PRESENTED BY 
 
 GENERAL LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 BERKELEY 
 
 TO 
 
 Home Management House
 
 MOROCCO
 
 Negro Village near the Borders 
 of the Desert
 

 
 EDITION ARTISTIQVE 
 
 antr 
 
 MOROCCO 
 
 BY 
 
 EDMONDO DE AMICIS 
 
 Translated 
 
 by Maria Hornor Lansdale 
 
 3Tn <Ttuo tblumrs 
 Volume l. 
 
 MERRILL AND BAKER 
 New York London
 
 THIS EDITION ARTISTIQUE OF THE WORLD'S 
 FAMOUS PLACES AND PEOPLES IS LIMITED 
 TO ONE THOUSAND NUMBERED AND REGIS- 
 TERED COPIES, OF WHICH THIS COPY IS 
 NO... 
 
 Copyright, Henry T. Coates & Co., i8<7
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 VOLUME I 
 
 PAGE 
 
 TANGIER 1 
 
 HADD-EL-GHARBIA 89 
 
 TLATA DE EAISANA 127 
 
 ALCAZAR EL KEBIR 145 
 
 BEN-AOUDA 161 
 
 KARIYA EL-HABASSI 177 
 
 BENI-HASSAN 197 
 
 SIDI-HASSEM 217 
 
 ZEGQOTA 229 
 
 FROM ZEGGOTA. TO TGH'AT . 245
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 VOIvUME I 
 
 NEGRO VILLAGE NEAR THE BORDERS OF THE 
 
 DESERT ..... Frontispiece 
 NOMADS FROM THE INTERIOR . . .18 
 
 A MOORISH JEWESS . . . . .26 
 
 VIEW FROM THE KASBAH . . . .40 
 
 MOSOUE OF THE AlSSOWIEH . . . -52 
 
 LIGHTHOUSE, CAPE SPARTEI, . . 72 
 
 SOK DI BARRA, TANGIER . . . .86 
 
 MOUNTAIN AND VAUEY IN THE INTERIOR . . 108 
 
 NATIVES WASHING CLOTHES IN A RIVER . . 148 
 
 A GARDEN IN MOROCCO . . . .166 
 
 MOORISH GATEWAY . . . . .182 
 
 A SOLDIER OF THE SUI/TAN .... 220 
 ON THE WAY TO MARKET .... 248 
 A.
 
 TANGIER 
 
 Voi. L 1
 
 TANGIER. 
 
 OF all straits in the world, that of Gibraltar divides, 
 perhaps more completely than any other, two strik- 
 ingly dissimilar countries, and this unlikeness is the 
 more noticeable on the outward trip from Gibraltar. 
 Here still ferments the noisy, feverish, brilliant life 
 of a European city, and the traveller, from whatever 
 quarter of Europe he may hail, yet feels himself at 
 home in numberless familiar customs and aspects of 
 life. 
 
 Three hours later, and the very name of our Con- 
 tinent sounds strange ; Christian signifies enemy, and 
 our civilization is unknown, or feared, or scoffed at. 
 Everything, from the very foundations of society to 
 the most trifling details of private life, is metamor- 
 phosed, and all indication of the close proximity of 
 Europe has completely disappeared. We suddenly 
 find ourselves in an unknown land, without ties of 
 any kind, and with everything to learn. To be sure 
 the European coast is still visible from the shore, but 
 in our hearts there is a consciousness of immeasurable 
 distance, as though that narrow strip of water were 
 an ocean, those blue, distant hills a delusion. 
 
 (3)
 
 4 TANGIER. 
 
 In the brief space of three hours a transformation 
 has taken place in our surroundings than which 
 nothing more astounding can be witnessed on the 
 face of the earth. 
 
 The emotion that one might naturally expect to 
 feel, however, on setting foot for the first time on 
 that vast, mysterious continent, which from earliest 
 childhood has haunted the imagination, is sadly dis- 
 turbed by the fashion in which the landing is accom- 
 plished. Just as the white houses of Tangier began 
 to be plainly visible from the steamer's deck, a Span- 
 ish lady standing behind me cried out, " What can 
 those people want ?" Following the direction of her 
 outstretched finger I saw, beyond the boats which 
 were coming to take the passengers off, a crowd of 
 ragged, half-naked Arabs standing waist-high in 
 water, and pointing the vessel out to one another with 
 excited gestures, like so many lunatics, or rather like 
 a troop of brigands exclaiming, " There is our prey I" 
 Feeling slightly uneasy in my mind, not knowing 
 who they were, nor what they wanted, I descended 
 into the boat, with a number of my fellow-passengers. 
 When we were still about twenty feet from shore 
 the entire rabble fell on us, laying violent hands 
 upon us, and screaming in Arabic and Spanish, until 
 we finally understood that, the water being too shal- 
 low to take the boats in any further, we were ex- 
 pected to effect a landing upon their backs ; news 
 which while it quieted our fears of losing any of our
 
 TANGIEE. 5 
 
 own belongings, aroused no less lively ones of acquir- 
 ing some of theirs in the form of vermin. The ladies 
 were taken off in chairs, in a sort of triumphal pro- 
 cession, while I made my entry into Africa astride of 
 an old mulatto, my chin resting on the crown of his 
 head and my toes trailing through the water. On 
 reaching dry land my mulatto handed me over to an 
 Arab porter, who, leading the way through one of the 
 city gates, conducted me rapidly along a narrow, de- 
 serted street to a hotel close by, whence I lost no 
 time in setting forth, accompanied by a guide, to visit 
 the more frequented thoroughfares. 
 
 The first thing that impressed me and that more 
 strongly than I can give any idea of was the out- 
 ward appearance of the population. Everyone wears 
 a long white linen or woollen cape, furnished with a 
 hood, which in most cases is drawn over the head, so 
 that the entire city has somewhat the look of a vast 
 monastery of Dominican monks. Of this shrouded 
 population the one-half moves about slowly, noise- 
 lessly, sedately, almost as though trying to escape 
 observation, and the other remains either seated or 
 stretched at full length along the walls, before the 
 shops, or in the angles of the buildings, immovable, 
 with fixed gaze, like the petrified characters in their 
 own legends. Their walk, bearing, very manner of 
 looking, is strange to us ; everything reveals a habit 
 of thought, an order of things totally unlike our own ; 
 an altogether different way of regarding time and
 
 6 TANGIER. 
 
 human life. These people do not seem to be preoc- 
 cupied with their own affairs, neither do they concern 
 themselves with their immediate surroundings nor 
 with what goes on about them. They all have a 
 vague, absent-minded expression, as though possessed 
 by a fixed idea, or like persons reflecting upon dis- 
 tant scenes, or remote periods of time dreaming, as 
 it were, with open eyes. No sooner, too, had I 
 mingled with them a little than I became aware of a 
 peculiar odor quite unlike anything I had ever 
 noticed in a European crowd a smell unknown, 
 far from agreeable, and yet none the less inhaled 
 by me with a keen curiosity, as though I hoped 
 to discover in it the clew to some of the surround- 
 ing mystery. As I approached nearer, the popu- 
 lation, which at a short distance had seemed to be 
 so entirely uniform, began to present a strange 
 variety of types. White, black, yellow, bronze faces 
 passed close by me ; heads from which long locks of 
 hair depended, and others close shaved and polished 
 till they shone like metal balls j men looking like 
 dried-up mummies, and old people in whom age 
 was horrible ; women whose heads, and, indeed, en- 
 tire persons, were enveloped in shapeless masses of 
 rags ; long-haired children, faces of sultans, savages, 
 wizards, anchorites, bandits ; of a people weighed 
 down by a boundless melancholy or unutterable 
 weariness, and on few or none a smile j following one 
 another with measured tread, silent, spectral, like a
 
 TANGIEE. 7 
 
 procession of spirits seen flitting down the path of a 
 graveyard. I hardly know why, but as I looked I 
 suddenly felt compelled to turn my gaze upon myself 
 and to say, inwardly, li I am so and so, of such and 
 such a place, this is Africa where I am now, and 
 those people are Arabs," and think about it for a few 
 moments before I could get the idea firmly fixed in 
 my mind j this accomplished, I began a tour of 
 some of the other streets. 
 
 The city corresponds to the character of its inhabit- 
 ants. It is a labyrinth of narrow, tortuous lanes, 
 or rather passage-ways, flanked by small, square, 
 white houses, devoid of windows, and whose soli- 
 tary doors barely admit the passage of one person 
 at a time houses seemingly built more for conceal- 
 ment than as habitations, and whose outward appear- 
 ance suggests a cross between a prison and a convent. 
 In many of the streets nothing can be seen but the 
 white of the buildings and the blue of the sky ; from 
 time to time there is a little Moorish arch or two, now 
 and then an arabesqued window, a strip of red along 
 the foot of the wall, or a black hand painted beside a 
 door-way to drive off evil spirits. Almost all the 
 streets are littered with decayed vegetables, feathers, 
 rags, bones, and sometimes the bodies of dead animals 
 poison the air. For long distances no one at all is to 
 be seen, then an occasional group of hooded Arab 
 boys playing or reciting verses from the Koran in 
 shrill, nasal tones, a beggar stretched on the ground,
 
 8 TANGIEE. 
 
 a Moor astride of a mule, an overloaded donkey with 
 bleeding flanks driven by a half-naked Arab, scarred 
 dogs without tails, and cats thin beyond belief. Now 
 and then in passing one catches a whiff of garlic, of 
 smoke from the Kiff y the smell of burning aloe-wood, 
 of benzoin, of fish. And thus wandering on the 
 whole city is traversed, presenting everywhere the 
 same unvarying, dazzling whiteness, the same aspect 
 of mystery, of melancholy and of utter weariness. 
 
 After making a brief circuit I returned to the prin- 
 cipal, indeed the only, square of Tangier, divided by 
 a long street which, ascending from the water, crosses 
 the entire city. The square is surrounded by wretched 
 little Arab shops, which would look poor and forlorn 
 in one of our smallest villages. On one side stands a 
 fountain always surrounded by a crowd of Arabs and 
 negroes, drawing water in gourds and jugs 5 on the 
 other may be seen, at any hour of the day, eight or 
 ten women, seated on the ground with muffled heads, 
 engaged in selling bread. About the square stand 
 the exceedingly modest establishments of the foreign 
 legations, which, however, rear themselves like palaces 
 amid their surroundings of little Moorish houses. In 
 this small space is concentrated all the life of Tangier, 
 which at best is but the life of a village. Hard by 
 may be found the solitary tobacconist of the place, 
 the solitary druggist, the solitary cafe a large room 
 containing a billiard table and the solitary corner 
 where one may occasionally expect to see a notice
 
 TANGIER. 
 
 posted up. There assemble half-naked ragamuffins, 
 rich Moors with nothing to do, Jews come to discuss 
 questions of trade, Arab porters awaiting the arrival 
 of the steamer, legation attaches longing for the din- 
 ner hour, strangers just landed, interpreters, beggars. 
 There the courier bringing the Sultan's commands 
 from Fez, or Mequinez, or Morocco, jostles the ser- 
 vant returning from the post with Paris and London 
 newspapers. There mingle belles of the harem and 
 minister's wives, Bedouins' camels and drawing-room 
 lap-dogs, turbans, stiff hats, the loud notes of a piano 
 issuing from the window of a consulate and the wail- 
 ing sing-song heard through the Mosque's half-open 
 door. It is on this spot that the last billow of Euro- 
 pean civilization breaks and dissolves before the 
 mighty Dead Sea of African barbarism. 
 
 From the square I remounted the principal street, 
 and passing through two ancient gateways found my- 
 self outside the city walls just as dusk was beginning 
 to fall. Before me lay a large open space covering 
 the side of a hill. This is called the Sok di Barra, 
 outer or upper market, because market is held there 
 every Sunday and Thursday. Of all the spots in 
 and about Tangier visited by me, this was perhaps 
 the one that most vividly impressed upon my mind 
 the character of its people. It is a bare, rough, un- 
 even stretch of ground ; half way up the incline rise 
 the four white walls of a saint's tomb, on the summit 
 stands a cemetery, beyond may be seen a few aloe
 
 10 TANGIER 
 
 and Indian fig-trees, and below, the battlemented 
 walls of the city. At this particular moment a group 
 of Arab women were squatted on the ground close by 
 the gate, with bunches of herbs lying before them; a 
 long line of camels crouched by the tomb, further on 
 rose the dark outlines of half a dozen tents, hard by 
 some Arabs sat in a fascinated circle listening to a 
 story-teller, who stood erect in the centre to recount 
 his tale ; cows and horses were tethered about ; on the 
 hill-top, among the stones and mounds of the ceme- 
 tery, other Arabs stood, motionless as statues, with 
 faces turned towards the city, figures all in shadow, 
 and peaked hoods sharply defined against the pale 
 gold of the horizon ; and over all this scene a sombre- 
 ness of color, a silence and gloom, that cannot be 
 described, unless indeed the words were murmured 
 one by one in the listener's ear, as though they con- 
 tained some momentous secret. 
 
 The guide aroused me at last from my reverie and 
 escorted me back to the hotel, where my usual dis- 
 like to being among entire strangers was for the first 
 time in my life mitigated by the circumstance of 
 their being all Europeans, Christians, and clad like 
 myself. There were about twenty persons seated 
 at table, of both sexes and various nationalities, 
 offering in themselves a pretty fair example of that 
 strange mingling of families and interests which pre- 
 vails in those parts. A Frenchman born in Algiers 
 married to an Englishwoman of Gibraltar ; a Spaniard
 
 TANGIEE. 11 
 
 from Gibraltar married to the sister of a Portuguese 
 consul from the Atlantic coast ; an elderly English- 
 man accompanied by a daughter born in Tangier and 
 a niece from Algeria; families who wandered back 
 and forth from one continent to the other, or scat- 
 tered up and down the two coasts, talking five lan- 
 guages, and living half like Arabs, half like Euro- 
 peans. Hardly had dinner begun when a lively con- 
 versation sprang up, now in French, now in Spanish, 
 interspersed with Arabic words and upon topics 
 which were certainly far enough removed from the 
 ordinary subjects discussed by Europeans. Now it 
 was the price of a camel, now the stipend of a Pasha, 
 whether the Sultan were black or white, whether the 
 report that ten heads had been brought to Fez from 
 the rebellious province of Garet were true or no, 
 when the party of religious fanatics who eat live 
 sheep might be expected in Tangier, and many other 
 things of a like nature, all of which aroused in my 
 breast the very demon of curiosity. Then the con- 
 versation turned upon European politics, disconnected, 
 as such discussions among people of different nation- 
 alities always are, and with a repetition of the usual 
 empty, sounding phrases which people invariably em- 
 ploy when talking of far-off political conditions, in- 
 venting off-hand improbable alliances and absurd 
 wars. Next the talk turned upon Gibraltar, that 
 inevitable topic; the great Gibraltar, centre of attrac- 
 tion for all Europeans scattered along those coasts,
 
 12 TANGIER. 
 
 where their sons are educated and where they them- 
 selves go to buy their clothes, order furniture, hear 
 the opera, and inhale a mouthful of European air. 
 And finally every one fell to discussing the departure 
 of the Italian embassy for Fez, and I had the grati- 
 fication of learning that this event was of consider- 
 ably greater importance even than I had supposed ; 
 that it was being talked of in Tangier, Algesiras, 
 Cadiz, and Malaga ; that the caravan was to be a mile 
 long ; that some Italian painters were to accompany 
 the embassy, and that it was even said that a repre- 
 sentative of tJie press might be of the party! At 
 which piece of news I arose from the table and 
 modestly withdrew. Later on, when the night was 
 somewhat advanced, I determined to take another 
 turn through the town in order to see it asleep. Not 
 a lamp was burning, not a window lighted, nor was 
 there a single crack or chink through which a ray of 
 light escaped. It was like an uninhabited city, il- 
 lumined only by the starry heavens against which 
 the loftier buildings stood out like great white tomb- 
 stones, and the points of the minarets and tips of the 
 palm-trees were thrown into clear relief. Proceeding 
 to the very foot of the principal street, I found the 
 gates shut, and so, turning, threaded my way through 
 various by-ways ; but everything was closed, motion- 
 less, silent Two or three times I stumbled over what 
 I at first mistook for bundles of rags, but discovered 
 to be sleeping Arabs. More than once a shudder of
 
 TANGIER. 13 
 
 disgust ran through me as I knew, by the crunching 
 of bones and soft, yielding sensation beneath my feet, 
 that I had trodden on the carcass of a dog. A hooded 
 Arab glided close by me, sliding along the wall like a 
 spectre. Another loomed up for a moment at the end 
 of a side street and disappeared; and once, as I made 
 a sharp turn, a hurried rustle of garments and patter 
 of slippers made me suspect, though nothing was to 
 be seen, that I had disturbed a secret meeting. As I 
 walked no sound broke the stillness save that of my 
 own footsteps, and when I paused nothing could be 
 heard but my own breathing. It seemed to me as 
 though the population of Tangier consisted only of 
 myself, and that were I to utter a sudden cry it would 
 resound through the empty streets like a clap of 
 thunder. I thought of all the beautiful Arabians 
 sleeping close by, and of the many strange secrets 
 that would be divulged were the interiors of all those 
 houses suddenly to be exposed to view like the scenes 
 of a theatre. From time to time I would pause be- 
 fore a stretch of dazzling white wall, against which 
 the moon shone with such splendor as to make it look 
 as though it were lit up by electric lights. In a nar- 
 row alley I encountered a negro carrying a lantern, 
 who, pausing to let me by, murmured some unintelli- 
 gible words. Just as I was issuing from a side street 
 into the square a loud burst of laughter suddenly 
 broke the profound stillness ; it proceeded from 
 two young men in high hats, probably attaches of
 
 14 TANGIER 
 
 one of the legations, who were passing by, talking 
 as they went. In one corner of the square, be- 
 neath the awning of a closed shop, some rays of 
 light glimmered feebly, disclosing a confused mass 
 of whitish rags, from the midst of which issued the 
 faint notes of a guitar and the tremulous, lamenting 
 tones of a human voice, like a sound borne from 
 afar on the fitful breeze. I stood for some time quite 
 motionless, dreaming rather than thinking, until at 
 length, the two Europeans having disappeared and 
 the light been extinguished, I bethought me of the 
 hotel, and turned my steps thither, weary, bewildered, 
 with my brain in a tumult, and a curious, unfamiliar 
 impression of my own personality, such as I have 
 often fancied would be that of a man who finds him- 
 self suddenly transported to another planet 
 
 On the following morning I set forth in search 
 of our charge d'affaires, Comm. Stefano Scovasso. 
 He certainly could not charge me with being un- 
 punctual at the appointed meeting. I had received 
 my invitation on the 8th at Turin, and with it a 
 notification that the caravan would set out from 
 Tangier on the 19th ; on the morning of the 18th I 
 presented myself at the legation doors. I had no 
 personal acquaintance with Comm. Scovasso, but had 
 heard enough about him to make me extremely 
 anxious to meet him. Of two friends of his whom 
 I had questioned before leaving home, one had in- 
 formed me that he was a man perfectly capable of
 
 TANGIER 15 
 
 going on horseback from Tangier to Timbuctoo with 
 no companion other than a pair of pistols, while the 
 other had blamed him severely for yielding to his 
 besetting sin, which, it appeared, was a confirmed 
 habit of risking his own life in order to save that 
 of someone else. Thanks to these indications I was 
 able to recognize him at a glance while still some 
 distance away before, indeed, the interpreter who 
 accompanied me from the hotel had pointed him 
 out. He was standing in the doorway of the le- 
 gation, surrounded by an obsequious group of Arabs, 
 who appeared to be awaiting orders. I introduced 
 myself, was received, promptly offered the hospi- 
 tality of the quartier generate, and furnished with 
 full information regarding the expedition. This, it 
 appeared, had been postponed until the first of May 
 owing to the fact of the English embassy being in 
 Fez at the time ; from which place we must await the 
 horses, camels, mules, and a troop of cavalry, which 
 was to form an escort for the journey. A transport- 
 ship belonging to our military marine, the Dora, had 
 already landed the presents which Victor Emanuel 
 was sending to the Emperor of Morocco. The main 
 object of the trip, so far as the charge d'affaires was 
 concerned, was to present his credentials to the 
 youthful Sultan Mulai el Hassan, who had ascended 
 the throne in September, 1873. No Italian embassy 
 had ever been sent to Fez, and the flag of United 
 Italy would now be carried for the first time into
 
 16 TANGIER. 
 
 the interior of Morocco j the expedition was, conse- 
 quently, to be received with extraordinary honors. 
 The Minister of War had sent a staff captain, Signor 
 Giulio di Boccard, and the Minister of Marine a cap- 
 tain of a frigate, Signor Fortunato Cassone, then in 
 command of the Dora, now of a man-of-war. These, 
 together with the Italian vice-consul at Tangier and 
 our consular agent at Mazagan, formed the official 
 part of the embassy. Two artists Ussi from Flor- 
 ence and Biseo from Rome and I were private 
 guests of Signor Scovasso. Everyone, with the ex- 
 ception of the Mazagan consular agent, had already 
 reached Tangier. 
 
 My first care, on finding myself alone, was to study 
 the dwelling in which I was to be a guest ; and, in- 
 deed, the residence of a European minister in Africa, 
 especially if he be making preparations for a trip into 
 the interior, is worthy of close observation. The 
 building itself was in no way remarkable white and 
 bare without, having a small garden in front and a 
 small court in the centre, furnished with four columns 
 supporting a covered gallery running all around it 
 on a level with the second floor. It was the ordinary 
 gentleman's dwelling of Cadiz or Seville, but the 
 occupants, the mode of life, were something alto- 
 gether novel. The housekeeper and cook were 
 Piedmontese, one of the servants was a Moor of 
 Tangier, and another a negress from the Soudan 
 who went about with bare feet, the Arab grooms
 
 TANGIER 17 
 
 and domestics wore long white tunics, the consular 
 guard a uniform consisting of a fez, red caftan and 
 dagger. All were in constant motion throughout the 
 day. At certain hours there would be a great coming 
 and going of Hebrew workmen, negro porters, inter- 
 preters, soldiers of the Pasha, and Moors under the 
 protection of the legation. The courtyard was filled 
 with packing-cases, camp-beds, rugs and lanterns. 
 There was a continual noise of saws and hammers, 
 and voices of servants calling to one another by such 
 unfamiliar names as Fatma, Racma, Selam, Moham- 
 med, Ali, Abd-er-Rhaman. Then there was such a 
 queer mixture of languages. A Moor comes on some 
 errand, which he explains in Arabic to another Moor, 
 who transmits it in Spanish to the housekeeper, who 
 repeats it in Piedmontese to the cook ; it was a cease- 
 less confusion of translations, explanations, misunder- 
 standings and doubts, intermingled with exclamations 
 of Por dios! AUa! and familiar Italian oaths. In the 
 street a continuous procession of horses and mules, 
 before the door a permanent group composed of the 
 merely curious and others, poor devils of Arabs or 
 Hebrews, humble aspirants for the protection of the 
 legation. From time to time visitors arrive, a 
 minister or consul, then down go all the fezzes and 
 turbans in lowly obeisance. Every moment brings 
 some mysterious messenger clad in strange attire, 
 and with curious, foreign-looking features. So pict- 
 uresque is the ever-shifting variety of form and color, 
 VOL. I. 2
 
 18 TANGIER. 
 
 of pose and gesture, that only the accompanying 
 music is needed to persuade the looker-on that it is 
 all a part of a ballet representing some Eastern 
 scene. 
 
 My next care was to borrow some books from my 
 host in order to satisfy myself as to what country this 
 really was before attempting to study its habits and 
 customs. This land, then, shut in by the Mediter- 
 ranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean, the Desert of Sahara 
 and Algeria, crossed by the great Atlas range, 
 watered by wide rivers and opening out into immense 
 plains, the home of every variety of climate, richly 
 endowed in the domains of all three natural kingdoms, 
 possessing untold riches, and clearly intended by vir- 
 tue of its geographical position to form the great 
 commercial high-road between Europe and Central 
 Africa, has at present a population of about eight mil- 
 lions, including Berbers, Arabs, Moors, Jews, negroes 
 and Europeans, scattered over an area larger than the 
 whole of France. The Berbers, who form the nucleus 
 of the native population, wild, turbulent, indomit- 
 able, live among the inaccessible Atlas Mountains, 
 and are almost independent of imperial authority. 
 The Arabs the conquering nation occupy the 
 plains ; they are still nomadic and pastoral, and have 
 not entirely lost that pride which was once their 
 natural characteristic. The Moors corrupt Arabs 
 of mixed blood, descended for the most part from the 
 Spanish Moors dwell in the towns, and have the
 
 
 My noxi efiv w UA ? 
 host in order i<> *H;J^N ;/'. vlf.as wh.-it country this 
 
 
 domains of ail ti 
 >ld riches, and v; 
 
 )f tlie natir poprdaUon, wi!u. turl;u.l*MH 
 
 bs the conquering nation occupy the 
 hey are still nnc&dic iind pastoral,, and have 
 
 ixed blxwi, descended for the in -art tW- 
 ti.ls Mot/r dvroM in the town.s, arj( hnv 
 Nomads from the Interior


 
 TANGIER 19 
 
 wealth, commerce and carrying trade of the country 
 pretty much in their own hands. The negroes, 
 numbering about five hundred thousand, come origin- 
 ally from the Soudan ; they are for the most part ser- 
 vants, laborers and soldiers. The Jews number about 
 the same as the negroes, and are most of them de- 
 scended from those of their nation who were driven 
 out of Europe during the Middle Ages. Oppressed, 
 hated, persecuted and humiliated more here, per- 
 haps, than in any other country in the world, they 
 exercise their several arts and industries with that in- 
 genuity, docility and perseverance so characteristic 
 of their race, consoling themselves for the injuries 
 they are obliged to endure in the possession of 
 money wrested from their oppressors. The Euro- 
 peans have been driven back little by little from the 
 interior of the empire towards the coast by Mussul- 
 man intolerance, and now amount to less than two 
 thousand persons throughout the whole of Morocco, 
 most of these residing in Tangier, and living inde- 
 pendently in the shadow of the legation flags. This 
 heterogeneous population, scattered and diverse, is op- 
 pressed rather than ruled by a military government, 
 which, like a huge polypus, absorbs the entire vitality 
 of the country. The tribes and villagers obey their 
 own chiefs, the cities and smaller provinces the Raids, 
 the large provinces the Pashas, and the Pashas the 
 Sultan chief sherif, high priest, supreme judge, ad- 
 ministrator of the laws which emanate from himself;
 
 20 TANGIER. 
 
 free to altar at his own will or caprice currency, taxes, 
 weights, measures, and absolute master of the lives 
 and property of his subjects. Beneath the weight of 
 such a government and encircled by the inflexible 
 bands of the Mussulman religion, untouched by any 
 influx of European ideas and controlled by a savage 
 fanaticism, all that which in other countries changes 
 and advances here either remains stationary or falls 
 into decay. Commerce is choked by monopolies, by 
 prohibitory measures controlling exports and imports, 
 and by the capricious mutability of the laws ; trade, 
 its activity restricted by the fetters that impede com- 
 merce, with its primitive machinery and childish 
 methods, is to-day in much the same condition as be- 
 fore the expulsion of the Moors from Spain 5 agricul- 
 ture is so weighted by excessive taxation at home 
 while restrained from seeking a foreign market for its 
 produce that it is now only practised to the extent 
 of providing the barest necessities of life, and has 
 sunk so low as hardly to merit the name ; and, finally, 
 science, choked by the Koran and profaned by super- 
 stition, now consists in most schools of such elemen- 
 tary propositions as were commonly taught in the 
 Middle Ages. There are no printing-presses, books, 
 or maps ; the language, itself a corrupt form of Arabic, 
 is only preserved by means of an imperfect and vari- 
 able orthography, and grows steadily worse, and the 
 national character, in that general decadence, more 
 degenerate still. All the ancient Mussulman civiliza-
 
 TANGIER 21 
 
 tion is withering away. Morocco, that extreme west- 
 ern bulwark of Islamism, once the seat of a monarchy 
 which ruled from the Hebrus to the Soudan, and from 
 the Niger to the Balearics, with its flourishing uni- 
 versities, its huge libraries, its famous scholars, its 
 armies and formidable fleets, is nothing now but a 
 little state, almost unknown, filled with poverty and 
 decay, resisting with all its remaining strength the 
 inroads of European civilization, and only retaining 
 its place at all by grace of the mutual jealousies of 
 the various Powers. 
 
 As for Tangier, the ancient Tingis which gave its 
 Aame to the Mauritania Tingitana, and passed succes- 
 sively from the hands of the Romans into those of the 
 Vandals, Greeks, Visigoths, Arabs, Portuguese and 
 English, it is now a city of about fifteen thousand in- 
 habitants, regarded by its sister cities of the empire 
 as a " prostitute of the Christians," though as a mat- 
 ter of fact no traces are to be seen of the churches 
 and monasteries founded by the Portuguese, and the 
 Christian religion is represented by one small chapel, 
 hidden away amid the consular residences. 
 
 Having possessed myself of this general outline of 
 the present condition of the country, I next began to 
 pursue various investigations on my own account in 
 and about the streets and by-ways of Tangier by way 
 of preparation for the coming journey, making notes 
 from day to day of such things as especially struck 
 me. Here are some of them, incomplete and discon-
 
 22 TANGIER 
 
 nected enough, but written as they were while the 
 impressions were still fresh, probably of more value 
 than a more carefully prepared description would be. 
 
 Every time I pass a handsome Moor in gala dress 
 I feel ashamed. Compare my ugly hat with his great 
 muslin turban ; my wretched short coat with his flow- 
 ing caftan of jasmine or rose-color ; in short, the gen- 
 eral poverty and dulness of my costume, all gray 
 and black, with the brilliancy, the simple elegance 
 and dignity of his. I am like a beetle beside a but- 
 terfly. Sometimes I stand for ever so long gazing 
 from my window at the edge of a pair of blood-red 
 trousers surmounting a yellow slipper which can be 
 seen around the corner of a pillar in the square be- 
 low, extracting such enjoyment from the sight that it 
 is difficult to tear myself away ; and more than any- 
 thing else does the caik arouse my envy and admira- 
 tion, that long strip of whitest wool or silk, with trans- 
 parent stripes, which is folded first about the turban, 
 falling from thence down the back to be wound around 
 the body, knotted below the shoulders, and descend, 
 finally, to the ground. Enfolding, as it were, in a 
 misty cloud the brilliant hues of the clothing beneath, 
 it stirs and spreads with every breath of wind, glows 
 like fire in the rays of the sun, and endows the wearer 
 with the diaphanous appearance of a vision. It is 
 this charming scarf which the enamored Mussulman 
 wraps about his bride on the wedding night. 
 
 Only those who have seen for themselves would
 
 TANGIER 23 
 
 believe the extent to which the Arabs have mastered 
 the art of taking their ease. In corners where we 
 would be embarrassed as to how to dispose of a bag 
 of rags or a bundle of straw, one of them will stretch 
 himself out as comfortably as though reposing upon a 
 bed of down. They curl themselves around every 
 projection, fill up hollows, flatten themselves along the 
 face of a wall like a bas-relief, stretch and spread out 
 flat on the ground until they look like white cloaks 
 laid there to dry, roll themselves up into balls, cubes, 
 monstrosities without arms or legs or heads, so that 
 sometimes the streets and squares of the city suggest 
 the scene of a late massacre, all strewn with dead 
 bodies and mutilated corpses. 
 
 The more I see of these people the more I am filled 
 with admiration at the freedom and nobility of their 
 bearing. Whether it is owing to the cut of our 
 clothes or our tight shoes, or whether it is merely the 
 result of habit I cannot say, but it is unusual among 
 us to find any one whose walk is not artificial, whereas 
 here every one moves along with the grace and free- 
 dom of magnificent wild animals. I have observed 
 them attentively, and thus far have seen none of the 
 bully, dancing-master, or awkward-lover gaits to 
 which my eye has long been accustomed by the 
 thousand examples to be seen daily in our streets. 
 There is in the carriage of each one of them some- 
 thing of the stateliness of a priest, the dignity of a 
 king and the freedom of a soldier, and it is very re-
 
 24 TANGIER 
 
 markable that people who pass so much of their time 
 stretched out at full length, immovable, in a state of 
 semi-torpor, if their passions be aroused never so little, 
 exhibit a strength and vigor of voice and gesture 
 which nearly borders on frenzy. But even in their 
 most furious outbursts they still preserve a sort of 
 tragic dignity which would afford an excellent exam- 
 ple for many an actor. It will be long, for instance, 
 ere I forget the Arab of this morning, a tall, wasted 
 old man, who, having, as I was told, been given the 
 lie by one with whom up to then he had been carry- 
 ing on a mild dispute, grew suddenly pale, drew back, 
 and then strode down the street, covering his face 
 convulsively with both hands and giving vent to 
 a wild cry of mingled anger and reproach. Seldom 
 have I seen an attitude so striking and so full of 
 grace. The ordinary costume consists of a sim- 
 ple white cloak, but what extraordinary variety 
 they manage to introduce into the fashion of wear- 
 ing it ! One has it open, another closed ; this one 
 drawn to one side, that one caught up on the 
 shoulder, or twisted like a rope, or floating free ; but 
 always it is arranged with taste in an endless variety 
 of lines, flowing or severe, as though draped by the 
 hand of an artist, or rather as an artist would fain 
 know how to drape it. They all look like Roman 
 Senators. This morning Ussi discovered a wonder- 
 ful Marcus Brutus in the middle of a group of 
 Bedouins. But unless the wearers are accustomed to
 
 TANGIER 25 
 
 them these cloaks are not sufficient of themselves to 
 lend dignity to the figure. Some of us bought them for 
 the journey and tried them on, but for my part I could 
 think of nothing but a group of old convalescents 
 wrapped in bath sheets. 
 
 As yet I have seen no dwarfs, deformed or lame 
 persons among the Arabs, though many of them have 
 no noses, the result of morbo celtico, and blindness is 
 very common, the eye-sockets being frequently en- 
 tirely empty, a sight which always made me shudder, 
 reflecting as I did that in some cases at least the eye- 
 balls had doubtless been torn out in pursuance of the 
 law of retaliation which still flourishes in the empire. 
 But there is nothing grotesque or despicable in the 
 appearance of any of the many strange, unprepossess- 
 ing looking figures one encounters. The ample gar- 
 ments hide all minor defects, just as the universal 
 seriousness and the wooden, terra-cotta or bronzed 
 look of the skin conceals the differences of years, so 
 that one constantly meets men whose age it is impos- 
 sible to tell ; not old people, surely, and yet they do 
 not seem young ; perhaps we think they are old, and 
 then a fleeting smile will all at once reveal their 
 youthfulness ; or, having definitely decided that they 
 are young, the hood suddenly falls back and exposes 
 a grizzled head beneath. 
 
 The Jewish men of these parts resemble their 
 European compatriots in so far as their features are 
 concerned, but their superior height, darker skin and
 
 26 TANGIEB. 
 
 long black hair, and, above all, their picturesque 
 dress, make them seem like an altogether different 
 race. They wear a garment shaped somewhat like 
 a dressing-gown, varying in color, but usually dark, 
 and bound about the waist by a red scarf; a black cap, 
 wide trousers appearing only a few inches below the 
 skirts of the coat, and yellow slippers ; and it is in- 
 teresting to note how many " exquisites " there are 
 among them, dressed in the finest materials, with em- 
 broidered shirts, silken scarfs, and gold rings and 
 chains nothing tawdry, though. The general effect, 
 on the contrary, is rather severe, and at the same time 
 both graceful and dignified, with the exception, that 
 is, of a few misguided ones who have become per- 
 verts to the high hat and long black coat. Among 
 the boys there are some slight, graceful figures, but 
 the species of dressing-gown worn by all alike is not 
 adapted to their age. Every Jewish youth looks to 
 me like an amateur on the stage of a college dressed 
 for the part of Protagonist in the CampaneUo dello 
 Speziale. 
 
 I am already satisfied that there is no exaggeration 
 in what has been said of the beauty of the Jewesses 
 of Morocco ; it has a character all its own unknown 
 in other countries opulent and brilliant, the beauty 
 of snowy brows, great black eyes, crimson lips, and 
 statuesque outlines ; somewhat theatrical, to be sure, 
 and easily seen from a distance ; more calculated, I 
 should fancy, to draw forth a round of applause than
 
 '
 
 ,PS l-rl^v Uie 
 and K is in- 
 
 tbere are 
 jtls, with em- 
 
 *juffs and 
 
 unnown 
 aad Urilliiint, the beauty- 
 
 A TUT 't- f alauf 
 A Moorish
 
 TANGIER 27 
 
 amorous sighs. One pictures it surrounded by the 
 torches and wreathed goblets of an ancient feast as 
 in its natural setting. The Tangier Jewesses do not 
 wear their rich national costume in public, dressing 
 much like Europeans except for their fantastic colors, 
 mazarine blue, crimson, grass-green, sulphur-yellow; 
 shawls and petticoats that attract the eye from one 
 hill-top to another, and make their wearers look as 
 though they were arrayed in the flags of all the 
 nations. Passing through the Jewish quarter on a 
 Saturday one sees on all sides vivid colors, florid faces, 
 great, soft, smiling eyes, long black tresses ; bevies of 
 noisy, inquisitive children; an exuberance of youth 
 and sensual beauty which offers a striking contrast 
 to the austere silence and solitude of the rest of the 
 city. 
 
