purple colouring lent it by
+the stars, Ain el Baidah's headman loomed very large and imposing. "Praise
+to Allah that you have come and in health," he remarked, as though we
+were old friends. He assured me of my welcome, and said his village had a
+guest-house that would serve instead of the tent. Methought he protested
+too much, but knowing that men and mules were dead beat, and that we had a
+long way to go, I told Salam that the guest-house would serve, and the
+headman lead the way to a tapia building that would be called a very small
+barn, or a large fowl-house, in England. A tiny clay lamp, in which a
+cotton wick consumed some mutton fat, revealed a corner of the darkness
+and the dirt, and when our own lamps banished the one, they left the other
+very clearly to be seen. But we were too tired to utter a complaint. I saw
+the mules brought within the zariba, helped to set up my camp bed, took
+the cartridges out of my shot gun, and, telling Salam to say when supper
+was ready, fell asleep at once. Eighteen busy hours had passed since the
+mueddin called to "feyer" from the minaret above the Tin House, but my
+long-sought rest was destined to be brief.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[43] Literally, "Slave of the Merciful."
+
+[44] Priest attached to the Mosque.
+
+[45] The Angels of Judgment.
+
+[46] So many lepers come from the Argan Forest provinces of Haha and
+Shiadma that leprosy is believed by many Moors to result from the free use
+of Argan oil. There is no proper foundation for this belief.
+
+[47] This is the most important of the five supplications. The Sura of Al
+Koran called "The Night Journey" says, "To the prayer of daybreak the
+Angels themselves bear witness."
+
+
+
+
+"SONS OF LIONS" AND OTHER TRUE BELIEVERS
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: EVENING IN CAMP]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+"SONS OF LIONS" AND OTHER TRUE BELIEVERS
+
+    FALSTAFF--"Four rogues in buckram let drive at me."
+
+    _King Henry IV._, Act II. Scene 4.
+
+
+By the time Salam had roused me from a dream in which I was being torn
+limb from limb in a Roman amphitheatre, whose terraced seats held
+countless Moors all hugely enjoying my dismemberment, I realised that a
+night in that guest-house would be impossible. The place was already
+over-populated.
+
+A brief meal was taken in the open, and we sat with our feet thrust to the
+edge of the nearest charcoal fire, for the night was cold. Our animals,
+tethered and watered, stood anxiously waiting for the barley the chief
+muleteer had gone to buy. Supper over, I sat on a chair in the open, and
+disposed myself for sleep as well as the conditions permitted. Round me,
+on the bare ground, the men and the boy from the Sus lay wrapped in their
+haiks--the dead could not have slept more soundly than they. The two fires
+were glimmering very faintly now, M'Barak was stretching a blanket for
+himself, while Salam collected the tin plates and dishes, his last task
+before retiring. Somewhere in the far outer darkness I heard the wail of
+a hyaena, and a light cold breeze sighed over the plain. Half asleep and
+half awake I saw the village headman approaching from out the darkness; a
+big bag of barley was on his shoulder, and he was followed closely by the
+muleteer. They came into the little circle of the fast falling light; I
+was nodding drowsily toward unconsciousness, and wondering, with a vague
+resentment that exhausted all my remaining capacity to think, why the
+headman should be speaking so loudly. Suddenly, I saw the muleteer go to
+earth as if he had been pole-axed, and in that instant I was wide awake
+and on my feet. So was Salam.
+
+The headman delivered himself of a few incisive rasping sentences. The
+muleteer rose slowly and wiped a little blood from his face.
+
+Salam explained: his capacity for fathoming a crisis was ever remarkable.
+"Headman he charge three dollars for barley and he don't worth more than
+one. Muleteer he speaks for that, and headman 'e knock him down."
+
+"Ask him how he dares interfere with our people," I said. "Tell him his
+kaid shall hear of it."
+
+The headman replied haughtily to Salam's questions and strode away. "He
+say," said Salam, beginning to get angry, "Pay first and talk
+afterwards--to Allah, if you will. He say he wait long time for man like
+muleteer an' cut 'im throat. What he's bin done that be nothing. What he's
+goin' to do, that all Moors is goin' to see. He come back soon, sir."
+
+Then Salam slipped noiselessly into the guest-house and fetched my
+repeating shot gun, from which I had previously drawn all cartridges. He
+sat down outside with the weapon across his knees, and the bruised
+muleteer safely behind him. I coaxed the charcoal to a further effort and
+returned to my chair, wondering whether trouble that had been so long in
+coming had arrived at last. Some five minutes later we heard a sound of
+approaching footsteps, and I could not help noting how Salam brightened.
+He was spoiling for a fight. I watched dim figures coming into the area of
+light, they took shape and showed Ain al Baidah's chief and two of his
+men--tall, sturdy fellows, armed with thick sticks. Seeing Salam sitting
+with gun levelled full on them they came to a sudden halt, and listened
+while he told them, in a voice that shook and sometimes broke with rage,
+their character, their characteristics, the moral standing of their
+parents and grandparents, the probable fate of their sons, and the certain
+and shameful destiny of their daughters. He invited them, with finger on
+trigger, to advance one step and meet the death that should enable him to
+give their ill-favoured bodies one by one to the pariahs and the hawks,
+before he proceeded to sack Ain al Baidah and overcome single-handed the
+whole of its fighting men. And, absurd though his rodomontade may sound to
+Europeans, who read it in cold print, it was a vastly different matter
+there in the dark of the Plain, when Salam stood, believing he held a
+loaded gun in his hand, and allowed his fierce temper rein. The headman
+and his two attendants slunk off like whipped curs, and we proceeded to
+feed our animals, replenish both fires, and sleep with one eye open.
+
+[Illustration: PREPARING SUPPER]
+
+Morning came over the hills to Ain al Baidah in cold and cheerless guise.
+The villagers crowded round to stare at us in the familiar fashion. But
+there were grim looks and dark scowls among them, and, failing the
+truculent and determined bearing of Salam and the presence of the kaid we
+should have had a lively quarter of an hour. As it was, we were not ready
+to leave before eight o'clock, and then Salam went, money in hand, to
+where the thieving headman stood. The broken night's rest had not made my
+companion more pleased with Ain al Baidah's chief. He threw the dollars
+that had been demanded on to the ground before the rogue's feet, and then
+his left hand flew up and outward. With one swift, irresistible movement
+he had caught his foe by the beard, drawn down the shrinking, vicious face
+to within a few inches of his own, and so holding him, spoke earnestly for
+half a minute, of what the Prophet has said about hospitality to
+travellers, and the shocking fate that awaits headmen who rob those who
+come seeking shelter, and beat them when they complain. Ain al Baidah's
+chief could not but listen, and listening, he could not but shudder. So it
+fell out that, when Salam's harangue was finished, we left a speechless,
+irresolute, disgraced headman, and rode away slowly, that none might say
+we knew fear. If the village had any inclination to assist its chief, the
+sight of the blessed one's weapon, in its fierce red cloth covering, must
+have awed them. Some days later, in Mogador, I was told that the Ain al
+Baidah man is a terror to travellers and a notorious robber, but I made no
+complaint to our Consul. If the headman's overlord had been told to punish
+him, the method chosen would assuredly have been to rob every man in the
+douar, and if they resisted, burn their huts over their heads. It seemed
+better to trust that the memory of Salam will lead Ain al Baidah's chief
+to lessen his proud looks.
+
+We made slow progress to Sheshoua, where the river that might have barred
+our road to the coast was as friendly as the N'fiss had been on the
+previous day. The track to its banks had been flat and uninteresting
+enough; what good work the winter rains had done by way of weaving a
+flower carpet on the plains, the summer sun had destroyed. There was a
+considerable depression in the plain, though we could not notice it at the
+slow pace forced upon us, and this accounted for the absence of water
+between the rivers, and for the great extent of the calcareous gravel, in
+which few plants could thrive. Only the _zizyphus lotus_, from whose
+branches little white snails hung like flowers, seemed to find real
+nourishment in the dry ground, though colocynth and wild lavender were to
+be seen now and again. But by the Sheshoua River the change was very
+sudden and grateful to the eye.
+
+A considerable olive grove, whose grey-green leaves shone like silver in
+the light breeze, offered shade and shelter to a large colony of doves.