 The Arab boys make me laugh. The little ones, 
 barely able to toddle, but enveloped as well in the 
 universal white cape, of which the big hood alone is 
 seen, all look like wandering extinguishers. Most 
 of them have their heads shaved as bare as the 
 back of one's hand, except for a single lock hang- 
 ing down a foot or so in length from the crown, as 
 though the owners were to be suspended like pup- 
 pets ; others wear it behind the ear or over one 
 temple, with a few tufts of hair cut in the form of a 
 square or triangle, to distinguish the last-born of a 
 family. For the most part, they have pale, attrac- 
 tive little faces, slender, erect figures, and an expres-
 
 28 TANGIER. 
 
 sion of precocious intelligence. In the more frequented 
 parts of the city they pay no attention to Europeans, 
 and in the side streets usually content themselves with 
 gazing at them fixedly, as though saying under their 
 breath, " I do not like you." Sometimes one will be 
 strongly tempted to call out some piece of imperti- 
 nence. You can see it shining in his eyes and trem- 
 bling on his lips, but it is rarely allowed to escape, 
 not so much by reason of any reverence for the 
 Nazarene as from fear of papa, who respects the 
 atmosphere surrounding the legation. In any case, 
 however, a coin has a pacifying effect, though one 
 must be careful to avoid pulling their pig-tails ; as 
 yesterday, when I gave a gentle tug at one belong- 
 ing to a small creature about a foot high, he turned 
 on me like a little viper, spluttering out some words, 
 which my interpreter told me signified, " May Grod 
 roast your grandfather, accursed Christian !" 
 
 At last I have seen two saints ; that is to say, two 
 idiots or lunatics since here, as elsewhere through- 
 out Northern Africa, it is customary to venerate as 
 saints those whom God, in sign of especial favor, has de- 
 prived of their reason in order that He may preserve 
 it in Heaven. The first one I encountered was seated 
 in front of a shop in the principal street. I saw him 
 while yet some distance off, and stood still, knowing 
 well that everything is permissible for a saint, and not 
 especially caring to be struck on the back of the head 
 with a stick, like M. Sourdeau, the French consul, or
 
 TANGIER. 29 
 
 be spit at in the face, as once happened to Mr. Drum- 
 mond Hay. But my interpreter pushed me forward, 
 saying there was no danger, as the Tangier saints had 
 recovered their senses a little since the legations had 
 made a few striking examples ; and in any case the 
 Arabs will often act as shields themselves rather than 
 allow a saint to compromise himself. Accordingly, 
 I passed close by this particular scarecrow and ex- 
 amined him attentively. He was an old man, all 
 paunch and face, with long, white hair, and a beard 
 straggling down over his breast 5 on his head he wore 
 a paper crown, a torn red mantle was thrown across 
 his shoulders, and he carried a little spear tipped with 
 gold. He was seated on the ground, his legs crossed 
 beneath him, his back against the wall, gazing 
 wearily at the people who passed by. I stopped 
 short, and he looked at me. " Now for it," I thought ; 
 " here comes the spear !" But the spear was dis- 
 creet, and I was more than amazed at the calm intel- 
 ligence of those eyes, and the smile, astute and fleet- 
 ing, which lit them up for a moment as I looked, as 
 though he were thinking "You expect me to lay 
 across your back, do you ? to play the fool ?" He 
 was undoubtedly one of those impostors who, per- 
 fectly sane, pretend to be crazy in order to enjoy 
 the privileges accorded to saints. I threw him a 
 piece of money, watched the air of affected indiffer- 
 ence with which he picked it up, and proceeded in the 
 direction of the square, which I had barely reached
 
 30 TANGIER 
 
 when I came across another, but this time a genuine, 
 saint. He was a mulatto, almost entirely naked, with 
 a face that was hardly human, encrusted from head 
 to foot with dirt, and so wasted that his entire frame 
 could be seen bone for bone, making him look like 
 the "living prodigy" in a show. He was walking 
 slowly around the square, painfully carrying a large 
 white banner, which the boys ran up to kiss from 
 time to time, while another wretched-looking creature, 
 accompanied by two musicians performing frantically 
 upon a fife and drum, begged alms from shop to shop. 
 I passed close beside him, receiving a sidelong glance, 
 which I returned, whereupon he came to a standstill, 
 and seemed to be getting something ready in his 
 mouth, and I moved on as nimbly as possible, taking 
 good care not to look behind. " You did well to get 
 out of his way," said the interpreter. " Had he spat 
 in your face, all the consolation the other Arabs would 
 have offered you would have been to call out, t Wipe 
 not thy face, fortunate Christian ! Destroy not the 
 mark of God's favor ! Blessed art thou, for the saint 
 hath spat upon thee !' r 
 
 To-night I again heard the guitar and voice of the 
 first evening, and for the first time felt the Arabian 
 music. In that continual repetition of the same mo- 
 tive, almost always a melancholy one, there is some- 
 thing that little by little steals upon the soul. It is a 
 kind of monotonous lament which ends by taking 
 possession of one's mind, just as the murmuring of a
 
 TANGIER 31 
 
 fountain does, or the singing of crickets, or the blows 
 of the hammer descending on an anvil, heard at night- 
 fall on the outskirts of some village. I try to collect 
 my thoughts, making an effort to discover the hidden 
 meaning of that ever-recurring word as it falls upon 
 my ears. It is barbarous music, simple, yet ineffably 
 sweet, suggesting a primitive condition recalling long- 
 forgotten dreams, my sensations when the Bible was 
 first read to me, awakening a yearning curiosity about 
 legendary peoples and lands, transporting me to the 
 ends of the earth, where, amid groves of strange, un- 
 familiar trees, priests prostrate themselves before 
 golden idols ; or depositing me on boundless plains in 
 mournful solitudes, where caravans of weary travel- 
 lers, wistfully eyeing the unbroken horizon, recom- 
 mend themselves to the mercy of Grod. Nothing 
 amid my strange surroundings has filled me with such 
 a melancholy longing to see my mother once more as 
 those few notes of a thin human voice and a discord- 
 ant guitar. 
 
 The Moorish shop is a most extraordinary affair, 
 consisting of a sort of alcove about three feet from 
 the ground, at which the customer stands as though 
 it were a window ; he leans against the wall and the 
 shopkeeper remains seated within, in the Eastern 
 fashion, a part of his wares spread out before him, and 
 the rest disposed about on little shelves in the rear. 
 The effect produced by those bearded old Moors, im- 
 movable as automatons, squatted at the back of their
 
 32 TANGIER 
 
 dark little holes, is odd in the extreme. It is as 
 though not their goods, but they themselves were on 
 exhibition, like living phenomenons in the booths at 
 a fair. Are they alive I Are they made of wood ? 
 Where is the mechanism for making them appear and 
 disappear ? And thus silent and well-nigh motion- 
 less they pass hour after hour the entire day run- 
 ning their fingers over the beads of a rosary and mur- 
 muring prayers. It is impossible to express how 
 lonely, bored and melancholy they look, sitting there. 
 One would suppose that every shop was a tomb, in 
 which the owner, already separated from the rest of 
 the living, now only awaited the coming of death. 
 
 I have seen two little boys, about five and six years 
 old, respectively, being conducted along in triumph, 
 after the solemn rite of circumcision. They were 
 mounted on a white mule and decked out in red, yel- 
 low and green garments embroidered in gold, and so 
 buried in flowers and ribbons that one could hardly 
 see the pale little faces, still wearing an expression of 
 frightened bewilderment. Before the mule, which 
 was draped and caparisoned like a beast belonging to 
 royalty, marched three musicians, playing furiously 
 upon a drum, fife and tambourine ; on either side 
 and behind came the relatives and friends, one 
 held the children firm in the saddle, another plied 
 them with sweetmeats, others loaded them with 
 caresses, and still others fired off guns in the air, 
 shouting and leaping all the while. Had I not known
 
 TANGIEE. 33 
 
 the significance of the ceremony I would have taken 
 those unfortunate boys for a pair of victims being led 
 to the sacrifice $ at the same time the sight was not 
 devoid of a certain poetic charm, though the poetic 
 part would undoubtedly have appealed to me more 
 strongly had I not been informed that the sacred rite 
 was performed with a barber's razor. 
 
 This evening I witnessed a remarkable transforma- 
 tion in the person of Racma, the minister's negro 
 maid-servant. One of the other servants came in 
 search of me, and escorting me on tiptoe to a half- 
 closed door suddenly threw it wide open, exclaiming, 
 " Look at Racma !" I was so dumfounded at the 
 appearance of the negress, whom I was accustomed 
 to see going about in the costume of an extremely 
 modest slave, that for a moment I could not believe 
 my eyes. I would have taken her for a sultana es- 
 caped from the imperial palace, the Queen of Tim- 
 buctoo, a princess from some unknown kingdom of 
 Central Africa spirited thither on Bisnagar's magic 
 carpet. As I only saw her for a moment I cannot 
 describe her dress very particularly, but there was a 
 general appearance of snow-white and crimson, and 
 a glitter of wide gold braid, all seen through the trans- 
 parent folds of a great white veil, which combined 
 with the black face to form a wonderful harmony of 
 color and an effect of barbaric magnificence which I 
 have no words to describe. As I drew nearer to 
 study the details more closely all this pomp of color 
 VOL. 13
 
 34 TANGIER. 
 
 suddenly disappeared, swallowed up in the lugubrious 
 folds of a Mohammedan sheet, the queen was trans- 
 formed into a spectre, and the spectre vanished, leav- 
 ing behind it that sickening wild-beast odor peculiar 
 to the negro race, which at once had the effect of de- 
 stroying the illusion. 
 
 Hearing a tremendous racket in the square I went 
 to the window in time to see a negro, stripped to the 
 waist, ride by on a donkey. Half a dozen Arabs armed 
 with sticks surrounded him, followed by a crowd of 
 yelling boys. Thinking it was some tomfoolery I 
 picked up my glass to take a closer look, but quickly 
 drew back horrified at finding that the stains on the 
 negro's white trousers were made by blood which 
 was trickling down from wounds on his back. The 
 Arabs with sticks were soldiers engaged in beating 
 him. I asked what it all meant. " He stole a hen," 
 said one of the legation soldiers. "Lucky fellow, 
 they are evidently going to let him off without cut- 
 ting off his hand." 
 
 I have been in Tangier seven days, and thus far 
 have not beheld the face of an Arab woman. I feel 
 as though I were at a masquerade party where all 
 the ladies have disguised themselves as spectres, just 
 as children do when they wrap themselves up in 
 sheets. They walk very deliberately, taking long 
 steps, their bodies slightly bent and faces covered 
 with the hem of a sort of linen mantle, beneath which 
 they wear only a long chemise, made with wide
 
 TANGIER 35 
 
 sleeves and fastened around the waist with a cord 
 like a monk's tunic. Nothing can be seen of their 
 persons but the eyes, the hand which conceals the 
 face, the finger-tips colored with henna, and the bare 
 feet, also colored with henna and shod in large, yellow 
 leather slippers. Most of them only allow half the 
 forehead and one eye to appear, the eye being usually 
 dark and the forehead wax color. On encountering 
 a European on a side street some of them will cover 
 the entire face with a quick movement of annoyance, 
 drawing close to the wall as they pass 5 others risk a 
 glance, half shy, half curious ; while a few bold spirits 
 look squarely at you, evidently wishing to attract at- 
 tention, and then drop their eyes with a smile. Most 
 of them, though, have a sad, weary, discouraged air. 
 The young girls who have not yet been obliged to 
 cover their faces are quite charming-looking, with 
 black eyes, full round cheeks, pale complexions, little 
 round mouths and small hands and feet 5 but by the 
 time they are twenty they have already become faded, 
 at thirty they are old and at fifty decrepit. 
 
 There is in Tangier a sort of monstrosity, an un- 
 fortunate creature whom it is disagreeable even to 
 look at ; so unlike a human being, indeed, that even a 
 believer finds uneasy doubts arise in his mind. They 
 call her a woman, although she resembles one as little 
 as she does a man. She is a mulatto with a head like 
 an orang-outang, short, shaggy hair, skin drawn tight 
 over her bony frame, and clothing consisting of a few
 
 36 TANGIER 
 
 black rags. Usually she is to be seen lying prone in 
 the middle of the square like a dead person, or else 
 crouched in a corner as silent and motionless as though 
 she were unconscious that is, at least, when the boys 
 are not tormenting her. When that is the case, she 
 turns upon them with tears and shrieks. She might 
 be fifteen years old or she might be thirty, her de- 
 formity makes it impossible to say; she is without 
 friends or home; no one knows her name or whence 
 she came ; at night she lies out in the street among 
 the dogs and refuse, and sleeps during most of the 
 day ; when she has something to eat she laughs, when 
 she is hungry she cries; in clear weather she is a 
 heap of dust, when it rains, a pile of mud. One 
 night, in passing, one of us wrapped a silver piece in 
 a scrap of paper and slipped it into her hand, so as to 
 give her a pleasant surprise when she awoke ; the next 
 day we found her in the middle of the square sobbing 
 violently and exhibiting her hand, all torn and bleed- 
 ing. Some one had stolen her money and hurt her 
 in the struggle. Three days later I met her, all in 
 tears, mounted on a donkey, supported by two soldiers, 
 and followed by a rabble of boys making game of 
 her. Some one told me they were taking her to the 
 hospital. Only yesterday I saw her again, lying 
 asleep by the carcass of a dog more fortunate than 
 herself. 
 
 At last I have found out who those fair, unprepos- 
 sessing-looking individuals are who bestow upon me,
 
 TANGIER. 37 
 
 in passing on the less frequented thoroughfares, a look 
 in which there seems to lurk a continual longing to 
 murder some one. They are Klfs of the Berber race, 
 who acknowledge no law but their muskets, and re- 
 cognize neither kaid nor magistrate; audacious 
 pirates, sanguinary bandits in a constant state of re- 
 bellion, inhabiting the mountains from the Tetuan 
 coast to the Algerian frontier the inhabitants, in 
 short, of that renowned Bif in which no stranger 
 may set his foot unless he have the protection of 
 saints and sheiks alike, of which all manner of wild 
 tales are told, the neighboring people referring to 
 it in vague terms as though it were some far-away, 
 inaccessible country. They are frequently to be met 
 in Tangier tall, robust men, usually enveloped in a 
 dark cloak trimmed with little varicolored tassels; 
 some of them have their faces tattooed in yellow, and 
 all alike are armed with long guns, the red cases of 
 which they wear wrapped around their foreheads like 
 turbans ; they go about in groups, talking together 
 in low tones, with bent heads and quick, observant 
 eyes, like parties of desperadoes looking for a victim ; 
 and compared with them, the most savage looking 
 Arab I meet looks like a friend of my childhood. 
 
 We were seated at dinner after dark one evening 
 when the report of several guns was heard from the 
 square. Running out, we could see, still a good way 
 off, a curious spectacle. The narrow street leading 
 to the Sok di Barra was lighted up for some distance
 
 38 TANGIER 
 
 by large torches held high above the heads of the 
 crowd, and surrounding what appeared to be a box 
 or chest lashed on the back of a horse. This enig- 
 matical procession advanced slowly accompanied by 
 strains of mournful music, drawling nasal singing, 
 and the yelping of dogs. Standing alone for some 
 time in the middle of the square, I puzzled my brains 
 in the effort to make out what the significance of that 
 lugubrious procession might be ; perhaps the chest 
 contained a dead body, or a person condemned to 
 death, or a monstrosity, or an animal intended for the 
 sacrifice ; this uncertainty gave rise to a feeling of 
 shrinking and repulsion, and, turning away with a 
 shudder, I re-entered the house. A moment later the 
 others came trooping in with the true solution of the 
 mystery. The chest contained a bride ! whom her 
 relatives were conducting to her husband's house. 
 
 A crowd of Arab men and women have just gone 
 through the square, preceded by six old men, each 
 carrying a large flag of a different color. They were 
 chanting some prayer loudly together in tones of sup- 
 plication, and with so mournful an aspect that I found 
 myself quite moved. On inquiry I was told that they 
 were imploring Allah for the grace of rain. I fol- 
 lowed them in the direction of the principal Mosque, 
 and on reaching the door not knowing that in this 
 country Christians are rigorously forbidden to set foot 
 inside the Mosques was about to enter, when an old 
 Arab threw himself in front of me, and muttering
 
 TANGIER. 39 
 
 something in an agitated voice which I understood to 
 mean a Fool, what are you about !" pushed me back, 
 much as one would drag a child away from the edge 
 of a precipice. I was obliged, therefore, to be satis- 
 fied with what could be seen from the street of the 
 white-vaulted court-yard, not, however, distressing 
 myself overmuch, after having visited the gigantic 
 Mosques of Constantinople, at being thus excluded 
 from those of Tangier, stripped as they are of all 
 architectural beauty, the minarets alone excepted; 
 and even these heavy square or hexagonal towers, 
 covered with many-colored mosaics, and surmounted 
 by turrets with conical-shaped roofs, are not to be 
 compared with those slight, graceful minarets which 
 shoot heavenwards like shafts of white ivory from the 
 summits of Stambul's seven hills. While I stood 
 gazing into the court-yard a woman made a motion 
 towards me with her hand from behind the ablution- 
 ary fountain. I might give the impression that it 
 was a kiss she wafted across, but I will not, the fact 
 being that she shook her fist at me. 
 
 I have been up to the Kasbah, the castle on the 
 summit of the hill overlooking Tangier. It is a 
 group of small buildings surrounded by ancient walls, 
 where the authorities, soldiers, and prisoners reside. 
 I found only a couple of sleepy-looking sentinels 
 seated before a doorway at the end of a deserted 
 square, and a few beggars stretched on the ground, 
 scorched by the sun and devoured by flies. From
 
 40 TANGIER 
 
 this point a comprehensive view of Tangier may be 
 obtained, stretching away from the foot of the Kas- 
 bah walls and climbing an opposite hill-side. The 
 eye almost shrinks from that expanse of dazzling 
 white, only relieved here and there by the green of 
 some fig tree shut in between two walls. You can 
 make out distinctly the terrace of each little house, 
 the minarets of the Mosques, the legation flags, the bat- 
 tlements on the walls, the solitary shore, the deserted 
 bay, the mountains along the coast a view suffi- 
 ciently vast, beautiful and imposing to drive away 
 the most acute attack of homesickness. As I stood 
 gazing at this scene I was startled by hearing, far 
 above me, the faint tremulous notes of a human voice 
 uttering some words in an unfamiliar tongue. I 
 turned and had looked about me some time before I 
 finally discovered a small black speck on the summit 
 of a Mosque in the Kasbah. It was the muezzin 
 calling the faithful to prayer, and pronouncing the 
 names of Allah and Mohammed to all four quarters 
 of the heavens; the voice ceased, and once more the 
 mournful silence of noontide fell upon the scene. 
 
 It is a real misfortune to be obliged to have money 
 changed in this country. I gave the tobacconist a 
 French franc, out of which I was to receive ten sous 
 in change. That ferocious-looking Moor thereupon 
 opened a drawer and proceeded to take out and throw 
 down on the counter handful after handful of black, 
 battered-looking coins, until there were enough to
 
 rno 
 
 foil 
 
 .v!" house, 
 L"*, the bat- 
 he deserted 
 view auffi- 
 Irive away 
 
 ' .' 
 re. acma 
 
 : UI1R, 
 
 C 0ie e w from the Kasbah
 
 TANGIER 41 
 
 make a porter's ordinary load ; then, counting them 
 over rapidly, he waited expectantly for me to fill my 
 pockets. " I beg your pardon," said I, at the same 
 time trying to get back my franc, " but the fact is 
 I am not strong enough to deal at your shop." We 
 finally compromised, I purchasing enough additional 
 cigars to reduce the change to one pocketful of that 
 ridiculous-looking metal, which I carried off to have 
 explained to me. It is a species of money called flou, 
 made of copper, whose unit is worth something less 
 than a centime, and which is diminishing in value 
 every day, as Morocco is flooded with it ; and the 
 extent to which the Government has coined and de- 
 based it may be understood from the fact that, while 
 it makes all its payments in this money, it will 
 receive only silver or gold. But every evil has its 
 good side, and thus this flou, this scourge of com- 
 merce, possesses the inestimable gift of warding off 
 all manner of ills from the fortunate Moroccoans, evil 
 eye in especial, by virtue of the so-called Solomon's 
 seal, a six-pointed star stamped upon the face of 
 each coin, and copied from the original ring which 
 is inclosed in the tomb of the great king, who con- 
 trolled by means of it both good and bad spirits. 
 
 There is only one promenade in Tangier the 
 beach, which extends from the city off in the direc- 
 tion of Cape Malabat a beach covered with shells 
 and weeds cast up by the sea and broken by large 
 pools of water rather difficult to avoid at high tide.
 
 42 TANGIER 
 
 This is the Champs Elysee, the Cascine, of Tangier. 
 The promenade-hour is in the afternoon towards sun- 
 set. At that time about fifty Europeans may be seen 
 walking up and down in couples and groups, about a 
 hundred feet apart, so that anyone who looks down 
 from the city walls can easily distinguish each indi- 
 vidual a mile away. Here, for instance, comes an 
 English lady on horseback, accompanied by a guide ; 
 farther on are two Moors from the country ; after 
 them the Spanish consul, with his wife 5 next, a saint ; 
 then a French nurse, with two children ; then a party 
 of Arab peasant women, who wade through one of 
 the pools with legs bare to above the knees and 
 carefully-covered faces j and beyond them at inter- 
 vals a cap, a pot-hat, a white hood, a chignon, to 
 the very last figure, which surely must be that of the 
 Portuguese Secretary of Legation, wearing the light 
 trousers he got yesterday from Gibraltar ; for in this 
 little European colony every one knows everything 
 about every one. If it did not sound disrespectful, 
 I should say that they all looked like so many crimi- 
 nals in forced exile, marching up and down, or a party 
 of travellers who had fallen into the hands of pirates 
 on a desert island, and were watching for the ship to 
 arrive with their ransom-money. 
 
 It is almost easier to find one's way about in the 
 immensity of London than among this handful of 
 houses, which could readily be tucked away in one 
 corner of Hyde Park. All these lanes, alleys, passage-
 
 TANGIER 43 
 
 ways, hardly wide enough to pass through, are as 
 much alive as the cells of a beehive, and it is only 
 by giving the most minute attention to every little 
 detail that you can distinguish one neighborhood 
 from another. Thus far, no sooner do I quit the 
 square or the principal street than I promptly lose 
 myself; and in broad daylight it would be easy for 
 a couple of Arabs to pinion me in one of the deserted 
 passage-ways, gag, and cause me to disappear for- 
 ever from off the face of the earth without any one 
 being a particle the wiser. And yet a Christian can 
 wander alone through that labyrinth by day or 
 night and, among those savages, with greater secu- 
 rity than in some of our own cities. The poles of 
 half-a-dozen European flagstaff's rising from a neigh- 
 boring terrace, ominous indications of an invisible 
 hand, suffice to insure a security which is not always 
 established among us by the presence of armed legions. 
 What a difference between the civilization, for in- 
 stance, of London and Tangier ! But, after all, every 
 place has its advantages. There we have those great 
 palaces and the underground railroad, while here one 
 can go about with his coat unbuttoned. 
 
 In all Tangier there is not a single cart or carriage, 
 no noise of workshops, no sound of bells, no cry of 
 street- venders ; and you never see any indication 
 of haste among either persons or things. Even the 
 Europeans, utterly at a loss what to do with them- 
 selves, spend hours at a time motionless out in the
 
 44 TANGIER 
 
 square. Everything is in a state of repose and in- 
 vites to repose. I myself, who have been here but a 
 few short days, begin to feel the influence of this soft, 
 indolent life. On reaching the Sok di Barra to-day, 
 I found myself irresistibly drawn back to the house, 
 where, after reading ten pages, the book dropped 
 from my hand, and when once my head had fallen 
 back on the cushions of the arm-chair, I had to 
 repeat at least two chapters from " Smiles " before 
 I could make up my mind to raise it again, while 
 the mere thought of all the work and worry await- 
 ing me at home exhausts me. These blue heavens, 
 this white city, are images of monotonous, eternal 
 repose ; little by little they come to represent to 
 those who inhabit this land the ideal of happiness, 
 of life. That is why my notes are interrupted at this 
 point. The indolence of Africa has vanquished me. 
 Among the numerous persons who buzzed about 
 the doors of the legation there was one fine-looking 
 young Moor who from the first day especially at- 
 tracted me. He was one of the handsomest Moors I 
 saw in Morocco tall, graceful, with black, melancholy 
 eyes and a particularly sweet smile, the face of a love- 
 lorn Sultan whom Danhasch, the evil spirit in the 
 " Thousand and One Nights/' might have placed by 
 the side of Princess Badoura instead of Prince Ca- 
 maralzaman, sure that she would not complain of the 
 change. He was named Mohammed, and was the 
 eighteen-year-old son of a wealthy Moor of Tangier
 
 TANGIER 45 
 
 under the protection of the Italian legation ; a fat, 
 harmless Mussulman, whose life having been threat- 
 ened for some time by an enemy, used to come almost 
 every day with a terrified face to implore the minis- 
 ter's help. Mohammed could talk a little Spanish in 
 the Moorish fashion, that is, with all the verbs in the 
 infinitive, and this had enabled him to scrape acquaint- 
 ance with my companions. He had been married a 
 few days before, his father having arranged the match 
 in order to make him settle down, and having pre- 
 sented him with a bride of fifteen as beautiful as him- 
 self. Marriage, however, had not, to all appear- 
 ance, worked any great change in him, and he was 
 still, as he told us, a Turk of the future, which consists 
 in drinking a glass of wine now and then on the sly, 
 smoking an occasional cigar, being very tired of Tan- 
 gier, frequenting the society of foreigners, and cherish- 
 ing dreams of making a trip to Spain. At this junc- 
 ture, however, the attraction which drew him to us 
 was the hope of obtaining through our influence per- 
 mission to join the caravan and thus to visit Fez, the 
 great metropolis, his Rome and the dream of his 
 youth 5 and to this end he showered bows, smiles and 
 hand-pressures upon us with a prodigality and grace 
 sufficient to subjugate the hearts of the entire imperial 
 harem. Like almost all other young Moors of his 
 station, he killed time by lounging about from one 
 street to another, and from group to group, discussing 
 the new horse of one of the ministers, the departure
 
 46 TANGIER 
 
 of a friend for Gibraltar, the arrival of a ship, the 
 latest robbery, all manner of womanish tittle-tattle, or 
 else sitting immovable and taciturn in a corner of the 
 market square, with his thoughts who can say- 
 where ? 
 
 With this handsome idler is indissolubly connected 
 my recollections of the first Moorish house in which 
 I set foot, and the first Arab repast at which I risked 
 my digestion. One day his father invited us to din- 
 ner, a thing I long had wished for. Late one even- 
 ing, accordingly, preceded by an interpreter and es- 
 corted by four servants from the legation, after 
 threading numerous dark, narrow streets, we arrived 
 at an arabesqued door, which swung back at our ap- 
 proach as if by enchantment. Traversing a small, 
 bare, white room, we found ourselves in the heart of 
 the establishment. The first impression was of a 
 great confusion of people, a strange light and a mar- 
 vellous pomp of color. The host advanced to meet 
 us accompanied by his son and male relatives, all 
 wearing large white turbans ; behind them were the 
 domestics, all hooded, and farther still, in dark corners 
 and around the edges of the doors, wondering faces 
 of women and children ; while, notwithstanding the 
 presence of so many people, their reigned over all a 
 profound silence. I supposed myself to be in a room 
 until, happening to raise my eyes, I saw the stars. 
 Like all Moorish houses it was a small, square edifice, 
 with a court in the centre, from either side of which
 
 TANGIER 47 
 
 opened two long, narrow rooms without windows, 
 having large arched doorways closed with curtains. 
 The outer walls were white as snow, the cornices of 
 the doorways dentiled, the pavements of mosaic ; 
 here and there were small double windows and niches 
 for slippers. The house was in gala dress, the pave- 
 ments covered with rugs ; beside the doors stood high 
 candelabra with red, green and yellow candles ; on 
 the tables were mirrors and bunches of flowers. The 
 combined effect of these various objects, in nowise 
 strange in themselves, was odd in the extreme. There 
 was something churchly about it all, and at the same 
 time I was reminded of a theatre or the ball-room of 
 a make-believe royal palace, and yet it had a certain 
 graceful charm of its own. The arrangement of the 
 light and combinations of color were altogether novel, 
 charged with a deep underlying significance that cor- 
 responded wonderfully with all we had vaguely felt 
 and imagined about these people ; as though, so to 
 speak, it were the light and color of their religion, 
 their philosophy ; and beholding the interior of that 
 dwelling, we for the first time gazed into the soul of 
 the race. 
 
 After some moments devoted to bows and vigorous 
 hand-shakings, we were invited to view the apart- 
 ment of the newly-wedded pair. I, with the imperti- 
 nent curiosity of a European, tried, though vainly, to 
 meet Mohammed's eye. His head was lowered, and 
 he was hiding his blushes beneath the shadow of his
 
 48 TANGIER 
 
 turban. The nuptial-chamber was a long, narrow, 
 lofty apartment, opening on the court. At the far- 
 ther end, on one side, stood the bride's bed, and op- 
 posite it that of Mohammed, both decorated with rich 
 hangings of a gorgeous shade of crimson, fringed 
 around the top. The floor was spread with great 
 Rabat rugs, and the walls hung with yellow and red 
 tapestry. Between the two beds the bride's trous- 
 seau was displayed hung on the wall ; stays, petti- 
 coats, trousers, little garments of strange, unfamiliar 
 cut, combining all the hues of a flower-garden in full 
 bloom 5 made of wool, of silk, of velvet 5 braided and 
 covered with gold and silver stars, like the outfit of 
 some child princess verily a sight to make a writer's 
 head swim and an actress die with envy. From 
 thence we were conducted to the dining-room. Here, 
 too, we found rugs, tapestries, bunches of flowers, 
 great candelabra standing on the floor, couches, cush- 
 ions of a hundred different colors piled up around the 
 walls, and two richly-decked bedsteads, it had been 
 the host's wedding-chamber, near one of which the 
 table was spread contrary to the Arab fashion, which 
 is to place the dishes on the floor and eat without 
 forks or spoons ; while, in spite of the Prophet, we 
 caught the sparkle of a circle of venerable bottles cal- 
 culated to remind us, in the midst of the voluptuous- 
 ness of a Moorish banquet, that we were still Christians. 
 Before taking our places at table we seated our- 
 selves cross-legged upon a rug around the host's sec-
 
 TANGIER 49 
 
 retary, a handsome turbaned Moor, who made tea, 
 we watching him, and then insisted on our taking 
 three cups apiece, according to custom, all extrava- 
 gantly sweet and flavored with mint. Between the 
 cups we caressed the pig-tail and shaved head of a 
 pretty youngster of four, Mohammed's youngest 
 brother, who furtively counted our fingers to be quite 
 sure that we had five, like Mohammedans. After fin- 
 ishing our tea we seated ourselves at table our host, 
 on being pressed, consenting to bear us company 
 and began partaking one after another of the famous 
 Arab dishes, objects of our ardent curiosity. I at- 
 tacked the first with great confidence. Merciful heaven ! 
 My first impulse was to fall upon the cook. Every 
 shade of expression which might cross the face of a 
 man suddenly attacked by colic, or on hearing of the 
 unexpected failure of his banker, must have appeared 
 upon mine. In an instant I understood perfectly how 
 a race who ate such food must necessarily believe in 
 another God and hold essentially different views of 
 human life from our own. I can give no idea of the 
 taste left in my mouth except by comparing myself 
 to some unfortunate condemned to swallow the con- 
 tents of all the bottles and boxes in a hair-dresser's 
 establishment. There was a suggestion of soap, wax, 
 pomatum, of unguents, dyes, cosmetics; of every thing, 
 in short, most unsuited to enter a human mouth. At 
 each new dish we exchanged glances of terror and 
 dismay. The materials must have been good, too, 
 VOL. I. 4
 
 50 TANGIER 
 
 in themselves, for there was poultry, mutton, game 
 and fish j huge dishes of inviting appearance, but 
 everything swimming in the most horrible sauces, 
 greasy, anointed, perfumed, prepared in such a man- 
 ner that a comb seemed a more fitting instrument to 
 dip into them than a fork ; and yet it was absolutely 
 necessary to swallow some of each, so I comforted 
 myself by repeating inwardly those lines of Aleardi : 
 
 Oh nella vita 
 
 Qualche delitto icognito ne pesa, 
 Qualche cosa si espia, 
 
 The only eatable thing was the roast mutton. Not 
 even the Kuskussu, the Moorish national dish, pre- 
 pared with wheat 'ground about as fine as bran, 
 steamed and dressed with milk or broth a perfidious 
 imitation of risotto not even this famous Kuskussu, 
 which many Europeans really like, could I succeed 
 in swallowing without changing color. And there 
 actually was one of our party who partook of every- 
 thing ; a consoling fact, however, since it demonstrates 
 clearly that the great men are not all dead yet in 
 Italy. At every mouthful our host interrogated us 
 with anxious looks, and we, with wildly-rolling eyes, 
 would exclaim in chorus, " Excellent ! delicious !" and 
 then hastily swallow a glass of wine to revive our 
 sinking courage. At a certain point in the repast 
 there came a sudden burst of music from the court, 
 which made us all jump to our feet. It was a party
 
 TANGIER 51 
 
 of three musicians come, according to Moorish custom, 
 to enliven the feast j three Arabs with big eyes and 
 hooked noses, dressed in red and white, one playing a 
 sort of lute, another a mandolin, and the third a small 
 drum. They seated themselves just outside the door 
 of our apartment, near a small niche in which they 
 deposited their slippers, we resumed our places, the 
 dishes were once more passed around in turn (there 
 were twenty-three in all, if I remember rightly, not 
 counting the fruit), our expressions continued to 
 change, and the corks to fly. Little by little our fre- 
 quent libations, the scent of the flowers, the fumes of 
 the aloes rising from chased perfumery-stands from 
 Fez, and that wild Arab music which, by dint of 
 continually repeating the same mysterious lament, 
 ends by taking possession of the soul with irresistible 
 force, caused a sort of silent, mystic intoxication to 
 steal over our senses, and for a few minutes each one 
 of us seemed to feel the pressure of a turban on his 
 brow, of a Sultana's head upon his breast. Dinner 
 finally ended, we arose and scattered ourselves about 
 the room, the courtyard and vestibule, gazing around 
 and examining everything with childish curiosity. 
 In every dark corner stood an Arab, erect as a statue, 
 wrapped in his long white cloak. The curtains had 
 been drawn across the door of the nuptial-chamber, 
 and through the crack could be seen a great stir and 
 movement of veiled heads ; lights came and went in 
 the upper windows ; we could hear the rustling gar-
 
 52 TANGIER. 
 
 ments and lowered voices of invisible persons ; all 
 around and about us there was a ferment of unseen 
 life, telling us that although we were within the walls 
 we were still outside the home ; that the beauty, the 
 tenderness, the soul of the family had taken refuge 
 in its secret recesses ; that we were the exhibition, 
 and that the house remained for us a mystery. Later 
 on the governess of the minister's household appeared 
 from one of the doorways ; she had been to call on the 
 bride, and exclaimed, as she passed us, " Ah ! if you 
 could only see her 5 such a dear little rosebud; a creat- 
 ure from Paradise!" And still the music kept up its 
 wailing sound, the smoke from the burning aloes 
 ascended through the heavy air, and we wandered 
 and gazed, our imaginations working, working, and 
 still working, when at last we issued from that glow- 
 ing, perfumed atmosphere, and in profound silence 
 threaded our way by the light of a single lantern 
 through the narrow, gloomy streets. 
 