+There was a thriving village, with a saint's tomb for chief attraction,
+and solid walls to suggest that the place does not enjoy perennial
+tranquillity. But even though there are strangers who trouble these good
+folk, their home could not have looked more charmingly a haunt of peace
+than it did. All round the village one saw orchards of figs, apricots, and
+pomegranate trees; the first with the leaves untouched by the summer heat,
+the apricots just at the end of their blossoming, and the pomegranates
+still in flower. In place of the dry, hard soil that was so trying to the
+feet of man and beast, there were here meadows in plenty, from which the
+irises had only lately died. I saw the common English dandelion growing
+within stone's throw of a clump of feathery palms.
+
+Tired after the vigil of the previous night and the long hours that had
+led up to it, we reclined at our ease under the olives, determined to
+spend the night at Sidi el Muktar, some fifteen or twenty miles away. From
+there one can hunt the great bustard, and I had hoped to do so until I saw
+the animals that were to take us to the coast. Neither the bustard nor the
+gazelle, that sometimes roams Sidi el Muktar's plains, had anything to
+fear from those noble creatures. The kaid alone might have pursued bird or
+beast, but as his gun was innocent of powder and shot there would have
+been nothing but exercise to seek.
+
+After a two-hours' rest, given in one case more to sleep than lunch, we
+moved on towards the village of Sidi el Muktar, passing some curious
+flat-topped hills called by the natives Haunk Ijjimmal.[48] The oasis had
+ceased as suddenly as it had begun, and the road became as uninteresting
+as was our own crawling gait. I noticed that the Susi muleteers were
+travelling very sadly, that they had not among them an echo of the songs
+that had sounded so strangely on the previous day, and I bade Salam find
+the cause of the depression, and ask whether the young lad whose features
+had become pinched and drawn felt ill. Within a few moments the truth was
+out. The six men had eaten nothing save a little of the mules' barley
+since they left Marrakesh, and as they had been on short rations between
+Tiensiert and the Southern capital, their strength was beginning to give
+out. It was no part of my business to feed them; they had received
+"something in the hand" before they left the city, and could well have
+bought supplies for the road, but they had preferred to trust Providence,
+and hoped to live on a small part of the mules' barley and the daily gift
+of tea that had been promised. Under the circumstances, and though I had
+found reason to believe that they were lazy, feckless rogues enough, who
+really needed an iron-handed kaid to rule over them, I told Salam to pass
+word round that their wants would be supplied at the day's end. Then they
+picked up their old stride, and one by one resumed the love-songs of
+yesterday as we moved slowly over the plains to where, in the far
+distance, Sidi el Muktar stood between us and the fast setting sun, placed
+near to the junction of three provinces--Oulad bou Sba, through which we
+travelled, M'touga, famous for fleet horses, and Shiadma, where our road
+lay.
+
+But we were to find no rest in the shade of Sidi el Muktar's stately
+zowia. The "Sons of Lions" had raided the place on the previous day,
+hoping to terminate alike the rule and the existence of a kaid whose hand
+had rested too heavily upon them. Some friend of the kaid having given him
+due notice of the raiders' intentions--treachery is a painfully common
+feature of these forays--he had been well prepared to meet these godless
+men. Powder had spoken, and was to speak again, for the kaid, having
+driven off the raiders, was going to carry war into the enemy's country,
+and was busy preparing to start on the morrow at daybreak. At such a time
+as this it had not been wise to pitch tent within sound or sight of men
+with the killing lust upon them. Very reluctantly we rode on for another
+two hours and then Ain Umast, a douar that is famous for its possession of
+a well of pure water, received us with nightfall. There our troubles were
+over, for though the place was more than commonly dirty, the inhabitants
+were peaceable and disposed to be friendly. A few crops were raised on the
+surrounding fields, and small herds of sheep and goats managed to pick up
+some sort of a living on the surrounding lands, but poverty reigned there,
+and Ain Umast is of small account by the side of Sidi el Muktar, which is
+the burial-place of a saint, whose miracles are still acknowledged by all
+the faithful who happen to have met with good luck of any sort.
+
+[Illustration: A GOATHERD]
+
+Bread, butter, and eggs were brought for the muleteers, and I was
+greatly surprised by the cleanliness of the men. Before they broke an egg
+for the omelette they washed it with greatest care. They themselves stood
+far more in need of a washing than the eggs did, but perhaps they could
+not be expected to think of everything. Barley was bought, at half the
+price charged at Ain el Baidah, and I noticed that the cunning Susi hid
+some of it in the long bag they kept at the bottom of one of the
+_shwarris_. Clearly they intended to make the supply we paid for serve to
+take them all the way to Tiensiert. This was annoying, since one of the
+objects of ordering a good supply each night was to enable the
+long-suffering beasts to compass a better speed on the following day.
+
+That evening there was great excitement in the douar. The elders came
+round our fire after supper and sought to know if it were true that the
+"Sons of Lions" had blotted out Sidi el Muktar, and put all its
+inhabitants to the sword. When we declared that the little town was still
+where it had stood since they were born, they appeared distinctly
+surprised, and gave the praise and credit to the patron saint. They said
+the kaid's hand was a very heavy one, that his men went to the Wednesday
+market and were the terror of the country folks who came to buy and sell.
+The absence of the Court Elevated by Allah was to be deplored, for had my
+Lord Abd-el-Aziz been in residence at Marrakesh some other kaid would have
+made him a bid for the place of the ruler of Sidi el Muktar, basing his
+offer upon the fact that the present governor could not keep order. A
+change might have been for the better--it could hardly have been for the
+worse. One or two of the men of Ain Umast spoke Shilha, and the Susi men,
+hearing the cruelties of Sidi el Muktar's ruler discussed, claimed to have
+a far better specimen of the genus kaid in Tiensiert. He was a man indeed,
+ready with fire and sword at the shortest notice; his subjects called him
+Father of Locusts, so thoroughly did he deal with all things that could be
+eaten up.
+
+It was a curious but instructive attitude. These miserable men were quite
+proud to think that the tyranny of their kaid, the great El Arbi bel Hadj
+ben Haida, was not to be rivalled by anything Shiadma could show. They
+instanced his treatment of them and pointed to the young boy who was of
+their company. His father had been kaid in years past, but the late Grand
+Wazeer Ba Ahmad sold his office to El Arbi, who threw the man into prison
+and kept him there until he died. To show his might, El Arbi had sent the
+boy with them, that all men might know how the social scales of Tiensiert
+held the kaid on one side and the rest of the people on the other. The
+black slave who accompanied them had been brought up by the late kaid's
+father, and was devoted to the boy. In his mercy El Arbi allowed him to
+live with the lad and work a small farm, the harvest of which was strictly
+tithed by Tiensiert's chief--who took a full nine-tenths. Before the
+evening was over the elders of Ain Umast had acknowledged, rather
+regretfully I thought, that the tyrant of Sidi el Muktar must hide a
+diminished head before his brother of the Sus. The triumph of the grimy
+men from Tiensiert was then complete.
+
+They were a sorry set of fellows enough, to outward seeming, but how shall
+a European judge them fairly? Stevenson says in one of his Essays,
+"Justice is not done to the versatility and the unplumbed childishness of
+man's imagination. His life from without may seem but a rude mound of mud;
+there will be some golden chamber at the heart of it, in which he dwells
+delighted; and for as dark as his pathway seems to the observer, he will
+have some kind of bull's-eye at his belt." So, doubtless, had I had the
+eyes that see below the surface, these hardy traders, the best of whose
+hopes and actions were hidden from me, would have been no less interesting
+than the Maalem or the young shareef.
+
+In view of the disturbed state of the country I thought of having a few
+extra guards, but finding the two already engaged sleeping peacefully
+before our tent was closed, it seemed likely that a couple of sleeping men
+would be as useful as four. I fear they had a troubled night, for though
+the "Sons of Lions" did not trouble us, a short, sharp shower came with
+the small hours and woke the poor fellows, who asked for extra money in
+the morning by way of consolation for their broken rest. By five o'clock
+we were astir, and soon after we were on the road again, bound for the
+village of Hanchen, where a small Sok Thalata[49] is held. After a brief
+mid-day rest we reached the outskirts of the Argan Forest.