 One evening the news was passed about from 
 mouth to mouth that the long-expected arrival of a 
 party of Aissowieh would take place on the following 
 day. The Aissowieh are one of the principal re- 
 ligious confraternities of Morocco, founded, like all 
 the rest, through the direct inspiration of God by a 
 saint named Sidi Mohammed-ben-Alssa, born at 
 Mequinez about two centuries ago, whose biography 
 consists of a long, rambling recital of miracles and 
 marvellous adventures variously recounted. The
 
 \O
 
 - fe: ,i lowered voie^ nil 
 
 d *JH{ about us thr-r. , ,-n 
 
 w wore still "Utsid-. tu- home ; that th. the 
 
 tenderness, the H--UJ <4 the family had taken r:i.ig 
 in it* s'..-rf t rocts^-j. ; that we were the exhibition, 
 and that fiw house rc--> .*>! for us a mystery. Later 
 on the goveraew of tl. ^t ..>r's household appeared 
 from one of the doorwm had been to call on the 
 
 v !,-: . ! ' --1 us, "Ah! if you 
 
 r up its 
 
 . 
 
 mouth to mouth that the long~exj 
 party of Aisscwu-h would tak- } ....*_* on the foli- 
 day. The Aissowieh ar-- one of the principal re- 
 ligious confraternities of Morocco, founded, like all 
 the rest, through the direct inspiration of ' 
 saint named Sidi Mohjunrned-ben-Alssa, born at 
 Inez about tw- whose biography 
 
 of a long, rai^ miracles and
 
 TANGIER 53 
 
 Aissowieh claim to have won the special protection 
 of Heaven by their constant prayers and the exercise 
 of certain peculiar rites through which they keep 
 alive in their hearts not faith, exactly, but a sort of 
 exaltation, a religious fever, a divine frenzy, which 
 breaks out occasionally into wild acts of extravagance 
 and ferocity. They have a large Mosque at Fez 
 which is the chief establishment of their order, and 
 from whence they issue forth once a year and spread 
 themselves in detachments throughout the entire em- 
 pire, collecting such members of the society as may 
 be scattered about in the various towns and provinces, 
 to take part in the annual feasts. Their rites, re- 
 sembling somewhat those of the Howling and Dancing- 
 Dervishes of the East, consist in a sort of frenzied dance 
 accompanied by leaps, contortions, and cries, by dint 
 of which they work themselves up until they become 
 more and more excited, more furious, more frantic, 
 and utterly beside themselves, grind wood and iron 
 with their teeth, burn their flesh with red-hot coals, 
 cut themselves with knives, eat mud and stones, tear 
 live animals asunder and devour the reeking flesh, 
 and finally drop to the ground spent and unconscious. 
 The Aissowieh whom I saw at Tangier did not in- 
 dulge in any such excesses as these, and I imagine 
 that very few, and they seldom, go to such lengths in 
 these days ; but what I did see was enough to make 
 an indelible impression upon my mind. The Belgian 
 minister invited us to witness the sight from the ter-
 
 54 TANGIER 
 
 race of his house which overlooks the principal street 
 of Tangier, along which the procession would have 
 to pass to reach the Mosque. They were expected 
 to arrive at about ten o'clock in the morning. As I 
 came down from the Sok di Barra gate about an hour 
 earlier the street was already thronged with people, 
 and the roofs of the houses covered with Arab and 
 Jewish women, the brilliant colors of whose dresses 
 made the white terraces look like great boxes of 
 flowers. At the appointed hour all eyes were turned 
 towards the gate at the end of the street, and in a 
 few minutes the forerunners of the party came in 
 sight. The whole street was so crowded with people 
 that until they got quite near it was impossible to dis- 
 tinguish the Aissowieh from the spectators. For 
 some little time I could see nothing but a swaying 
 mass of hooded heads, and in their midst, other bare 
 ones which appeared and disappeared, their owners 
 being apparently engaged in knocking one another 
 about. Above the heads floated a few flags, and 
 from time to time a simultaneous cry arose from many 
 throats. The crowd slowly advanced, little by little 
 we began to note a certain method in the movements 
 of all those heads. The foremost formed a circle, 
 those behind them a double line, beyond them was 
 another circle, and so on. But of this order I can- 
 not be perfectly sure either, for in my eager curiosity 
 to observe the individuals themselves as closely as 
 possible it is very likely that the exact order of the
 
 TANGIER. 55 
 
 movements of the whole may have escaped me. In 
 the course of a few moments the leaders of the party 
 were directly below our terrace. My first impression 
 was a mingling of horror and pity. There were two 
 lines of men facing one another, wearing cloaks and 
 long white tunics, holding on to each other by the 
 hands, or arms or shoulders, keeping time with their 
 feet, swaying, turning their heads from side to side, 
 and giving vent to a dull, murmuring sound, broken 
 by sobs, chokings, gaspings, and interjections of 
 wrath and despair. Nothing but Rubens' The Pos- 
 sessed % a Devilj or Goya's liaised from the Dead, or 
 Poe's The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar, could 
 give the faintest idea of the look on those faces. They 
 were livid, convulsed, with staring eyes and foaming 
 mouths ; feverish, epileptic ; some wearing a fixed, 
 mysterious smile, others the whites of whose eyes 
 could only be seen, others contracted as if with 
 some fearful spasm, and others which were like 
 dead men's faces. From time to time they would 
 make a strange gesture to one another with swing- 
 ing arms, and then that simultaneous cry would 
 arise, piercing and terrible, as of persons receiving a 
 death-wound j then proceeding a few steps further 
 they would again begin to dance, groaning and strik- 
 ing themselves, a confused, surging mass of cowls, 
 wide sleeves, hairy tufts, long locks, thick shocks of 
 hair divided up into snake-like bands. A few of the 
 more ardent spirits went up and down between the
 
 56 TANGIER 
 
 lines staggering like drunken men and striking against 
 the walls and doorways ; others seemed to be rapt in 
 a sort of ecstasy, walking slowly along erect, with 
 heads thrown back, half-closed eyes and hanging 
 arms ; others, completely exhausted and no longer 
 able either to cry out or stand erect, were supported 
 under either armpit by their companions, or swept 
 unresistingly along by the crowd. The dance be- 
 came more and more disorderly and the noise more 
 deafening. Heads were shaken until it seemed as 
 though the collar-bones must break, and terrible gasp- 
 ings came from surcharged lungs. From all those 
 bodies, reeking with perspiration, there arose a sick- 
 ening smell like that from a cage of wild animals. 
 From time to time one or another of those convulsed 
 faces would suddenly be raised towards our terrace, 
 and a pair of wild-looking eyes gazing full into my 
 own cause me to draw precipitately back. From 
 moment to moment my inward impression of the 
 scene would undergo a change. Now it seemed noth- 
 ing but an extravagant masquerade, and I was 
 tempted to laugh ; then it suggested the revels of a 
 crowd of lunatics, of sick persons in the delirium of 
 fever, of drunken galley-slaves, of men condemned 
 to death who were endeavoring to deaden their ter- 
 ror, and my heart would suddenly contract, only to 
 forget the next moment everything but the savage 
 beauty of the scene and lose myself in artistic en- 
 joyment. But little by little the underlying mean-
 
 TANGIER 57 
 
 ing of that rite took possession of my mind ; the sen- 
 sations which those frenzies were the interpretation 
 of and which every one of us must often and often 
 have experienced, the struggle of the human soul 
 laboring under the burden of the infinite, awoke in 
 me, and half-unconsciously I put that tumult into 
 words as I understood it. Yes, I feel thee, oh, mys- 
 terious and tremendous power; I struggle in the grasp 
 of thine invisible hand; the idea of thee oppresses me; 
 I cannot contain it ; my heart is bursting, my reason 
 departs, this clay wrapping is rent asunder ! 
 
 And so they passed on, crowding by, pale, di- 
 shevelled, emitting those piercing cries with what 
 seemed to be their dying breath. A stumbling old 
 man, the image of a frenzied Lear, detached him- 
 self from the procession and made as though he 
 would have dashed his brains out against a neigh- 
 boring wall had his companions not dragged him 
 back in time. One young man fell full length on 
 the ground unconscious ; another, his hair floating 
 over his shoulders, his face buried in his hands, went 
 by with long strides, his body bowed to the earth, 
 like one accursed of God. There were Bedouins, 
 Moors, Berbers, negroes, giants, mummies, satyrs 
 with faces of cannibals and saints, birds of prey, 
 sphinxes, Indian idols, furies, fauns, devils. There 
 may have been between three and four hundred, and 
 in less than an hour they had all passed. The last 
 to come were two women (women being admitted to
 
 58 TANGIER. 
 
 the order as well) who looked as though they had 
 been buried alive and had burst open their tombs 
 two walking skeletons, dressed all in white, their hair 
 hanging over their faces, with staring eyes and foam- 
 ing mouths, completely exhausted, yet still animated 
 by convulsive movements of which they themselves 
 seemed no longer conscious j writhing, shrieking, 
 stumbling as they went, while between them rose 
 the gigantic figure of an old man, with a face like 
 a hundred-years-old wizard, dressed in a sweeping 
 tunic, who, stretching out two long, emaciated arms, 
 laid his hands on the head of one and the other of 
 them in turn with a gesture of protection, helping 
 and raising them again when they fell. Behind these 
 three apparitions, pushing and jostling one another, 
 came a throng of armed Arabs, women, beggars and 
 children, the entire barbarous howling mob a mass 
 of human misery, which, pouring into the square, 
 disappeared from our view. 
 
 Another interesting sight to be witnessed in Tan- 
 gier is the feast which is celebrated on Mohammed's 
 birthday. I think it possibly made a particularly 
 vivid impression on me owing to my having hap- 
 pened on it rather accidentally. 
 
 Returning one day from a walk along the shore, I 
 heard the sound of guns being fired off in the Sok 
 di Barra. Hastening thither, I at first could hardly 
 recognize the place, so completely was it metamor- 
 phosed. From the city walls to the very summit of
 
 TANGIER 59 
 
 the hill it was swarming with Arabs, an entirely white 
 and extraordinarily animated crowd. There were, I 
 believe, only about three thousand persons in all, but 
 they mingled and moved about so constantly as to 
 appear countless a curious optical delusion. Upon 
 every mound, as though seated upon so many bal- 
 conies, were groups of Arab women, squatted on the 
 ground in the Eastern fashion, immovable, their faces 
 turned towards the lower end of the Sok. On one 
 side the crowd, separating in two dark masses, left 
 an open space between, down which a troop of horse- 
 men hurled themselves full tilt, in line of battle, at 
 the same time discharging their long guns ; on the 
 other, groups of men and women had gathered about 
 the various performers some playing ball, others 
 fencing or dancing, serpent-charmers, story-tellers, 
 musicians, soldiers. From the summit of the hill, 
 beneath a pointed tent open in front, gleamed the 
 huge white turban of the Vice-Governor of Tangier, 
 who, seated on the ground, in the midst of a circle 
 of Moors, presided over the fete. From that point 
 one could see below in the crowd the soldiers belong- 
 ing to the various legations, dressed in their pompous 
 scarlet caftans, a few high hats, an occasional parasol 
 belonging to one of the consuls' ladies, and the two 
 artists, Ussi and Biseo, portfolio and pencil in hand ; 
 beyond the crowd Tangier 5 beyond Tangier the sea. 
 The reports of the guns, shouts of the horsemen, 
 ringing of the water-carriers' bells, gay cries of the
 
 60 TANGIER. 
 
 women, the music of pipes, horns, and tambourines, 
 all combined to form a hurly -burly not to be described, 
 and added not a little to the strange effect produced 
 by that wild scene under the dazzling rays of the 
 noonday sun. 
 
 Curiosity attracted me in a dozen different direc- 
 tions at once, but a cry of admiration from some 
 women near by drew me first of all to a group of 
 cavalry. There were a dozen tall fellows, wearing 
 peaked fezes, white capes, orange, red, and blue 
 caftans, and in their midst a youth dressed with 
 effeminate elegance, the son of the Governor of the 
 Rif. Drawing up in line at the foot of the city walls, 
 with faces turned towards the open country, the Gov- 
 ernor's son in the middle, they raised their hands, 
 and with one accord broke into a run. For the first 
 few paces there was some slight uncertainty and dis- 
 order, then those twelve horses, with loosened bridles 
 and bellies even with the ground, seemed to be parts 
 of a single body a furious monster with twelve 
 heads, many-colored, devouring space. The riders, 
 nailed to their saddles, with heads erect and cloaks 
 floating in the wind, raised their guns aloft, pressed 
 them convulsively against their shoulders, and fired, 
 at the same time raising a simultaneous cry of tri- 
 umphant fury, then vanished in a cloud of dust and 
 smoke. In a few moments they slowly reappeared, 
 sitting their foaming and bloody steeds in attitudes 
 of weary disdain, and presently the performance was
 
 TANGIER 61 
 
 re-enacted. At each fresh charge the Arab women, 
 like ladies at a tournament, greeted the performers 
 with a peculiar cry of their own, consisting in the 
 rapid repetition of the monosyllable /w, which sounds 
 like the shrill exclamations of delighted children. 
 
 Next I went to watch a party of about fifteen 
 Arabs play ball boys, full-grown men, and old ones 
 with white beards ; some had guns slung across their 
 shoulders, others wore swords. The ball was of 
 leather, about the size of an orange. One of them 
 took it, dropped it on the ground, and kicked it in 
 the air, all the others trying to catch it before it 
 fell, and the one who succeeded doing as the first 
 had done. Thus the group of players, intent on fol- 
 lowing the ball, got farther and farther away, until at 
 last with one accord they returned to the spot they 
 started from. But the curious thing about this game 
 consisted in the movements of the players. They 
 used dance-steps, measured gestures, actors' poses, 
 preserving a mien that was almost ceremonious, and 
 contradictory as well, being both courteous and vio- 
 lent, circling about with a sort of rhythm and system 
 the rule for which I was unable to discover. They 
 ran and leaped all together in a contracted space, 
 pressing close to one another and intermingling 
 without interchanging a blow or making the slight- 
 est disturbance. The ball flew up in the air, dis- 
 appeared, bounded in among their legs and above 
 their heads as though no one had touched it and it
 
 62 TANGIER 
 
 were being blown hither and thither by contrary 
 winds, and all of this strenuous effort was unaccom- 
 panied by a word, an exclamation, or a smile. Old 
 and young alike were perfectly silent and serious, 
 and as intent upon the game as though it had been 
 some melancholy task imposed upon them, no sound 
 being heard other than their panting breath and the 
 patter of their slippers. 
 
 A little farther on some negroes were dancing in 
 the midst of another circle of spectators to the sound 
 of a fife and a small conical drum, beaten with a 
 wooden stick curved like a half-moon. There were 
 eight of them, great powerful fellows, as black and 
 shiny as ebony, wearing nothing but a long snow- 
 white tunic fastened around the waist by a green 
 cord. Seven of them holding one another by the 
 hand formed a circle about the eighth, and they all 
 danced together, or rather kept time to the music 
 with an indescribable movement of the hips which 
 set my toes in motion, and hardly any change of 
 position, wearing upon their faces at the same time 
 that satyr-like smile, that expression of purely animal 
 enjoyment of stupid bliss peculiar to the negro race. 
 While I stood watching this scene two boys of about 
 ten, who were among the lookers-on, gave a sample 
 of the ferocity of the Arab nature which I am not 
 likely soon to forget. Quite suddenly, and with no 
 apparent cause, they leaped upon one another, and 
 closing like a couple of tigers, began to tear and bite
 
 TANGIEB. 63 
 
 each other's faces and necks with teeth and nails, and 
 with a fury that was really horrible to witness. Two 
 strong men, by using all their force, succeeded, with 
 some difficulty, in separating them, and were obliged 
 to keep hold of them to prevent their renewing the 
 attack. 
 
 The fencers were very funny. There were four 
 fencing with sticks in pairs, and it would be impossi- 
 ble to give any idea of the extravagance and awk- 
 wardness of the " school." I call it a " school " ad- 
 visedly, because I saw fencing of the same style in 
 other cities in Morocco. They indulge in movements 
 like those of a rope-dancer, perfectly objectless leaps 
 in the air, contortions of the body, kicks and blows 
 carefully announced beforehand with wild flourishes 
 of the arms, every movement made with a kindly de- 
 liberation that would allow one of our fencers ample 
 time to stand on guard, and each combatant armed 
 with an enormous weight of wood, without there being 
 the smallest risk of anyone receiving so much as a 
 knock. The group of Arab spectators stood, how- 
 ever, in open-mouthed admiration, a number of them 
 stealing looks at me from time to time to see if I 
 were not struck with astonishment. Wishing to 
 gratify them, I pretended to be mightily pleased, upon 
 which some of them drew closer together in order to 
 push me a little more to the front, and I presently 
 found myself surrounded on all sides by Arabs, and 
 had the chance I had been wanting to make a closer
 
 64 TANGIER. 
 
 study of the race, of those barely perceptible move- 
 ments of the nostrils, lips and eyelids, of the marks 
 on the skin, and the odor in short, of all those minor 
 details which escape the observer as he passes along 
 the streets, but which nevertheless seem to explain 
 so much. One of the soldiers belonging to the Italian 
 legation espying me from a distance hemmed in in 
 this way, and imagining that I was an unwilling 
 prisoner, insisted upon liberating me whether I would 
 or no by means of a free use of elbows and fists. 
 
 The group gathered about the story-teller was the 
 smallest of any, but the most striking. I joined it 
 just as, the customary opening prayer being ended, 
 the orator was beginning his tale. He was a man of 
 about fifty, almost black, with a jetty beard and great 
 shining eyes, enveloped like all the Morocco story- 
 tellers in a large white cloth bound about the head 
 with a strip of camel's hair, which lent him something 
 of the dignity of a priest of ancient times. Standing 
 erect in the middle of his circle of auditors, he held 
 forth slowly and in high-pitched tones, to the accom- 
 paniment of a drum and an oboe. He may have been 
 recounting some tale of love, or the adventures of a 
 celebrated bandit, or the vicissitudes of a sultan's 
 career. I could not understand a single word, but 
 his gestures were so expressive, his voice so sympa- 
 thetic, his face so speaking, that from time to time I 
 was able to catch a ray of meaning. He seemed to 
 be describing a long journey ; he imitated the gait of
 
 TANGIER. 65 
 
 the weary horse, pointed to the measureless stretch 
 of horizon, searched for any sign of water, let his 
 head and hands droop like those of a man utterly 
 spent ; then all at once, descrying some object far off 
 in the distance, he seemed at first to hesitate, now 
 doubting, now believing the evidence of his eyes, 
 until plucking up courage he pushed forward, and 
 finally returning thanks to Allah, and laughing aloud 
 for joy, sank down with a great sigh of relief in the 
 shade of a delicious oasis which he had abandoned all 
 hope of reaching. The audience remained silent and 
 breathless throughout the recital, reflecting in their 
 faces every word uttered by the story-teller ; and 
 standing thus with their souls in their eyes, they re- 
 vealed fully the frank, ingenuous nature which lies dor- 
 mant beneath those savage exteriors. The orator 
 moved to the right and left, sprang forward, crouched 
 on the ground, covered his face with his hands, lifted 
 his arms to heaven, and raised his voice as he grew 
 gradually more and more excited; the musicians 
 played with ever-increasing fervor ; the listeners 
 drew closer together, becoming more breathless as 
 the tale went on, until at last it reached its climax in 
 a thundering cry, the instruments flew up in the air, 
 and the group, much affected, dispersed, to make 
 room for a fresh audience. 
 
 Three musicians, who had succeeded in attracting 
 a larger crowd than anyone else, made, by their ap- 
 pearance, movements and music, a very extraordinary 
 VOL. I. 6
 
 66 TANGIER 
 
 impression upon me. They were all three bow-legged, 
 very tall, and curved from head to foot like those gro- 
 tesque figures which stand for capital letters in cer- 
 tain illustrated papers. One played a flute, another a 
 small drum with little bells attached to it, and the third 
 an amazing instrument, like a clarionet combined in 
 some remarkable way with two hunting-horns, which 
 gave forth the most unheard-of sounds. These three 
 men, clad in a few rags, pressed close to one another's 
 sides as though they had been strapped together, and 
 playing continuously and desperately their one solitary 
 air, the same, no doubt, that they had been playing 
 for the past fifty years, revolved slowly around in a 
 circle. I do not know how they moved j it seemed to 
 be a cross between dancing and walking, certain quick 
 motions like a rooster pecking, certain liftings of the 
 shoulders, done by all three simultaneously and me- 
 chanically, and so unlike any actions common among 
 us, so altogether new and odd, that the longer I 
 watched them the more puzzled I became, feeling as 
 though they must be the expression of an idea or 
 have their origin in some peculiarity of the Arab race ; 
 and even now I often find myself thinking of them. 
 Those three poor wretches, dripping with perspiration, 
 played and danced about for upwards of an hour with 
 an unalterable gravity, listened to by some hundred 
 or more persons standing in a close, immovable group, 
 the sun shining full in their eyes, and giving no sign 
 either of pleasure or annoyance.
 
 TANGIER. 67 
 
 The noisiest gathering of all was that surrounding 
 the soldiers a dozen men, old and young, some 
 wearing white caftans and others clad only in a tunic, 
 this one with a fez, that one with a hood, armed with 
 flint-lock muskets as long as spears, into which they 
 poured powder, it not being customary to employ car- 
 tridges in Morocco. An old veteran directed the ex- 
 ercises. First they placed themselves six on one side 
 and six on the other, facing one another. At a given 
 signal they changed places on a run and knelt with 
 one knee on the ground; then one of them sang 
 something, I do not know what, in a shrill falsetto, all 
 trills and quavers; this lasted some moments, and 
 was listened to in profound silence ; then with one 
 accord they all leaped to their feet, formed a circle, 
 and bounding high in the air with a wild shout of de- 
 light reversed their guns and fired into the ground. 
 No one can conceive of the rapidity and fury, the 
 diabolic charm and frantic merriment of that noisy, 
 brilliant performance, seen amidst clouds of smoke, 
 beneath the full blaze of the sun. A few steps from 
 me there stood among the spectators a little Arab girl 
 of ten or twelve, not yet veiled, with one of the pret- 
 tiest faces I saw in Tangier. She had a clear, deli- 
 cate olive complexion and big blue eyes, stretched 
 just then to their fullest extent with wonder at beholding 
 a sight far more marvellous to her than the feats of the 
 soldiers. This was myself in the act of drawing off 
 my gloves that second skin, as the Arab boys say,
 
 68 TANGIER 
 
 which Christians put off and on at will and without 
 hurting themselves in the least. 
 
 I hesitated whether or no to witness the snake- 
 charmers' performance, but curiosity finally getting 
 the better of repugnance, I approached the group. 
 These so-called snake-charmers belong to the order 
 of the Aissowieh, and are supposed to derive from 
 their patron, Ben-Aiissa, power to receive the bite of 
 any creature, no matter how venomous, without in- 
 curring the least harm. Many travellers, indeed, 
 gifted themselves with strong faith, declare that they 
 have actually seen these persons receive bites which 
 drew blood, without suffering any ill effect, from ser- 
 pents whose deadly nature was proved shortly after- 
 wards by experiments made upon animals, and they 
 add that they have been unable to discover by what 
 means those clever charlatans succeed in rendering 
 the bite innocuous. The Aissowan I saw presented 
 a spectacle quite horrible enough, though bloodless. 
 He was a small sturdy Arab, with a pale, hangdog 
 face, hairy as a Merovingian king, wearing a sort of 
 blue tunic, which fell to the ground. As I approached 
 he was skipping grotesquely around a goat-skin 
 spread on the earth, from beneath which peeped the 
 mouth of a bag in which the snakes were confined. 
 As he jumped and leaped about he sang a melancholy 
 song to the accompaniment of a flute, apparently an 
 invocation addressed to his saint. This concluded, he 
 chattered and gesticulated for some time to induce
 
 TANGIER. 69 
 
 the spectators to throw him money. Then kneeling 
 in front of the goat-skin he thrust his hand in the 
 bag and drew forth with much care a long, greenish 
 serpent, very lively indeed, which he carried around 
 for the audience to examine, and then began to handle 
 in all manner of ways, much as though it had been a 
 bit of rope. He grasped it around the neck, held it up 
 by the tail, bound it about his temples, hid it in his 
 breast, twisted it in and out of the holes of a tambou- 
 rine, threw it on the ground, held it down with his 
 foot, pinioned it under his arm, the horrible beast 
 meanwhile rearing its flat head, darting out its tongue 
 and writhing about with those flexible, repulsive, ab- 
 ject movements that seem the very incarnation of 
 cowardice and treachery, shooting out of its villainous 
 little eyes all the rage that convulsed its body, but 
 never making any attempt to bite the hand that held 
 it. When he was tired of these exercises the Aisso- 
 wan, taking hold of the snake by the back of its neck, 
 thrust a small piece of iron in its mouth to hold it 
 open, and then carried it around for the nearer spec- 
 tators to examine its teeth, an inspection that seemed 
 to me superfluous, seeing that no one had been bitten, 
 if indeed the poisoned substance had not been already 
 extracted. After this, grasping the creature firmly 
 with both hands, he took the tail in his mouth and 
 began to work his jaws ; the beast writhed frantically, 
 and I left in disgust. Just then our charge d'affaires 
 appeared in the Sok. The Vice-Governor, seeing him
 
 70 TANGIER 
 
 from the top of the hill, went doAvn to meet and con- 
 duct him to his tent, where presently all the members 
 of the future caravan, myself included, were assem- 
 bled Before long the musicians and soldiers had 
 collected in front of the tent, and the people following, 
 a great semi-circle of Arabs was formed, the men in 
 front, the gentler sex in groups in the rear, and forth- 
 with there broke out a most diabolical uproar danc- 
 ing, shouting, singing, cries, reports of fire-arms 
 which was kept up for more than an hour, amid dense 
 clouds of smoke, and accompanied by unearthly music 
 and the shrill cries of the women and children, to the 
 paternal satisfaction of the Vice-Governor and our in- 
 tense delight. Before it ceased the charge d'affaires 
 slipped a small yellow object into the hand of one of 
 the Arab soldiers with orders to give it to the director 
 of the festivities. The man presently returned and 
 delivered the latter's somewhat singular message 
 of thanks translated into Spanish : " The Italian 
 ambassador has performed a good action ; may 
 Allah bless every hair on his head." The fete 
 kept up until sunset such a strange fete as it 
 was ! Three water-carriers sufficed to satisfy the 
 wants of all that throng for half a day beneath the 
 burning rays of an African sun. A muzuneh was 
 possibly the largest coin put into circulation by 
 that great concourse of people ; the only pleasures 
 indulged in, those of sight and sound ; no flirting ; 
 not a single drunken person ; no one stabbed ! really
 
 TANGIER 71 
 
 nothing at all in common with the fetes of civilized 
 peoples. 
 
 In addition to visiting the various sights, I and my 
 future travelling companions used to take long walks 
 in the country surrounding Tangier, which is no less 
 curious and well worth seeing than the city itself. 
 All around the outside of the walls extends a belt of 
 pleasure and kitchen-gardens, the property, for the 
 most part, of the foreign ministers and consuls, and 
 almost all of them neglected, yet filled with a marvel- 
 lous vegetation. There are long rows of aloes, looking 
 like huge lances, stuck in the middle of a bunch of 
 dirks with curved points, that being the shape of the 
 leaves. The Arabs utilize the thorns and leaf-fibre 
 to sew up wounds. There are Indian figs, too, Ker- 
 mus del Inde, as they are called in the Moorish tongue, 
 very tall, with leaves a finger thick, which fall in 
 such numbers as almost to block up the paths ; com- 
 mon figs, in whose shadow a dozen tents might be 
 pitched ; oaks, acacias, oleanders, shrubs of all kinds 
 which interlace with the branches of the taller trees, 
 and, together with the grass, vines, reeds and hedges, 
 form a thick, inextricable undergrowth, beneath which 
 paths and ditches are alike hidden. In many places 
 it is necessary to feel one's way along. You pass 
 from one property to another, across broken-down 
 hedges and over fences lying prone upon the ground, 
 through grass and flowers reaching waist-high, and 
 without seeing anyone at all. A few little white
 
 72 TANGIER 
 
 houses half-hidden among the trees and an occasional 
 well from whence, by means of small trenches, the 
 ground is irrigated, are the only objects which sug- 
 gest the idea of either ownership or labor. Often, 
 had I not been accompanied by the staff-captain, an 
 admirable guide, I should certainly have lost my way 
 in that confused mass of vegetation, and as it was we 
 were obliged to keep hailing one another, like people 
 in a labyrinth, in order not to become separated. We 
 used to enjoy plunging into that sea of green, swim- 
 ming in it, and forcing our way with hands and head 
 and feet, like two savages let loose in their native 
 forests after languishing in prison. Beyond this belt 
 of gardens and parks there are no more houses, trees, 
 hedges, or any division of the land. It is an expanse 
 of green hill and valley and undulating plain, where 
 an occasional herd of cattle may be seen grazing 
 with no keeper in sight, and a few loose horses gallop 
 about. On one single occasion I recollect seeing 
 someone engaged in cultivating the earth ; an Arab 
 was driving a donkey and a goat hitched to a tiny 
 plough of curious design, probably the shape of those 
 in use four thousand years ago ; he was making a 
 furrow so small as scarcely to be visible, in a field 
 covered with stones and weeds. I was assured that 
 it was not uncommon to see a woman and a donkey 
 hitched together to the plough, which may serve to 
 give some idea of the agricultural condition of Mo- 
 rocco. The only fertilizer put on the ground is the
 
 oi accompanied by i-hc *t.-i *-m, an 
 
 ide, 1 should certainly have, lost my *ry 
 Bed mass of vegetation, and as it was we 
 to keep hailing one another, like people 
 b in <>Vr ni to become separated. We 
 : nluii i '*'>'' that POH of green, swim- 
 M.JV uith hands and head 
 
 are no more houses, trees 
 
 . probably th shape of those 
 
 X W ** t 
 
 yt^w ago; he was making a 
 , v scarcely to be visible, in a field 
 i.-nv* and weeds. I was assured that 
 woman and a donkey 
 , which may 
 
 : Mo- 
 
 Lighthouse, Cape Spartel ground
 
 TANGIEB. 73 
 
 ashes of the stubble burned after harvest, and the 
 only care taken to avoid exhausting the fertility of 
 the soil consists in letting the grass grow for pasture 
 every third year after planting wheat and maize in 
 the other two. Notwithstanding this precaution, the 
 ground becomes poor after a few crops have been 
 grown, and then these wandering farmers move on in 
 search of new land to till, which in its turn is aban- 
 doned for the first. Thus only a very small part of the 
 arable ground is under cultivation at one time ; ground 
 which, even with such treatment yields a hundred- 
 fold on what is sown. 
 
 The most beautiful excursion of all was to Cape 
 Spartel, the Ampelusium of the ancients, which forms 
 the northwest extremity of the African continent a 
 mountain of gray-stone, about a thousand feet high, 
 running out into the sea in a bold promontory, with 
 great caverns at its base, dedicated in ancient times 
 to Hercules specits Herculi sacer. From the sum- 
 mit rises the famous light-house built only a few 
 years ago and maintained by contributions from most 
 of the European powers. We climbed the tower up 
 to the very lantern itself, which throws its brilliant 
 warning to a distance of twenty-five miles. From 
 thence the eye roams over two continents and two 
 seas. You can see the outermost bounds of the 
 Mediterranean and the limitless horizon of the vast 
 Atlantic the Sea of Darkness Bahr-ed-Dholma, 
 as the Arabs call it beating against the foot of the
 
 74 TANGIER. 
 
 rocks. You see the Spanish coast from Cape Tra- 
 falgar to Cape Algesiras, the African coast from the 
 Mediterranean to the Ceuta Mountains, the septem 
 fratres of the Romans, and vague, far away, the 
 mighty Rock of Gibraltar, that eternal sentinel sta- 
 tioned at the portal of the old continents, that mys- 
 terious boundary of the ancient world, now the Fa- 
 vola vile ai navigante industri. 
 
 In all these expeditions we met but a very few 
 people, usually Arabs on foot, who passed without 
 looking at us, or sometimes a Moor on horseback, 
 a personage of some importance, either by reason of 
 his wealth or office, accompanied by a troop of ser- 
 vants, who threw us a disdainful glance in passing. 
 The women concealed their faces more jealously than 
 in town ; some of them muttering and others turning 
 their backs on us brusquely. Sometimes, however, 
 an Arab would stop directly in our way, and, look- 
 ing us straight in the eye, murmur a few words 
 almost in the tone of one who asks a favor, and then 
 move off without looking back. As a rule, we could 
 not understand what was said, but it was explained 
 to us later that they were begging us to pray that 
 Allah would grant their petitions. It seems that 
 there is a common superstition among the Arabs 
 that the prayers of Mussulmans are so agreeable 
 to God that He usually delays answering them 
 in order to prolong the pleasure, while the prayer 
 of an infidel, a dog that is, a Christian or a Jew
 
 TANGIER 75 
 
 is, on the contrary, so obnoxious that, in order to get 
 rid of it, He grants it ipso facto. The only friendly 
 countenances we ever met were those of the Jewish 
 boys, who circled around in troops, riding their don- 
 keys up and down the hills, and shouting out gayly 
 to us as they galloped by, Buenos dias^ caballeros ! 
 
 Notwithstanding, however, the varied and novel 
 life we were leading in Tangier, we were all impa- 
 tient to be off in order to get back in the month of 
 June, before the great heat sets in. The charge 
 d'affaires had dispatched a courier to Fez to an- 
 nounce that the embassy was ready to start, but at 
 least ten days must elapse before his return could 
 be hoped for. Private information came that the 
 escort was already on its way ; others said that it 
 had not yet started; everything was as uncertain 
 and contradictory as if this much-talked-of Fez lay 
 two thousand miles from the coast, instead of two 
 hundred and twenty kilometres. We rather liked 
 this, though, as it made our fifteen-days' trip assume 
 the importance of a long journey, and threw around 
 Fez the vague fascination of a strange, mysterious 
 place. This impression was, in fact, much strength- 
 ened by the extraordinary tales that were told us of 
 the city and its inhabitants, and of the perils of the 
 journey by those who had accompanied other embas- 
 sies. We were informed that they had been sur- 
 rounded by thousands of horsemen, who greeted 
 them with a furious, close fire at the risk of blind-
 
 76 TANGIER. 
 
 ing them ; that balls had whistled by their ears ; that 
 it was more than likely that some of us Italians would 
 get an ounce or two of lead in our bodies that had 
 been intended for the white cross on our flag an 
 object which the Arabs would be sure to regard as 
 a direct insult to Mohammed. They talked to us 
 about scorpions, snakes, tarantulas, clouds of grass- 
 hoppers, spiders, huge toads, all of which we would 
 encounter on the road and in our own tents. They 
 painted the entrance of the embassy into Fez in 
 gloomy colors, alluding to whirlwinds of horsemen, 
 dense hostile crowds of people, and dark, covered 
 streets encumbered with the carcasses of dead ani- 
 mals. They prophesied all manner of misfortunes 
 during our sojourn in the metropolis mortal inertia, 
 violent dysentery, rheumatism, ferocious mosquitoes, 
 as compared with which our own are positive bless- 
 ings ; and, last of all, they spoke of homesickness, 
 under which head they recounted the mournful history 
 of a young artist from Brussels who had accompanied 
 the Belgian embassy, and at the end of a week was 
 seized with such desperate melancholy that the minis- 
 ter was obliged to send him back post-haste to Tangier, 
 in order to avoid having him die on his hands ; and this 
 was actually so. All of these direful accounts, how- 
 ever, only served to whet our impatience. I recalled 
 with amusement, too, an ironical sally of my mother. 
 After having vainly attempted to persuade me to 
 renounce the trip to Morocco on account of the wild
 
 TANGIER. 77 
 
 beasts, " Oh, well," said she, " no doubt you are 
 right, after all. What does it matter if a panther 
 does devour you ? The newspapers will, no doubt, 
 publish a full account of it !" After all this, it is easy 
 to imagine how we bounded from our chairs when, one 
 day, Signer Salomone Aflalo, second legation drago- 
 man, appeared at the dining-room door and pro- 
 nounced in sonorous tones the words, " The escort 
 has arrived from Fez !" With the escort had also 
 come the horses, mules, camels, grooms, tents, the 
 itinerary fixed by the Sultan, and the permission to 
 start. It was necessary, however, to wait still a few 
 days longer in order that the men and beasts might 
 have a chance to rest. The latter were taken up to 
 the kasbah, whither I went the following day to see 
 them. There were forty-five horses, including those 
 of the escort, twenty saddle-mules, and more than 
 fifty pack-mules, to which a good many others, hired 
 in Tangier, were added later on. The horses, like 
 all others in Morocco, were small and slightly built, 
 the mules sturdy. Both saddles and packs were cov- 
 ered with red cloth, and the stirrups made of a wide 
 piece of iron, turned up on both sides in such a manner 
 as to support and inclose the entire foot, serving at 
 once as a spur and a weapon of defence. The poor 
 creatures were almost all of them lying on the ground, 
 exhausted more by the insufficiency of food than the 
 length of the journey, a portion of what should have 
 gone to them having very probably been converted
 
 78 TANGIER 
 
 into money for their own pockets by their care- 
 takers. A few of the soldiers belonging to the escort 
 were present. They at once drew near and began 
 to talk, trying to make us understand, by means of 
 gestures, that the journey had been fatiguing, that 
 they had suffered much from heat and thirst, but 
 that, by the grace of Allah, they had arrived safe and 
 sound. There were negroes and mulattoes among 
 them, all enveloped alike in long white capes ; tall, an- 
 gular men, with hard faces, cruel-looking teeth, and 
 fierce eyes, whose expression made us feel that a 
 second escort would not be out of place to interpose 
 between them and us in the event of anything hap- 
 pening. While my companions were gesticulating I 
 occupied myself in searching quietly about among the 
 mules for the one which should have the mildest, most 
 tractable and kindly expression in its eyes. It proved 
 to be a white one with an arabesqued saddle, and to 
 its tender mercies I determined to intrust my life. 
 From henceforth until our return all the hopes of Italian 
 literature in Morocco were pinned to that saddle. We 
 next proceeded to the Sok di Barra, where the princi- 
 pal tents had been pitched. It gave us the greatest 
 delight to gaze upon those small canvas dwellings, 
 beneath which we were to sleep for thirty nights 
 amid unknown solitudes, to hear and see so many 
 wonderful things, and to labor, one on a geographi- 
 cal chart, another on an official report, another on a 
 picture, another on a book, forming among us a little
 
 TANGIEB. 79 
 
 moving Italy travelling across the empire of the 
 sherifs. They were circular-pointed tents, some of 
 them large enough to accommodate more than twenty 
 persons ; all lofty, and made of double canvas, with 
 sky-blue stripes, and ornamented on top with big 
 metal balls. Most of them were the property of the 
 Sultan, and who knows how many seraglio belles may 
 have slept beneath them in the course of their famous 
 journeys from Fez to Mequinez and from Mequinez 
 to Morocco ! In a corner of the camp stood a num- 
 ber of the escort soldiers, and in front of them, on 
 foot, a strange personage awaiting the arrival of the 
 minister. He was a man of about thirty -five, a stout 
 mulatto of stately appearance, wearing a large white 
 turban, a light-blue cloak, red trousers, and a sabre 
 in a leather case with a rhinoceros-skin handle. 
 Presently the minister arrived and presented him to 
 us. It was the commander of the escort, a general 
 in the Imperial army, named Hamed Ben Kasen 
 Buhamei, who had been detailed to accompany us to 
 Fez and back again to Tangier, and to answer with 
 his own head for the safety of ours. He shook our 
 hands with much affability, and expressed, through 
 the interpreter, his hope that we would have a pleas- 
 ant trip. His face and manner reassured me com- 
 pletely with regard to the teeth and eyes of the sol- 
 diers whom we had seen in the kasbah. He was not 
 handsome, but his countenance gave evidence of a 
 kindly disposition as well as a quick, active mind.
 