+
+This great forest is quite the distinctive feature of Southern Morocco.
+The argan tree, that gives a name to it, is the indigenous olive of the
+country, and is found only in the zone between the Tensift river and the
+river Sus. Argan wood is exceedingly hard and slow growing, thus differing
+materially from the olive, to which it seems so nearly related. The trunk
+divides low down, sometimes within six feet of the roots, and the branches
+grow horizontally. If the Moors are right, the age of the elders of the
+forest is to be counted in centuries, and the wood can defy the attacks of
+insects that make short-work of other trees. The leaves of the argan
+recall those of the olive, but have even a lighter silvery aspect on the
+underside; the fruit is like the olive, but considerably larger, and is
+sought after by many animals. Goats climb among the branches in search of
+the best nuts. Camels and cows will not pass an argan tree if given the
+slightest chance to linger. The animals that eat the nuts reject their
+kernels, and the Moors collect these in order to extract the oil, which is
+used in cooking, for lighting purposes, and as medicine. After extraction
+the pulp is eagerly accepted by cattle, so no part of the valued fruit is
+wasted. One of the giants of the forest, said to be four hundred years
+old, has before now given shade to a regiment of soldiers; I saw for
+myself that the circumference of its branches was more than two hundred
+feet.
+
+[Illustration: COMING FROM THE MOSQUE, HANCHEN]
+
+But it must not be thought that the Argan Forest is composed entirely of
+these trees. The argan dominates the forest but does not account for
+its beauty. The r'tam is almost as plentiful, and lends far more to the
+wood's colour scheme, for its light branches are stirred by every breeze.
+Dwarf-palm is to be found on all sides, together with the arar or citrus,
+and the double-thorned lotus. The juniper, wild pear, and cork trees are
+to be met with now and again, and the ground is for the most part a sea of
+flowers almost unknown to me, though I could recognise wild thyme,
+asphodel, and lavender amid the tamarisk and myrtle undergrowth. At
+intervals the forest opens, showing some large douar that was built
+probably on the site of a well, and there industrious village folks have
+reclaimed the land, raised crops, and planted orchards. Olive, fig, and
+pomegranate seem to be the most popular trees, and corn is grown in the
+orchards too, possibly in order that it may have the benefit of the trees'
+shade. The soil that can raise corn and fruit trees together must have
+exceptional vitality and richness, particularly in view of the fact that
+it is in no way fed, and is rather scraped or scratched than truly
+ploughed.
+
+The village of Hanchen, known for miles round as "Sok Thalata" by reason
+of its weekly gathering, might well serve to justify a halt. It straggles
+over a hill surrounded on all sides by the forest, it has a saint's shrine
+of fair size and imposing aspect, a good supply of water, and very
+peaceful inhabitants. At the base of the slope, some fifty yards from the
+broad track leading to the coast, there was an orchard of more than common
+beauty, even for Southern Morocco. The pomegranates, aflower above the
+ripening corn, had finer blossoms than any I had seen before, the
+fig-trees were Biblical in their glossy splendour. Mules were footsore,
+the Susi men were tired, the weather was perfect, time was our own for a
+day or two, and I was aching to take my gun down the long glades that
+seemed to stretch to the horizon. So we off-saddled, and pitched our tent
+in the shadow of a patriarchal fig-tree. Then the mules were eased of
+their burdens and fed liberally, Salam standing between the poor beasts
+and the muleteers, who would have impounded a portion of their hard-earned
+meal.
+
+The heat of the afternoon was passing; I loaded my gun and started out. At
+first sight of the weapon some score of lads from the village--athletic,
+vigorous boys, ready to go anywhere and do anything--made signs that they
+would come and beat for me. With Salam's help I gave them proper
+instructions; my idea was to shoot enough of fur and feather to give the
+muleteers a good supper.
+
+At the outset a sorry accident befell. A fat pigeon came sailing overhead,
+so well fed that it was hard to believe he was a pigeon at all. This being
+the sort of bird that suits hungry men, I fired and was well pleased to
+note the swift direct fall, and to hear the thud that tells of a clean
+kill. To my surprise the beaters remained where they were, none offering
+to pick up the bird. There were glum and serious looks on every side. I
+motioned one lad to go forward, and, to my amazement, he made the sign
+that is intended to avert the evil eye, and declared that he took refuge
+from me with Allah.
+
+I sent for Salam, and, as he approached, a chorus of explanations came to
+him from all sides. The pigeon came from the zowia of El Hanchen. It was
+sacred--that is why it was so fat. This was a bad beginning, and a matter
+that demanded careful handling. So I sent M'Barak, representing official
+Morocco, to express to El Hanchen's headman my extreme sorrow and sincere
+regret. The blessed one was instructed to assure the village that I had no
+suspicion of the bird's holiness, and that it was my rule in life to
+respect everything that other men respected. It seemed courteous to await
+the kaid's return before resuming operations, and he came back in half an
+hour with word that the headman, while deeply regretting the incident,
+recognised the absence of bad intention. He asked that the sacred slain
+might not be eaten. I sent back word thanking him for his courteous
+acceptance of my explanations, and promising that the fat pigeon should
+receive decent burial. A small hole was dug on the sunny side of the
+fig-tree, and there the sacred bird was interred. I hope that the worms
+proved as particular as we had been.
+
+Duty done, we went off to the woods, the beaters, now quite reassured,
+driving stock-doves over in quantities that left no reason to fear about
+the muleteers' supper. While birds were the quarry the lads worked well,
+but now and again a hare would start from her form, and every boy would
+join in the headlong, hopeless chase that ensued. It was impossible to
+check them, and equally impossible to shoot at the hare. While she was
+within gunshot the lads were close on her heels, and by the time she had
+distanced them or dashed into the long grasses and scrub she was out of
+range or out of sight. In vain I waved them back and complained when they
+returned panting; as soon as another hare got up they went after her in
+the same way, until at last, taking advantage of a wild chase that had
+carried them rather a longer distance than usual, I took a sharp turn and
+strolled away quite by myself. I heard the excited cries die away in the
+distance, and then for some few moments the forest silence was broken only
+by the rustle of the breeze through the grass, and the sudden scream of a
+startled jay. Doves went happily from tree to tree and I never put my gun
+up. I had heard a very familiar sound, and wanted to be assured that my
+ears were not deceived. No, I was right; I could hear the cuckoo, calling
+through the depth of the forest, as though it were my favourite Essex
+copse at home. It was pleasant, indeed, to hear the homely notes so far
+from any other object, even remotely, connected with England.
+
+I strolled for an hour or more, listening to the "wandering voice,"
+heedless of what passed me by, at peace with all the world, and resolved
+to shoot no more. Alas, for good intentions! Coming suddenly into a great
+clearing girdled by argan trees, I flushed two large birds some forty
+yards away. The first was missed, the second came down and proved to be a
+Lesser Bustard or _boozerat_--quite a prize. Well content, I emptied the
+gun to avoid temptation and walked back to the camp, where there was
+quite a fair bag.
+
+"Tell the muleteers, Salam," I said, "that they may have these birds for
+their supper, and that I hope they will enjoy themselves."
+
+Salam wore a rather troubled expression, I thought, as he went to the head
+muleteer and pointed to the spoils. Then he came back and explained to me
+that their dietary laws did not allow the Susi to eat anything that had
+not been killed by bleeding in the orthodox fashion. Had they been with
+me, to turn wounded birds to the East and cut their throats in the name of
+Allah, all would have been well, but birds shot dead were an abomination
+to the righteous Susi. They scorned to avail themselves of the excuse
+afforded by their needs.[50] So my labour had been in vain, and I did not
+know what to do with the spoil. But I left the slain in a little heap out
+of the way of insects and flies, and when we rose in the morning the
+unorthodox among Hanchen's inhabitants had apparently solved the problem.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[48] The Camel's Jaw.
+
+[49] "Tuesday market."
+
+[50] "I find not in that which hath been revealed to me anything forbidden
+unto the eater ... except it be that which dieth of itself ... or that
+which is profane, having been slain in the name of some other than God.
+But whoso shall be compelled of necessity to eat these things, not lusting
+nor wilfully transgressing, verily thy Lord will be gracious unto him and
+merciful."--Al Koran, Sura, "Cattle."