 80 TANGIER 
 
 He must have been able to read, write, and cast up 
 accounts ; have been, in short, one of the most highly- 
 educated generals in the army, for the Minister of War 
 to have assigned to him so important and delicate a 
 mission. The distribution of the tents was made in 
 his presence. One was assigned to Art j the next 
 largest after that of the ambassador was taken pos- 
 session of by the naval commander, the staff-captain, 
 the vice-consul and myself, and from that moment 
 it was foreseen that that would be the noisiest tent in 
 camp. Another very large one was selected to serve 
 as the dining-room j then others were chosen for the 
 doctor, interpreters, cooks, servants, and legation sol- 
 diers, the commander of the escort and his men having 
 separate tents ; others still were to be added on the 
 day of departure. In short, it was easy to see that 
 we were to have a very beautiful encampment, and 
 I could already feel an ardent desire beginning to 
 stir within me to plunge into descriptive narrative. 
 
 The following day our charge d'affaires, accompanied 
 by the commander and the captain, went to call upon 
 the representative of the Imperial Government, Sidi- 
 Bargas, who exercises to a certain extent the func- 
 tions of a Minister of Foreign Affairs at Tangier. I 
 joined them, being curious to see a Minister of For- 
 eign Affairs who (unless his salary has been raised in 
 the last twenty years, a most unlikely thing) receives 
 seventy-five francs a month from his Government, in- 
 cluding all sums designed to defray any official ex-
 
 TANGIEK. 81 
 
 penses he may incur a sumptuous amount, however, 
 as compared with the Governor's salary, which is only 
 fifty francs ; and it is not to be supposed that this 
 office is a sine cura, whose duties can be put off on 
 the first person who comes along. The famous Sid- 
 tan, Abd-Er-Rahman, for instance, who reigned from 
 1822 to 1859, could find no one fitted for the position 
 but a certain Sidi-Mohammed-el-Khetib, a sugar- and 
 coffee-merchant, who, while he exercised the duties 
 of a minister, continued to trade regularly at Tangier 
 and Gibraltar. Indeed, the instructions issued to this 
 minister by his Government, while exceedingly sim- 
 ple, might well embarrass the most finished diplomat 
 of Europe. A French consul has formulated them 
 with great accuracy as follows : " Reply to every de- 
 mand made by the consuls with promises ; postpone 
 the fulfilment of these promises to the very last possi- 
 ble moment ; gain time ; throw every sort of difficulty 
 in the way of the complainants ; act so that, weary of 
 making demands, they will desist. If, however, they 
 begin to threaten, yield, but just as little as possible ; 
 if they then begin to load their guns, yield entirely, 
 but not until the supreme moment arrives." It should 
 be added, however, that since the war with Spain, 
 and particularly during the reign of Mulai-el-Hassan, 
 things have changed greatly. 
 
 We ascended to the kasbah, where the ministerial 
 residence is situated. Two lines of soldiers formed 
 
 wings on either side of the entrance. Crossing a 
 VOL. L 6
 
 82 TANGIER. 
 
 garden, we entered a spacious apartment, where the 
 Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Governor of Tan- 
 gier advanced to meet the charge d'affaires. At the 
 back of the room was an alcove containing some 
 chairs and a sofa ; in one corner stood a very unpre- 
 tending bed, under the bed a coffee service ; the 
 walls were white and bare, and the floor covered with 
 mats. We took our seats in the alcove, and regarded 
 the two personages confronting us, who offered an ad- 
 mirable contrast to one another. One, Sidi-Bargas, 
 the minister, was a handsome old man, with a white 
 beard, fresh, clear complexion, a pair of indescrib- 
 ably vivacious eyes, and a wide, smiling mouth, lined 
 with two rows of big teeth as white as ivory ; a 
 countenance that gave indications at the first glance 
 of that astuteness, that marvellously pliable nature, 
 which is an absolute requisite of the office he held. 
 The eye-glasses and snuff-box, and certain ceremoni- 
 ous movements of the head and hands lent him almost 
 the air of a European diplomat. We had before us 
 a man accustomed to associate with Christians supe- 
 rior, perhaps, to many of the superstitions and pre- 
 judices of his countrymen a liberal-minded Mussul- 
 man, a Moor wearing a varnish of civilization, The 
 other, Kaid Misfiui appeared to be the very personifica- 
 tion of Morocco. He was a man of about fifty, dark, 
 black-bearded, muscular, gloomy, taciturn, who sat 
 with unsmiling face, bent head, eyes fixed upon the 
 ground, and lowering brow, as though we inspired
 
 TANGIER. 83 
 
 him with the deepest repugnance. I observed him 
 out of the corner of one eye with considerable dis- 
 trust. He looked to me like a man who might only 
 open his lips for the purpose of bringing someone's 
 head rolling about his feet. They both wore large 
 white turbans, and were wrapped from head to foot 
 in diaphanous caiks. 
 
 The charge d'affaires presented the commander and 
 the captain by means of the interpreter. Both being 
 officers, the introduction called for no especial com- 
 ment ; but when my turn came, some sort of explana- 
 tion as to my calling was necessary, which the minis- 
 ter gave in exaggerated terms. Sidi-Bargas remained 
 silent for some moments, and then addressed a few 
 words to the interpreter, who translated them as fol- 
 lows : " His Excellency wishes to know why, since 
 your lordship's hand is so gifted, it should be kept 
 covered; your lordship should remove the glove so 
 that the hand could be seen." This form of compli- 
 ment was so novel that I was at a loss how to reply. 
 "It is useless," observed the charge d'affaires; "the 
 talent lies in the head, not in the hand." It would have 
 seemed as though there was nothing more to be said, 
 but when a Moor once gets hold of a metaphor he 
 does not let it go so easily. " That is quite true," re- 
 plied His Excellency, " but the hand is the tool, and 
 also the symbol of the gift of the mind." And so the 
 discussion was carried on for some moments longer. 
 "It is the gift of Allah," concluded Sidi-Bargas at
 
 84 TANGIER 
 
 last. "Miserly Allah," said I to myself. The con- 
 versation now turned upon the coming journey. 
 There were long lists of names of governors, provinces, 
 rivers, valleys., mountains and plains which we were 
 to meet with on our route, names which resounded 
 in my ears like so many promises of wonderful things 
 to come, and set my imagination on fire. What could 
 the Red Mountain be ? What would we see on the 
 banks of the river of Pearls ? What sort of governor 
 must he be who bore the name of " Son of the Mare ?" 
 Our charge asked a great many questions regarding 
 the distances, water and shade, all of which informa- 
 tion Sidi-Bargas had at his finger-ends, and it must 
 be admitted that in this respect at least he is superior 
 to Viscount Venosta, who would certainly not be able 
 to tell a foreign ambassador the number of springs 
 and groups of trees to be found on the road from 
 Naples to Rome. Finally, he wished us a safe jour- 
 ney, with the formula, " Peace be upon your road," 
 and accompanied the charge to the door, shaking us 
 all by the hand, with every appearance of cordial 
 good-will. Kaid Misfiui, still perfectly silent, ex- 
 tended the tips of his fingers without looking up. 
 " Oh, it is my hand, is it, and not my head I" said I 
 to myself, as I stretched out my own. We had gotten 
 out of the room when the minister overtook us. 
 " What day do you start !" he inquired of Comm. 
 Scovasso. "Sunday," was the reply. "Make it 
 Monday," said Sidi-Bargas earnestly. The charge
 
 TANGIER 85 
 
 asked why. " Because," said he, with perfect gravity, 
 " it is a lucky day," and bowing to us once more he 
 disappeared. I was told afterwards that Sidi-Misfiui 
 has the reputation among the Moors of being a great 
 scholar. He was tutor to the reigning Sultan, and is, 
 as anyone can see by looking at his face, a fanatical 
 Mussulman. Sidi-Bargas enjoys the more amiable 
 distinction of being a great chess-player. 
 
 Three days prior to the date of our departure the 
 street leading to the legation was already blocked with 
 crowds of curious people. Ten large camels, who 
 were to carry a part of the provision of wine on be- 
 fore us to Fez, came one after another, and kneeling 
 before the door, received their load and started off at 
 last, accompanied by a small body of soldiers and ser- 
 vants. In-doors the bustle and confusion during 
 those three days redoubled. To the servants and 
 soldiers already attached to the legation were added 
 those sent from Fez. Stores kept arriving at all 
 hours ; the place was like a workshop, a storehouse, 
 or the hold of a ship. For a little while it looked as 
 though the preparations would not be completed in 
 time, but by Sunday evening, the third of May, every- 
 thing was in readiness, including the lofty staff of an 
 enormous tri-colored flag, destined to float in the 
 midst of the tents. All the personal baggage was to 
 be loaded on the mules during the night and dis- 
 patched early in the morning, many hours in advance 
 of the rest of the party, so that on reaching the ap-
 
 86 TANGIEE. 
 
 pointed spot at night we might find everything pre- 
 pared. 
 
 I shall always remember, with sensations of keen 
 delight, those last moments which we spent in the 
 court-yard of the legation just before setting out. 
 We were all there, only the day before our party had 
 been augmented by the arrival of an old friend of 
 the charge d'affaires Signor Patxot, formerly Span- 
 ish Minister at Tangier, and Signor Morteo, a Gen- 
 oese, the Italian consular agent at Mazagan. There 
 was the doctor of the Caravan, Miguerez, a native of 
 Algeria; a wealthy Moor named Mohammed-Ducali, 
 an Italian subject, who accompanied the expedition in 
 the character of accountant; the second legation 
 dragoman, Salomone Aflalo ; two Italian seamen, one 
 of them Comm. Cassone's orderly, and the other a 
 caulker on board the Dora; the legation soldiers in 
 full gala costume ; the cooks, workmen and servants, 
 a crowd of unknown individuals, with whom two or 
 three months' intercourse, in the interior of Morocco, 
 would assuredly render me very familiar, and with 
 whom I determined to scrape acquaintance one by 
 one, beginning immediately, in order to make them 
 talk and act in the book which was already taking 
 shape in my head. Each one had some peculiarity 
 of dress which contributed towards lending the en- 
 tire assemblage a marvellously picturesque appear- 
 ance. There were plumed hats, white cloaks, flow- 
 ing mantles, veils, saddle-bags, field-blankets of
 

 
 
 'affaires Si^vir F.uxot, formerly Spaa- 
 
 st Taiuriiir, and JSi^piuv Murt j o, a Gen- 
 
 |JK xn<Jiiir agent at Mazagan. There 
 
 5 : '. o.-ftit. Mi^uorv/. a native of 
 
 would MKtrfmtty 5Vi.:(4f i 
 
 Mii-m I d-tTnuii *P *- 
 . .-.-. b ir:;;nu.;T nnu-'.-aiM^iy, in order to make 
 talk a4 act in the book which was already taking 
 shape n; cav head. Each one had *^ 
 of dr.f*ft vh;vh contributed towards lr- 
 tire aawinnta^* a marvellously p^ ie appear- 
 
 anc". Tii' r*- nert plumed liats, v. tks, iflow- 
 
 m&: Sbk di Barra, lan^fdteld-blanket* of
 
 TANGIER 87 
 
 strange colors ; and what with the field-glasses, pis- 
 tols, barometers, sketch-books and portfolios, we had 
 enough material to fit out a bazaar. It looked as 
 though we were about setting out for the Cape of 
 Good Hope. Every one was in a tremor of excite- 
 ment, curiosity and delight $ and, to crown all, the 
 weather was superb, with a delicious sea-breeze blow- 
 ing. Evidently Mohammed was with Italy ! At pre- 
 cisely five o'clock the minister mounted his horse, 
 and at the same moment every legation ran up its 
 flag by way of salutation. Preoccupied as I was by 
 the beast I bestrode, and in the uproar of departure, 
 I preserved only a confused impression of crowds of 
 people blocking up the streets, handsome Jewesses 
 standing on the balconies, and an Arab boy who, as 
 we issued from the Sok gate, shouted with a foreign 
 accent, "Italia!" 
 
 At the Sok we were joined by representatives of 
 all the other legations, who, according to custom, 
 were to accompany us some miles out of Tangier. 
 Taking the Fez road, we fell into a long, noisy, con- 
 fused cavalcade, before which floated the green flag 
 of the Prophet.
 
 HADD-EL-GHAKBIA.
 
 HADD-EL-GHAEBIA. 
 
 IT was a crowd composed of ministers, consuls, 
 dragomans, secretaries, and clerks a great inter- 
 national embassy representing six monarchies and 
 two republics, and consisting, for the most part, of 
 persons who had travelled over half the world. 
 Among others there was the Spanish consul, attired 
 in the charming costume of the province of Murcia, 
 with a dagger thrust in his belt ; the gigantic form 
 of the United States consul, a former cavalry colonel, 
 who stood a head and shoulders above the rest of the 
 company and rode a fine Arabian charger, harnessed 
 in the Mexican fashion ; the dragoman of the French 
 legation, a man of athletic build, mounted on an enor- 
 mous white horse, who in certain positions seemed 
 to take on the heavy, fantastic outlines of a centaur ; 
 English faces, Portuguese, Andalusian, German. 
 Everyone was talking, the conversation being car- 
 ried on in ten different languages, and accompanied 
 by bursts of laughter, the humming of tunes, and 
 neighing of horses. In front rode the standard- 
 bearer, followed by two soldiers of the Italian lega- 
 tion ; behind came the cavalry escort, headed by the 
 
 (91)
 
 92 HADD-EL-GHAEBIA. 
 
 mulatto general, carrying their guns erect on their 
 saddles ; on either side were a throng of Arab ser- 
 vants on foot. This great company, gilded by the 
 last rays of the setting sun, presented an aspect so 
 gloriously picturesque that every one of us showed 
 plainly in his face the satisfaction he felt at making 
 at least one figure in the tableau. One by one almost 
 all of those who had started with us had said fare- 
 well and turned back towards Tangier; only Spain 
 and the United States were left. Thus far the road 
 had not been very bad, and my mule being appar- 
 ently the most docile beast in the empire there 
 seemed to be nothing left to desire. But absolute 
 happiness does not exist in this world, and accord- 
 ingly the captain presently joined me with an un- 
 welcome piece of news. The vice-consul, Paolo 
 Grande, who was to share our tent, was, it appeared, 
 a somnambulist. The captain had encountered him 
 himself only the preceding night on the stairs of the 
 legation, wrapped in a sheet, and carrying a light in 
 one hand and a pistol in the other. On being ques- 
 tioned, the servants had confirmed what he had seen. 
 To sleep in the same tent with him might be dan- 
 gerous, and the captain begged me, as being rather 
 more intimate with him than the others, to try to 
 induce him to place his fire-arms in some one else's 
 care at night. I promised to do my best. " I trust 
 to you, then," said he, moving off, "and the com- 
 mander does, as well. It seems to be a question of
 
 HADD-EL-GHABBIA. 93 
 
 preserving our skins." " This is unnecessary," 
 thought I, and starting off in search of the vice- 
 consul, I presently came across him looking for me. 
 By dint of much questioning I succeeded in finding 
 out that between fire-arms and cold steel he had 
 with him a whole small arsenal, including a great 
 Moorish dagger. This last he described to me at 
 length, and I somehow got an impression that it had 
 been manufactured and put on the market for the 
 sole end and object of ripping open my heart. But 
 how on earth was I to make him understand the 
 situation, especially if he were entirely unconscious 
 of it himself! I finally decided to wait until night, 
 when we should all be getting ready for bed ; but 
 during the rest of the ride I could not rid myself of 
 the disturbing thought. 
 
 We were travelling through a gently-rolling coun- 
 try, amid green, deserted fields. The road, if indeed 
 it could be called a road, was cut up into a number 
 of parallel paths, sunk like the beds of streams, which 
 wound in and out among stones and bushes, some- 
 times crossing and interlacing with one another. 
 Palms and aloes were occasionally outlined darkly 
 against the golden horizon ; the sky began to glitter 
 with stars ; no one was to be seen far or near. At 
 one place the report of muskets was heard coming 
 from a group of Arabs, who, stationed on a neighbor- 
 ing hill-top, were saluting the embassy as it passed. 
 We had been riding now for three hours ; it had be-
 
 94 HADD-EL-GHARBIA. 
 
 come quite dark, and everyone began to wish for the 
 camp. Owing to hunger in some cases and to fatigue 
 in others, conversation had gradually died out. Noth- 
 ing could be heard but the tramp of the horses' hoofs 
 and the loud breathing of the servants as they ran 
 behind us. All at once a cry was heard from the 
 Kaid, and turning, we descried an eminence on our 
 right all sparkling with lights. It was our first en- 
 campment, and we hailed it with shouts. I cannot 
 express the delight I experienced on setting foot for 
 the first time among those tents. Had it not been 
 that I realized the duty that devolved upon me of up- 
 holding the dignity of Italian literature I should cer- 
 tainly have begun cutting capers. It was a little city 
 light, populous, noisy. On all sides arose the smoke 
 of the kitchens ; servants, soldiers, cooks, sailors 
 came and went, interchanging questions and orders 
 in all the tongues of the Tower of Babel. The tents 
 were pitched in a large circle, in the midst of which 
 was planted the flag of Italy. Outside this circle 
 rows of horses and mules were tethered. The escort 
 had its own small camp apart. Everything was ar- 
 ranged in military fashion. I recognized my own 
 abode at once, and hastened to take possession. 
 There were four camp-beds, mats, rugs, lanterns, 
 candles, small tables, camp stools, wash-stands with 
 legs striped in the Italian tri-color, and an enormous 
 Indian fan a princely establishment, in which one 
 might willingly live a year. Our tent stood between
 
 HADD-EL-GHAEBIA. 95 
 
 the minister's on the one hand and the artist's on the 
 other. An hour after our arrival we seated ourselves 
 at table in the large tent dedicated to Lucullus. I 
 think that must have been the gayest dinner ever 
 eaten within the confines of Morocco from the time 
 Fez was founded. We were sixteen, including the 
 American consul, his two sons, and the Spanish 
 consul, with his two attaches. The Italian cuisine 
 achieved a signal triumph. It was, I believe, the 
 very first occasion on which, in the midst of that 
 lonely country, there arose to Allah the odor of maca- 
 roni au joux and risotto a la Milanese. The author 
 of these masterpieces, a fat French cook, who had 
 come out from Tangier for that night only, was 
 clamorously summoned to receive the honors of the 
 proscenium. Toasts exploded like rockets in Italian, 
 in Spanish, in prose, in poetry, and set to music. 
 The Spanish consul, a handsome Castilian of the old- 
 fashioned type, big beard, big chest and big heart, 
 declaimed, with one hand resting on the handle of 
 his dagger, the dialogue between Don Juan Tenorio 
 and Don Luis Mendia in the celebrated drama of 
 Jose Zorilla. The Eastern question was discussed, 
 the eyes of the Arab women, the Carlist war, the im- 
 mortality of the soul, the attributes of the terrible 
 cobra capetto, Cleopatra's asp, which Morocco conjurers 
 allow to bite them freely. Someone whispered in my 
 ear that he would be eternally grateful if I would 
 casually mention in my forthcoming book that he had
 
 96 HADD-EL-GHAKBIA. 
 
 cut a lion in two, whereupon I seized the opportunity 
 to beg that each one of the company would furnish 
 me with a complete list of the wild animals he wished 
 to figure as having slaughtered, and the Spanish con- 
 sul, by way of grateful acknowledgment, composed 
 then and there a Castilian stanza in honor of my mule, 
 singing which in chorus, to the tune of Italiana in Al- 
 gerij we trooped out of the tent to go to bed. The 
 camp was buried in profound silence. Before the 
 tent of the minister, who had retired earlier, watched 
 the faithful Selam, head of the legation soldiers, 
 while in the distance a white, spectre-like figure the 
 Raid of the escort could be seen slowly pacing back 
 and forth. The sky was glittering with stars ; how 
 perfect it all would have been except for that som- 
 nambulistic thorn ! As we entered the tent the cap- 
 tain repeated his request, and I made up my mind, 
 since the thing had to be done, to broach the subject 
 so soon as we should all be safely in bed, but the pros- 
 pect was anything but an agreeable one. Suppose 
 the vice-consul should not take it in good part ; I 
 would be inconsolable, he was such a charming com- 
 panion. A pure-blooded, fiery Sicilian, he talked on 
 the most trifling subjects with the ardor and emphasis 
 of an inspired preacher, employing such adjectives as 
 terrible, immense, divine, at every statement. His 
 mildest gesture was to wave both arms over his head. 
 To see him discuss anything, with those eyes starting 
 out of his head, and that aquiline nose, which looked
 
 HADD-EL-GHAEBIA. 97 
 
 as though it were trying to hook his adversary, any- 
 one would naturally have supposed him to be irascible 
 and overbearing to a degree ; instead of which he was 
 the kindest, most sweet-tempered young fellow one 
 could well imagine. 
 
 " Courage/' murmured the captain, when we were 
 all four in bed. 
 
 " Signor Grande," I began, " are you at all in the 
 habit of walking about in your sleep ?" 
 
 He seemed much surprised at my question. 
 
 " No," he replied ; " and what is more, I should not 
 like it at all if anyone else were." 
 
 "Very odd," thought I. "Then," I resumed, 
 "you admit that the habit is a dangerous one for 
 other people ?" 
 
 He stared at me. " I beg your pardon " he said, 
 after a moment, " but I really hardly think that this 
 is a subject for you to joke about." 
 
 "I beg your pardon," said I, somewhat nettled, 
 " but I can assure you that nothing is farther from 
 my intention at the present moment than joking, as 
 it is not my custom to joke about serious matters." 
 
 " It is indeed a serious matter," said he, " and I 
 think it is your place to guard against its becoming 
 more so." 
 
 " This is really refreshing," cried I. " Do you ex- 
 pect me, then, to go out and sleep in the fields ?" 
 
 " Well, it seems to me that if anyone is to go it 
 should be you rather than me." 
 VOL. I. -7
 
 98 HADD-EL-GHAEBIA. 
 
 " Why, this is actually insulting," said I, bounding 
 into a sitting position on the side of my bed. 
 
 "Oh, we are to understand, then," shouted the 
 vice-consul, leaping up in his turn, " that it is an in- 
 sult not to allow one's self to be murdered !" 
 
 An explosion of laughter from the captain and the 
 commander here cut short the discussion, and before 
 they were able to speak we understood that we had 
 both been victims of a practical joke, the vice-consul 
 having been made to believe that I had been seen 
 wandering about the legation at night arrayed in a 
 sheet and carrying a pistol. The night passed with- 
 out further incident, and by sunrise I was up and 
 out. 
 
 The European camp was still buried in slumber, 
 but over among the tents of the escort there seemed 
 to be a slight stir. All the eastern sky was tinted 
 rose-color. Advancing to the centre of the camp I 
 stood for some time gazing at the scene before me. 
 The tents were pitched on a grassy hill-side, dotted 
 over with Indian figs, aloes and flowering shrubs ; 
 hard by that of the minister there arose a lofty palm- 
 tree, leaning gracefully towards the east ; away from 
 the hill stretched a wide flowery plain, bounded in 
 the distance by a line of deep green hills, beyond 
 which others could be seen, blue and almost melting 
 into the limpid sky. In all that broad expanse not 
 a single house, or herd, or tent, or cloud of smoke 
 was to be seen. It was an immense garden, from
 
 HADD-EL-GHAEBIA. 99 
 
 which every living thing had apparently been ex- 
 pelled. A light perfumed breeze stirred the leaves 
 of the palm-tree no other sound disturbed the abso- 
 lute quiet. Turning suddenly at length, I found ten 
 staring eyes fixed upon me, belonging to five Arabs 
 seated on a mass of rock a short distance off peas- 
 ants who had come during the night from who knows 
 where to see the camp. There they sat like figures 
 hewn out of the stone beneath them, gazing stolidly 
 at me without so much as winking, and giving not 
 the slightest indication of curiosity, or pleasure, or 
 ill-will, or embarrassment, all five of them immovable 
 and impassive, their faces half-hidden under their 
 hoods, looking like the very impersonation of the 
 solitude and silence of the desert. I put one hand in 
 my pocket, the ten eyes followed the movement j I 
 drew out a cigar, the eyes instantly fastened upon it ; 
 I walked forward, turned back, stooped to pick up a 
 stone, those ten eyes never left me ; nor were they, 
 I soon discovered, the only ones. Little by little I 
 discerned a couple here, a group there, seated about 
 in the grass, enveloped as well in hooded capes, and 
 equally immovable, their eyes fixed upon me. They 
 looked like people risen out of the ground corpses 
 with wide-staring eyes, apparitions rather than actual 
 persons, who might vanish at the first rays of the sun. 
 A long tremulous cry from the escort camp presently 
 distracted my attention. It was a Mussulman soldier 
 announcing the prayer-hour to his companions the
 
 100 HADD-EL-GHARBIA. 
 
 first of the five canonical hours at which every Mus- 
 sulman must daily say his prayers. Some soldiers 
 came out of the camp, and, spreading their cloaks on 
 the ground, knelt down with faces turned towards the 
 east. First rubbing their heads, hands, arms and feet 
 with a handful of dirt, they began reciting their 
 prayers in low tones, kneeling, rising to their feet, 
 prostrating themselves face down on the grass, raising 
 their open hands to their ears, and squatting on their 
 heels. The commander of the escort came out of his 
 tent, then the servants, then the cooks, till in a few 
 moments the greater part of the population of the 
 camp was on foot. The sun, hardly yet well above 
 the horizon, was already blazing hot. 
 
 Re-entering my tent, I made the acquaintance of 
 several oddities whom I will have occasion to men- 
 tion more or less frequently in the course of this 
 narrative. The first to appear was one of the two 
 Italian seamen the commander's orderly a Sicilian, 
 born at Porto Empedocle, named Ranni. He was 
 a young man of five-and-twenty, tall and strong as 
 Hercules, of excellent character, grave as a judge, and 
 possessing the singular characteristic of never being 
 surprised at anything, finding everything perfectly 
 natural, like Gol in the Cinque seUimane in pallone, 
 astonished only at the astonishment of others. To 
 him Porto Empedocle, Gibraltar, Africa, China 
 where he had been the moon itself, had it been 
 brought to him, were all precisely alike.
 
 HADD-EL-GHAKBIA. 101 
 
 " Well, what do you say to this life ?" asked the 
 commander, as he helped him to dress. 
 
 u What would you have me say I" was the reply. 
 
 " Why, the journey, the strange country, all this 
 confusion, has it made no impression upon you at all ? " 
 
 The orderly thought about it a little while, and 
 then answered, quite simply, "No, no impression 
 at all." 
 
 " None ? But the camp, at least that is an en- 
 tirely new experience for you ?" 
 
 " No, Signer Commandante, it is not." 
 
 "Why, when did you ever see such a thing be- 
 fore?" 
 
 " I saw it last night." 
 
 The commander looked at him a moment. " Well, 
 last night, then," said he, beginning to grow a little 
 testy. " What impression did the camp make upon 
 you last night ? " 
 
 "Why," replied the worthy man, frankly, "you 
 see it made well, just the same impression on me 
 that it did this morning." 
 
 The commander bowed his head in an attitude of 
 resignation. 
 
 Presently there appeared another personage quite 
 as curious in his way. This was an Arab of Tan- 
 gier whom the vice-consul had hired for the jour- 
 ney. His name was Ciua, but his master called him 
 Civa, as being more easily pronounced. He was a big, 
 fat youth, very silly, but good, and anxious to do
 
 102 HADD-EL-GHAKBIA. 
 
 right ; a great, simple child, who usually laughed and 
 hid his face when he found any one looking at him. His 
 clothing consisted of a single long, full, white tunic, 
 which floated off behind as he walked in the most 
 ridiculous fashion, making him look like a caricature 
 of a cherub. He knew about thirty words in Spanish, 
 and with these he managed to make himself under- 
 stood when he was obliged to talk, but with his 
 master he usually employed only signs. From his 
 appearance I took him to be about twenty-five, but 
 it is easy to make mistakes in judging of an Arab's 
 age, so I asked him. First he covered his face with 
 one hand, then reflected for some moments, and 
 finally answered, " Cuando guerra Espana ano y 
 medio ;" that is, at the time of the Spanish war a 
 year and a half. As the war with Spain was in 1860, 
 it would make him seventeen. 
 
 " What a tremendous fellow for his age," said the 
 vice-consul. 
 
 " Huge," I replied. 
 
 The next person was the ambassador's cook, who 
 brought us our coffee. He was a pure Piedmontese, 
 " cut out of a single block," a pillar of the gateway 
 of the Piazza Castello, who had come straight from 
 Turin, which he called "the garden of Italy," to 
 Tangier only a few days before, and had not yet 
 recovered himself. The poor man could say nothing 
 but " What a country ! what a country !" I asked 
 him if, before he left Turin, they had not told him
 
 HADD-EL-GHAKBIA. 103 
 
 what sort of a place Morocco was, and what kind 
 of city Tangier. He answered yes ; they had said 
 to him, " Now, remember, Tangier is not Turin ; it 
 will not be like Turin at all ;" and he had said to 
 himself, "Patience, it will be like Genoa, then, or 
 Alessandria/' and, instead, it had been a city like 
 that, in the midst of savages, and they had given him 
 two Arabs to help him who could not understand a 
 single word of Piedmontese. " Oh, poor me !" and, 
 in addition to everything else, they were to take a 
 two-months' journey across the Egyptian desert ! He 
 prophesied that we would never get back alive. " But 
 at least," said I, " if you do get back to Turin you 
 will have a great deal to tell about." "Ah," he 
 replied, in a mournful tone, as he went off, " what 
 is there to say about a country where you cannot 
 find so much as a couple of leaves of salad !" 
 
 Breakfast over, the ambassador gave the order to 
 break camp. During this lengthy operation, upon 
 which nearly a hundred persons were engaged, I had 
 leisure to observe a very striking trait in the Arab 
 character the passion, that is, for command. No out- 
 ward badge was needed for one to recognize at a 
 glance, amid all that crowd and confusion, the head 
 muleteer, the head porter, the head of the tent-ser- 
 vants, the head of the legation soldiers. Whoever 
 was invested with any authority over his fellows let 
 it be seen and heard in and out of season with voice 
 and hands and eyes, and all his powers of mind and
 
 104 HADD-EL-GHARBIA. 
 
 body, while those who really had no authority seized 
 upon the most trifling pretexts to give orders to their 
 equals, deluding themselves with a pretence of being 
 a little above the others. The raggedest servant 
 among them was made blissfully happy if for one 
 moment he could assume an imperious attitude. The 
 simplest operation, such as tying a rope or lifting a 
 box, called for an interchange of deafening cries, fiery 
 looks, the gestures of a haughty sultan. Even Civo, 
 modest, unassuming Civo, was very high-handed with 
 two inoffensive country Arabs who had taken the 
 liberty of looking, from quite a distance, at his mas- 
 ter's trunks. 
 
 At ten o'clock, beneath a burning sun, the long 
 caravan began slowly to descend into the plain. The 
 Spanish consul and his two companions had left us at 
 daybreak ; the only persons now remaining beside the 
 members of the embassy were the American consul 
 and his sons. From the spot where we had passed 
 the night, called by the Arabs " Ain-Dalia " foun- 
 tain of wine, from the grape-vines which once grew 
 there we were to travel that day to Hadd-el-Gharbia, 
 beyond the mountains which inclose the plain. For 
 more than an hour we journeyed over slightly undu- 
 lating ground, between fields of barley and millet, by 
 winding paths, which occasionally crossed aud re- 
 crossed one another, forming small islands of rank 
 grass and tall flowers. No one was to be seen either 
 in the fields or on the road, except at the end of the
 
 HADD-EL-GHAEBIA. 105 
 
 first half-hour, when we encountered a long train of 
 camels led by two Bedouins, who accosted us as they 
 passed with the usual greeting, "Peace be upon 
 your road." It was very painful to me to see those 
 poor Arab servants, running along-side of us on foot, 
 laden with umbrellas, wraps, glasses, portfolios con- 
 trivances of whose very names and uses they were 
 ignorant obliged to keep up on a run with the 
 rapid pace of our mules, choked with dust, scorched 
 by the sun, ill-fed, half-naked, at everyone's beck and 
 call, not owning a thing in the world but a rag of a 
 tunic and a pair of old shoes, having come on foot 
 from Fez to Tangier only to return on foot from 
 Tangier to Fez, and then, who knows ? Start off 
 with another caravan to go from Fez to Morocco, and 
 so on, for the rest of their lives, and all in order not to 
 die of hunger, and to be allowed the privilege of rest- 
 ing their bones at night beneath a tent. I thought as I 
 looked at them of Goethe's "piramide della esistenza." 
 There was a mulatto boy among them, about thirteen 
 or fourteen years old, good-looking and extremely 
 active, who fixed now on me, now on other members 
 of the party, his two big black eyes, beaming over 
 with curiosity and interest, in which a thousand un- 
 spoken questions could be read. He was a foundling, 
 the fruit of who can say what strange union, and was 
 embarking with the Italian caravan on that exhaust- 
 ing career which he would in all probability only quit 
 to drop into the grave. Another, an old man all skin
 
 106 HADD-EL-GHARBIA. 
 
 and bone, ran with his head down, closed eyes and 
 clinched fists and the desperate resignation of a con- 
 demned man. Others talked and laughed in gasps. 
 Suddenly one detached himself from the others, shot 
 ahead, and passing everyone disappeared. Ten min- 
 utes later we came upon him seated in the shade of a 
 fig-tree ; he had made a half-mile dash in order to 
 gain five minutes on the caravan, and rest himself in 
 the shade. 
 
 Meanwhile we had reached the foot of a small 
 mountain, called in Arabic the Red Mountain, from 
 the color of the soil rough, precipitous and covered 
 with the tangled shoots of a forest which had been 
 cut down. This ascent had been described to us all 
 the way from Tangier as being the most perilous one 
 of the journey. " Mule of mine," I murmured, " to 
 your care I confide my contract with my publishers," 
 and so saying I urged him forward, with my mind 
 fully prepared for a head-over-heels tumble. The 
 path wound up amid great rocks, apparently sharp- 
 ened and pointed by my personal enemy with an ex- 
 press view to leaving their impressions upon the 
 hinder-parts of my person. At every uncertain move- 
 ment of the mule I could feel one of the chapters of 
 my future book tumble out of my head. Twice the 
 poor beast, falling on his knees, landed my soul on 
 the confines of a better world, but finally I succeeded 
 in reaching the top safe and sound, where, to my 
 great surprise, I found I had left all the others be-
 
 HADD-EL-GHAEBIA. 107 
 
 hind, the two painters only excepted, they having 
 pushed on ahead so as to get a view from above of 
 the caravan in movement. And, indeed, the specta- 
 cle was well worth a forced march. It extended from 
 half-way up the side of the mountain for more than a 
 mile into the plain below. First came the embassy 
 party, conspicuous in which were the ambassador's 
 plumed hat and Muhammed Ducai's white turban, 
 and on either side of and behind them a crowd of ser- 
 vants, mounted and on foot, scattered picturesquely 
 about among the rocks and bushes of the hill-side. 
 Behind these came, in couples or groups or in single 
 file, wrapped in their white and blue cloaks, and 
 bowed low over their scarlet saddles, the horsemen of 
 the escort, looking like a procession of masquers, and 
 behind the escort the interminable line of mules and 
 horses, laden with tents, boxes, furniture, kitchen 
 utensils and provisions, flanked by soldiers and ser- 
 vants, the last of whom were little more than white 
 and red specks in the green distance of the plain. 
 One would hardly believe how that variegated, armed, 
 glittering company animated the solitary valley. 
 What a strange and at the same time festive scene it 
 presented ! Had I at that moment possessed the 
 power to turn them all into stone, in order to study 
 them at my ease, I should never have been able to 
 resist the temptation. Turning away at length to re- 
 sume the journey, I had another surprise. There, but 
 a few miles away, lay the Atlantic, its surface as
 
 108 HADD-EL-GHAKBIA. 
 
 blue and unruffled as a lake. One ship only was in 
 sight, sailing very near the coast in the direction of 
 the strait. The commander, by using his glass, made 
 out that she was an Italian vessel. What would we 
 not have given to have been seen and recognized in 
 turn ! From the Red Mountain we descended into 
 another charming valley, all covered with wild flowers, 
 which formed, as it were, a carpet of red, lilac and 
 white. Not a horse, not a tent, not a human being 
 anywhere to be seen. The ambassador deciding to 
 call a halt, we all dismounted and seated ourselves in 
 the shade of a group of trees, while the baggage-train 
 pursued its way. Around us, a little distance off, sat 
 the servants, each one holding in his hand the bridle 
 of a horse or mule. The two painters drew out their 
 books to make a few sketches, but they had their 
 trouble for their pains, for no sooner did one of those 
 shirtless ones discover that he was being observed 
 than he promptly turned his back, or hid behind a 
 tree, or drew his hood down over his eyes. Three, 
 one after another, arose and went grumbling off, 
 leading their beasts to some spot fifty feet farther 
 away. They did not even want to have the animals 
 drawn. He who missed seeing Signor Biseo on that 
 occasion has never been face to face with Wrath. 
 He did everything in his power to induce them to sit 
 still imploring, laughing at and offering them money. 
 Wasted breath. They replied by a negative motion 
 of the hand, pointing to the sky and smiling cun-

 
 formed, as it were, a carpet of n.-.'L iliac aud 
 Not a horse, not a \< T.I, nut a 1 iiuau being 
 
 
 than b 
 
 uu 
 
 They did not even want to have the a 
 a. He who missed seeing Signer Bis< 
 i>n has never been face c<. {>.-,: wi? 
 id everything in his power to indu 
 itipiuriiig. laughing at and offering 
 
 Mountain and Valley in the Interior 
 \ Laud, pointing v< ih-.- sk , ajul
 
 HADD-EL-GHAKBIA. 109 
 
 ningly, as much as to say, " We are not quite such 
 fools as that." Not even the mulatto boy, not even 
 the legation soldiers, brought up, one might say, 
 among Europeans, and already on quite familiar terms 
 with the two artists, were willing to allow their images 
 to be profaned by a Christian pencil. The Koran, 
 as everyone knows, forbids the representation of the 
 human figure, and of animals as well, as being a prin- 
 ciple of, or temptation to, idolatry. Signer Biseo got 
 the interpreter to ask one of the soldiers what reason 
 he had for refusing to allow himself to be drawn. " It 
 is because," he replied, "in that figure which he 
 wishes to make, the artist is unable to instil the soul; 
 to what end then would he do it ? God alone can 
 create a living being, and it is sacrilege to attempt to 
 imitate His work." The mulatto boy was next in- 
 terrogated as to his reasons. " Draw my portrait," 
 said he, laughing, a while I am asleep, if you choose, 
 it makes no difference to me, it will not be my fault; 
 but when I can see you do it never in the world." 
 Whereupon Biseo set to work to sketch one of them 
 who lay fast asleep, while his companions stood in 
 groups a little apart, gazing with big, wondering eyes, 
 now at the artist, now at the sleeper. All at once the 
 man awoke, looked around, understood what was 
 going on, and, getting up, walked off with a gesture 
 of annoyance, amid the laughter of the others, who 
 had the air of saying, " He has done you, you are 
 ruined now."
 
 110 HADD-EL-GHAEBIA. 
 
 Resuming our journey, an hour's ride brought us 
 to where the tents of the camp could be seen gleam- 
 ing on the horizon. A troop of horse, appearing from 
 I know not where, bore down rapidly upon us, the 
 riders shouting and discharging their guns. Halting 
 about ten feet away, the leader advanced and shook 
 hands with the ambassador, and they all then fell in 
 with the escort. They were cavalry of the district 
 where our tents were pitched, soldiers belonging to a 
 sort of landwehr, which forms the principal part of 
 the Moroccoan army (if indeed the military forces of 
 Morocco can properly be termed an army), and is 
 composed of all males trained to bear arms from the 
 age of sixteen to sixty. Some of these men wore 
 turbans, others had red handkerchiefs knotted at the 
 back of their heads, and all were attired in white 
 caftans When we reached the camp they were just 
 erecting the last tents. The spot chosen this time 
 was a stretch of arid, undulating ground; on one 
 side could be seen in the far distance a range of blue 
 mountains, on the other a chain of green hills. About 
 half a mile from the tents were two groups of thatched 
 huts, half-hidden among Indian fig-trees. We all 
 assembled in one of the tents, and hardly were we 
 well seated when a member of the legation guard 
 came running up, and halting in front of the ambas- 
 sador announced, in delighted tones, " The mono, ! n 
 "Let them bring it," said the ambassador, rising. 
 Every one followed his example, and presently a long
 
 HADD-EL-GHAEBIA. Ill 
 
 train of Arabs, accompanied by the commander of 
 the escort, the legation guard, and all the servants, 
 was seen advancing through the camp, and drawing 
 up in line before the tent they proceeded to lay at 
 the minister's feet a quantity of charcoal, eggs, sugar, 
 butter, candles and bread, together with three dozen 
 chickens and eight sheep. This was the mona, a 
 tribute which the country people, in addition to the 
 heavy taxes they have to pay in money, are obliged 
 to furnish to all official personages, the Sultan's sol- 
 diers, and the embassies which pass through their 
 region of country. The Government fixes the 
 amount of provisions to be paid, but as the local 
 authorities assess the people at their own pleasure, it 
 follows that the quantity of stuff actually received by 
 those for whom it is intended, although always more 
 than is really needed, is only a small part of what was 
 extorted a month before or will possibly be extorted 
 a month after the day of presentation. 
 
 An old man, apparently the chief of the customs, 
 addressed, by means of the interpreter, some obse- 
 quious words to the ambassador ; the others, all of 
 them poor country-folk, clad for the most part in 
 rags, gazed helplessly from us to the tents, and then 
 at their property, the fruit of their toil and sweat, 
 with a melancholy wonder expressive only 'tf pro- 
 found resignation. A rapid distribution of the pro- 
 visions followed, the ambassador's table, the legation 
 soldiers, the escort and muleteers being supplied in
 
 112 HADD-EL-GHAKBIA. 
 
 turn. Signer Morteo, who only that day had been 
 appointed general intendant of the camp, handed a 
 gratuity to the old Arab, and he making a sign to 
 the others, they all turned away in silence and took 
 their way back to their huts. A tremendous row 
 then ensued and the same thing may be said of 
 every other similar occasion throughout the journey 
 anent the re-distribution of the mono, among the in- 
 dividual soldiers, servants and muleteers. It was a 
 most amusing scene. Two or three men marched 
 excitedly up and down the camp carrying a sheep in 
 their arms and loudly invoking Allah and the ambas- 
 sador 5 others shouted their claims vociferously, pound- 
 ing on the ground with their fists | Civa waved his 
 white tunic about here and there in the profound con- 
 viction that he was very terrible. The sheep bleated, 
 the chickens got loose, the dogs howled suddenly 
 the ambassador rose to his feet, and there was in- 
 stant silence, only Selam continued to grumble for 
 some moments longer. 
 
 Selam, be it known, was a very great personage. 
 There were really two members of the legation guard 
 who bore that name, and they were both in personal 
 attendance upon the ambassador ; but just as, when 
 one says Napoleon, without any addition to the name, 
 every one knows that Napoleon I. is meant, so when 
 any of us during the journey spoke of Selam, he was 
 at once understood to refer to one Selam in particular. 
 How plainly he rises before me now as I write ; he,
 
 HADD-EL-GHAEBIA. 113 
 
 the bridegroom Mohammed and the Emperor were to 
 my mind the three most attractive personalities I en- 
 countered in Morocco. Selam was a strong, hand- 
 some, active young man with a very quick mind ; he 
 took everything in at a glance, did everything in a 
 hurry, walked in bounds, talked by looks, and was in 
 motion from morning to night. Every one appealed 
 to him about the baggage, tents, cooking, horses. He 
 spoke Spanish fairly well, and knew a few words of 
 Italian, but he could make himself perfectly well un- 
 derstood by employing only Arabic, so speaking and 
 picturesque were his gestures. To give the idea of 
 a hill he made such a motion as one might expect 
 from some fiery colonel pointing out to his men a 
 height to be charged ; when he scolded one of the 
 servants he threw himself on him as though about to 
 annihilate him ; he constantly reminded me of Tomaso 
 Salvini in the parts of Orosmane and Othello. In 
 whatever occupation he might be engaged, whether 
 pouring cold water down the ambassador's back or 
 flying by on a gallop mounted on his chestnut horse, 
 he always presented a fine and dashing appearance, 
 and the two artists were never tired of watching him. 
 He always wore a scarlet caftan and light-blue trous- 
 ers, and could be distinguished at a glance from one 
 end of the caravan to the other, while throughout the 
 camp you heard his name being continually called in 
 all directions. He ran about from one tent to another 
 joking with us, shouting at the servants, giving and 
 VOL. L 8
 
 114 HADD-EL-GHAKBIA. 
 
 receiving orders, quarrelling, scolding, and bursting 
 into laughter. When he was angry he looked 
 like a savage, when he laughed he was like a child. 
 In the course of every dozen words that he uttered 
 you could hear "el senor ministro" For him the 
 minister ranked next after Allah and the Prophet; 
 ten guns levelled at his breast would not have made 
 him change color, while at an undeserved reproof 
 from the ambassador he would weep like a child ; his 
 age was twenty-five. 
 
 When he had finished grumbling he came over to 
 where I was and began opening a box. As he leaned 
 over, his fez fell off and I noticed some drops of blood 
 on his clean-shaven head. On asking what they meant 
 I was informed in an off-hand manner that he had 
 hurt himself with one of the big mono, sugar-loaves. 
 " I threw it up in the air," said he, " and let it come 
 down on my head." As I looked a little puzzled, he 
 proceeded to explain. " I do it so as to harden my 
 head; at first I used to drop to the ground half dead, 
 but now I only lose a few drops of blood; in time I 
 will not so much as crack the skin. All the Arabs do 
 that; my father could break bricks nearly two fingers 
 thick on his skull as easily as I could a crust of bread. 
 A true Arab boy," he concluded, proudly, at the same 
 tune pounding his crown with his clinched fist, 
 " should have a head like iron." 
 
 That evening the camp presented a totally differ- 
 ent aspect from that of the night before. Every
 
 HADD-EL-GHAKBIA. 115 
 
 one had settled down into regular habits. The two 
 artists, their easels set up in front of their tent, were 
 hard at work painting ; the captain had gone to take 
 a look at the lay of the land ; the vice-consul to catch 
 insects ; the ex-minister of Spain to hunt partridges ; 
 the ambassador and the commander were playing 
 chess in the mess-tent ; the servants were jumping 
 over one another's backs, placing their hands on each 
 other's shoulders ; the soldiers of the escort sat in a 
 circle talking; others walked up and down, read, 
 wrote ; it was as though we had been camping a 
 month, and had there only been a small printing-press 
 at hand I should have been tempted to start a daily 
 paper. The weather was superb, we dined with the 
 tent-doors open, and throughout the meal the Hadd- 
 el-Grharbia cavalry saluted the ambassador with noisy 
 volleys from their muskets, while a magnificent sun- 
 set lighted up the scene. 
 
 The seat next to mine at table was occupied by 
 Mohammed Ducali, and I had a chance for the first 
 time to observe him attentively. He was the verit- 
 able type of a wealthy Moor; effeminate, elegant, 
 obsequious, and, as I said, wealthy, since he was re- 
 puted to own more than thirty houses in Tangier, 
 although just at that time his affairs were somewhat 
 embarrassed. He might have been about forty years 
 old ; was tall and fair, with regular features and a 
 beard ; on his head he wore a small turban, around 
 which was wound a ca/ik of the finest Fez gauze,
 
 116 HADD-EL-GHAEBIA. 
 
 which fell in folds over an embroidered purple cloth 
 caftan ; he smiled so as to show his teeth, spoke 
 Spanish in a womanish voice, struck attitudes, and 
 had the air and manner of a languid lover. He had 
 been a merchant formerly, and had visited Italy, 
 Spam, London and Paris, returning at last to Morocco 
 thoroughly imbued with European ideas and habits ; 
 he drank wine, smoked cigarettes, wore stockings, 
 read novels, and talked about his love affairs. The 
 principal cause that was taking him to Fez was a 
 claim he had against the Government, and which he 
 hoped, through the good offices of the ambassador, to 
 succeed in collecting. He had brought his own tents, 
 servants, and mules, and from the look in his eyes 
 would no doubt have liked to bring his women as well, 
 had such a thing been possible, but upon this topic he 
 observed the strictest reserve ; the women of whom he 
 spoke in recounting his adventures were all Euro- 
 peans ; the harem was for him, too, a sacred subject. I 
 ventured one single question, couched in vague terms ; 
 he looked at me, smiled modestly, and made no reply. 
 After dinner, determined to gratify a strong desire 
 I had cherished ever since setting out from Tangier, 
 I made a nocturnal excursion through the camp, and 
 it proved to be one of the most entertaining experi- 
 ences I had on the entire trip. Waiting until every 
 one had gone to their tents, I wrapped myself in a 
 white cloak belonging to the commander and sallied 
 forth in search of adventures.
 
 HADD-EL-GHAKBIA. 117 
 
 The sky was covered with stars ; all the lanterns, 
 with the single exception of the one swinging from 
 the top of the flag-staff, had gone out ; throughout the 
 entire camp there reigned the most profound silence. 
 Very softly, and taking good care to avoid stumbling 
 over the tent-ropes, I turned to the left, and had not 
 gone half a dozen steps before an unexpected noise 
 attracted my attention. I stopped; it sounded like the 
 notes of a guitar issuing from a closed tent, which I 
 had never observed before, pitched between that of 
 the ambassador and our own, but about thirty feet 
 beyond the circle of the camp. Drawing near, I lis- 
 tened. The guitar was accompanying a thin, sweet 
 voice which was singing an Arab song full of dreamy 
 melancholy. To whom did this mysterious tent be- 
 long could it be possible that a woman was inside ? 
 I walked all around, but it was closed on all sides ; 
 then I got down on the ground to look underneath. 
 The stooping posture made me cough. Instantly the 
 song ceased, and at the same moment a gentle voice 
 close by me said, Quien esf (Who is it 1 ?) "Allah pre- 
 serve me," thought I, " it is a woman." " One who 
 is very curious," I answered aloud, throwing the most 
 pathetic inflexion I could into my voice. A burst of 
 laughter was the response, and a man's voice said in 
 Spanish, " Good ! Come in, then, and have a cup 
 of tea." What a disappointment ! It was Moham- 
 med Ducali. However, I was more than consoled 
 when, on pushing back the curtain, I found myself
 
 118 HADD-EL-GHAKBIA. 
 
 in a beautiful tent hung with a rich flowered mate- 
 rial ornamented with little arched windows, lighted 
 by a Moorish lamp, and the air heavy with perfume ; 
 a fit abode, in short, in every respect to shelter the 
 fairest of the Sultan's odalisques. Seated beside Du- 
 cali, who was stretched out voluptuously on a Rabat 
 rug, his head pillowed on a rich cushion, was a young 
 Arab of pleasing, thoughtful aspect, holding a guitar 
 in his hand, upon which he had been accompanying 
 himself; in the centre of the tent stood a handsome 
 tea-service, and on one side smoke was rising from a 
 perfume-burner. I explained to Ducali how I came 
 to be prowling about his tent ; he laughed, offered me 
 a cup of tea, made his boy sing me something, and 
 wished me a pleasant journey; then I stepped out 
 again, the curtain dropped back in place, and I found 
 myself once more in the silent, deserted camp. Mak- 
 ing my way around another tent occupied by Ducali's 
 servants, I proceeded towards that of the ambassador. 
 Stretched in front of the door in his light-blue cape, 
 with his sword lying close beside him, lay Selam. If 
 I were to awaken him and he should fail to recognize 
 me at once, thought I, he would knock me down ; let 
 us therefore proceed with caution ; and drawing near 
 on tiptoe I put my head in the tent. The interior was 
 divided in two by a handsome curtain. The outer half, 
 which served as a reception-room, was furnished with 
 a small table on which lay writing materials, and 
 some gilt arm-chairs ; the inner half was used as a
 
 HADD-EL-GHARBIA. 119 
 
 sleeping-chamber by the ambassador and his friend, 
 the ex-minister of Spain. Thinking that I would 
 leave my visiting-card on the table I stepped lightly 
 inside, but a growl from Diana, the ambassador's dog, 
 arrested me, and almost at the same moment I heard 
 her master's voice calling out, "Who is there ?" "A 
 cutthroat," murmured I. He recognized my voice 
 at once. "Cut away," he said, and I forthwith ex- 
 plained the object of my visit, upon which he laughed 
 heartily, and grasping my hand in the darkness 
 wished me all success. As I went out my foot struck 
 against a suspicious object. Lighting a match, I found 
 it was a tortoise, while a little further off sat a huge 
 toad, which seemed to be watching me ; for a minute 
 I thought I would abandon the expedition, but curi- 
 osity presently getting the better of me, I went on 
 towards the intendant's tent. Just as I leaned over to 
 listen, a tall white form rose up between me and it 
 and a voice pronounced the word "asleep" in sepul- 
 chral accents. I jumped back as though I had seen a 
 ghost, but recovered myself as I recognized Morteo's 
 Arab servant, a man he had had in his employment 
 for many years, and who had picked up a little Ital- 
 ian. Like Selam, he always slept outside his master's 
 tent with a sword beside him. Notwithstanding my 
 white cloak he had known me at the first glance. 
 Wishing him good-night, I continued on my way. 
 The next tent was occupied by the doctor and the 
 dragoman Soliman ; a strong smell of medicines an-
 
 120 HADD-EL-GHAEBIA. 
 
 nounced the fact ten feet away; a light was still 
 burning in it ; the dragoman was asleep, but the doctor 
 sat at a table reading. This young doctor, a cultivated 
 man of most gentlemanly appearance and manners, 
 had one curious thing about him : born in Algeria of 
 French parentage, he had lived for many years in 
 Italy and there married a Spanish wife j he conse- 
 quently not only spoke the three languages with 
 equal fluency, but seemed to partake of the national 
 characteristics of all three countries, apparently feel- 
 ing the same degree of patriotism for each ; in short, 
 he was a Latin, single and threefold, who was equally 
 at home in Rome, Madrid, or Paris. He possessed a 
 remarkably keen sense of humor ; without uttering a 
 word or endeavoring to attract any one's attention he 
 would, with a glance or slight movement of the lips, 
 turn a person or statement into ridicule in such a 
 manner as to raise shouts of laughter. As soon as I 
 appeared he guessed what I was after, offered me a 
 drop of something to drink, and lifting his glass to 
 his lips murmured, " To the success of the under- 
 taking." " By Allah's help," I answered, and then 
 left him in peace to his reading. Passing in front of 
 the large mess-tent, now deserted, I turned to the 
 left, and quitting the camp circle, threaded my way 
 between two long lines of sleeping camels, and came 
 out in the midst of the tents belonging to the escort. 
 Here I paused to listen to the breathing of the sleep- 
 ing soldiers. In front of the tents were heaps of guns,
 
 HADD-EL-GHAKBIA. 121 
 
 swords, saddles, scarfs, daggers, caiks, and the flag 
 of Mohammed, giving it the appearance of a battle- 
 field. Looking out into the surrounding country, I 
 could see no one in any direction; even the two 
 groups of huts were barely discernible merely two 
 vague, dark spots in the landscape. I now turned 
 back, and after passing between the American con- 
 sul's tent and that of his servants both closed and 
 silent crossed the small open space in front of the 
 kitchens, surmounted a barricade of casks, earthen- 
 ware pots, pans, and jugs, and finally reached the 
 little tent where the cook and his two Arab scullions 
 slept. I thrust my head inside j it was as black as 
 pitch. " Gioanin" I said, calling the cook by name. 
 The poor man, who was very unhappy over the fail- 
 ure of a dish of fritters, and very uneasy probably at 
 the close vicinity of the two " savages," was still 
 awake. " Is it you ?" he asked. " Yes, it is I." 
 
 He paused a moment before making any reply, 
 and then turning over on his bed with a groan, ex- 
 claimed, " Oh, what a country !" " Courage," said 
 I. " Only think in ten days you will be inside the 
 walls of the great city of Fez !" 
 
 He muttered something, of which I could distin- 
 guish only the word " Moncalieri," after which I 
 respected his grief and withdrew. 
 
 The next tent was occupied by the two sailors, 
 Ranni, the commander's orderly, and Luigi, the 
 caulker of the Dora, a young Neapolitan, bright,
 
 122 HADD-EL-GHAKBIA. 
 
 active, and prepossessing, who in the course of two 
 days had won every one's good-will. Their light 
 was still burning, and they were hard at work eat- 
 ing. Pausing a moment, I caught part of a very 
 amusing conversation. Luigi was asking for whom 
 the pencil sketches the two artists were making were 
 intended. 
 
 " The idea !" answered Ranni; "why, for the king, 
 of course." " Just as they are, without any colors ?" 
 inquired the other. " Oh, no ; when they get back to 
 Italy they will color them first and then send them." 
 
 " Who knows how much they will get for them !" 
 
 " Oh, a great deal, Magan ; a crown for each pict- 
 ure. A king does not care how much money he 
 spends." 
 
 Fearing that I might be seen and suspected of 
 wanting to spy, I was most reluctantly obliged to 
 forego the rest of the conversation, and stole away 
 on tiptoe. 
 
 Issuing once more from the camp inclosure, I took 
 a turn through the long lines of horses and mules, 
 recognizing among the latter, with tender emotion, 
 my white travelling companion, who was apparently 
 plunged in thought, and came next to the tent of 
 Signor Vincent, a French resident of Tangier, one 
 of those mysterious individuals who have travelled 
 all over the world, talk all languages, and follow every 
 trade cook, merchant, hunter, interpreter, deciph- 
 erer of ancient inscriptions ; he had joined the Italian
 
 HADD-EL-GHAEBIA. 123 
 
 embassy with his tent and his horses in the capacity 
 of head overseer of the culinary department in order 
 to get an opportunity to sell some French uniforms 
 he had purchased in Algeria to the Governor of Fez. 
 Peeping in through a crack, I saw him seated in an 
 attitude of profound meditation upon a chest, a big 
 pipe in his mouth, and the place lighted by a candle 
 stuck in the neck of a bottle j a strange figure that 
 reminded me of the old alchemists in Dutch paint- 
 ings who sit in their workshops thinking, their faces 
 illumined by the fire in their alembics. Bent, with- 
 ered, bony, he looked as though each turn of fortune 
 in his adventurous life had added a wrinkle to his 
 face, a twist to his body. Who knows of what he 
 may have been thinking ! Who can tell what surging 
 memories may have chased one another through his 
 brain, of adventures, journeys, strange encounters, 
 mad undertakings, and curious people ? And yet 
 all the time he may have been entirely preoccupied 
 by the price of a pair of Turkish trousers or his 
 scanty provision of tobacco. Just as I was on the 
 point of speaking to him he suddenly blew out the 
 light and was swallowed up by the darkness like some 
 magician. 
 
 Hard by stood the tent of the commander of the 
 escort, a little beyond it that of his first officer, and 
 farther off still that of the chief of the Hadd-el- 
 Gharbia cavalry. The last two were closed, the 
 first open and empty, and I was pausing to look in
 
 124 HADD-EL-GHARBIA. 
 
 when I heard a light step close by, and at the same 
 instant felt a grip of steel on my arm. Turning, I 
 found myself face to face with the mulatto general. 
 As soon as he saw who it was he let go, saying, with 
 an apologetic laugh, " Salamu alikum ! Salamu ali- 
 Jcum !" (Peace be with you ! Peace be with you !) 
 He had mistaken me for a thief. I shook hands with 
 him, by way of acknowledgment, and resumed my 
 walk. After proceeding a little way I saw what ap- 
 peared to be a man wrapped in a cloak and seated, 
 gun in hand, at some distance from the camp. I at 
 once concluded that he must be a sentinel ; and sure 
 enough, on looking farther, I made out another about 
 fifty feet beyond the first, and then a third, and so 
 on, till they formed a complete chain around the camp. 
 This vigilance, as I was well aware, was not main- 
 tained from dread of an attack on the part of any 
 band of assassins, but merely to protect the tents 
 from the ordinary thieves of the surrounding coun- 
 try, adepts in stealing from the encampments of the 
 Arab tribes. Luckily my fearless tread did not 
 arouse any suspicions in the minds of the sentinels, 
 and I was able to finish my excursion unmolested. 
 Passing close by Malek and Saladino, the two fiery 
 steeds belonging to the ambassador, and stumbling 
 over some more tortoises, I reached the tent occu- 
 pied by the foot-servants. They were all lying on 
 one small heap of straw, with no covering over them, 
 one on top of another, and buried in such profound
 
 HADD-EL-GHAKBIA. 125 
 
 slumber that not even their breathing could be heard, 
 like so many dead bodies piled up together. The 
 boy with the big black eyes, for the excellent reason 
 that he was the smallest, had been gradually pushed 
 half out of the tent, and I came very near treading 
 on his head. Feeling sorry for him, and wishing 
 to give him a pleasant surprise, I placed a piece 
 of money in his outstretched hand, which lay across 
 the grass with the palm up, as though asking an alms 
 of the spirit of the night. A cheerful murmur of 
 voices issuing from a tent not far away next attracted 
 my attention. It was the one assigned to the ambas- 
 sador's servants and soldiers, and the inmates were 
 apparently eating and drinking, as I detected the odor 
 of kiff, and recognized the voices of the second 
 Selam, of Abd-el-Rhaman, of Ali, Hamet, Maramu, 
 and Civo. It was an Arab orgy in full swing j and 
 indeed they had a perfect right to allow themselves 
 some relaxation, poor young fellows, after having 
 toiled the livelong day on foot, on horseback, in the 
 tents, at table ; being called in a hundred different 
 directions at once, in a hundred different languages, 
 for a hundred different things ; so not wishing to in- 
 terrupt their enjoyment, I stole cautiously away. Up 
 to this moment my excursion had gone off wonder- 
 fully well, but it was destined not to end without one 
 unfortunate incident. 
 
 I had not gone more than twenty feet beyond the 
 soldiers' tent when I felt two strong hands grasp me
 
 126 HADD-EL-GHAKBIA. 
 
 by the throat, while a voice choking with anger hissed 
 some threatening words in my ear. Wrenching my- 
 self free, I faced about Who was it ? Why, 
 
 the painter of the Expulsion of the Duke of Athens, 
 of course my good friend Ussi, enveloped like a 
 spectre in his long white abbaia, which he brought 
 from Egypt, just issuing forth to make the same 
 round as mine, in an opposite direction. I was now 
 in front of the artists' tent, having concluded the cir- 
 cle of the camp, my nocturnal trip was over, and I 
 dived once more into my little canvas dwelling.
 
 TLATA DE KAISANA. 
 
 (127)
 
 TLATA DE RAISANA. 
 
 THE next morning we started off before sunrise in 
 a thick fog that sent a chill to one's bones, and hid 
 us from one another. The escort cavalry had pulled 
 their hoods down over their eyes, and wrapped up 
 their muskets ; we were all enveloped in cloaks and 
 overcoats ; it was Like autumn on one of the plains 
 of the Low Countries. Behind me I could only dis- 
 tinguish a white turban and the light blue cloak be- 
 longing to the Kaid, while the rest of the company 
 were nothing but indistinct shadows fading away into 
 the gray atmosphere. Sleepiness and the chill 
 weather made every one very quiet, and we travelled 
 in silence over an uneven country overgrown with 
 dwarf palms, lentisks, broom, wild fennel, and thorns, 
 sometimes riding close together in a solid body, and 
 again scattering about in little groups, according to 
 the endless windings and twistings of the paths. The 
 sun appearing above the horizon shone for a few 
 moments upon our left cheeks and then once more 
 disappeared, but at the same instant the fog lifted 
 sufficiently for us to see something of our surround- 
 ings. We were passing through a succession of 
 VOL. L 9 (129)
 
 130 TLATA DE KAISANA. 
 
 little green valleys, which we traversed almost with- 
 out being conscious of them, so gentle were the in- 
 clines. The heights were covered with aloes and 
 wild olive-trees ; the latter attain here to great size, 
 but are seldom cultivated by the natives, who use 
 the fruit of the argan, both as an article of food and 
 for burning-oil. As we left each valley behind we 
 looked all about in search of a village, a group of 
 huts, a few tents, but there was nothing of the kind 
 in sight. It was like exploring a virgin country. Val- 
 ley after valley, solitude after solitude, succeeded one 
 another until, when we had ridden for nearly three 
 hours, we finally reached a place where the closer 
 groups of trees, wider paths, and presence of some 
 droves of cattle announced the vicinity of an inhabited 
 region. One after another a number of members of 
 the escort now set spur to their horses and, rapidly 
 passing us, disappeared over the brow of the next 
 hill ; others rode quickly off across the country in 
 different directions ; the remainder ranged themselves 
 in order. In a few moments we found ourselves at 
 the mouth of a gorge formed by low hills, on whose 
 summits stood a few wretched thatched huts ; some 
 Arabs men and women watched us from behind 
 the bushes. As we entered the gorge the sun burst 
 forth, and when shortly afterwards we reached a point 
 where the road made a sharp turn, almost at right 
 angles, we were suddenly confronted by an overpow- 
 ering spectacle. Three hundred horsemen, arrayed
 
 TLATA DE KAISANA. 131 
 
 in a thousand different hues, scattered about in mag- 
 nificent disorder, were dashing towards us at full 
 speed, and musket in hand, as though advancing to 
 the assault of a regiment. It was the escort of the 
 Province of El Araish, preceded by the Governor 
 and his officers, coming to relieve the Hadd-el-Ghar- 
 bia escort at the confines of the Province of Tangier, 
 which we had now reached. The Governor of El 
 Araish, an old exquisite, with a great white beard, 
 signed to his men to halt, shook hands with the am- 
 bassador, and then turning once more to the eager, 
 trembling throng at his back, made a quick, decided 
 gesture, as much as to say, " unchain yourselves," 
 and thereupon began as superb a Iab-el-bar6d (Pow- 
 der Play) as one could well wish to see. They ad- 
 vanced to the charge in pairs, in bands of ten singly, 
 from the foot of the valley, from the tops of the hills, 
 ahead of the caravan, and on either side of it, in all 
 directions at once, firing and shouting without cessa- 
 tion. In a few minutes the gorge was filled with 
 smoke and the smell of powder, like a battle-field 5 
 on all sides were whirling horses, flashing muskets, 
 fluttering caiks, flapping cloaks, waving caftans of 
 red, blue, yellow, green, and orange color, and the 
 glitter of swords and daggers. They passed us one 
 after another like winged phantoms, old and young, 
 men of colossal stature, wild, terrible figures, sitting 
 erect upon their saddles, with heads thrown back, 
 streaming hair, and guns held aloft, and as he fired
 
 132 TLATA DE BAISANA. 
 
 each one uttered a savage cry, which the interpre- 
 ters translated as follows: "Woe to thee !" "Ah, 
 my mother!" "In the name of God!" "I kill 
 thee !" " Thou diest !" " I am avenged !" Others 
 dedicated their shots to particular persons : " To my 
 master!" "To my horse!" "To my dead!" "To my 
 beloved !" They fired into the air, into the ground, 
 behind them, bending over, and turning upside down, 
 as though they had been strapped to their saddles, 
 those whose turbans or calks fell off in these manoeu- 
 vres wheeling about and catching them up on the 
 ends of their muskets on a full run. Some spun 
 their guns around above their heads, tossed them in 
 the air and caught them again with one hand ; their 
 shouts, gestures, and reckless bearing were like those 
 of men frenzied by drink, courting death with fierce 
 joy. Many of them urged their steeds forward as 
 though seeking to expose their lives, and flew on and 
 on, firing as they went, to turn back at last with the 
 pallid set gaze of men who had faced death. From 
 most of the horses' flanks blood was flowing, and the 
 riders' feet, stirrups, and the ends of their cloaks 
 were stained with it. Certain figures made a vivid 
 impression upon me the moment my eyes fell upon 
 them. One was that of a young man with a huge 
 head and shoulders, and an enormous stomach, who 
 wore a red caftan, and uttered cries that might have 
 issued from the breast of a wounded lion 5 another 
 was a youth of about fifteen, a good-looking scape-
 
 TLATA DE RAISANA. 133 
 
 grace, all in white, who shot by me three times, 
 shouting, "My God! my God! my God!" Then 
 there was a tall, lean old man with an evil-looking 
 face, who flew along with half-closed eyes and a 
 devilish smile on his lips, as though he were carry- 
 ing the plague on his horse's crupper ; and a negro, 
 all eyes and teeth, with a great scar across his fore- 
 head, who went by bounding furiously in his saddle, 
 as though struggling to free himself from the grasp 
 of an invisible hand. In this manner they proceeded, 
 always keeping abreast of the caravan, mounting and 
 descending the hills, forming into groups, dissolving 
 and re-forming, and again dispersing with every pos- 
 sible combination of brilliant colors that could be 
 imagined, dazzling the eye like the flutter of myriads 
 of flags. All this crowd of persons, and hurly- 
 burly of noise and movement, bursting into unex- 
 pected life at the appearance of the sun in that nar- 
 row gorge, where it could all be embraced at a single 
 glance, as in an amphitheatre, was so overpowering 
 that it took our breath away, and for some moments 
 no one spoke ; then there was a loud simultaneous ex- 
 clamation of " How beautiful ! beautiful ! beautiful !" 
 A short distance beyond the opening of the gorge 
 the ambassador halted, and every one forthwith dis- 
 mounted to rest in the shade of a group of olives, the 
 El Araish escort continuing to manoeuvre in front 
 of us, and the baggage train proceeding towards the 
 spot fixed upon for our next camping-ground. We
 
 134 TLATA DE RAISANA. 
 
 had arrived at the " Kubba " of Sidi-Liamani ; in 
 Morocco kubba, which signifies dome, is the name 
 given to those small, square structures surmounted 
 by semi-circular domes where saints are buried. 
 These Jcubbas, very numerous, especially in the 
 southern part of the empire, are generally built upon 
 some eminence hard by a spring and a palm-tree, 
 and can be seen, owing to their dazzling whiteness, 
 for a long distance, thus serving as guides both for 
 travellers and for the faithful who come to visit them. 
 They are usually taken care of by a descendant of 
 the saint heir of his sanctity as well who lives in 
 a small hut close by the tomb, and subsists on the 
 alms of pilgrims. The kubba of Sidi-Liamani stood 
 on a small hill only a few paces from where we were ; 
 some Arab peasants sat before the door, and behind 
 them protruded the head of the decrepit old saint 
 the present one gazing at us with stupid wonder. 
 In a few minutes smoke was rising from the kitchens, 
 and before long we sat down to luncheon. An empty 
 sardine box thrown out by the cook was picked up 
 by one of the Arabs, carried off to the kubba, and 
 made the subject of minute examination and much 
 animated conversation. The Iab-el-bar6d finally ended, 
 almost all the men belonging to the escort dismounted 
 and scattered about in the little valley, partly to allow 
 their horses to feed and partly to rest themselves, a 
 few remaining in their saddles to keep watch from 
 the neighboring hill-tops. During this interval I
 
 TLATA DE RAISANA. 135 
 
 wandered about with the captain, and, guided by 
 certain indications pointed out by him, observed the 
 characteristics of the Moroccoan horses for the first 
 time. They are invariably small, so much so that 
 after my eye had become accustomed to them the 
 European horses, even those of medium height, 
 looked enormous to me on first returning home. 
 They have bright, quick eyes, somewhat flat fore- 
 heads, very open nostrils, and prominent cheek-bones ; 
 the head is almost always beautiful, the shin and 
 shank somewhat curved, a fact to which they owe 
 their peculiar elasticity of movement. They are 
 slightly sway-backed, falling away, as it were, be- 
 neath the saddle, and consequently much better 
 adapted to gallop than to trot. I do not, indeed, re- 
 member ever to have seen a horse in Morocco trot. 
 When standing still or walking the handsomest among 
 them do not look well, but the instant they break into 
 a run they are transformed into superb-looking ani- 
 mals. Although they eat much less than our horses, 
 and wear far heavier harness, they stand fatigue 
 much better. The manner, too, of riding differs 
 greatly from ours. There the stirrups are so short 
 that the rider's legs are bent almost at right-angles ; 
 the reins are very long, the animal being guided by 
 loose, free movements of the hand j the saddle rises 
 before and behind into what are technically termed 
 by us the pommel and the palette, but these are so 
 high as to hold the rider in a close embrace, render-
 
 136 TLATA DE RAISANA. 
 
 ing it extremely difficult for him to lose his seat. He 
 usually wears small boots of yellow leather, without 
 heels or spurs, the stirrups serving in place of the 
 latter ; others, again, wear spurs formed of pieces of 
 iron, pointed and shaped like a dagger, which they 
 attach to the heel by means of an iron ring and chain. 
 
 Charming things are recounted of the great love 
 of the Arab for his horse, the favorite animal of the 
 Prophet. It is said that he regards him as a sacred 
 being | that every morning at sunrise he places his 
 right hand upon the animal's head, murmuring bismil- 
 Idh (in the name of God), and then kisses his hand, 
 which he believes to have been sanctified by the 
 touch ; and that he lavishes caresses and care of every 
 sort upon him. All of this may be true, but as far 
 as I was able to observe, this great love does not pre- 
 vent him from tearing open his horse's flanks with- 
 out any kind of necessity, or leaving him exposed to 
 the sun when he might just as well be in the shade, 
 or leading him an hour's walk to water with his feet 
 hobbled, or causing him to run the risk of breaking 
 his legs a dozen times a day for pure pastime, or, 
 finally, from neglecting his harness in a manner that, 
 were the most particular among them to enter a Euro- 
 pean cavalry regiment, would send him to the lock- 
 up for six months out of the twelve. 
 