+
+
+
+
+IN THE ARGAN FOREST
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: EVENING AT HANCHEN]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+IN THE ARGAN FOREST
+
+    Life, even at its greatest and best, may be compared to a froward
+    child, who must be humoured and played with till he falls asleep, and
+    then the care is over.
+
+    --_Goldsmith._
+
+
+Early morning found the Tuesday market in full swing, and the town of
+Hanchen already astir in honour of the occasion. To realise the importance
+of the weekly gathering, it is well to remember that a market in the
+country here is the only substitute for the bazaar of the towns. Every
+douar within a ten-mile radius of Hanchen sends men and women to the
+Tuesday market to buy and sell. So it befell that the hillside slope,
+which was bare on the previous afternoon, hummed now like a hive, and was
+well nigh as crowded. Rough tents of goats' or camels'-hair cloth
+sheltered everything likely to appeal to the native mind and
+resources,--tea, sugar, woollen and cotton goods, pottery, sieves,
+padlocks, and nails being to all appearance the goods most sought after by
+the country Moor. Quite a brisk demand for candles prevailed; they were
+highly-coloured things, thick at the base and tapering to the wick. There
+was a good sale too for native butter, that needed careful straining
+before it could be eaten with comfort, and there were eggs in plenty,
+fetching from twopence to threepence the dozen, a high price for Morocco,
+and brought about by the export trade that has developed so rapidly in the
+last few years. For the most part the traders seemed to be Berbers or of
+evident Berber extraction, being darker and smaller than the Arabs, and in
+some cases wearing the dark woollen outer garment, with its distinctive
+orange-coloured mark on the back. Women and little children took no small
+part in the market, but were perhaps most concerned with the sale of the
+chickens that they brought from their homes, tied by the legs in bundles
+without regard to the suffering entailed. The women did rather more than a
+fair share of porters' work too. Very few camels were to be seen, but I
+noticed one group of half a dozen being carefully fed on a cloth, because,
+like all their supercilious breed, they were too dainty to eat from the
+ground. They gurgled quite angrily over the question of precedence. A
+little way from the tents in which hardware was exposed for sale, bread
+was being baked in covered pans over a charcoal fire fanned by bellows,
+while at the bottom of the hill a butcher had put up the rough tripod of
+wooden poles, from which meat is suspended. The slaughter of sheep was
+proceeding briskly. A very old Moor was the official slaughter-man, and he
+sat in the shade of a wall, a bloody knife in hand, and conversed gravely
+with villagers of his own age. When the butcher's assistants had brought
+up three or four fresh sheep and stretched them on the ground, the old man
+would rise to his feet with considerable effort, cut the throats that
+were waiting for him very cleanly and expeditiously, and return to his
+place in the shade, while another assistant spread clean earth over the
+reeking ground. Some of the sheep after being dressed were barbecued.
+
+I saw many women and girls bent under the weight of baskets of charcoal,
+or firewood, or loads of hay, and some late arrivals coming in heavily
+burdened in this fashion were accompanied by their husband, who rode at
+ease on a donkey and abused them roundly because they did not go quickly
+enough. Mules and donkeys, with fore and hind leg hobbled, were left in
+one corner of the market-place, to make up in rest what they lacked in
+food. Needless to say that the marketing was very brisk, but I noted with
+some interest that very little money changed hands. Barter was more common
+than sale, partly because the Government had degraded its own currency
+until the natives were fighting shy of it, and partly because the owners
+of the sheep and goats were a company of true Bedouins from the extreme
+South. These Bedouins were the most interesting visitors to the Tuesday
+market, and I was delighted when one of them recognised Salam as a friend.
+The two had met in the days when an adventurous Scot set up in business at
+Cape Juby in the extreme South, where I believe his Majesty Lebaudy the
+First is now king.
+
+The Saharowi was an exceedingly thin man, of wild aspect, with flowing
+hair and scanty beard. His skin was burnt deep brown, and he was dressed
+in a blue cotton garment of guinea cloth made in simplest fashion. He was
+the chief of a little party that had been travelling for two months with
+faces set toward the North. He reminded Salam of Sidi[51] Mackenzie, the
+Scot who ruled Cape Juby, and how the great manager, whose name was known
+from the fort to Tindouf, had nearly poisoned him by giving him bread to
+eat when he was faint with hunger. These true Bedouins live on milk and
+cheese, with an occasional piece of camel or goat flesh, and a rare taste
+of mutton. When Salam's friend came starving to Cape Juby, Sidi Mackenzie
+had given him bread. The hungry man ate some and at once became violently
+ill, his stomach could not endure such solid fare. Having no milk in the
+fort, they managed to keep him alive on rice-water. It would appear that
+the Saharowi can easily live on milk for a week, and with milk and cheese
+can thrive indefinitely, as indeed could most other folk, if they cared to
+forswear luxury and try.
+
+[Illustration: ON THE ROAD TO ARGAN FOREST]
+
+The little party was travelling with some hundreds of sheep and goats,
+which were being tended a little way off by the children, and, large
+though their flocks seemed, they were in truth sadly reduced by the
+drought that had driven one and all to the North. The Saharowi explained
+to Salam that all the wandering Arabs were trekking northwards in search
+of land that had seen the rain; and that their path was strewn with the
+skeletons of animals fallen by the way. These nomads carried their wives
+and little ones, together with tents and household impedimenta, on the
+camels, and walked on foot with the grown children in charge of the
+flocks. The sheep they had sold to the butcher were in fair condition, and
+fetched from four to five shillings in English money, or the equivalent of
+this sum in goods, for when a Saharowi approaches civilised lands he is
+generally in need of some of the products of civilisation, or thinks he
+is, though, at need, he manages excellently well without them.
+
+Among the miscellaneous gathering that the Tuesday market had attracted to
+Hanchen I noticed a small company of acrobats from the Sus, and a medicine
+man of fierce aspect, who sat by himself under a rough tent, muttering
+charms and incantations, and waiting for Allah to send victims. This
+wonder-worker had piercing eyes, that seemed to examine the back of your
+head, long matted hair and a beard to match. He wore a white djellaba and
+a pair of new slippers, and was probably more dangerous than any disease
+he aided and abetted.
+
+For the amusement of the people who did not care for acrobatic feats and
+stood in no need of the primitive methods of the physician, there was a
+story-teller, who addressed a somewhat attenuated circle of phlegmatic
+listeners, and a snake-charmer who was surrounded by children. Sidi ben
+Aissa undoubtedly kept the snakes--spotted leffas from the Sus--from
+hurting his follower, but not even the saint could draw _floos_ from poor
+youngsters whose total wealth would probably have failed to yield
+threepence to the strictest investigator. Happily for them the charmer was
+an artist in his way; he loved his work for its own sake, and abated no
+part of his performance, although the reward would hardly buy him and his
+assistant a meal of mutton and bread at their labour's end. The boys of
+Hanchen were doing brisk business in the brass cases of cartridges that
+had been fired on the previous day, and without a doubt the story of the
+wonders of a repeating gun lost nothing in the telling.
+
+[Illustration: THE SNAKE-CHARMER]
+
+There was no interval for rest when the hours of greatest heat came round.
+Late arrivals who travelled in on mule- or donkey-back renewed business
+when it slackened, and brought fresh goods to be sold or exchanged. The
+"Sons of Lions" had broken up the market at Sidi el Muktar on the previous
+Friday before it was properly concluded, and many natives, disappointed
+there, had come out to Hanchen to do their business, until there seemed to
+be nothing in any stall that lacked buyers. Even the old man who had a
+heap of scrap-iron when the market opened had sold every piece of it by
+four o'clock, though it would have puzzled a European to find any use for
+such rubbish. The itinerant mender of slippers was hard at work with three
+young lads, and I never saw any one of the party idle. Hawks and corbies
+fluttered over the butcher's ground, and I noticed a vulture in the deep
+vault of the sky. Pariah dogs would clear every bit of refuse from the
+ground before another day dawned, and in their nasty fashion would serve
+their country, for the weather was very hot and the odours were
+overpowering. Flies covered all unprotected meat until it ceased to look
+red, and the stall of the seller of sweetmeats was a study in black and
+white: black when the swarms settled, and white for a brief moment when he
+switched them off with his feathery bamboo brush. Yet, in spite of the
+many difficulties under which trade was carried on, one could not help
+feeling that buyers and sellers alike were enjoying themselves hugely. The
+market did more than help them to make a living. It was at once their
+club, their newspaper, and their theatre, and supplied the one recreation
+of lives that--perhaps only to European seeming--were tedious as a
+twice-told tale.