 The heat having become intense, we waited for 
 several hours in the shade, but no one succeeded in 
 getting to sleep owing to the insects. This was the
 
 TLATA DE EAISANA. 137 
 
 opening engagement of a tremendous warfare, des- 
 tined to wax hotter from day to day until the very 
 end of the journey. No sooner had we lain down on 
 the ground than we were stuck, pricked, and stung 
 as though we had thrown ourselves on a bed of net- 
 tles ; it was not only that there were innumerable 
 caterpillars, spiders, ants, ox-flies, and grasshoppers, 
 but that these were large, aggressive, and obstinate 
 to an unheard-of degree. The commander, who with 
 a view to enlivening the company had taken the tone 
 of exaggerating the dangers of the road in the most 
 extravagant manner, assured us that these insects 
 were microscopic as compared with those we would 
 encounter as we approached Fez and after leaving it, 
 and that there would probably be nothing left of us 
 to return to Italy but a few fragments ; that only our 
 nearest and dearest would, with difficulty, be able to 
 recognize us. The cook overhearing this statement 
 gave a rather forced smile and became very thoughtful. 
 Near by was an enormous spider's web stretched on 
 some bushes like a sheet spread out to dry. I can 
 hear the commander exclaiming, "Why, everything 
 in this country is gigantic, marvellous, overpowering; 
 the spider that spun this web, for instance, must be 
 at least the size of a horse ;" which really did not seem 
 unreasonable, but we could not succeed in finding 
 him, all the same. The only people who were able 
 to sleep were the Arabs, most of them lying out in 
 the sun with processions of creatures marching up
 
 138 TLATA DE KAISANA. 
 
 their backs. The two artists were trying to draw, 
 tormented by clouds of ferocious flies, which extracted 
 from Ussi two or three at a time all the rich vo- 
 cabulary of Florentine oaths, " fresh, bold, the very 
 authority of language." The heat having somewhat 
 abated, the Hadd-el-Gharbia escort, the American 
 consul, and the Vice-Governor of Tangier, who had 
 accompanied us thus far in order to give the ambas- 
 sador the very last good wishes for a safe journey, 
 took their leave, and we proceeded on our way, fol- 
 lowed by the three hundred horsemen belonging to 
 the Province of El Araish. 
 
 Vast rolling plains, covered here with wheat, there 
 with barley, beyond with yellow stubble, or again, 
 with grass and flowers ; a few dark-colored tents ; 
 an occasional saint's tomb ; here and there a palm or 
 two ; in the course of a mile, perhaps, three or four 
 horsemen, who join the escort ; an immense solitude, 
 an absolute calm, and torrents of sunshine 5 these 
 form the sum of the entries I find in my note-book 
 under the head of the second march on May 5th. 
 After travelling three hours we reached Tlata de 
 Raisana, where the camp was pitched. The tents, 
 placed in a circle as usual, stood in a small, deep hol- 
 low, covered so thickly with grass and very tall flow- 
 ers as almost to impede one from walking ; it seemed 
 as though we were in a great garden trench. The 
 beds and chests in the tents were almost hidden under 
 daisies, wild poppies, primroses, crowfoot and mal-
 
 TLATA DE BAISANA. 139 
 
 lows of all sizes and hues ; close by the artists' tent 
 rose two enormous aloes, their branches covered with 
 blossoms. Soon after our arrival the Italian consular 
 agent from El Araish appeared to call upon the am- 
 bassador Signer Guagnino, an old Genoese merchant, 
 who had lived forty years on the Atlantic coast, jeal- 
 ously preserving all that time the pure accent of the 
 language of Balilla ; and towards evening an Arab 
 peasant turned up, no one knew where from, to con- 
 sult the embassy doctor. He was a poor old man, bent 
 and lame. One of the legation soldiers conducted him 
 to Signer Miguerez's tent. The doctor, who speaks 
 Arabic, questioned him, and having found out what 
 the trouble was, began looking through his medicine- 
 chest for a certain drug. Unable to find what he wanted 
 he sent for Mohammed Ducali and asked him to write 
 on a sheet of paper in Arabic a prescription, which 
 the sick man would find no difficulty in having made 
 up when he got back among his own people, as it 
 was a medicine much used by them. While Ducali 
 wrote the old man murmured a prayer. The pre- 
 scription finished, the doctor handed it to the patient, 
 who, without giving him time to protest, seized the 
 paper and stuffed it into his mouth with both hands. 
 "No ! no !" cried the doctor; "spit it out, spit it out!" 
 But it was too late ; he had chewed and swallowed it 
 with the avidity of a starving man, and thanking the 
 doctor was about turning to go away. It was with the 
 utmost difficulty that they could make him under-
 
 140 TLATA DE RAISANA. 
 
 stand that the virtue of the remedy did not consist 
 in the paper it was written on and persuade him 
 to take another prescription away with him. 
 
 This incident will hardly cause surprise among 
 those who are at all familiar with the state of medical 
 science in Morocco, where the profession is practised 
 almost exclusively by quacks, conjurors and saints. 
 Bleeding, the juice of a few herbs and sarsaparilla for 
 morbo celtico; dried snakes or chameleons for inter- 
 mittent fevers j red-hot irons applied to wounds ; cer- 
 tain verses from the Koran inscribed by the practi- 
 tioner upon his patient or else worn around the lat- 
 ter's neck ; such are the principal remedies in use 
 among them. Anatomy being a study forbidden by 
 the Mohammedan religion, one may easily imagine 
 how far surgery has advanced ; suffice it to say that 
 the surgeons tear their patients' tonsils out with their 
 fingers, and undertake to operate upon stone with a 
 razor or the first bit of metal they can lay their hands 
 upon. Amputation is viewed with horror, those few 
 Arabs who are attended by European doctors pre- 
 ferring to die amid the most frightful sufferings rather 
 than submit to an operation that would save their 
 lives. The consequence is, that although it is not un- 
 common for them to lose a limb, especially from the 
 explosion of guns, they so rarely survive that one 
 hardly ever sees any one in Morocco going about in 
 a mutilated condition, the few exceptions being 
 usually those unfortunate wretches whose hands have
 
 TLATA DE KAISANA. 141 
 
 been lopped off by the executioner's knife, and the 
 stump plunged into boiling pitch, according to cus- 
 tom, to stop the bleeding. 
 
 Their remedies, violent as they frequently are, as, 
 for example, that of the red-hot iron, are often at- 
 tended with admirable results. They are applied 
 brutally, fearlessly, pitilessly ; but whether from an 
 absence of nervous sensibility or owing to a certain 
 fortitude engendered by their fatalistic beliefs, these 
 people will voluntarily submit to the most frightful 
 pain. They bleed themselves with earthenware 
 cups and enough heat to roast the flesh 5 drive the 
 knife blindly into an abscess, at the risk of open- 
 ing an artery ; draw live coals across an ulcerated 
 arm with a steady hand, blowing away the smoke 
 from their own burning flesh without uttering so 
 much as a groan. The diseases most common among 
 them are fevers, ophthalmia, scurvy, elephantiasis, 
 dropsy, and, most common of all, syphilis, handed 
 down from generation to generation, changed, reap- 
 pearing under new and horrible forms ; whole tribes 
 are afflicted with it, thousands of unfortunates die of 
 it, and many more would die were it not for the ex- 
 tremely temperate diet they are forced to observe in 
 consequence of their poverty and the nature of the 
 climate. Of European doctors there are none ex- 
 cept in the coast towns 5 even in Fez there are only 
 a few quacks, fled thither from Algeria or some Span- 
 ish garrison. When the Emperor, or one of his min-
 
 142 TLATA DE KAISANA. 
 
 isters, or a wealthy Moor, falls ill, a European physi- 
 cian is summoned, but usually not until the patient 
 has reached the very last extremity, the disease hav- 
 ing sometimes been neglected for years, so that it not 
 infrequently happens that the doctor only arrives in 
 time to be present at the death-bed. At first they 
 have a blind faith in the power of European practi- 
 tioners 5 the sight of the medicines, the chemical prep- 
 arations, the surgical instruments, all combine to give 
 them a very lofty idea of the science, and they ex- 
 pect the most wonderful results, taking the first pre- 
 scriptions and following the first directions with the 
 cheerful obedience of people certain of being rapidly 
 cured ; but if recovery does not immediately follow 
 they lose faith at once, break off the treatment, and 
 go back to the quacks. 
 
 The evening passed without the occurrence of any 
 incident worthy of note, unless I except my discovery 
 of a large black scorpion under the pillow of my bed, 
 just as I was about to lie down. My alarm was, 
 however, not of long duration, for on approaching it 
 carefully, candle in hand, to make a closer examina- 
 tion, I read upon the animal's back the following re- 
 assuring words : Cesare Siseo fece addi, 5 Maggio, 
 1875. 
 
 At daybreak the next morning we started in the 
 direction of the city of Alcazar. The weather was 
 gloomy, and the gorgeous coloring of the escort stood 
 out with marvellous effect against the gray sky and
 
 TLATA DE KAISANA. 143 
 
 deep green of the plain. Hamed Ben Kasen Bulia- 
 mei, motionless upon a mound near the camp, seemed 
 to be gazing with pride upon those fine-looking horse- 
 men who defiled in troops before him ; silent, serious, 
 their eyes fixed upon the horizon, like the advance 
 guard of an army on the day of battle. For a long 
 distance we journeyed on among olives and lofty 
 shrubs ; then we entered a vast plain all covered with 
 yellow and purple wild flowers, where the escort 
 broke up to perform the lab-el-barod. This spectacle, 
 witnessed to-day in that great open space, upon that 
 carpet of flowers, beneath that lowering sky, was so 
 singularly beautiful that the ambassador halted more 
 than once, and made every one else do the same, in 
 order to watch it. I hardly think that any fixed rule 
 can be followed in the forming and dissolving of the 
 various groups of riders, but that morning I almost 
 suspected that it might be so. It really seemed as 
 though every movement, every combination of color, 
 had been carefully thought out beforehand. Into the 
 middle of such and such a group of horsemen in blue 
 caftans another wearing a white one was sure to 
 thrust himself in the midst of a bunch of white 
 caftans there always appeared, like the sure stroke 
 of an artist's brush, a red one. Harmonious colors 
 sought each other out, flowed together, mingled dur- 
 ing each charge, and separated to form into new com- 
 binations. There were three hundred men, and they 
 seemed to be an army. We saw them in all direc-
 
 144 TLATA DE BAISANA. 
 
 tions, fluttering around us like flocks of birds; they 
 deafened, dazzled, bewitched us, and filled the two 
 painters with despair. " Rabble," said Ussi, "if I 
 only had them in my clutches in Florence !"
 
 ALCAZAE EL KEBIE. 
 
 VOL. L 10 ( 145 )
 
 ALCAZAB EL KEBIR. 
 
 AT a certain point on the road the ambassador 
 made a sign to the Kaid, the escort halted, and we, 
 accompanied by a few soldiers, turned a little aside 
 to visit the ruins of an ancient bridge. On reaching 
 the river-bank we paused; there was nothing of 
 what we had come to see save a few rude fragments 
 on the opposite shore. We stood, however, for some 
 moments, gazing alternately on these and the sur- 
 rounding country, each one occupied with his own 
 thoughts, and truly the spot was worthy of that mute 
 tribute of respect. Two hundred and ninety-seven 
 years before, on the fourth day of August, those be- 
 flowered fields echoed to the thunder of fifty great 
 guns and the tramp of forty thousand horsemen under 
 the command of one of the first captains of Africa 
 and one of the most youthful, adventurous and un- 
 fortunate monarchs of Europe. Down the banks of 
 that river, dripping with blood and begging for 
 mercy, there fled a disordered throng, seeking the 
 water as a refuge from the implacable cimeters of the 
 Arabs, Berbers and Turks the flower of Portuguese 
 nobility courtiers, bishops, Spanish soldiers, the 
 
 (147)
 
 148 ALCAZAR EL KEBIK. 
 
 soldiers of William of Orange, Italian, German and 
 French adventurers and the Mussulman cavalry 
 that day trampled under foot six thousand Christian 
 corpses.* We were standing on the field of the 
 memorable battle of Alcazar, which threw Europe 
 into consternation and caused a cry of joy to resound 
 from Fez to Constantinople. The river is the Machas- 
 san, and at the time of the battle the Alcazar road 
 crossed it by this bridge. Close by was the encamp- 
 ment of Mulai Malek, the Sultan of Morocco, who 
 advanced from Alcazar, while the King of Portugal 
 came from the direction of Azila. The battle was 
 fought on the two banks of the river and the surround- 
 ing plain. How many thoughts came crowding into 
 our minds as we stood there ! but, except for the 
 ruins of the bridge, there was not so much as a stone 
 to recall the past. From what direction did the Duke 
 de Biveiro's cavalry make their first victorious 
 charge ? At what spot did Mulai- Ahmed, the Sul- 
 tan's brother, fight ? He who was to be the future 
 conqueror of the Soudan, a captain in the morning, 
 not unsuspected of cowardice, at night a victorious 
 king. At what point on the river did Mohammed 
 the Black drown himself? that discrowned fratricide, 
 the instigator of the war. In what corner of the field 
 did Sebastian receive the shot and the two sabre cuts 
 that destroyed with him the independence of Portugal 
 
 * H. M. P. De la Martinigre states that " the field was strewn 
 with 15,000 corpses." Trans.
 
 m
 
 xiro Fez to Constantinople. T! : river i;- rh< Machas- 
 iu, and at the time of the tattit the Alcazar road 
 
 wot 'of Mulai Mai- k. U : HitJtati of. Morocco, 
 
 K! ; 
 
 :tcJ "J "Wur : -. -; 
 
 u At what poist on the n 
 
 receive the s 1 
 
 Natfres Washing Clothes in a Rtber
 
 ALCAZAE EL KEBIK. 149 
 
 and Camoens' last hope ? And where did the litter 
 stand in which Sultan Malek, with finger on lip, ex- 
 pired, surrounded by his officers ? As we stood re- 
 volving thoughts like these in our minds, the escort 
 remained watching us from a distance as immovable 
 in the midst of that famous plain as though they had 
 been a handful of Mulai- Ahmed's famous cavalry, 
 risen from the earth at the sound of our footsteps 5 
 and yet probably not one of those men knew that we 
 were standing on the scene of the " battle of the three 
 kings," the glory of their forefathers, and when we 
 all resumed our journey together they kept on looking 
 all about curiously as though trying to discover some 
 peculiarity in the grass or flowers to account for our 
 interest. 
 
 We now crossed the Machassan and the "Warur, 
 both small affluents to the Kus or Lukkos, the Luxus 
 of the ancients, which flowing down from the Rif 
 Mountains where it has its source, empties itself into 
 the Atlantic at El Araish, and proceeded in the direc- 
 tion of Alcazar across a series of arid hills, meeting in 
 the course of every half-hour or so an Arab or some 
 camels. If we keep on going, we thought to our- 
 selves, we will reach a city some time. It was three 
 days now since we had seen a house, and we were all 
 beginning to feel that for one day at least we would 
 gladly be rid of the monotonous solitude of the coun- 
 try. Alcazar would, moreover, be the first town of 
 the interior that we had seen, and finally, we knew
 
 150 ALCAZAR EL KEBIK. 
 
 that we were expected. Curiosity was rife, the escort 
 fell into line, and as we advanced we too, without 
 quite knowing how, formed into two lines like a troop 
 of cavalry, the ambassador at the head and the in- 
 terpreters on either side. The weather had cleared 
 and a spirit of joyful impatience took possession of 
 the entire caravan. After journeying thus for four 
 hours we reached a certain hill-top and found our- 
 selves quite unexpectedly gazing down upon Alcazar, 
 lying in the plain below, surrounded by a girdle of 
 gardens and crowned with towers, minarets and palm- 
 trees, while at the same moment our ears were 
 saluted by a discharge of musketry and a burst of in- 
 fernal music. It was the Governor of the city, who, 
 with his officers, a troop of soldiers and a band of 
 music, was coming forth to receive us. In a few 
 moments we met. 
 
 Ah, he who has never beheld the band of Alcazar, 
 those ten performers upon the fife and horn, centena- 
 rians and ten-year-old boys, one and all mounted upon 
 donkeys about the size of large dogs, ragged, half- 
 naked, with shaven heads, mummy faces and the pose 
 of satyrs, has missed what seemed to me the most 
 mournfully comic sight under the vault of heaven. 
 While the old Governor welcomed the minister, the 
 soldiers continued to discharge their muskets and the 
 band to play. We approached to within about a 
 half-mile of the city, where, on an arid plain, the camp 
 was to be pitched ; the baud accompanied us, still per-
 
 ALCAZAE EL KEBIK. 151 
 
 forming. As soon as it was ready, we repaired to the 
 mess-tent, while the escort went through the usual 
 manoauvres, and the band, drawn up before us, con- 
 tinued to play with ever-increasing fury. A sup- 
 plicating gesture from the ambassador finally caused 
 them to stop, and then a rather curious scene was en- 
 acted. Two men presented themselves almost simul- 
 taneously on the ambassador's right and left, the one 
 an Arab, the other a negro. The latter, who was 
 well dressed in a white turban and blue caftan, placed 
 at the minister's feet a jug of milk, a case of oranges 
 and a dish of Kuskussu ; the Arab, evidently a poor 
 man, and wearing the ordinary cape, presented a 
 sheep. This done, there was an interchange of fiery 
 glances ; they were, it seemed, mortal enemies. 
 
 The ambassador, who knew of and expected them, 
 sent for the interpreter, seated himself, and opened 
 the inquiry, they having come to get him to decide 
 their quarrel. The negro was a sort of steward of 
 the old grand sherif Bakali, one of the most influ- 
 ential persons about the court at Fez, and proprietor 
 of considerable property in the neighborhood of Al- 
 cazar. The Arab was a peasant, and a feud had ex- 
 isted between them for some time. The negro, 
 strong in the protection afforded by his master, had 
 caused the other to be thrown into prison and fined 
 more than once on charges which he supported by 
 many witnesses of stealing his horses, cattle and 
 merchandise. The Arab, while constantly affirming
 
 152 ALCAZAE EL KEBIK. 
 
 his innocence, could find no one brave enough to un- 
 dertake his defence against his powerful persecutor. 
 So one fine morning, quitting his native village, he 
 betook himself to Tangier, and asking which of the 
 ambassadors was considered the most just and gen- 
 erous, was given the name of the representative of 
 Italy. He thereupon proceeded to sacrifice a lamb 
 before the minister's door, by this sacred rite, which 
 no one can refuse to regard, establishing his claim to 
 the protection and justice of the legation. The am- 
 bassador granted him a hearing, interested himself in 
 the matter, and through the El Araish agent made 
 application to the authorities of the city of Alcazar ; 
 but unfortunately, owing to the distance, the intrigues 
 of the negro, and the indifference of the authorities, 
 the poor Arab was no better off than before, but 
 rather worse, as he was made the object of fresh 
 accusations and persecutions. Now the presence of 
 the ambassador in person was to cut the knot of the 
 difficulty. 
 
 Each was told to give his own version of the affair, 
 the interpreter rapidly translating all the while. 
 
 Nothing more dramatic could well be imagined 
 than the contrast afforded by the figures and lan- 
 guage of the two men. The Arab, a sickly, sad- 
 looking man of about thirty, pleaded his cause with 
 irresistible passion, trembling, shivering, calling upon 
 God, striking the ground with his clinched fists, cov- 
 ering his face with his hands in an attitude of utter
 
 ALCAZAE EL KEBIE. 153 
 
 despair, and flashing looks upon his enemy which no 
 words can express. He declared that the other had 
 corrupted the witnesses and intimidated the authori- 
 ties ; that he had thrown him into prison solely to ex- 
 tort money from him, just as he had imprisoned others 
 in order to take possession of their wives ; that he had 
 sworn to kill him; that he was the scourge of the coun- 
 try, accursed of God, a veritable fiend; and thereupon 
 he displayed the scars on his bare arms and legs 
 made by the prison fetters, his voice meanwhile 
 choking with agony. The negro, every feature of 
 whose face bore out the truth of one at least of these 
 assertions, listened without looking up, and made his 
 reply to the charges without a change of expression, 
 while an almost imperceptible smile lurked about the 
 corners of his mouth ; immovable, impassible, sinister, 
 like a statue of perfidy. 
 
 The discussion continued for some time, and ap- 
 peared to be going on indefinitely, when the ambas- 
 sador cut it short by giving an order which was ap- 
 parently acceptable to both sides. Summoning Selam, 
 who appeared instantly, his great black eyes stretched 
 to their utmost, he told him to mount a horse and ride 
 with all speed to the Arab's village, distant about an 
 hour and a half, and there obtain all possible infor- 
 mation from the inhabitants regarding the persons 
 and events in question. The negro thought within 
 himself, " These people are afraid of me ; either they 
 will support what I have said or they will say noth-
 
 154 ALCAZAR EL KEBIK. 
 
 ing at all." The Arab, on the contrary, thought, and 
 it seemed with more reason, that, interrogated by a 
 soldier of the ambassador, they would have sufficient 
 courage to speak the truth. Selam flew off like an 
 arrow, and the two disputants withdrew. I did not 
 see them again, but I learned later that all the in- 
 habitants of the village having testified in favor of 
 the Arab and against the negro, the latter, through 
 the representations of the ambassador, was compelled 
 to restore all the money he had extorted from his 
 victim. While this was going on the remaining tents 
 had been pitched, the usual procession of unfortunates 
 had brought the customary mona, and some of the 
 inhabitants of Alcazar had come out to the neighbor- 
 hood of the camp. As soon as the heat had abated a 
 little we all started off on foot to visit the city, pre- 
 ceded, flanked and followed by armed soldiers. We 
 noticed, as we went along, some distance off, and 
 standing between the city and the camp, a curious- 
 looking building, all arches and domes, with an in- 
 closure in the middle that looked like a cemetery. 
 They told us that it was one of those zaouias, now 
 fallen into ruins, which at the period when Moorish 
 civilization flourished used to contain libraries, schools 
 of letters and science hospitals for the poor, and inns 
 for the accommodation of travellers, besides a mosque 
 and mortuary chapel, being then, as now, for the 
 most part the property of the religious orders. We 
 were now close to the gates. The city is surrounded
 
 ALCAZAK EL KEBIE. 155 
 
 by old crenelated walls ; near the gate through which 
 we are to enter rise the tombs of several saints, sur- 
 mounted by green domes ; as we pass in our atten- 
 tion is attracted by a noise, and on raising our eyes 
 we see, standing erect upon the house-tops, numbers 
 of large storks, who strike their beaks noisily, as if 
 to warn the inhabitants of our approach. As we 
 walk along some women take refuge in the houses, 
 and the children run away. The dwellings are small, 
 unplastered, windowless, separated by dark and dirty 
 lanes. The streets resemble the beds of mountain 
 torrents ; sometimes we come across the carcass of a 
 dog or a donkey lying in a corner. On we tramp 
 through manure, over rough stones, and into deep 
 holes, stumbling and jumping at every step. Soon 
 the inhabitants begin to crowd about us, gazing at 
 the strange sight wonderingly, and the soldiers ex- 
 hibit so much zeal in clearing the way with their fists 
 and the butt-ends of their guns that the ambassador 
 is obliged to remonstrate. A throng of people go 
 before and follow after us j when any of our party 
 halts suddenly and faces about they all stop, too, 
 some of them running away and others hiding. 
 Sometimes a woman shuts a door in our faces, or a 
 child gives a howl of terror at sight of us, the former 
 resembling a bundle of dirty rags, the latter, as a 
 rule, entirely naked. Boys of ten or eleven go about 
 clad only in a tunic tied about the waist with a cord. 
 Little by little the crowd grows bolder, looking with
 
 156 ALCAZAR EL KEBIR. 
 
 marks of especial interest at our boots and shoes. A 
 few boys even go so far as to touch the edge of our 
 clothing. At the same time the ruling expression of 
 all those faces is anything but friendly. A woman, 
 as she runs away, flings some words at the ambassa- 
 dor, which the interpreter translates, " May God de- 
 stroy your race !" A young man calls out, " God 
 grant us a good day's victory over those people !" 
 After while we come to a rough, stony, open space, 
 where we find difficulty in walking at all j some hor- 
 rible-looking old women, almost entirely naked, are 
 seated on the ground with bundles of straw and 
 loaves of bread in front of them, awaiting customers. 
 We pass through other streets. Every hundred feet 
 we find a large arched doorway, which at night is 
 closed. All the houses are equally bare, cracked 
 and forlorn. Then we visit the bazaar ; it is covered 
 by a roof made of cane and tree-branches, dropping 
 to pieces in every direction. The shops consist of 
 deep niches, the shopkeepers sitting in them like so 
 many wax figures, while the display of goods is like 
 the trash boys collect to play store with. People lie 
 about in all the corners, sleepy, wondering, melan- 
 choly j scabby children, old men, who seem almost to 
 have lost the human form j it is like walking through 
 the corridors of a hospital. The air is filled with 
 aromatic odors ; not a voice is heard. The crowd, 
 which still accompanies us, is perfectly silent, like a 
 procession of ghosts. Leaving the bazaar, we meet
 
 ALCAZAK EL KEBIE. 157 
 
 a Moor on horseback, some laden camels, a hag who 
 shakes her fist at the ambassador, and an old saint, 
 crowned with aloes, who laughs in our faces. At a 
 certain point we see some men approaching, dressed 
 in black, with long hair and light-blue handkerchiefs 
 on their heads ; they salute us with smiling humility, 
 and their leader, a ceremonious old man, invites the 
 ambassador to visit the Mella or Jews' quarter, given 
 that outrageous name, which means " salted" or "ac- 
 cursed" ground, by the Arabs. The ambassador 
 agreeing, we pass beneath a covered gateway and 
 plunge into a labyrinth of narrow lanes, more wretched, 
 squalid and foul-smelling even than those of the Arab 
 town, winding between houses that look like animals' 
 dens, by little open spaces resembling pig-sties, and 
 court-yards like open sewers ; while in every direction, 
 amid all this filth, beautiful women and children give 
 us smiling greeting, murmuring Buenos dias ! Buenos 
 dias! as we pass. Now and then we have actually 
 to hold our breath and walk on tiptoe. The ambassa- 
 dor waxes indignant. (l How can you," he says to 
 the old Jew, " go on living in this dirt ?" " It is the 
 custom of the country," responds the other. " The 
 custom of the country ! You ought to be ashamed 
 of yourselves. You claim the protection of the lega- 
 tions, talk about civilization, and call the Moors 
 savages, while all the time that you have the effron- 
 tery to look down on them you are living far worse 
 than they !" The Jew merely bends his head and
 
 158 ALCAZAE EL KEBIE. 
 
 smiles, as much as to say, "What curious ideas !" 
 As we quit the Mella the crowd again surrounds us. 
 The vice-consul caresses a child in passing $ great 
 signs of wonder and an approving murmur ; the sol- 
 diers are obliged to disperse the children, who come 
 running up from every direction. We walk rapidly 
 down a deserted street, little by little the people are left 
 behind, until at last, gaining the outside of the walls, 
 we find ourselves on a road bordered by enormous 
 Indian figs and lofty palm-trees, and draw a great 
 breath of relief at finding ourselves once more alone. 
 Such is the city of Alcazar, usually called Alcazar 
 el Kebir, which means the large palace. Tradition 
 says that it was founded in the twelfth century by 
 that Abii-Yussuf Yakub-el-Mansar, of the Almohodes 
 dynasty, who won the battle of Alarcos against Alonzo 
 IX. of Castile, and erected the famous Tower of 
 Girolda in Seville. The story goes that as he was 
 hunting one evening he lost his way, and a fisherman 
 taking him into his hut for the night, the grateful 
 Caliph caused a palace and a number of other build- 
 ings to be erected on the spot. Around these the 
 city gradually grew up. At one time it was both 
 rich and flourishing ; now the population numbers a 
 bare five thousand, including both Arabs and Jews, 
 and it is very poor, notwithstanding the advantages 
 it enjoys from being situated on the direct route over 
 which all caravans are obliged to travel on their way 
 from the North to the South.
 
 ALCAZAK EL KEBIE. 159 
 
 As we passed the gate by which we had entered 
 the town we noticed an Arab boy of some ten or 
 twelve years walking slowly along, his legs very stiff 
 and wide apart, who swayed about in a curious man- 
 ner. Some other boys were following him. We 
 stopped, and as he approached we saw that a heavy 
 piece of iron, about eight inches long, was fastened 
 to his legs by means of a couple of rings passed 
 around his ankles. He was a lank, dirty boy, with 
 a disagreeable face. The ambassador began ques- 
 tioning him through the interpreter. 
 
 " Who put that iron on you ?" 
 
 " My father," answered the boy roughly. 
 
 "Why did he do it?" 
 
 " Because I will not learn to read." 
 
 We were all inclined to doubt this statement, but 
 an Arab who was standing by declared that it was 
 so. 
 
 " And how long have you worn it ?" 
 
 " For three years," he answered, smiling bitterly. 
 
 This we thought must be a lie, but again the Arab 
 confirmed what he had said, adding that the boy slept 
 with the iron on, and that all Alcazar knew about it. 
 Then the ambassador, moved to compassion, made 
 him a little speech, exhorting him to study, to rid 
 himself of the shame of that thing, and not to disgrace 
 his family in that fashion, and finally, when the in- 
 terpreter had finished translating it, told him to ask 
 the boy if he had any answer to make.
 
 160 ALCAZAK EL KEBIR. 
 
 " I have this answer to make," he replied, " that 
 if I have to wear this iron for the rest of my life I 
 will never learn to read, and that I have made up my 
 mind to let them kill me rather than learn to read." 
 
 The ambassador regarded him attentively, the boy 
 undergoing the examination imperturbably. 
 
 "Gentlemen," said the ambassador at length, 
 turning towards us, " our mission is concluded," and 
 so saying led the way to the camp, the boy re-enter- 
 ing the town with his instrument of torture. 
 
 " In a few years," said one of the soldiers of the 
 guard, " that head will be seen dangling over one of 
 the gateways of Alcazar."
 
 BEtf-AOUDA. 
 
 VOL. L 11 
 
 (161)
 
 BEN-AOUDA. 
 
 AT sunrise the next morning we crossed the river 
 Kus, on whose right bank the city of Alcazar is situ- 
 ated, and once more proceeded across rolling, flower- 
 besprinkled, deserted plains, whose confines stretched 
 beyond our vision. The escort had broken up into 
 small bands, each of which resembled a sultan's 
 retinue, and was scattered over a wide circuit. The 
 two artists galloped hither and thither, pencil and 
 sketch-book in hand, making drawings of horses and 
 riders. The other members of the embassy rode 
 along talking about the invasion of the Goths, trade, 
 scorpions, philosophy, eagerly listened to by the party 
 of mounted servants who followed close behind. Civo 
 paid particular attention to the discourses on philoso- 
 phy, while Hamed, on the contrary, seemed deeply 
 interested in an account his master, Patxot, was giv- 
 ing of a bear hunt in which he had come near losing 
 his life. This man Hamed was, after Selam, the most 
 remarkable of the entire lot of soldiers, servants and 
 grooms. He was an Arab, about thirty years of age, 
 very tall, dark, muscular, strong as a bull, with 
 smooth face, mild eyes, a sweet smile, a gentle voice, 
 
 (163)
 
 164 BEN-AOUDA. 
 
 and an airy grace of movement that contrasted 
 strangely with his powerful frame. He wore a big 
 white turban, blue jacket and zuaves ; talked Span- 
 ish, and was so clever at knowing just how to do 
 everything and please everyone that even Selam, the 
 glorious Selam, was inclined to be the least bit jealous 
 of him. They were all, in fact, good-looking, cheer- 
 ful, attentive young fellows, and so eagerly solicitous 
 for our comfort that if one of us in riding along hap- 
 pened to look back he straightway encountered two 
 rows of black eyes fixed inquiringly upon him, 
 anxious to know if he wanted anything. " What a 
 pity," said I to myself, " that we cannot be attacked 
 by thieves, so as to put all this devotion to the proof." 
 After proceeding thus for about two hours we began 
 to meet people. First there came a negro on horse- 
 back, holding in his hand one of those little sticks, 
 covered with Arabic inscriptions, called in the lan- 
 guage of the country Tierrez, which travellers are wont 
 to obtain from members of the religious orders as 
 talismans against robbers and sickness. Next came 
 some ragged old women, carrying big bundles of 
 wood on their backs. Oh, the power of fanaticism ! 
 Bowed and bent as they were, exhausted and panting, 
 they still had sufficient strength left to fling a curse 
 at us in passing. One muttered, " May the curse of 
 God rest upon these unbelievers !" The other, " God 
 preserve us from evil spirits !" Another hour went 
 by without our meeting anyone, and then we came
 
 BEN-AOUDA. 165 
 
 upon a courier on foot, a poor, lean-looking Arab, 
 with a leather bag hung around his neck containing 
 the mail. He paused on reaching us to say that he 
 was on his way from Fez to Tangier. The ambas- 
 sador thereupon handed him a letter for the latter 
 place, and he hurried on at a rapid pace. This was 
 none other than a member of the Moroccoan Postal 
 Service, than which no body of men in existence lead 
 more arduous lives. They eat nothing on their jour- 
 neys save a little bread and some handfuls of figs, 
 stop only for a few hours' rest at night, when they 
 sleep with the end of a burning cord tied to one foot 
 to ensure their awakening at the proper time. They 
 travel an entire day without seeing a tree or a drop 
 of water, traverse forests infested by wild boars, climb 
 mountains inaccessible for mules, swim rivers, walk, 
 run, roll down steep inclines, drag themselves up 
 lofty cliffs on all-fours, under the burning August sun, 
 through the interminable rains of autumn, against 
 the choking wind of the desert, going from Tangier 
 to Fez in four days, and from Tangier to Morocco in 
 a week travelling from one extremity of the empire 
 to the other barefooted, half-naked, only when they 
 reach their journey's end to turn around and go back 
 again, and receiving by way of recompense a few 
 miserable francs. About half-way between Alcazar 
 and the spot whither we were bound the ground be- 
 gan to rise almost imperceptibly, so that before we 
 knew it we had reached an eminence from which an
 
 166 BEN-AOUDA. 
 
 extensive view could be obtained of another vast 
 plain stretching away before us, and covered with 
 great patches of yellow, red and white wild flowers, 
 something like huge beds of snow streaked with 
 crimson and gold. Across this plain there advanced 
 to meet us two hundred horsemen on a gallop, their 
 muskets held erect on their saddles, preceded by a 
 personage dressed entirely in white, whom Moham- 
 med Ducali recognized at once, and announced aloud 
 as the Governor Ben-Aouda ! We had reached the 
 border-line of the Province of Seifian called Ben- 
 Aouda, after the family name of the Governor, signi- 
 fying " son of the mare/' that name which had so 
 impressed me on hearing it in Tangier. We de- 
 scended into the plain, the two hundred horsemen 
 drew up in single file beside the three hundred of El 
 Araish, and Governor Ben-Aouda presented himself 
 to the ambassador. Never, if I live to be a hundred, 
 will I forget that countenance. He was a dried-up 
 old man, with a fierce eye, hooked nose, and a mouth 
 almost without lips, shaped in a semicircle, with the 
 points turned down. Consciousness of power, super- 
 stition, lust, faff, sloth and an utter weariness of 
 everything in the world were stamped upon his 
 features. A large white turban concealed his fore- 
 head and ears, and at his side hung a curved dagger. 
 The ambassador took leave of the chief of the El 
 Araish escort, who at once departed with his men on 
 a gallop, and we resumed our journey under the
 
 m.
 
 personage dressed entirely in white, whom M 
 ined Dueali recognized at fnce, ana announced 
 
 >' of the Governor. 
 
 il:; 1 . 
 
 turned down. Consciou: 
 i, lust, %i/, sloth and a- 
 
 .; in the wor ; 
 
 At**-. 
 
 Garden in ^Morocco
 
 BEN-AOUDA. 167 
 
 guardianship of the Seffian escort, with the usual 
 accompaniment of manoeuvres and the discharge of 
 fire-arms. The skin of our new friends was darker, 
 their dress more variegated, their horses handsomer, 
 their cries wilder, and their charges directed with 
 more savage impetuosity than anything we had met 
 with heretofore. The farther we advanced the more 
 did everything take on a more distinctively Moroccoan 
 color and form. Conspicuous in all that moving- 
 throng were twelve horsemen dressed with princely 
 magnificence, and mounted upon superb animals, who 
 attracted our attention from the first moment, espe- 
 cially as they seemed to be objects of admiration 
 among their companions as well. Five of them, 
 young men of colossal stature, appeared to be broth- 
 ers | they had pallid complexions, and big black eyes 
 which flashed beneath their huge turbans ; again and 
 again they dashed close by us with loosened reins 
 and heads thrown back over their shoulders, in an 
 attitude of haughty disdain. How natural and ap- 
 propriate it would have seemed had those ten sinewy 
 arms clasped to the crimson saddles five odalisques 
 stolen from a Sultan's harem. u Superb !" we cried. 
 "Wonderful! Magnificent!" and they acknowledged 
 our applause by spurring forward with loud cries, 
 until they disappeared in a cloud of smoke, twirling 
 their long, gold-inlaid muskets above their heads in a 
 perfect fury of triumphant excitement. These were 
 Ben-Aouda's five sons, and the remaining seven were
 
 168 BEN-AOUDA. 
 
 his nephews. The Idb-el-barod lasted for more than an 
 hour, at the end of which we had reached a garden 
 belonging to the Governor, where we dismounted to 
 rest. It was a grove of lemon and orange-trees, 
 planted in parallel lines, and so close together as to 
 form a thick roof of foliage, beneath which we en- 
 joyed the most delicious shade and coolness, and the 
 perfumes of Paradise. In a few moments this charm- 
 ing oasis was invaded by and filled with horses, mules, 
 kitchen-fires, busy servants and sleepy soldiers. The 
 Governor dismounted with us and introduced his sons. 
 I take my oath that had I seen the five odalisques 
 clinging to them at that moment I would not have 
 had the face even to envy them, so handsome were 
 they, so stately, so charming. One after another 
 they shook hands with us, making at the same time a 
 slight inclination and dropping their smiling eyes in 
 a sort of childish embarrassment. Immediately after- 
 wards they asked to see the doctor. Signor Miguerez 
 came forward and inquired what they wanted, and 
 thereupon, before us all, without uttering a word and 
 almost simultaneously, they bared their left arms. 
 
 Oh, my poor odalisques ! Every one of them was 
 affected from shoulder to wrist with a horrible syph- 
 ilitic disease. " Hereditary," observed one of them, 
 and the father repeated coldly, " Hereditary." 
 
 "And there are sulphur springs close by!" ex- 
 claimed the doctor, " where they could easily have 
 been cured ; but oh, no, gentlemen, they must fool
 
 BEN-AOUDA. 169 
 
 away their time and health with verses from the 
 Koran and amulets prepared by quacks !" He gave 
 them some medicine, they re-covered their arms, and 
 walked thoughtfully away. A little later we seated 
 ourselves upon a beautiful Rabat rug in the centre of 
 the garden, and luncheon was served. Governor 
 Ben-Aouda, seated upon another rug some twenty 
 feet away, had his own repast served at the same 
 time, waited upon by a number of his slaves. An 
 amusing interchange of courtesies between him and 
 the ambassador now took place. First Ben-Aouda 
 sent over a jug of milk, and the ambassador returned 
 the attention with a beefsteak ; next came some but- 
 ter, which was responded to with fritters ; the butter 
 was followed by a sweet dish, and the fritters by a 
 box of sardines ; each gift being dispatched and re- 
 ceived with coldly ceremonious gestures, hands laid 
 upon the breast, and eyes cast up to heaven with the 
 most comical expression of gastronomic bliss. The 
 sweet dish, by way of parenthesis, was a sort of pud- 
 ding made of honey, eggs, butter and sugar, of 
 which the Arabs are extravagantly fond, and about 
 which they have a singular superstition : if while the 
 woman is in the act of cooking it a man should hap- 
 pen to enter the room, the pudding goes wrong, and 
 even if it is fit to eat it is unsafe to do so. 
 
 "And how about wine ?" asked some one; "is no 
 wine to be offered him V ' Whereupon a discussion 
 arose ; we were assured that Ben-Aouda was secretly
 
 170 BEN-AOUDA. 
 
 much addicted to the juice of the vine, but how could 
 he possibly drink wine in the presence of his soldiers? 
 Finally it was decided not to send him any ; but it 
 seemed to me that he cast very sweet looks in the 
 direction of our bottles much sweeter, in fact, than 
 those directed towards ourselves. During the entire 
 time, indeed, that he sat there on his rug his features 
 wore such an evil expression of frowning and haughty 
 disdain that I longed to have our forty battalions of 
 Bersaglieri there and under my orders for just a lit- 
 tle while, so that I could make them defile under his 
 very nose. 
 
 During the repast Mohammed Ducali told me a 
 rather striking incident connected with the personal 
 history of the Ben-Aouda family in whose hands it 
 seems the governorship of the Seffian district has 
 been from very ancient times. The inhabitants of 
 this part of the country are famed for their bravery, 
 as well as for their turbulent dispositions, and are said 
 to have given splendid proof of their courage in the 
 recent war with Spain, in which, at the battle of 
 Vad-Rason, on the 23d of March, 1861, Sidi- Absalom- 
 ben- Abd-el-Krim Ben-Aouda, Governor of the entire 
 Province of Garb, lost his life. He was succeeded 
 by his eldest son, Sidi- Abd-el-Krim, a violent, disso- 
 lute man, who ground his people down with taxes, and 
 persecuted them to gratify his ferocious caprices. 
 One fine day he suggested to a certain Gileli Ruqui 
 that he should give him a large sum of money ; the
 
 BEN-AOUDA. 171 
 
 man excused himself on the ground that he was too 
 poor. Upon which the Governor loaded him with 
 chains and threw him into prison. The relatives and 
 friends of Gileli then sold all their possessions, made 
 up the required amount, and brought it to Sidi-Abd- 
 el-Krim, who forthwith liberated the prisoner. No 
 sooner, however, did he find himself free than Gileli 
 assembled his family and friends together, and they 
 bound themselves with a solemn oath to kill the Gov- 
 ernor. The residence of Ben-Aouda stood at about 
 two hours distance, by the road, from the garden 
 where we were sitting. The conspirators attacked 
 it suddenly in the middle of the night, in overpower- 
 ing numbers, killed the sentinels, and pouring into 
 the house slew Sidi-Abd-el-Krim, his wives, his chil- 
 dren, his slaves and his servants with their daggers, 
 and after destroying all they could lay hands on, and 
 setting fire to the house, spread themselves over the 
 surrounding country, raising the cry of revolt. The 
 relatives and allies of the Ben-Aoudas assembled 
 their forces in hot haste and marched upon the rebels, 
 who repulsed them, and the rebellion spread over the 
 entire Province of Garb j but the Sultan sending an 
 army to the scene of the revolt, it was, after a san- 
 guinary struggle, suppressed the heads of the ring- 
 leaders adorned the walls of Fez and of Morocco, the 
 district of Beni-Malek was separated from the rest of 
 the province, the Governor's house rebuilt, and Sidi- 
 Mohammed Ben-Aouda, brother of the murdered man,
 
 172 BEN-AOUDA. 
 
 and host of the Italian embassy, assumed the govern' 
 ment of the district of his fathers. A passing tri- 
 umph of desperation over tyranny, followed by a 
 tyranny still more oppressive. Thus may the his- 
 tory of each individual province be summed up, as 
 well as that of the entire Empire. And who knows 
 but that at that very moment a Ruqui had already 
 been predestined for Sidi-Mohammed Ben-Aouda 
 himself. 
 
 Before sunset we had reached the camp, pitched 
 not a very long distance beyond the garden, in a 
 solitary plain at the foot of a small hill, upon whose 
 summit stood a kubba and a palm-tree. The ambas- 
 sador had hardly arrived when the mona was brought 
 and placed as usual before his tent, and the distribu- 
 tion took place in the presence of the intendant, the 
 Kaid, and the soldiers and servants. While every- 
 one's attention was absorbed in this manner I hap- 
 pened to glance towards the kubba and saw a tall, 
 strange-looking man coming down the incline with 
 long strides in the direction of the camp. There 
 could be no doubt about it, it was the hermit, the 
 " saint," descending upon us to make a scene. I did 
 not say a word, but waited to see what would happen. 
 Instead of entering the camp at once he made a cir- 
 cuit around the outside, in order to appear suddenly 
 in front of the ambassador's tent. I could see him 
 stealing nearer and nearer on tiptoe, a ghastly object, 
 covered with black rags, who inspired both fear and
 
 BEN-AOUDA. 173 
 
 disgust. All at once he quickened his pace, dashed 
 into our midst, and, recognizing the ambassador at a 
 glance, flung himself against him, at the same time 
 howling like a maniac ; but he hardly had time to do 
 this before the Kaid seized him by the throat and 
 threw him in among the soldiers, who promptly dragged 
 him out of the camp, stifling his piercing cries in their 
 cloaks. Signor Morteo hastened to translate for our 
 benefit the poor wretch's invectives. (e Death to all 
 these dogs of Christians who go to see the Sultan and 
 do just as they like, while we are dying of hunger !" 
 Not long after the presentation of the obligatory 
 mono, there arrived at the camp a party of a hundred 
 or more Arab and negro servants, marching in single 
 file, and bearing great round boxes covered with 
 lofty, conical straw tops, filled with eggs, chicken 
 already cooked, puddings, pastry, roasts, kuskussu, 
 salad and sweetmeats, enough provision in all to feed 
 a starving tribe. It was a second mona, voluntary 
 this time, an offering made to the ambassador by 
 Sidi-Mohammed Ben-Aouda, possibly to atone for his 
 black looks of the morning. No sooner had the 
 dishes been placed on the ground than the Governor 
 and his five sons appeared on horseback, accompanied 
 by a troop of servants. The ambassador received 
 them in his tent, and conversed with them by means 
 of an interpreter. What a conversation ! and what 
 people they were ! The ambassador asked one of 
 the sons if he had ever heard of Italy, and he replied
 
 174 BEN-AOUDA. 
 
 that he had heard it spoken of several times. One of 
 them wanted to know which was farthest from Mo- 
 rocco, England or Italy. They asked how many 
 guns we had, the name of our capital city, and how 
 our king was dressed. As they talked they all six 
 observed with great attention the knots of our cravats 
 and our watch-chains. The ambassador put several 
 questions to the Governor regarding the extent and 
 population of his district, but he either could not an- 
 swer or was, as usual, afraid of some hidden, mysteri- 
 ous object in the question ; at all events it was impos- 
 sible to drag a satisfactory reply out of him. 
 
 "The population?" I recollect his saying. "Oh, I 
 could not tell you the exact number." 
 
 " Well, then, about," urged the ambassador. 
 
 " It is difficult to say even about what it numbers," 
 said he, and then proceeded to put some more ques- 
 tions of his own. Had we liked the city of Alcazar ? 
 What did we think of the country ? Did we not 
 consider the water very good ? Would we like to 
 live in Morocco ? Why had we not brought our 
 wives ? How many soldiers had the captain in his 
 command ? How large was the commander's ship ? 
 While this conversation was going on tea was drunk, 
 and finally, with many bows, handshakings and good 
 wishes, they mounted, put spurs to their horses, and 
 presently disappeared. I use " disappear " each 
 time purposely, instead of "went away," just as I say 
 "appear" instead of "came," because, as we never saw
 
 BEN-AOUDA. 175 
 
 any houses or villages in any direction, everyone who 
 came and went seemed to rise up out of the ground 
 and vanish away into air. 
 
 Like every other day this one, too, ended in a calm 
 and magnificent sunset and a cheerful and noisy din- 
 ner, but the night proved to be one of the liveliest of 
 the journey. Perhaps because being in the Seffian 
 territory made it necessary to guard the camp with 
 unusual vigilance, the sentinels kept each other awake 
 by chanting verses from the Koran every quarter of 
 an hour. One would intone the prayer and the others 
 all respond in chorus, at the top of their voices, to an 
 accompaniment of neighing horses and barking dogs. 
 We had just fallen into our first sleep when we were 
 aroused by this exercise, and did not succeed in clos- 
 ing our eyes again. Shortly after midnight a new 
 feature was added. One of the short intervals of 
 silence was suddenly broken in upon by wild cries 
 from the open country, which continued until day- 
 break, sometimes close at hand, then faintly heard at 
 a distance, then nearby again 5 tones of menace, of 
 sorrow, of despair, breaking forth now and again 
 into shrill wails and bursts of crazy laughter, that 
 made our blood run cold. It was the saint wander- 
 ing about the outskirts of the camp and calling down 
 curses from Heaven upon us. In the morning when 
 we came out of our tents he was still there, standing 
 erect like a spectre before his lonely Jcubba, tinged 
 with red by the rising sun, continuing to curse us in
 
 176 BEN-AOUDA. 
 
 a hoarse, spent voice, and feebly waving his arms 
 above his head. 
 
 I looked up the cook, intending to ask his opinion 
 concerning this personage, but I found him so im- 
 mersed that I had not the heart to poke fun at him. 
 He was making the coffee, surrounded by an im- 
 patient throng who fairly took his breath away. The 
 scullions were talking Arabic at him, Ranni, Sicilian ; 
 the caulker, Neapolitan; Hamed, Spanish j Signer 
 Vincent, French. " But I do not understand a sin- 
 gle word of all your gibberish !" he shouted desper- 
 ately. " This is worse than Babel ! Will you let me 
 breathe ? or do you want to kill me ? Oh, poor me, 
 what a country ! what a country ! Every one of 
 them talking like mad, and not one who can make 
 himself understood !" 
 
 As soon as he had recovered somewhat I pointed 
 to the saint, who was still howling away on top of the 
 hill. " Well," I said, " what do you think of those in- 
 sults ?" He raised his eyes to the Tvutiba, regarded the 
 saint fixedly for a moment, and then, with a gesture 
 of supreme disdain, replied in his strong Piedmontese 
 accent, " I look and pass on," and so saying stalked 
 majestically into his tent.
 
 KAEITA EL-HABASSI. 
 
 VOL. L 12 ( 177 )
 
 KAKITA EL-HABASSI. 
 
 THE camp was dismantled, and we resumed our 
 journey in the usual order and amid the usual noisy 
 shouts and discharge of fire-arms of the escort the 
 two hundred horsemen of Ben-Aouda. In two hours 
 we had reached the small stream that marks the 
 limits of the Seffian district, and just as the standard- 
 bearer turned to pronounce the words " Here is the 
 river," there suddenly started into view from behind 
 a piece of rising ground on the opposite shore a large 
 crowd of horsemen, among whom we were immedi- 
 ately struck by the graceful and elegant figure of the 
 Governor, Bu-Bekr-ben-el-Habassi, whose district 
 lies between the Seifian territory and the great Sebu 
 river. The Ben-Aouda escort turned about and 
 quickly vanished, while we, after fording the stream, 
 were at once surrounded by the new one. 
 
 Bu-Bekr-ben-el-Habassi shook the ambassador 
 heartily by the hand, greeted Ducali a former school- 
 mate warmly, and welcomed the rest of the party 
 with a gesture full of grace and dignity. The em- 
 bassy then proceeded on its way, but it was some 
 time before any of us were able to take our eyes off 
 
 (179)
 
 180 KAEIYA EL-HABASSI. 
 
 our new host, who was certainly by far the most at- 
 tractive of any of the Governors whom we had seen 
 as yet. He was of medium height, slight, dark, with 
 penetrating but kindly eyes, a straight aquiline 
 nose and a thick black beard. When he smiled he 
 displayed two rows of handsome teeth. A snow- 
 white cloak of finest texture enveloped his entire 
 person, the hood being drawn down over his turban, 
 and he rode a jet-black horse with sky-blue housings. 
 From his appearance one would judge him to be a 
 generous man, beloved and contented, and unless my 
 imagination deceived me, the two hundred Kariya el- 
 Habassi cavaliers seemed to reflect something of their 
 Governor's kindly disposition. They appeared to 
 me to wear the frank, tranquil expression of men who 
 for many years had enjoyed the almost unheard of 
 blessing of a humane rule. This impression and the 
 cabans which now began to crop up much more fre- 
 quently by the roadside, combined, with the beautiful 
 weather and sweet-smelling breezes, to nourish for a 
 little while at least the pleasing illusion that this dis- 
 trict was an oasis of prosperity in the middle of the 
 poverty-stricken Empire of the Sherifs. A little later 
 we passed through a village consisting of a double 
 row of tents, made of camel's hair, supported on a 
 framework of reeds and sticks ; beside each tent was 
 a small garden patch enclosed by a hedge of Indian 
 figs. Beyond the tents horses and cows were graz- 
 ing. Some groups of half-naked children stood on
 
 KAKIYA EL-HABASSI. 181 
 
 the road in front of us waiting to see us pass, while 
 men and women covered with rags peered out from 
 behind the hedges. No one shook his fist at us ; no 
 one cursed us. Hardly were we well past the vil- 
 lage when the whole population streamed out of their 
 hiding-places, and we saw that they numbered some 
 hundreds of wretched-looking creatures ; black, 
 squalid, wondering. The effect was as though the 
 population of a cemetery had risen up before our 
 eyes. A few of them managed to keep up with us 
 for some little time, but the others were soon lost to 
 view behind a piece of rising ground. 
 
 The character of the country through which we 
 were now travelling afforded an endless opportunity 
 for picturesque effects in the views we had both of 
 the escort and the caravan. There was a succession 
 of deep, parallel valleys, formed by great waves of 
 earth, all flowered like so many gardens. As we 
 dipped into each valley we would lose sight for a few 
 moments of the escort and then see it coming up from 
 behind the hill back of us ; first all the tips of the 
 muskets, then the turbans and fezzes, then the faces, 
 and gradually the entire figures and horses, as though 
 they were rising up from the bowels of the earth ; 
 while on reaching the summit of a hill and looking 
 back we would behold all those two hundred horse- 
 men dashing through the smoke-filled valley, which 
 would echo and re-echo to the thunder of their fire. 
 And so on up and down a long train of horses,
 
 182 KAEIYA EL-HABASSI. 
 
 mules, servants and soldiers following at our heels, 
 each appearing for an instant on the summit and 
 then disappearing as though he had plunged down a 
 precipice. Seen thus across all those valleys the 
 caravan looked interminable ; it had the imposing 
 air of an army on the march, or an entire population 
 emigrating at once. 
 
 At last we came to the village of Kariya el-Habassi, 
 consisting of the Governor's residence and a group 
 of huts and cottages, shaded by some fig-trees and 
 wild olives. The Governor having invited us to dis- 
 mount for a little while at his house, the rest of the 
 caravan proceeded on their way to the spot selected 
 for our next camping-ground; while we, after tra- 
 versing two or three court-yards, each enclosed by 
 bare walls, came to a garden, on one side of which 
 was the principal entrance to the house of Ben-el- 
 Habassi, a white structure, devoid of windows and 
 silent as a convent. The Governor having vanished, 
 some mulatto slaves ushered us into a small room on 
 the ground-floor, white also, and having no outlet 
 save the main entrance and a small door in one 
 corner. There were two alcoves, three white mat- 
 tresses spread on the mosaic pavement, and some 
 embroidered cushions. It was the first time since 
 leaving Tangier that we had had an opportunity to 
 repose between four walls, and we stretched ourselves 
 luxuriously in the alcoves, awaiting with eager 
 curiosity the continuation of the show. The Gov-
 
 i*ir of an anny on the march, or an entire population 
 
 At last we came- to the village ->f Kariya eL-HabftMi, 
 consisting of the Govf-rnov's ro*kU;:K-r and M . 
 of huts and cottages, shaded by some fig-tru* 
 
 the ground-floor, wh:r.r aJtoo, .^a : 
 
 tire main entrance ai;ii n 
 
 corner, There were two alcove mat- 
 
 s spread on the mosaic pa 
 red cushions. It was tl 
 C'or that we had ha*i 
 rwoen four walls, anu 
 
 i the alcoves, aw 
 
 Moorish
 
 KARIYA EL-HABASSI. 183 
 
 ernor presently reappeared, wrapped from head to 
 foot in a ca'ic of glistening white. Depositing his 
 yellow slippers in one corner, he seated himself bare- 
 foot on one of the mattresses between Ducali and 
 the ambassador. The slaves brought in jugs of milk 
 and dishes of sweetmeats, Ben-el-Habassi himself 
 making the tea, which he poured into exquisite cups 
 of Chinese porcelain, his favorite servant, a young 
 mulatto with tattooed face, handing it around. It 
 would be impossible to give any just idea of the grace 
 and dignity displayed by this, in all probability, 
 grossly ignorant Governor of a few thousand tented 
 Arabs, who in the whole course of his life had most 
 likely never met more than fifty civilized persons. 
 Dropped into the most aristocratic salon in Europe, 
 no one could have discovered the slightest excuse for 
 ridiculing anything about him. He was as clean, 
 dainty and perfumed as an odalisque just out of the 
 bath. At every gesture the caic, flying back, would 
 reveal here a touch of red, there of blue, and again 
 of orange, all the brilliant coloring of the hidden cos- 
 tume, until we longed to tear off the veil and see 
 what marvels there might be concealed beneath, as 
 children treat their dolls. He conversed with great 
 affability and no apparent curiosity, quite as though 
 he had seen us all the day before. He told us that 
 he had never been out of Morocco, but that he would 
 greatly like to see our railroads and large palaces, 
 and he knew that there were three cities in Italy
 
 184 KAKIYA EL-HABASSI. 
 
 named respectively Genoa, Rome and Venice. While 
 he was talking the small door behind him was softly 
 pushed open and the head of a pretty little mulatto 
 girl of ten or twelve was thrust in ; after rolling her 
 big eyes rapidly around with an expression of 
 mingled curiosity and terror, she disappeared. This 
 was one of the Governor's children, the mother being 
 a negress. He saw her, but only smiled. A long in- 
 terval of silence now followed. Aloes were burning 
 in a perfumery-stand in the centre of the room j be- 
 fore the door stood a troop of wondering slaves; be- 
 hind the slaves rose a group of palms, and beyond 
 the palms smiled the limpid African sky. I suddenly 
 found myself overpowered with wonder at my sur- 
 roundings. I could not believe that I was the same 
 person as he who was wont to occupy that little room 
 in Turin. The Governor all at once arising I was, 
 however, quickly recalled to a sense of the reality of 
 the situation. Shaking hands with each in turn he 
 donned his slippers, and with a graceful bow disap- 
 peared through the small doorway. " He has gone 
 to report to the favorite," said someone, and I could 
 not help wishing that I could hear her questions. 
 " How do they look ? What are they like ? How 
 do they talk ? How are they dressed ? Oh, my be- 
 loved, let me see them just for one single moment 
 through the crack of the door and I will load you with 
 caresses !" And no doubt, her courteous lover 
 yielding, the mysterious beauty did peep at us from
 
 KARIYA EL-HABASSL 185 
 
 behind some hiding-place, only to exclaim in terror, 
 " Allah preserve us ! What fearful-looking people !" 
 On our way to the camp, which was pitched about 
 half a mile beyond the Governor's house on a high, 
 level plateau covered with- dry grass, we for the first 
 time felt the full power of the heat, so much so that, 
 as Tadino says of the populace of Milan during the 
 plague, we all began to " cMudere li denti et inarcane 
 le ciglia;" and this was on the 8th of May, not more 
 than a hundred miles from the shores of the Medi- 
 terranean, with the great plain of the Sebu stretching 
 away before us. Notwithstanding the heat, however, 
 the camp at Kariya el-Habassi was enlivened towards 
 evening by an unusual number of visitors. On one 
 side a long line of Arabs, seated on the ground, 
 watched the Idb-el-bar6d of the escort cavalry j on the 
 other were more Arabs playing ball, while a little 
 farther off a group of women, muffled in their coarse 
 JimkSj gazed at us with much astonishment, gesticu- 
 lating to one another, and parties of children ran 
 all about. Certainly the population of Ben-el-Ha- 
 bassi seemed less savage than their neighbors of 
 Garb. Biseo and I approached the ball-players, who 
 stopped as soon as they saw us, but after consulting 
 among themselves, recommenced their game. There 
 were fifteen or twenty of them, for the most part 
 tall, broad-shouldered, sinewy youths, wearing noth- 
 ing but a tunic fastened in at the waist, and a sort of 
 coarse, filthy linen cape wrapped around the body
 
 186 KAKIYA EL-HABASSI. 
 
 like a caik. They played somewhat differently from 
 those whom I had seen in Tangier. One gave the 
 ball a kick high in the air with his foot, and the 
 others all tried to catch it as far from the ground as 
 possible, bounding up in great vertical leaps as though 
 they were trying to fly j the one who caught it kicked 
 it in his turn. Frequently in the rush one of the 
 heavier ones would fall, dragging down some of his 
 companions with him, and the others tripping over 
 them, the whole party would roll over and over for 
 some distance, in a tangled, confused mass, kicking 
 and laughing, without caring in the least what was 
 being exposed to the light of day. More than one, 
 as he rolled about, displayed a curved dagger fastened 
 at his belt, and others had little wallets tied about 
 their necks, probably containing verses from the 
 Koran, worn to keep off scurvy. Once the ball fall- 
 ing at my feet, a sudden idea occurred to me ; pick- 
 ing it up, I held it out on one palm, and with the 
 other hand made two or three cabalistic signs above, 
 then threw it back. For a few moments none of the 
 players dared to pick it up. They went close to it, 
 touched it gingerly with their feet, examined it, and 
 it was not until he had seen me laugh and make signs 
 to show that I had been joking that one bold spirit 
 picked it up, laughing as well, and threw it back to 
 his companions. Meanwhile the children, who had 
 been running hither and thither, began to crowd 
 around us. There were about fifty of them, and if
 
 KAEIYA EL-HABASSI. 187 
 
 their combined wardrobe had been offered for sale, it 
 is not likely that a pedler could have been found 
 willing to give fifty centimes for the lot. Some of 
 them were extremely pretty, many scurvy, almost all 
 coffee-colored, a few a sort of greenish-yellow, as 
 though their skin had been stained with some vege- 
 table substance, and some of them wore pig-tails in 
 the Chinese fashion. At first they kept about ten 
 feet away, watching us suspiciously and exchanging re- 
 marks in a low voice ; then seeing that we did not make 
 any hostile demonstrations they drew gradually nearer, 
 until they were almost touching us, and began stand- 
 ing on tiptoe, stooping down, bending here and there, 
 so as to see every part of us, just as though we had 
 been two statues, we remaining all the while per- 
 fectly still j then one of them touched my shoe with 
 the tip of one finger, withdrawing his hand quickly 
 as though he had burned it ; another sniffed at my 
 sleeve. By this time we were entirely surrounded 
 and hemmed in. All sorts of exotic smells saluted 
 our nostrils, we began to fancy that we felt a creep- 
 ing sensation up our backs. " Come," said Biseo, 
 " it is high time we were rid of them ; I have an in- 
 fallible method," and so saying he briskly took out 
 his sketch-book and pencil, as though he were about 
 to draw some of the faces about us. In a twinkling 
 the whole troop had scattered like a flock of birds. 
 In a few minutes we saw some women approaching 
 us. "Miraculous!" we said to one another; "but
 
 188 KARIYA EL-HABASSI. 
 
 perhaps they are coining to stab us in the name of 
 Mohammed," and we stood on our guard. But they 
 were only some poor, weak, sick creatures with 
 hardly sufficient strength to stand on their feet or 
 hold their arms up to keep the haiJc over their faces. 
 Among them was one quite young woman, who was 
 sobbing piteously, showing one tear-bedimmed blue 
 eye. Seeing that they were looking for the doctor 
 I pointed out the way, upon which one of them made 
 me understand by signs that she wished to know if 
 they would have to pay. I said "no," and they 
 moved off unsteadily in the direction of the doctor's 
 tent, I following to be present at the consultation. 
 " What is the matter ?" asked Signor Miguerez, in 
 Arabic, of the first one. "I have a terrible pain 
 here," she said, pointing to her shoulder. " What is 
 it ?" he asked. I do not recollect her reply, but the 
 doctor told her that he would have to see the place, 
 and directed her to bare her shoulder. The woman 
 did not stir. There lay the great difficulty ; it was 
 always " I have something here, lower down, higher 
 up, here, there," but not one of them, not even old 
 nonagenarians, would let the doctor make an exami- 
 nation, all insisting that he " could guess." " Now 
 will you or will you not let me see the place ?" asked 
 Miguerez finally. The woman still made no motion. 
 " Very well, that being the case I will attend to the 
 others," and he turned to the rest, while the first 
 one went sadly away. The others had no need to
 
 KAKIYA EL-HABASSI. 189 
 
 uncover, so the doctor distributed pills and powders, 
 and dismissed them with a " Grod bless you." Poor 
 creatures, not one of them was probably yet thirty, 
 and they had all lost their youth, a loss which means 
 the beginning of the excessive toil, the brutal treat- 
 ment and the contempt that go to make the old age 
 of an Arab woman a thing of horror. An instru- 
 ment of the passions up to twenty, she is a beast of 
 burden for the rest of her life. 
 
 Dinner that evening was enlivened by a visit from 
 Ben-el-Habassi, and the disastrous night that fol- 
 lowed by a terrible invasion of insects. Already, 
 during the hot part of the day, I had foreseen trouble 
 ahead from the extraordinary signs of life in the 
 grass. The ants formed in long black lines, the 
 beetles lay in heaps, the grasshoppers were as thick 
 as flies, and added to these were many new insects 
 which we had not seen before in any of our other 
 halts, and which filled me with dark suspicions. 
 Captain di Boccard, a connoisseur in entomology, 
 furnished me with their names. Among others there 
 was the cicindela campestris, a living pitfall which 
 closes the mouth of its hole with its great head, and 
 drops down suddenly, dragging with it such insects as 
 may have been incautious enough to walk over it ; 
 the Pheropsophus africanus, which shoots a puff of 
 corrosive vapor over its pursuing enemy ; the Meloe 
 majalis, which can hardly drag along its huge abdo- 
 men, like that of a person with dropsy, stuffed with
 
 190 KAR1YA EL-HABASSI. 
 
 grass and eggs ; the Carabus rugosus, the Pamelia 
 scabrosa, the Cetonia opaca, the Cossyphus Hoffman- 
 seggi animated leaves which Victor Hugo would de- 
 scribe in a way to make your blood curdle. Then 
 any number of great lizards, spiders, centipedes as 
 long as your hand, singing crickets as large as a 
 thumb, green bugs the size of a sou-piece, all of 
 which came and went as though they were preparing 
 by common agreement for some warlike enterprise. 
 And as if this were not enough, hardly were we 
 seated at table when, on reaching out my hand to 
 pour out something to drink, I espied a ridiculous- 
 looking locust peeping at me around my glass, who, 
 instead of flying away in alarm at my threatening 
 gesture, calmly continued to gaze at me with imperti- 
 nant audacity. At length, to complete our demoral- 
 ization, as we got up from table Hamed appeared 
 with the look of a man who has just passed through 
 some great danger, and proceeded to display before 
 our very eyes nothing less than a tarantula, a verit- 
 able lycosa tarentula, impaled upon a toothpick, that 
 terrible spider which " cuando pica cS un Jwmbre " 
 when it bites a man said he, " Allah have mercy 
 upon him ! The unfortunate one begins to laugh and 
 cry, to sing and dance, and nothing but good music, 
 really good music, the Sultan's band, for instance, can 
 save him !" Now let the reader try to imagine for 
 himself with what sensations I looked forward to the 
 night. I and my three companions had, however,
 
 KARIYA EL-HABASSI. 191 
 
 ceased talking, the lights were out, and we had been 
 some moments in bed before any one felt anything ; 
 this, however, was merely a slight interval of truce. 
 The commander suddenly leaped into a sitting posi- 
 tion, calling out, " I am fairly alive !" and then we 
 all began to have sensations. At first there were 
 only light touches, timid prickings, ticklings, the ten- 
 tative provocations of light advance-guards, to which 
 we could afford to pay no attention. But before long 
 the main body of the army took the field, and vigor- 
 ous defensive operations became necessary. The 
 battle waged fiercely, but the harder we fought the 
 more rapidly did the enemy send reinforcements to 
 the front. They came from beneath the bolsters, 
 crept up from the foot of the beds, dropped from the 
 top of the tent ; they seemed to be carrying out some 
 prearranged order of attack, to belong to different 
 parts of a great strategic design, conceived in the 
 brain of an insect of genius j apparently it was a re- 
 ligious war; in short, we were finally obliged to 
 change our policy or acknowledge ourselves beaten. 
 " The light !" shrieked the vice-consul. We all 
 four bounded simultaneously to the ground, lit the 
 light, and the massacre began. The rank and 
 file were slaughtered indiscriminately, while the lead- 
 ers, the great men, were first classified by the cap- 
 tain, then condemned by the commander, the vice- 
 consul placed them on the pyre and I delivered the 
 funeral oration in prose or choice verse, which will be
 
 192 KAKIYA EL-HABASSI. 
 
 published after my death. In a short space of time the 
 ground was strewn with wings, claws, legs and heads, 
 the survivors dispersed, and we, weary of slaughter, 
 after having mutually appointed one another cheva- 
 liers of various orders, once more laid our tired heads 
 upon our pillows. But what an uproar we made ! 
 What mad rejoicings, even though there was not a 
 whole skin among us ! What shrieks of laughter 
 that shook us from head to foot and did us good, body 
 and soul ! 
 
 At sunrise the next day Governor Ben-el-Habassi 
 again presented himself to accompany the ambassador 
 to the confines of his district. No sooner had we 
 descended from the high ground of the encampment 
 than we saw, stretching away before our eyes to the 
 horizon, the immense plain of the Sebu. This river, 
 one of the largest of the Moghreb, descends from the 
 western slope of that spur of mountains which extends 
 from the upper Atk,s towards the Strait of Gibraltar, 
 flows over a course of nearly two hundred and forty 
 kilometres, swelled by numerous tributary streams, 
 and describing a circuit near its mouth empties into 
 the Atlantic Ocean at Mehdia, where the deposit of 
 sand, as at the mouths of almost all the rivers of 
 Morocco of that size, prevents the entrance of ships 
 and causes tremendous inundations at the season of 
 the overflow. The basin of this river embraces at 
 one end all that district lying between El Araish and 
 Sla, and at the other borders on the high basin of the
 
 KARIYA EL-HABASSI. 193 
 
 Muluya (that large river that marks the eastern 
 boundary of the Moghreb), and opens to Europeans, 
 by the coast and Taza, a way to the city of Fez, and 
 not to Fez alone, but to the great city of Mequinez 
 the third capital as well. Thus it includes, one 
 may say, the political life of the empire and the prin- 
 cipal seats of the wealth and power of the sherifs. It 
 is worthy of note that the Sebu marks the northern 
 boundary beyond which the Sultan never passes un- 
 less in time of war, the three cities of Fez, Morocco 
 and Mequinez, in which he resides by turns, all lying 
 to the south of it, as well as the twin cities of Sla- 
 Rabat, which he visits on his way from Fez to Mo- 
 rocco this detour being made in order not to cross 
 the chain of mountains which closes the valley of the 
 Sebu to the south, inhabited by a tribe called the 
 Zairis, a mixed Berber race, who share with that of 
 Beni-Mtir the reputation of being the most turbulent 
 and indomitable inhabitants of those mountains. An 
 hour's ride brought us to the Sebu. It seemed to me 
 as though I were looking at the Tiber flowing across 
 the Roman Campagna. At this point it was about 
 three hundred and fifty feet wide, mud-colored, 
 swollen, rapid, shut in between two lofty banks 
 almost vertical and perfectly bare, rising from two 
 strips of muddy ground. A couple of antediluvian 
 boats, propelled by a dozen or so Arabs, were ap- 
 proaching the shore. These boats would be sufficient 
 in themselves to give a fair idea of Morocco. For 
 VOL. I. 13
 
 194 KAKIYA EL-HABASSI. 
 
 hundreds of years sultans, pashas, caravans and am- 
 bassadors have crossed the river on just such old 
 hulks as these, with their feet resting in mud and 
 water, sometimes at the risk of being drowned. And 
 when, as frequently happens, the bottoms have holes 
 stove in them, caravans and embassies, and pashas 
 and sultans wait, sometimes for several hours, in sun 
 or rain, until the boatmen have closed them up with 
 mud or anything else they can lay hands on. And 
 for hundreds of years horses, mules and camels, for 
 want of a piece of board six feet long, have risked 
 breaking their legs, or actually have broken them, in 
 the effort to jump on board from the bank. It never 
 seems to have occurred to anyone to build a bridge 
 of boats, or bring a six-foot plank to the spot j while 
 should anyone reproach these people for not having 
 done either the one or the other he would be looked 
 upon with profound amazement, as though he had 
 taken them to task for not performing some wonder- 
 ful feat. In many places the rivers are crossed in 
 cane boats, and troops are usually gotten over on 
 floating bridges, made of inflated skins with earth and 
 tree branches on top. We all dismounted, and de- 
 scended the bank by a steep path. The first boat, 
 after making two or three wide circuits to avoid the 
 currents and eddies, landed all the Italians on the 
 other shore, from whence we viewed the passage of 
 the entire caravan. What an extraordinary picture 
 it was ! I can see it before me now, with all the at-
 
 KAEIYA EL-HABASSI. 195 
 
 tendant bustle and excitement. One of the boats is 
 sliding along in mid-stream, loaded with the Moors 
 and camels belonging to the baggage-train, and a 
 little farther off the other boat is bringing over the 
 horses and riders of the Fez escort, in whose midst 
 the flag of Mohammed may be seen floating free, and 
 by it the shining dark skin and muslin turban of the 
 Kaid. Across the river, in the middle of a confused 
 mass of horses, mules, servants and packing-boxes, 
 which covers the bank for some distance, gleams the 
 graceful white figure of Governor Ben-el-Habassi, 
 seated upon a mound, in the shadow of his beautiful 
 black horse with its sky-blue saddle, and surrounded 
 by his officers. On top of the bank, which looks like 
 the wall of a fortification, behind a long row of Arabs, 
 seated on the edge, with their legs hanging over, are 
 the Governor's two hundred horsemen drawn up in 
 line, who, seen thus from below, against the blue 
 background of the sky, look like so many giants. 
 Some naked black servants are plunging in and out 
 of the river, shouting and throwing the water about ; 
 a party of Arabs are washing out their rags on the 
 bank in the Moorish fashion, dancing up and down on 
 top of them like marionettes ; others swim the river | 
 flocks of storks fly overhead ; far off down the bank 
 a column of smoke rises from a group of Bedouin 
 tents ; the boatmen chant aloud a prayer to the 
 Prophet for a successful issue to the undertaking; 
 the water sparkles in the sun like gold, and Selam,
 
 196 KAEIYA EL-HABASSI. 
 
 standing erect, ten feet in front of us, in his famous 
 caftan, supplies in this great, gay, barbarous picture, 
 the most delightfully harmonious dash of red a painter 
 could possibly desire. The passage consumed several 
 hours. As fast as it landed, each detachment of the 
 caravan got under way j at length the last horses 
 were safely over. Governor Ben-el-Habassi mounted 
 and rejoined his soldiers on the top of the opposite 
 bank. As he was about to start the ambassador and 
 all of us waved our hands in token of salute, upon 
 which the Kariya el-Habassi guard responded with a 
 tremendous discharge of musketry and disappeared 
 from view, but for several moments longer we could 
 distinguish through the smoke the graceful white 
 figure of the Governor, standing erect in his stirrups, 
 with one arm extended towards us in sign of good 
 wishes and farewell. Accompanied then by only 
 the Fez escort, we made our entry into the district 
 of Beni-Hassan, of melancholy fame.
 