+
+Here the village folk were able to keep themselves posted in the country's
+contemporary history, for traders had come from all points of the compass,
+and had met men at other markets who, in their turn, brought news from
+places still more remote. Consequently you might learn in Hanchen's
+Tuesday market what the Sultan was doing in Fez, and how the Rogui was
+occupied in Er-Riff. French penetration in the far-off districts of no
+man's land beyond Tafilalt was well-known to these travelling market-folk;
+the Saharowi had spoken with the heads of a caravan that had come with
+slaves from Ghadames, by way of the Tuat, bound for Marrakesh. Resting by
+day and travelling by night, they had passed without challenge through the
+French lines. A visitor knowing Arabic and Shilha, and able to discount
+the stories properly, might have had a faithful picture of Morocco as its
+own people see it, had he been admitted to join the weather-worn, hardy
+traders who sat complacently eyeing their diminished store towards the
+close of day. Truth is nowhere highly esteemed in Morocco,[52] and the
+colouring superimposed upon most stories must have destroyed their
+original hue, but it served to please the Moors and Berbers who, like the
+men of other countries one knows, have small use for unadorned facts.
+Perhaps the troubles that were reported from every side of the doomed
+country accounted for the professional story-teller's thin audience. By
+the side of tales that had some connection with fact the salt of his
+legends lost its savour.
+
+[Illustration: IN CAMP]
+
+Towards evening the crowd melted away silently, as it had come. A few
+mules passed along the road to Mogador, the Bedouin and his company moved
+off in the direction of Saffi, and the greater part of the traders turned
+south-east to M'touga, where there was a Thursday market that could be
+reached in comfort. Hanchen retired within its boundaries, rich in the
+proceeds of the sale of fodder, which had been in great demand throughout
+the day. Small companies of boys roamed over the market-place, seeking to
+snap up any trifles that had been left behind, just as English boys will
+at the Crystal Palace or Alexandra Park, after a firework display. The
+Moorish youngsters had even less luck than their English brethren, for in
+Morocco, where life is simple and men need and have little, everything has
+its use, and a native throws nothing away. The dogs, eager to forestall
+the vultures, were still fighting among themselves for the offal left
+by the butcher, when the villagers, who had come to take a late cup of tea
+with Salam and M'Barak, resumed their slippers, testified to the Unity of
+Allah, and turned to ascend Hanchen's steep hill.
+
+Among the stories circulated in the Tuesday market was one to the effect
+that a lion had come down from the Atlas, and after taking toll of the
+cattle belonging to the douars on its road, had been shot at the western
+end of the forest. This tale was told with so much circumstance that it
+seemed worth inquiry, and I found in Mogador that a great beast had indeed
+come from the hills and wrought considerable harm; but it was a leopard,
+not a lion. It may be doubted whether lions are to be found anywhere north
+of the Atlas to-day, though they were common enough in times past, and one
+is said to have been shot close to Tangier in the middle of last century.
+If they still exist it is in the farthest Atlas range, in the country of
+the Beni M'gild, a district that cannot be approached from the west at
+all, and in far lands beyond, that have been placed under observation
+lately by the advance-columns of the French Algerian army, which does not
+suffer from scruples where its neighbour's landmarks are concerned. Most
+of the old writers gave the title of lion or tiger to leopards, panthers,
+and lemurs; indeed, the error flourishes to-day.
+
+[Illustration: A COUNTRYMAN]
+
+On the road once again, I found myself wondering at the way in which
+British sportsmen have neglected the Argan Forest. If they had to reach it
+as we did, after long days and nights in a country that affords little
+attraction for sportsmen, it would be no matter for wonder that they stay
+away. But the outskirts of the forest can be reached from Mogador at the
+expense of a five-mile ride across the miniature Sahara that cuts off Sidi
+M'godol's city from the fertile lands, and Mogador has a weekly service of
+steamers coming direct from London by way of the other Moorish ports. No
+part of the forest is preserved, gun licenses are unknown, and the woods
+teem with game. Stories about the ouadad or moufflon may be disregarded,
+for this animal is only found in the passes of the Atlas Mountains, miles
+beyond the forest's boundaries. But, on the other hand, the wild boar is
+plentiful, while lynx, porcupine, hyaena, jackal, and hare are by no means
+rare. Sand-grouse and partridge thrive in large quantities. There are
+parts of the forest that recall the Highlands of Scotland, though the
+vegetation is richer than any that Scotland can show, and in these places,
+unknown save to a very few, the streams are full of trout, and the otter
+may be hunted along the banks. The small quantity and poor quality of
+native guns may be held to account for the continual presence of birds and
+beasts in a part of the world that may not fairly be deemed remote, and
+where, save in times of stress, a sportsman who will treat the natives
+with courtesy and consideration may be sure of a hearty welcome and all
+the assistance he deserves. Withal, no man who has once enjoyed a few days
+in the Argan Forest can sincerely regret Europe's neglect of it: human
+nature is not unselfish enough for that.
+
+The ride through the last part of the forest was uneventful. Argan,
+kharob, and lotus, with the help of a few of the "arar" or gum sandarac
+trees, shut off the view to the right and left. Below them dwarf-palm,
+aloe, cactus, and sweet broom made a dense undergrowth, and where the
+woodland opened suddenly the ground was aflame with flowers that recalled
+England as clearly as the cuckoo's note. Pimpernel, convolvulus,
+mignonette, marigold, and pansy were English enough, and in addition to
+these the ox-daisies of our meadows were almost as common here. Many
+companies of the true Bedouins passed us on the road, heralded by great
+flocks of sheep and goats, the sheep pausing to eat the tops of the
+dwarf-palms, the goats to climb the low-lying argan trees, while their
+owners stayed to ask about the water supply and the state of the country
+beyond.
+
+Though we might consider ourselves far removed from civilisation, these
+Bedouins felt that they were all too near it. The change from their desert
+land, with its few and far-scattered oases, to this country where there
+was a douar at the end of every day's journey, was like a change from the
+country to the town. They could not view without concern a part of the
+world in which men wore several garments, ate bread and vegetables, and
+slept under cover in a walled village, and one wild fellow, who carried a
+very old flint-lock musket, lamented the drought that had forced them from
+their homes to a place so full of men. So far as I was able to observe the
+matter, the Berber muleteers of El Arbi bel Hadj ben Haidah looked with
+great scorn upon these Bedouins, and their contempt was reciprocated. In
+the eyes of the Berbers these men were outcasts and "eaters of sand," and
+in the eyes of the Bedouins the muleteers were puling, town-bred slaves,
+who dared not say their right hands were their own.
+
+Perhaps the difficulty in the way of a proper understanding was largely
+physical. The Berbers believe they came to Morocco from Canaan, forced out
+of Palestine by the movement of the Jews under Joshua. They settled in the
+mountains of the "Far West," and have never been absorbed or driven out by
+their Arab conquerors. Strong, sturdy, temperate men, devoid of
+imagination, and of the impulse to create or develop an artistic side to
+their lives, they can have nothing in common with the slenderly built,
+far-seeing Arab of the plains, who dreams dreams and sees visions all the
+days of his life. Between Salam and the Bedouins, on the other hand, good
+feeling came naturally. The poor travellers, whose worldly wealth was ever
+in their sight--a camel or two, a tent with scanty furniture, and a few
+goats and sheep--had all the unexplored places of the world to wander in,
+and all the heavens for their canopy. That is the life the Arabs love, and
+it had tempted Salam many hundreds of miles from his native place, the
+sacred city of Sheshawan, on the border of Er-Riff. The wandering instinct
+is never very far from any of us who have once passed east of Suez, and
+learned that the highest end and aim of life is not to live in a town,
+however large and ugly, and suffer without complaining the inevitable
+visits of the tax collector.
+
+Our tent was set for the night in a valley that we reached by a path
+half-buried in undergrowth and known only to the head muleteer. It was a
+spot far removed from the beaten tracks of the travellers. In times past a
+great southern kaid had set his summer-house there: its skeleton, changed
+from grey to pink in the rosy light of sun-setting, stood before us, just
+across a tiny stream fringed by rushes, willows, and oleanders. When the
+Court Elevated by Allah left Marrakesh for the north some years ago, the
+sorely-tried natives had risen against their master, they had captured and
+plundered his house, and he had been fortunate in getting away with a
+whole skin. Thereafter the tribesmen had fought among themselves for the
+spoils of war, the division of the china and cutlery accounting for
+several deaths. All the land round our little camp had been a garden, a
+place famous for roses and jessamine, verbena and the geraniums that grow
+in bushes, together with countless other flowers, that make the garden of
+Sunset Land suggest to Moors the beauties of the paradise that is to come.
+Now the flowers that had been so carefully tended ran wild, the boar
+rooted among them, and the porcupine made a home in their shade. As
+evening closed in, the wreck of the great house became vague and shadowy,
+a thing without outline, the wraith of the home that had been. Grey owls
+and spectral bats sailed or fluttered from the walls. They might have been
+past owners or servitors who had suffered metamorphosis. The sight set me
+thinking of the mutual suspicions of the Bedouins and the Susi traders,
+the raiding of Sidi el Muktar, the other signs of tribal fighting that had
+been apparent on the road, the persecution of the Moor by his protected
+fellow-subjects,--in short, the whole failure of the administration to
+which the ruin that stood before me seemed to give fitting expression.
+This house had not stood, and, after all, I thought Morocco was but a
+house divided against itself.
+
+[Illustration: MOONLIGHT]
+
+In the face of all the difficulties and dangers that beset the state, the
+Sultan's subjects are concerned only with their own private animosities.
+Berber cannot unite with Moor, village still wars against village, each
+province is as a separate kingdom, so far as the adjacent province is
+concerned. As of old, the kaids are concerned only with filling their
+pockets; the villagers, when not fighting, are equally engrossed in saving
+some small portion of their earnings and taking advantage of the inability
+of the central Government to collect taxes. They all know that the land is
+in confusion, that the Europeans at the Court are intriguing against its
+independence. In camp and market-place men spread the news of the French
+advance from the East. Yet if the forces of the country could be
+organised,--if every official would but respond to the needs of the
+Government and the people unite under their masters,--Morocco might still
+hold Europe at bay, to the extent at least of making its subjection too
+costly and difficult a task for any European Government to undertake.
+If Morocco could but find its Abd el Kadr, the day of its partition
+might even yet be postponed indefinitely. But next year, or the next--who
+shall say?
+
+My journey was well nigh over. I had leisure now to recall all seen and
+heard in the past few weeks and contrast it with the mental notes I had
+made on the occasion of previous visits. And the truth was forced upon me
+that Morocco was nearer the brink of dissolution than it had ever
+been--that instability was the dominant note of social and political life.
+I recalled my glimpses of the Arabs who live in Algeria and Tunisia, and
+even Egypt under European rule, and thought of the servility and
+dependence of the lower classes and the gross, unintelligent lives of the
+rest. Morocco alone had held out against Europe, aided, to be sure, by the
+accident of her position at the corner of the Mediterranean where no one
+European Power could permit another to secure permanent foothold. And with
+the change, all the picturesque quality of life would go from the Moghreb,
+and the kingdom founded by Mulai Idrees a thousand years ago would become
+as vulgar as Algeria itself.
+
+There is something very solemn about the passing of a great kingdom--and
+Morocco has been renowned throughout Europe. It has preserved for us the
+essence of the life recorded in the Pentateuch; it has lived in the light
+of its own faith and enforced respect for its prejudices upon one and all.
+In days when men overrun every square mile of territory in the sacred name
+of progress, and the company promoter in London, Paris, or Berlin
+acquires wealth he cannot estimate by juggling with mineralised land he
+has never seen, Morocco has remained intact, and though her soil teems
+with evidences of mineral wealth, no man dares disturb it. There is
+something very fascinating about this defiance of all that the great
+Powers of the world hold most dear.
+
+One could not help remembering, too, the charm and courtesy, the simple
+faith and chivalrous life, of the many who would be swallowed up in the
+relentless maw of European progress, deliberately degraded, turned
+literally or morally into hewers of wood and drawers of
+water--misunderstood, made miserable and discontented. And to serve what
+end? Only that the political and financial ambitions of a restless
+generation might be gratified--that none might be able to say, "A weak
+race has been allowed to follow its path in peace."
+
+Salam disturbed my meditations.
+
+"Everything shut up, sir," he said. "I think you have forgot: to-morrow we
+go early to hunt the wild boar, sir."
+
+So I left Morocco to look after its own business and turned in.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[51] Sidi is a Moorish title, and means "my Lord."
+
+[52] It is related of one Sultan that when a "Bashador" remonstrated with
+him for not fulfilling a contract, he replied, "Am I then a Nazarene, that
+I should be bound by my word?"
+
+
+
+
+TO THE GATE OF THE PICTURE CITY
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: A MOORISH GIRL]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+TO THE GATE OF THE PICTURE CITY
+
+    Is it Pan's breath, fierce in the tremulous maiden-hair,
+      That bids fear creep as a snake through the woodlands, felt
+    In the leaves that it stirs not yet, in the mute bright air,
+      In the stress of the sun?
+
+    _A Nympholept._
+
+
+By the time the little camp was astir and the charcoal fires had done
+their duty to eggs, coffee, and porridge, Pepe Ratto, accompanied by two
+of his Berber trackers, rode into the valley, and dismounted on the level
+ground where our tent was pitched. At first sight the sportsman stood
+revealed in our welcome visitor. The man whose name will be handed down to
+future generations in the annals of Morocco's sport would attract
+attention anywhere. Tall, straight, sunburnt, grizzled, with keen grey
+eyes and an alert expression, suggesting the easy and instantaneous change
+from thought to action, Pepe Ratto is in every inch of him a sportsman.
+Knowing South Morocco as few Europeans know it, and having an acquaintance
+with the forest that is scarcely exceeded by either Moor or Berber, he
+gives as much of his life as he can spare to the pursuit of the boar, and
+he had ridden out with his hunters this morning from his forest home, the
+Palm Tree House, to meet us before we left the Argans behind, so that we
+might turn awhile on the track of a "solitaire" tusker.
+
+So the mules were left to enjoy an unexpected rest while their owners
+enjoyed an uninterrupted breakfast, and the kaid was given ample time in
+which to groom his horse and prepare it and himself for sufficiently
+imposing entrance into the Picture City[53] that evening. Salam was
+instructed to pack tents and boxes at his leisure, before he took one of
+my sporting guns and went to pursue fur and feather in parts of the forest
+immediately adjacent to the camp. A straight shot and a keen sportsman, I
+knew that Salam would not bother about the hares that might cross his
+path, or birds that rose in sudden flight away from it. His is the Moorish
+method of shooting, and he is wont to stalk his quarry and fire before it
+rises. I protested once that this procedure was unsportsmanlike.
+
+"Yes, sir," he replied simply. "If I wait for bird to fly may be I miss
+him, an' waste cartridge."
+
+[Illustration: A NARROW STREET IN MOGADOR]
+
+This argument was, of course, unanswerable. He would follow birds slowly
+and deliberately, taking advantage of wind and cover, patient in pursuit
+and deadly in aim. Our points of view were different. I shot for sport,
+and he, and all Moors, for the bag. In this I felt he was my superior.
+But, barring storks, all creatures were game that came within Salam's
+range.
+
+No Moor will harm a stork. Even Moorish children, whose taste for
+destruction and slaughter is as highly developed as any European's, will
+pick up a young stork that has fallen from its nest and return it to the
+mother bird if they can. Storks sit at peace among the women of the hareem
+who come for their afternoon airing to the flat roof-tops of Moorish
+houses. Moorish lovers in the streets below tell the story of their hopes
+and fears to the favoured bird, who, when he is chattering with his
+mandibles, is doing what he can to convey the message. Every True Believer
+knows that the stork was once a Sultan, or a Grand Wazeer at least, who,
+being vain and irreligious, laughed in the beards of the old men of his
+city on a sacred day when they came to pay their respects to him. By so
+doing he roused the wrath of Allah, who changed him suddenly to his
+present form. But in spite of misdeeds, the Moors love the stately bird,
+and there are hospitals for storks in Fez and Marrakesh, where men whose
+sanctity surpasses their ignorance are paid to minister to the wants of
+the sick or injured among them. Many a time Salam, in pursuit of birds,
+has passed within a few-yards of the father of the red legs or his
+children, but it has never occurred to him to do them harm. Strange fact,
+but undeniable, that in great cities of the East, where Muslims and
+Christians dwell, the storks will go to the quarter occupied by True
+Believers, and leave the other districts severely alone. I have been
+assured by Moors that the first of these birds having been a Muslim, the
+storks recognise the True Faith, and wish to testify to their preference
+for it. It is hard to persuade a Moor to catch a stork or take an egg from
+the nest, though in pursuit of other birds and beasts he is a stranger to
+compunction in any form.
+
+One of the trackers gave me his horse, and Pepe Ratto led the way down the
+stream for a short distance and then into thick scrub that seemed to be
+part of wild life's natural sanctuary, so quiet it lay, so dense and
+undisturbed. After the first five minutes I was conscious of the forest in
+an aspect hitherto unknown to me; I was aware that only a man who knew the
+place intimately could venture to make a path through untrodden growths
+that were left in peace from year to year. It was no haphazard way, though
+bushes required careful watching, the double-thorned lotus being too
+common for comfort.
+
+[Illustration: A NIGHT SCENE, MOGADOR]
+
+My companion's eye, trained to the observation of the woodlands in every
+aspect, noted the stories told by the bushes, the gravel, and the sand
+with a rapidity that was amazing. Twenty-five years of tireless hunting
+have given Pepe Ratto an instinct that seems to supplement the ordinary
+human gifts of sight and hearing. Our forefathers, who hunted for their
+living, must have had this gift so developed, and while lying dormant in
+Europeans, whose range of sports is compassed by the life of cities and
+limited game preserves, it persists among the men who devote the best
+years of their life to pitting their intelligence against that of the
+brute creation. The odds are of course very much in favour of the human
+being, but we may not realise readily the extreme cunning of hunted
+animals. The keen sportsman, who rode by my side pointing out the track of
+boar or porcupine, showing where animals had been feeding, and judging how
+recently they had passed by difference in the marks too faint for my eyes
+to see, confessed that he had spent months on the track of a single
+animal, baffled over and over again, but getting back to his quarry
+because he had with him the mark of the feet as copied when he tracked it
+for the first time.
+
+"No boar has four feet absolutely identical with those of another boar,"
+he said, "so when once you have the prints the animal must leave the
+forest altogether and get off to the Atlas, or you will find him in the
+end. He may double repeatedly on his own tracks, he may join a herd and
+travel with them for days into the thick scrub, where the dogs are badly
+torn in following him, but he can never get away, and the hunter following
+his tracks learns to realise in the frenzied changes and manoeuvres of the
+beast pursued, its consciousness of his pursuit." In these matters the
+trained and confirmed hunter's heart grows cold as the physiologist's,
+while his senses wax more and more acute, and near to the level of those
+of his prey.
+
+That is but a small part of the hunter's lore. As his eyes and ears
+develop a power beyond the reach of dwellers of cities with stunted sight
+and spoiled hearing, he grows conscious of the great forest laws that rule
+the life of birds and beasts--laws yet unwritten in any language. He
+finds all living things pursuing their destiny by the light of customs
+that appeal as strongly to them as ours to us, and learns to know that the
+order and dignity of the lower forms of life are not less remarkable in
+their way than the phenomena associated with our own.
+
+To me, the whirring of a covey of sand-grouse or partridges could express
+little more than the swift passage of birds to a place of security. To the
+man who grew almost as a part of the forest, the movement was something
+well defined, clearly initiated, and the first step in a sequence that he
+could trace without hesitation. One part of the forest might be the same
+as another to the casual rider, or might at best vary in its purely
+picturesque quality. To the long trained eye, on the other hand, it was a
+place that would or would not be the haunt of certain beasts or birds at
+certain hours of the day, by reason of its aspect with regard to the sun,
+its soil, cover, proximity to the river or other source of water supply,
+its freedom from certain winds and accessibility to others, its distance
+from any of the tracks that led to the country beyond the forest and were
+frequented at certain seasons of the year. The trained hunter reads all
+this as in a book, but the most of us can do no more than recognise the
+writing when it has been pointed out to us.
+
+[Illustration: HOUSE-TOPS, MOGADOR]
+
+So it happened that my morning ride with the hardy hunter, whose
+achievements bulk next to those of the late Sir John Drummond Hay in the
+history of Moorish sport, had an interest that did not depend altogether
+upon the wild forest paths through which he led the way. He told me how
+at daybreak the pack of cross-bred hounds came from garden, copse, and
+woodland, racing to the steps of the Palm Tree House, and giving tongue
+lustily, as though they knew there was sport afoot. One or two grizzled
+huntsmen who had followed every track in the Argan Forest were waiting in
+the patio for his final instructions, and he told them of hoof prints that
+had revealed to his practised eye a "solitaire" boar of more than ordinary
+size. He had tracked it for more than three hours on the previous day,
+past the valley where our tents were set, and knew now where the lair was
+chosen.
+
+"He has been lying under an argan tree, one standing well away from the
+rest at a point where the stream turns sharply, about a mile from the old
+kasbah in the wood, and he has moved now to make a new lair. I have made a
+note of his feet in my book; he had been wallowing less than twenty-four
+hours before when I found him. To-morrow, when we hunt the beast I hope to
+track to-day, the pack will follow in charge of the huntsmen. They will be
+taken through the wood all the way, for it is necessary to avoid villages
+and cattle pasture when you have more than a score of savage dogs that
+have not been fed since three o'clock on the previous afternoon. They are
+by no means averse from helping themselves to a sheep or a goat at such
+times."
+
+We had ridden in single file through a part where the lotus, now a tree
+instead of a bush, snatched at us on either side, and the air was
+fragrant with broom, syringa, and lavender. Behind us the path closed and
+was hidden; before us it was too thick to see more than a few yards ahead.
+Here and there some bird would scold and slip away, with a flutter of
+feathers and a quiver of the leaves through which it fled; while ever
+present, though never in sight, the cuckoo followed us the whole day long.
+Suddenly and abruptly the path ended by the side of a stream where great
+oleanders spread their scarlet blossoms to the light, and kingfishers
+darted across the pools that had held tiny fish in waters left by the
+rainy season. When we pushed our horses to the brink the bushes on either
+hand showered down their blossoms as though to greet the first visitors to
+the rivulet's bank. Involuntarily we drew rein by the water's edge,
+acknowledging the splendour of the scene with a tribute of silence. If you
+have been in the Western Highlands of Scotland, and along the Levantine
+Riviera, and can imagine a combination of the most fascinating aspects of
+both districts, you have but to add to them the charm of silence and
+complete seclusion, the sense of virgin soil, and the joy of a perfect day
+in early summer, and then some faint picture of the scene may present
+itself. It remains with me always, and the mere mention of the Argan
+Forest brings it back.
+
+Pepe Ratto soon recovered himself.
+
+[Illustration: SELLING GRAIN IN MOGADOR]
+
+"Yes," he said, in reply to my unspoken thoughts, "one seldom sees country
+like this anywhere else. But the boar went this way."
+
+So saying, the hunter uppermost again, he wheeled round, and we
+followed the stream quite slowly while he looked on either hand for signs
+of the large tusker. "We must find where he has settled," he continued.
+"Now the weather is getting so warm he will move to some place that is
+sandy and moist, within reach of the puddles he has chosen to wallow in.
+And he won't go far from this part, because the maize is not yet ripe."
+
+"Do they grow maize in this province?" I asked.
+
+"Yes," replied the hunter. "I give the farmers the seed and they plant it,
+for a boar is as fond of green maize as a fox is of chickens." He paused
+and showed me the marks of a herd that had come to the water within the
+past two days to drink and wallow. While I could see the marks of many
+feet, he could tell me all about the herd, the approximate numbers, the
+ages, and the direction they were taking. Several times we dismounted, and
+he examined the banks very carefully until, at the fourth or fifth
+attempt, tracks that were certainly larger than any we had seen revealed
+the long-sought tusker.
+
+We went through the wood, the hunter bending over a trail lying too faint
+on the green carpet of the forest for me to follow. We moved over
+difficult ground, often under the blaze of the African sun, and, intent
+upon the pursuit, noted neither the heat nor the flight of time. For some
+two miles of the dense scrub, the boar had gone steadily enough until the
+ground opened into a clearing, where the soil was sandy and vegetation
+correspondingly light. Here at last the track moved in a circle.
+
+"See," said the hunter, a suspicion of enthusiasm in his tone, "he has
+been circling; that means he is looking for a lair. Stay here, if you
+will, with the horses while I follow him home." And in a minute he was out
+of sight.
+
+I waited patiently enough for what seemed a long time, trying to catch the
+undersong that thrilled through the forest, "the horns of elf-land faintly
+blowing," the hum such as bees at home make when late May sees the
+chestnut trees in flower. Here the song was a veritable psalm of life, in
+which every tree, bird, bush, and insect had its own part to play. It
+might have been a primeval forest; even the horses were grazing quietly,
+as though their spirits had succumbed to the solemn influences around us.
+The great god Pan himself could not have been far away, and I felt that he
+might have shown himself--that it was fitting indeed for him to appear in
+such a place and at such a season.
+
+The hunter came back silently as he had gone.
+
+[Illustration: SELLING ORANGES]
+
+"All's well," he said as he remounted; "he is a fine fellow, and has his
+lair most comfortably placed. And you should have come with me, but your
+creaking English gaiters would have disturbed him, while my soft native
+ones let me go within thirty or forty yards of his new home in safety." My
+companion was wearing the Moorish gaiters of the sort his trackers
+used--things made of palmetto. When they follow on foot the trackers
+wear leather aprons too, in order to deaden the sound made by their
+passage through the resisting undergrowth.
+
+Then we rode back by another route, down paths that only an Arab horse
+could have hoped to negotiate, through densely wooded forest tracks that
+shut out the sun, but allowed its brightness to filter through a leafy
+sieve and work a pattern of dappled light and shadow on the grass, for our
+delectation. Most of the way had been made familiar in pursuit of some
+wild boar that would not stand and fight but hurried into the wildest and
+most difficult part of the forest, charging through every bush, however
+thick and thorny, in vain endeavour to shake off the pitiless pack. For my
+companion no corner of the forest lacked memories, some recent, some
+remote, but all concerned with the familiar trial of skill in which the
+boar had at last yielded up his pleasant life.
+
+We came quite suddenly upon the stream and past a riot of green bamboo and
+rushes, saw the kaid's house, more than ever gaunt and dishevelled by
+daylight, with the shining water in front, the wild garden beyond, and on
+the other bank the Susi muleteers sitting with the black slave in pleasant
+contemplation of the work Salam had done. Kaid M'Barak dozed on one of the
+boxes, nursing his beloved gun, while the horse equally dear to him stood
+quietly by, enjoying the lush grasses. Salam and the tracker were not far
+away, a rendezvous was appointed for the hunt, and Pepe Ratto, followed by
+his men, cantered off, leaving me to a delightful spell of rest, while
+Salam persuaded the muleteers to load the animals for the last few miles
+of the road between us and Mogador.
+
+Then, not without regret, I followed the pack-mules out of the valley,
+along the track leading to a broad path that has been worn by the feet of
+countless nomads, travelling with their flocks and herds, from the heat
+and drought of the extreme south to the markets that receive the trade of
+the country, or making haste from the turbulent north to escape the heavy
+hand of the oppressor.
+
+It was not pleasant to ride away from the forest, to see the great open
+spaces increasing and the trees yielding slowly but surely to the dwarf
+bushes that are the most significant feature of the southern country,
+outside the woodland and oases. I thought of the seaport town we were so
+soon to see--a place where the civilisation we had dispensed with happily
+enough for some weeks past would be forced into evidence once more, where
+the wild countrymen among whom we had lived at our ease would be seen only
+on market days, and the native Moors would have assimilated just enough of
+the European life and thought to make them uninteresting, somewhat
+vicious, and wholly ill-content.
+
+The forest was left behind, the land grew bare, and from a hill-top I saw
+the Atlantic some five or six miles away, a desert of sand stretching
+between. We were soon on these sands--light, shifting, and intensely
+hot--a Sahara in miniature save for the presence of the fragrant broom in
+brief patches here and there. It was difficult riding, and reduced the
+pace of the pack-mules to something under three miles an hour. As we
+ploughed across the sand I saw Suera itself, the Picture City of Sidi
+M'godol, a saint of more than ordinary repute, who gave the city the name
+by which it is known to Europe. Suera or Mogador is built on a little
+tongue of land, and threatens sea and sandhills with imposing
+fortifications that are quite worthless from a soldier's point of view.
+Though the sight of a town brought regretful recollection that the time of
+journeying was over, Mogador, it must be confessed, did much to atone for
+the inevitable. It looked like a mirage city that the sand and sun had
+combined to call into brief existence--Moorish from end to end, dazzling
+white in the strong sun of early summer, and offering some suggestion of
+social life in the flags that were fluttering from the roof-tops of
+Consuls' houses. A prosperous city, one would have thought, the emporium
+for the desert trade with Europe, and indeed it was all this for many
+years. Now it has fallen from its high commercial estate; French
+enterprise has cut into and diverted the caravan routes, seeking to turn
+all the desert traffic to Dakkar, the new Bizerta in Senegal, or to the
+Algerian coast.
+
+Salam and M'Barak praised Sidi M'godol, whose zowia lay plainly to be seen
+below the Marrakesh gate; the Susi muleteers, the boy, and the slave
+renewed their Shilha songs, thinking doubtless of the store of dollars
+awaiting them; but I could not conquer my regrets, though I was properly
+obliged to Sidi M'godol for bringing me in safety to his long home. Just
+before us a caravan from the South was pushing its way to the gates. The
+ungainly camels, seeing a resting-place before them, had plucked up their
+spirits and were shuffling along at a pace their drivers could hardly have
+enforced on the previous day. We caught them up, and the leaders explained
+that they were coming in from Tindouf in the Draa country, a place
+unexplored as yet by Europeans. They had suffered badly from lack of water
+on the way, and confirmed the news that the Bedouins had brought, of a
+drought unparalleled in the memory of living man. Sociable fellows all,
+full of contentment, pluck, and endurance, they lightened the last hour
+upon a tedious road.
+
+At length we reached the strip of herbage that divides the desert from the
+town, a vegetable garden big enough to supply the needs of the Picture
+City, and full of artichokes, asparagus, egg plants, sage, and thyme. The
+patient labour of many generations had gone to reclaim this little patch
+from the surrounding waste.
+
+We passed the graveyard of the Protestants and Catholics, a retired place
+that pleaded eloquently in its peacefulness for the last long rest that
+awaits all mortal travellers. Much care had made it less a cemetery than a
+garden, and it literally glowed and blazed with flowers--roses, geraniums,
+verbena, and nasturtiums being most in evidence. A kindly priest of the
+order of St. Francis invited us to rest, and enjoy the colour and
+fragrance of his lovingly-tended oasis. And while we rested, he talked
+briefly of his work in the town, and asked me of our journey. The place
+reminded me strongly of a garden belonging to another Brotherhood of the
+Roman Catholic Church, and set at Capernaum on the Sea of Galilee, where,
+a few years ago, I saw the monks labouring among their flowers, with
+results no less happy than I found here.
+
+After a brief rest we rode along the beach towards the city gate. Just
+outside, the camels had come to a halt and some town traders had gathered
+round the Bedouins to inquire the price of the goods brought from the
+interior, in anticipation of the morrow's market. Under the frowning
+archway of the water-port, where True Believers of the official class sit
+in receipt of custom, I felt the town's cobbled road under foot, and the
+breath of the trade-winds blowing in from the Atlantic. Then I knew that
+Sunset Land was behind me, my journey at an end.
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[53] Mogador, called by the Moors "Suera," _i.e._ "The Picture."
+
+
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+_Printed by_ R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, _Edinburgh_.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Morocco, by S.L. Bensusan
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