 BEN1-HASSAN. 
 
 (197)
 
 BENI-HASSAK 
 
 WE travelled for more than an hour through fields 
 of very high barley, above which projected here and 
 there a black tent, a camel's head or a column of 
 smoke ; snakes, scorpions and lizards ran across our 
 path. In that brief space of time the sun had 
 already scorched our saddles so that we could hardly 
 touch them with our hands. The glare blinded us, 
 and the dust had choked everyone into silence. That 
 plain stretching away ahead of us like an ocean gave 
 me a sort of fright, as though the caravan might be 
 condemned to travel across it forever. But curiosity 
 to see those haughty Beni- Hassans of whom I had 
 heard so much, at close quarters, revived my spirits. 
 " What sort of people are they ?" I asked one of the 
 interpreters. 
 
 " Thieves and cut-throats," was the reply. " Be- 
 ings from the other world, the hardest characters in 
 Morocco." 
 
 Upon which I scanned the horizon more anxiously 
 than ever. The " beings from the other world " did 
 not, however, keep us waiting long. Far away ahead 
 of us we presently descried a cloud of dust and a very 
 
 (199)
 
 200 BENI-HASSm 
 
 few minutes later were surrounded by a crowd of 
 three hundred mounted savages green, yellow, 
 scarlet, white, purple, ragged, disordered, panting, 
 looking as though they might be fresh from some 
 scene of riot. Through the thick clouds of dust that 
 enveloped us we saw the Governor a long-haired, 
 black-bearded giant followed by two gray-headed 
 Vice-Governors, all three armed with guns approach 
 the ambassador, shake hands with him and withdraw. 
 Straightway the charges, firing and shouts of the es- 
 cort began. They were like so many maniacs. They 
 fired between our mules' legs, over our heads, close to 
 our shoulders. Seen at a little distance they must have 
 seemed exactly like a band of assassins in the act of 
 attacking us. There were terrible-looking old men, 
 with long white beards, so wasted as to be nothing 
 but skin and bone, but who seemed good for centuries. 
 There were young men with great shocks of black 
 hair, which waved in the wind like manes ; many of 
 them had bare chests, arms and legs ; their turbans 
 were masses of red tatters wound around their heads ; 
 torn caiks, wornout saddles, harness made of rope, 
 and swords and daggers of outlandish shapes. And 
 then their faces ! " It is absurd," said the commander, 
 paraphrasing Don Abbondio. " It is absurd to sup- 
 pose that such people as these are going to deny 
 themselves the luxury of killing us." Every indi- 
 vidual face told a tale of blood, and they looked 
 askance at us in passing, as though they were trying
 
 BENI-HASSAN. 201 
 
 to conceal their expressions from us. A hundred of 
 them rode behind us, a hundred on our right, and a 
 hundred on our left, scattered over the plain to a great 
 distance. This plan of stationing a guard on either 
 side was something new, but it was not long before 
 the reason was made manifest. The farther we ad- 
 vanced the more frequent became the tents, until we 
 passed through actual villages, surrounded by Indian 
 figs and aloes, and from all these tents poured a 
 stream of Arabs, clad in nothing but tunics. Singly 
 and in groups, on foot, on horseback, on donkeys, 
 two, sometimes three, astride of one animal 5 women 
 with children on their shoulders j old men leaning on 
 boys, all of them breathless and eager to see us and 
 it may be not to see only. Little by little we were 
 surrounded by an entire population ; then the soldiers 
 of the escort began to disperse them ; they dashed 
 here and there, riding full tilt into the largest groups, 
 shouting, striking out, overturning horses and riders, 
 and scattering curses and abuse in every direction. 
 But as fast as the crowd was broken up in one spot 
 it would reassemble in another, and continue to ac- 
 company us on a run. Through all the dust and 
 smoke, amid the constant flash and report of fire- 
 arms, we would catch glimpses of the wide, open 
 country. In the distance tents, horses, camels, herds, 
 groups of aloes, columns of smoke, crowds of people, 
 standing perfectly still and gazing in our direction in 
 attitudes of profound amazement. We had certainly
 
 202 BENI-HASSAK 
 
 reached an inhabited district at last ! This blessed 
 population of Morocco does exist, then, and is not 
 mythical after all ! At the end of an hour of rather 
 rapid travelling we once more found ourselves in a 
 lonely country, and accompanied only by the escort, 
 and barely a mile beyond, on emerging from behind 
 a group of Indian fig-trees, we came unexpectedly 
 upon what was always a most joyful sight the flag 
 of Italy waving from the centre of our little movable 
 city, the last tents of which were even then being 
 erected. The camp was pitched this time on the 
 banks of the Sebu, which describes a wide curve 
 from the point where we had crossed it in the morn- 
 ing to that which we had now reached. A close chain 
 of sentinels on foot and armed with muskets was 
 drawn all around the tents. Apparently there was 
 no doubt that this district was considered unsafe. 
 Had I had any uncertainty on this head it would 
 have been quickly dispelled by what I was presently 
 told about the inhabitants. The Beni-Hassans are the 
 most turbulent, audacious, quarrelsome and thievish 
 people of the entire Sebu valley. The last proof 
 they gave of this was a sanguinary revolt which 
 broke out in the summer of 1873, when the reigning 
 Sultan ascended the throne. It began with the sack 
 of the Governor's house, from which they carried off 
 everything, even to the women. Stealing, indeed, is 
 their chief profession. Assembling in armed and 
 mounted bands, they make raids across the Sebu and
 
 BENI-HASSAN. 203 
 
 throughout the adjoining districts, stealing all they 
 can carry or drag away, and killing, as a precautionary 
 measure, all whom they meet. They are well-disci- 
 plined 5 have their chiefs, their laws and their privi- 
 leges, which are acknowledged to a certain extent 
 even by the Governor, who sometimes makes use of 
 them to regain possession of stolen property. They 
 steal as a means of levying a sort of fine. The in- 
 jured party, instead of wasting time in useless inves- 
 tigations and complaints, gets back his belongings on 
 the payment of a certain sum agreed upon with the 
 robber chief. As to the boys, it is universally ac- 
 cepted as the most natural thing in the world that a 
 boy should steal everything he can lay his hands 
 upon. If he happens to get a ball in his breast, or 
 have his head broken, so much the worse for him. 
 Of course no one supposes that people like being 
 robbed ; and, moreover, there is no rose without a 
 thorn, as their fathers ingenuously tell them. An 
 eight-year-old boy brings in very little ; one of twelve 
 considerably more, and a youth of sixteen a great 
 deal. Each thief has his own especial line. There 
 is the grain thief, the cattle thief, the horse thief, the 
 merchandise thief, the thief of the duar* and the thief 
 of the road. This last finds his most profitable vic- 
 tims in the Jews, who are forbidden by law from 
 carrying arms. But the most common depredations 
 
 * The name given to Arab encampments.
 
 204 BENI-HASSAN. 
 
 of all are those committed in the duar. In this par- 
 ticular line there are many incomparable artists, not 
 only among the Beni-Hassans, but all through Mo- 
 rocco. They go on these burglarious expeditions on 
 horseback, and the great art consists not so much in 
 the cleverness as in the rapidity of the act. The 
 point is not to escape unseen, but to escape without 
 being caught. They dash up, seize and vanish be- 
 fore the villagers have time to even recognize them. 
 Thefts committed on the wing, flashes of lightning, 
 prestidigitatory games on horseback. But they 
 plunder on foot as well, and here again are masters 
 of the art. Stealing into the duar naked, because 
 dogs do not bark at naked men, or cloaked from head 
 to foot in order to slip the more readily out of the 
 hands of anyone who may lay hold on them, or carry- 
 ing heaps of leaves in their arms so that the horses, 
 mistaking them for bushes, will not take fright. 
 Horses, indeed, are the most highly valued booty of 
 all. The thief flings his arms around the animal's 
 neck, draws his legs up beneath his belly, and off he 
 goes like an arrow. Their audacity is something in- 
 credible j there is not a camp, even be it that of a 
 pasha or an ambassador, to which they do not man- 
 age to gain access, notwithstanding the most vigilant 
 watchfulness. They crawl, glide, flatten themselves 
 against the ground, covered with grass, straw, leaves ; 
 dressed in sheep-skin, disguised as beggars, sick 
 men, idiots, soldiers, saints. They risk their lives
 
 BENI-HASSAK 205 
 
 fpr a chicken, and are willing to go ten miles in the 
 hope of getting a crown. They have actually stolen 
 the money-bags from beneath the very heads of sleep- 
 ing ambassadors. And so it was not so much to be 
 wondered at that on this night, notwithstanding the 
 cordon of sentinels, they managed to get away with 
 a sheep which the cook had tied for safe-keeping to 
 his own bed. On discovering his loss in the morn- 
 ing he stood motionless before his tent for half an 
 hour, with arms folded upon his breast and gloomy 
 eyes fixed upon the horizon, exclaiming from time 
 to time, " Ah ! Madona santa, che pais ! die pais ! 
 che pais /" 
 
 I mentioned above the duars. It is impossible to 
 talk at any length about Morocco without describing 
 them, and, I am very well able to do this both from 
 what I saw of them for myself and what Signor Morteo, 
 who has been in the country twenty years, told me. 
 Signor Morteo, by way of parenthesis, is a singular 
 type of man. A Genoese by birth, still young, mar- 
 ried to a beautiful English woman, the father of two 
 charming children and wealthy enough to live in ele- 
 gance in any capital in Europe, he prefers to remain 
 in voluntary exile in Mazagan, a little town on the 
 Atlantic coast, about two hundred kilometres from 
 Morocco, surrounded by Arabs and Moors, occupied 
 solely with his family and his business, not setting 
 eyes for months at a time on a European face, and 
 keeping up no connection with the civilized world
 
 206 BENI-HASSAN. 
 
 beyond subscribing to two illustrated papers. From 
 time to time he goes on a tour through Italy or France; 
 but he tires of it almost as soon as he gets there, and 
 from the boxes of the Scala or the Grand Opera 
 sighs for his little Moorish house, bathed by the 
 ocean waves, his herds of cattle and his duar, the 
 ignorant, peaceful life of his adopted African home. 
 In that land where not so very long ago a French 
 consular agent became so tortured by melancholy 
 that he went crazy, and another attempted to bury 
 himself alive in the sand on the sea-shore, he has never 
 had a single attack of spleen. He talks Arabic, eats 
 like the natives, lives among them, studies them, loves 
 them, and takes their part on all occasions. He has 
 contracted a few of their faults and many of their 
 good qualities ; in short, there is nothing European 
 left about him but his family, his dress and his Ge- 
 noese accent. Notwithstanding which, no one could 
 possibly have shown himself more charmingly Italian 
 than did he, from the first day of our journey to the 
 last. Interpreter, intendant, guide, companion, he 
 made himself useful to and beloved by all, and no one 
 ever thought of disagreeing with him save upon one 
 single point we wanted Morocco to become civilized, 
 while he contended that civilization would only ren- 
 der the people twice as melancholy and four times 
 more unhappy than they already were, and I must 
 confess that if he was wrong I was more than once 
 tempted to agree with him.
 
 BENI-HASSAN. 207 
 
 The duar is usually a settlement of ten, fifteen or 
 twenty families, connected by some bond of relation- 
 ship, each family having its own tent. These tents 
 stand in two parallel lines, about thirty feet apart, so 
 that a sort of rectangular space is left in the middle, open 
 at both ends. The tents are almost invariably alike j 
 they are made out of a large piece of black or chocolate- 
 colored material, woven from the fibre of dwarf palms 
 or from goats' or camels' hair ; this is stretched over up- 
 right stakes or thick reeds, connected by a wooden cross- 
 piece, on which the roof rests, their shape still resem- 
 bling that of the habitations of the Numidians of the 
 timeof Jugurtha, which Sallust compares to overturned 
 ships with their keels in the air. During the autumn 
 and winter the covering is drawn down to the ground 
 and held in place by means of cords and pegs, so as to 
 effectually exclude both wind and rain. In summer 
 a wide aperture is left all around, so that the air may 
 circulate freely, and this is protected by a low hedge 
 of rushes and dried brambles. Owing to these pre- 
 cautions the tent of the duar is much cooler in sum- 
 mer and better protected through the rainy season 
 than the same class of Moorish dwellings in the cities, 
 since the latter are without either proper ventilation or 
 glazed windows. The maximum height of a tent is 
 about eight feet, the maximum length about ten. 
 Any which may exceed these dimensions belong to 
 wealthy sheiks, and are extremely rare. A partition 
 made of rushes divides the dwelling in two parts, in
 
 208 BENI-HASSAN. 
 
 one of which the father and mother sleep, and in the 
 other the children and the rest of the family. A few 
 osier mats, a brightly-colored and arabesqued wooden 
 box, containing clothing ; a small looking-glass, manu- 
 factured in Trieste or Venice ; a high tripod, made 
 of canes and covered with a Ifidik^ under which the 
 family bathing is done ; a couple of stones for grind- 
 ing wheat 5 a loom, such as was used in the days of 
 Abraham ; a rough tin lantern, a few earthenware 
 jugs, a few goat-skins, a few dishes, a distaff, a sad- 
 dle, a gun, a big dagger, such is the entire furnishing 
 of one of these dwellings. In one corner a hen gathers 
 in her brood of chickens, a brick oven faces the en- 
 trance, and on one side of the tent is a small vegetable 
 garden ; beyond are some round holes, faced with stone 
 and cement, in which grain is stored. In almost 
 every large duar there is one tent standing a little 
 apart, occupied by the school-master, who receives a 
 salary of a dollar a month, beside a good many pro- 
 visions. All the boys are sent there to repeat over 
 and over again the same verses from the Koran, and 
 when these are learned by heart, to write them on pieces 
 of wood ; but as the majority of the pupils leave school 
 before they have learned to read, in order to assist 
 their parents at their work, they soon forget what 
 little they have learned. Those few who are willing 
 and able to study keep on until they are twenty, and 
 then go to some town to complete their education, 
 eventually becoming talebs, which signifies notary or
 
 BENI-HASSAN. 209 
 
 lawyer, and is the same thing as priest, since with 
 the Mohammedans the civil and religious law is iden- 
 tical. The life of the duar is of the simplest descrip- 
 tion. At daybreak every one gets up, says his 
 prayers, the cows are milked, the butter made and 
 the sour milk that is left, drunk ; for drinking-cups 
 they use conch and limpet-shells, which they pur- 
 chase from the people living on the coast. Then the 
 men go to their work in the fields, not returning until 
 towards nightfall. The women meantime carry wood 
 and water, grind flour, spin the coarse fabrics in 
 which they and their husbands are clothed, twist rope 
 for their tents from the fibre of the dwarf palm ; send 
 their husbands' mid-day food to them and prepare the 
 Kuskussu for the evening. The Kuskussu is mixed 
 with beans, gourds, onions and other vegetables j 
 sometimes it is sweetened, spiced and dressed with a 
 meat sauce, and on feast days meat is served with it. 
 On the return of the men, supper is eaten, and at 
 sunset everyone goes to bed ; but sometimes one of 
 the old men will tell a story after supper, seated in 
 the middle of the family circle. Throughout the 
 night the duar is plunged in profound silence and 
 darkness ; only a few families will occasionally leave 
 lanterns burning before their tents to guide any way- 
 farer who may have missed his path. The dress of 
 both men and women consists of a cotton tunic, 
 fastened about the waist 5 a cloak and a very coarse 
 Twi/ik. As the latter is only washed once or twice a 
 VOL. I. 14
 
 210 BENI-HASSAN. 
 
 year, on the occasion of some very great solemnity, 
 it is usually the color of the owner's skin, or still 
 darker. More pains are taken, however, in the 
 care of the body, since, until the ablutions commanded 
 by the Koran have been duly performed, no one can 
 say his prayers. Most of the women bathe the entire 
 person every day, retiring for the purpose beneath 
 the &a*&-covered tripod ; but, nevertheless, working 
 and sleeping as they do, they are always dirty to an 
 incredible degree, and this notwithstanding the fact, 
 oh, wonder of wonders ! that they use soap. Many 
 of the duar Arabs pass their spare time in playing 
 cards, and a favorite amusement among the men is 
 to lie flat on their backs and tell their children stories j 
 but as the latter grow up their parents are apt to be- 
 come indifferent towards them, a feeling returned by 
 the children on their part. Many a duar boy gets 
 to be ten or fourteen years of age without ever hav- 
 ing seen a house, and it is amusing to hear the ac- 
 counts of Moors or Europeans, who have taken them 
 into service in their houses in town, of their bewilder- 
 ment on first finding themselves in a room; how 
 they feel the walls and stamp on the floor, and with 
 what intense delight they look out of the windows 
 and run down the stairs. 
 
 The great events in these roving villages are the 
 weddings. The relatives and friends of the bride 
 conduct her, with much shouting and many discharges 
 of fire-arms, to the duar of the groom seated upon the
 
 BENI-HASSAN. 211 
 
 back of a camel and entirely enveloped in a white or 
 light-blue cloak. She is perfumed, her nails are 
 stained with henne, her eyebrows blackened with 
 burnt cork, and she is usually fattened up for the 
 occasion with a certain herb called ebba, much used 
 by young girls. The groom's duar^ for its part, in- 
 vites all the neighboring duars to attend the festivity, 
 as many as from one to two hundred men, mounted 
 and armed with guns, often responding to the invita- 
 tion. The bride dismounts before the house of her 
 future husband, and, seated upon a saddle padded and 
 decked with flowers, witnesses the fete. While the 
 men go through a " powder play " the women and 
 girls form a circle in front of her, and dance to the 
 music of a pipe and drum all around a lio/ik spread on 
 the ground, into which every guest throws a piece of 
 money in passing for the use of the young couple, 
 while a crier announces the amount of the gift in 
 stentorian tones and invokes a blessing on the giver. 
 Towards evening the dancing and firing cease, the 
 guests all seat themselves on the ground, and enor- 
 mous dishes of Kuskussu, roast chicken, mutton 
 cooked on a spit, sweetmeats and fruit are handed 
 around, the supper lasting until midnight. The next 
 day the bride, dressed all in white, her hood drawn 
 down and a red scarf wrapped around her head so as 
 to cover the mouth, makes a tour among the neigh- 
 boring duars to collect more money, accompanied by 
 her friends and relatives. After this the groom goes
 
 212 BENI-HASSAN. 
 
 back to his toil in the fields, the bride betakes herself 
 to the millstone, and love flies away. 
 
 Dancing also forms a part of the ceremonies when 
 any one dies. The nearest relative of the deceased 
 recounts his virtues, while the others crowd around 
 dancing with mournful gestures and postures, cover- 
 ing themselves with mud, tearing their hair and 
 scratching their faces ; then the body is washed, 
 wrapped in a piece of new cloth and borne on a lit- 
 ter to the cemetery, where it is buried, resting on the 
 right side, with the face turned to the east. Such is 
 their manner of life and such are the customs which 
 are, so to speak, patent ; but the inner existence, who 
 knows anything of that ? Who can disentangle the 
 threads from which the web of duar life is woven ? 
 Who knows how the first words of love are spoken j 
 what forms food for gossip j in what strange manner, 
 with what strange details, jealousy and envy are born 
 and resisted ; what virtues shine ; what sacrifices are 
 made ; what abominable passions hold sway between 
 those four canvas walls ? Who can trace the origin 
 of their astounding superstitions I Who can sort 
 that odd medley of traditions, half-pagan, half-Chris- 
 tian ? the cross marked on the skin, vague beliefs 
 in the existence of satyrs, the prints of whose forked 
 feet they find on the ground ; the infant carried in 
 triumph when the grain first begins to shoot; the 
 name of Mary invoked in aid of women during their 
 confinement ; those circular dances so suggestive of
 
 BENI-HASSAN. 213 
 
 the rites of sun-worshippers. One thing only is per- 
 fectly clear about them, and that is their poverty. 
 They live on the scanty products of poorly cultivated 
 land, out of which must also be squeezed enough to 
 satisfy the heavy and variable demands of the sheik 
 or chief of the dwxr, a functionary elected by them- 
 selves, who is directly under the orders of the Gov- 
 ernor of the district. A tenth part of the crops must 
 be paid either in money or in kind to the Governor, 
 and an average of one franc for every beast. A 
 hundred francs a year is demanded for every piece 
 of ground requiring the labor of two oxen, while on 
 all the great annual feasts they are obliged to make 
 the Sultan a present amounting to nearly five francs 
 for every tent. They pay out money or furnish beasts 
 as the Governor may decree, whenever the Sultan, or 
 a pasha, or an embassy, or a troop of soldiers passes 
 through the district. And if with all this any one 
 does manage to save a little money it only exposes 
 him to the extortions and persecutions of the Gov- 
 ernor, not veiled nor excused by any shadow of pre- 
 text, but conducted with open violence. To be re- 
 puted wealthy is a real misfortune, and he who has a 
 little hoard buries it in the ground, spends it secretly 
 and feigns poverty and hunger. No one will accept 
 a rusty coin in payment, although he may know it to 
 be perfectly good, for fear he may be thought to have 
 buried treasure, and so be exposed to persecution. 
 When a rich man dies, his relatives, in order to avert
 
 214 BENI-HASSAN. 
 
 the plundering of his property by the Governor, 
 make him a present. Presents are made by appli- 
 cants for justice, to avert oppression, to avoid being 
 reduced to starvation ; and when at length famine 
 grips them, and blinded by desperation these unfor- 
 tunate creatures pull down their tents, seize their 
 guns and raise the cry of revolt what happens? 
 The Sultan lets loose three thousand furies on horse- 
 back, who forthwith sow death throughout the rebel- 
 lious province. Heads are cut off, herds stolen, 
 women abducted, crops fired, the land reduced to a 
 wilderness of blood and ashes, and the messengers 
 returning to the seat of government announce that 
 the rebellion is crushed. If, on the other hand, it 
 spreads, and in spite of all the Governor's efforts the 
 rebels finally succeed in routing the enemy's forces 
 and remaining masters of the field, what is gained 
 beyond a brief period of liberty at the cost of thous- 
 ands of lives ? They elect another Sultan, bring on 
 a dynastic war between the different districts, and 
 quickly find themselves in the grasp of a despotism 
 still more severe than that from which they broke 
 loose; and so it has been going on for the past ten 
 centuries. 
 
 At daybreak on the morning of the 10th the cara- 
 van got under way, accompanied by the three hun- 
 dred horsemen of Beni-Hassen and their Governor, 
 Abd- Allah servant of God. Throughout the entire 
 morning we continued to travel across the plain be-
 
 BENI-HASSAN. 215 
 
 tween fields of barley, wheat and maize, broken by 
 wide patches of wild fennel and flowers, and dotted 
 over with groups of trees and black tents, which 
 looked like the great heaps of coal one sees here and 
 there on the Tuscan downs. We saw many more 
 herds, horses, camels and parties of Arabs than on 
 any previous day. Far ahead of us we could descry 
 a chain of pale-gray mountains on the horizon, and 
 in the middle distance, between them and the cara- 
 van, two kubbas, the first illuminated by the sun's 
 rays, the other barely visible. They were the kub- 
 605 of Sidi-Gueddar and Sidi-Hassem respectively, 
 and between them runs the boundary-line of the 
 Beni-Hassan district ; the camp was to be pitched 
 close by the most distant of the two. Long, how- 
 ever, before we had reached this spot Governor Sidi- 
 Abd-Allah, who from the moment of setting out had 
 appeared thoughtful and ill at ease, approached the 
 ambassador and made signs that he wished to speak 
 to him. Mohammed Ducali conducted the interview. 
 "Will the Italian ambassador pardon me," said the 
 haughty Governor, " if I should be so bold as to ask 
 his permission to turn back with my escort 1" 
 
 The ambassador asked why he wished to do so. 
 " Because," replied Sidi-Abd- Allah, knitting his fierce 
 black eyebrows, " my house is in danger." Nothing 
 less ! What a charming task it must be to govern 
 the Beni-Hassans ! 
 
 The ambassador consenting, Sidi-Abd-AUah took
 
 216 BENI-HASSAN. 
 
 his hand and pressed it to his breast with an expres- 
 sion of the liveliest gratitude j then wheeling round, 
 the entire varicolored, ragged, horrible throng 
 spurred off at full speed, and in a few moments were 
 no more than a cloud of dust on the horizon.
 
 SIDI-HASSEM. 
 
 (217)
 
 SIDI-HASSEM. 
 
 THE district into which we were about to enter is 
 a sort of colony divided into farms among the fam- 
 ilies of a large number of soldiers, in each of which 
 military duty is imposed upon every male child, and 
 every boy born, so to speak, a soldier, renders such 
 service as he is able from childhood, receiving a fixed 
 stipend even before he can carry a gun. These mili- 
 tary families are, moreover, exempt from taxation, 
 and their estates are inalienable so long as the male 
 succession continues. Thus they constitute a regu- 
 lar military organization, disciplined and faithful, by 
 whose aid the Governor can tranquilly " devour," as 
 the local phraseology has it, a rebel province without 
 fear of the sword he wields being turned against him- 
 self. It might be termed a corps of military tax-col- 
 lectors, which brings much more in to tne Governor 
 than it costs him to keep, since in Morocco the army 
 is particularly useful to the department of finance, 
 and the principal tool used by the administrative 
 machine is the sword. 
 
 Hardly had we crossed the border of Beni-Hassan 
 when we saw a crowd of horsemen in the distance 
 
 (219)
 
 220 SEDI-HASSEM. 
 
 coming towards us at a gallop, preceded by a green 
 flag. An unusual circumstance was their being 
 ranged in two long lines, one behind the other, with 
 the officers in front. When they were about twenty 
 feet distant from us they halted suddenly and simul- 
 taneously, and their commander, a stout old man with 
 a white beard, amiable expression and an extremely 
 high turban, held his hand out to the ambassador, 
 saying : " You are welcome ! You are welcome !" 
 and then to us, " Welcome, welcome, welcome." 
 
 We then proceeded on our way. These new cava- 
 liers were very different from those of Beni-Hassan ; 
 they had cleaner clothes and brighter arms, almost 
 all their yellow slippers were embroidered in red, 
 their swords had rhinoceros-horn handles, and they 
 wore light-blue cloaks, white caftans and green belts. 
 Many of them were quite advanced in years, but it 
 was that hardy form of old age which seems likely to 
 be indefinitely prolonged ; others, again, were very 
 young. I recollect one couple in particular who could 
 not have been more than ten years old, handsome and 
 full of life. They looked at us smilingly, seeming to say, 
 " Well, now, you have not such hangmen's faces, after 
 all, as we were led to expect." There was one old 
 negro of such gigantic stature that had he stretched 
 his feet down out of the stirrups he would almost 
 have stood on the ground. One of the officers 
 wore stockings ! In about a half an hour we met 
 another troop, carrying a red flag and commanded by
 
 feet distant from ua 
 taneously, and their 
 a white beard, amia 
 
 saying : H You are welcome ! You are 
 tod then to us, " Welcome, wc4conie, wcl 
 
 
 ter arms, alm< 
 
 
 Soldier of the Sultan
 
 SIDI-HASSEM. 221 
 
 another old Kaid, who fell in with the first, and later 
 on still another, and so on, sometimes only a half 
 dozen men in the party, sometimes many more, each 
 carrying its flag and on its way to swell the ranks of 
 the escort. When the number was finally complete 
 the usual exercises began. It was easy to see that 
 these were regulars ; they went through their manceu- 
 vres with far more precision than any whom we had 
 yet seen. One of these was new to us one soldier 
 dashed ahead with loosened bridle-rein ; another fol- 
 lowed close after him also on a full run ; all at once 
 the leader rose in his stirrups, and turning entirely 
 around, fired his musket into the other's breast, the 
 latter, at the same instant, firing into his side, so that 
 had the guns been loaded they must have dropped 
 dead simultaneously. Once a horse fell when going 
 at full speed, precipitating his rider over his head to 
 such a distance that we thought he surely must be 
 killed, instead of which he leaped to his feet and re- 
 gained his saddle in a twinkling, returning to the 
 charge more furiously than ever. Each one shouted 
 his own peculiar cry. (t Look out ! Look out !" 
 " You are all witnesses !" " It is I !" " Here comes 
 death !" " Wretched me !" (one who had missed his 
 aim). " Make room for the barber !" (it was the sol- 
 diers' barber), and one had the curious cry, " To my 
 painted one !" which made all his companions laugh. 
 The interpreter explained that what he meant was, 
 " to my sweetheart, who is as beautiful as a painting,"
 
 222 SIDI-HASSEM. 
 
 an odd thing for people who not only have the great- 
 est aversion to any representation of the human form, 
 but actually have no very clear idea of what a paint- 
 ing is like. The two boys charged together, shouting, 
 " Make way for the brothers !" and then fired into the 
 ground, with heads bent so low as nearly to touch their 
 saddles. In this manner we approached the Jcufoba 
 of Sidi-Hassem, where the camp was to be pitched. 
 
 Poor Hamed Ben-Kasen Buhamei ! Until now I 
 have only alluded to you in passing, but as I think 
 of how I saw you that morning helping the servants 
 to drive in the stakes of the ambassador's tent I feel 
 that I must give some expression to my admiration 
 for and gratitude towards you. What a kindly gen- 
 eral he was ! From the day we set out he had never 
 yet had one of the soldiers or servants whipped ; 
 never for an instant displayed the slightest ill-humor ; 
 had always been the first out of his tent in the morn- 
 ing, and the last to go to bed at night ; had never let 
 it appear to even the most observing eye that his 
 salary of forty francs a month struck him as being a 
 little low | he had not the least shadow of self-im- 
 portance ; he would help us to mount, examine our 
 saddles to see that they were firm ; give our stubborn 
 mules a blow in passing ; was always at hand for 
 everyone and everything ; threw himself down beside 
 our tents like any humble mule driver ; smiled back 
 whenever he saw us smile ; offered us Kuskussu ; 
 leaped to his feet at the ambassador's slightest motion,
 
 SIDI-HASSEM. 223 
 
 like a puppet on springs 5 said his prayers five times 
 a day like a good Mussulman ; counted the eggs of 
 the mona ; oversaw the slaughter of the sheep ; 
 looked at the artists' sketch-books without giving a 
 sign that he was scandalized; and was, in short, as I 
 should suppose, the man the most ad hoc for this par- 
 ticular mission whom his majesty, the Sultan, could 
 possibly have selected from among the entire ranks 
 of his bare-foot generals. Hamed-Ben Kasen fre- 
 quently recalled with pride the fact that his father 
 had been a general in the war with Spain, and he 
 sometimes spoke of his own sons, who were with their 
 mother at Mequinez, her native city. 
 
 " It is three months," he said one day, with a sigh, 
 " since I last saw them." 
 
 Perhaps what he really meant was a since I last 
 saw her," but he said " them " from modesty. 
 
 After having witnessed the presentation of the 
 mona including on that occasion a prodigious dish 
 of Kuskussu, which five Arabs could barely carry 
 we took refuge as usual in our tents to wait until the 
 daily 104 in the shade should be over. The ther- 
 mometer stayed at that point until four o'clock in the 
 afternoon, and during that time the camp was plunged 
 in absolute silence ; at four it came to life again. 
 The artists took up their brushes ; the doctor inter- 
 viewed his patients ; one would go off to take a bath ; 
 another to shoot at a mark ; another to pay a call in 
 one of the other tents ; another to watch the exer-
 
 224 SIDI-HASSEM. 
 
 cises of the escort ; another to see the cook wrestling 
 with Africa 5 another to visit a neighboring duar ; and 
 thus everyone had something to tell about when we 
 all met at dinner, and the conversation was like a 
 display of fireworks. That evening I went with the 
 commander to view the mano3uvres of the escort in a 
 large open space near the camp. About a hundred 
 Arabs were seated in a long line on the edge of a 
 ditch looking on. No sooner did they espy us than 
 some of them got up and, followed by others, came 
 after us, until at last they all were crowding behind 
 us. We pretended not to notice them, and for a few 
 minutes no one uttered a sound. Then one said 
 something, we could not make out what, that made 
 the others all laugh ; then another spoke, and then a 
 third, and so on, and at every remark there- would be 
 a fresh burst of merriment. It was perfectly clear 
 that they were laughing at us, and we soon noticed that 
 the observations and mirth corresponded with our ges- 
 tures and certain inflexions of the voice. It was the 
 most natural thing in the world. They thought us 
 ridiculous, but what were they saying ? This we were 
 very curious to know. Just then Signor Morteo passed 
 by. Making a slight sign to attract his attention, I 
 begged him to keep his ears open without appearing 
 to do so, and to give me a literal translation of the 
 jests of those big children. One of them said some- 
 thing almost immediately which, as usual, provoked 
 much laughter.
 
 SIDI-HASSEM. 225 
 
 "He says," translated Signer Morteo, "that he 
 does not see what purpose is served by our coat-tails, 
 unless they are to conceal real tails." 
 
 A moment later there was another remark and an- 
 other laugh. 
 
 " He says that the part at the back of your head 
 is where the inhabitants perform their ldb-el-barod" 
 
 A third remark, and a third shout of mirth. 
 
 " He says how odd these Christians are. In order 
 to appear taller they put jugs on their heads and 
 props under their heels." 
 
 Just then one of the camp dogs came running up 
 and crouched at our feet. Some one said something, 
 but the laughter that followed sounded a little forced. 
 
 " This is going too far," said Signer Morteo. " He 
 said that the dog had come to lie down with his fel- 
 low-dogs ; it is time to settle them ;" and so saying he 
 wheeled about suddenly and said a few words in 
 Arabic in a warning voice. It was like a clap of 
 thunder ; a moment later not one of them was to be 
 seen. Poor fellows ! let us be just to them. Setting 
 aside the charges concerning the " inhabitants " and 
 the brotherhood with the dog, they surely had a per- 
 fect right to say about us what we, as a matter of 
 fact, were struck by every time we compared our- 
 selves with them. Ten times a day, when those superb 
 horsemen were wheeling about us, we would say to 
 one another, "Oh, yes, we are civilized, no doubt, 
 and we represent a great nation, and we have more 
 VOL. I. 15
 
 226 SLDI-HASSEM. 
 
 science in our ten heads than is to be found in the 
 entire Empire of the Sherifs, but astride of these 
 mules, dressed in these garments and these colors and 
 these hats, great heavens ! what figures we cut be- 
 side them !" Ah, how true it was ! The very least 
 of those tattered riders was more graceful, more 
 stately, more calculated to excite a woman's admira- 
 tion than all the dandies of Europe put together. 
 Another curious little scene took place that evening 
 at table. The two oldest Raids in the escort came 
 to see the ambassador, and sat down beside him. On 
 being asked if they had ever heard of Italy they both 
 replied in the same breath, and with violent gesticu- 
 lations, " Never ! Never !" as though eager to deny 
 some charge that had been preferred against them. 
 Then the ambassador, with the patience of a school- 
 master, gave them some geographical and political 
 points concerning our mysterious country, to which 
 they listened wide-eyed and open-mouthed, like two 
 children. 
 
 " And what is the population of your country ?" 
 asked one. 
 
 " Twenty-five millions," replied the ambassador. 
 
 They made a gesture of amazement. 
 
 " And Morocco," said the other, " how many mil- 
 lions has it f 
 
 " Four," answered the ambassador, to sound them. 
 
 " Only four !" they exclaimed ingenuously, gazing 
 at one another.
 
 SEDI-HASSEM. 227 
 
 Those two worthy generals knew no more about 
 Morocco than they did about Italy, and no more pos- 
 sibly about their own district than the rest of Morocco. 
 Before going they said something still more amusing. 
 Signor Morteo showed them a photograph of his wife, 
 saying : 
 
 " Allow me to present my wife." 
 
 They looked at it again and again with the great- 
 est interest, and then said : 
 
 " And the others ! 
 
 Either they did not know, or, as is more likely, had 
 forgotten, that Christians are unlucky enough to be 
 allowed only one apiece. 
 
 Sleep that night was out of the question. The 
 cocks crowed, the dogs barked, the sheep bleated, 
 the horses neighed, the sentinels sang, the water- 
 sellers rang their bells, the soldiers quarreled over 
 the redistribution of the mona, the servants tripped 
 continually over the tent-ropes, the camp seemed to 
 be an open market. But there remained only four 
 more days of travel, and we had a magic word that 
 consoled us for everything " Fez !"
 
 ZEGGOTA. 
 
 (229)
 
 ZEGGOTA. 
 
 WE made an early start for Zeggota, inspirited by 
 the thought that on that day we should behold the 
 mountains of Fez in the distance. There was an 
 autumnal freshness in the air, and a light mist ob- 
 scured the surrounding country. A crowd of Arabs 
 wrapped in their cloaks formed two wings at the en- 
 trance to the camp. The soldiers of the escort were 
 huddled together in a close chilly group behind us, 
 and the children of the neighboring duars gazed out 
 with sleepy eyes from behind the tents and hedges. 
 Ere long, however, all this changed, the sun came 
 out, spectators crowded around us, the horsemen scat- 
 tered in all directions, the air resounded with shouts 
 and the rapid reports of fire-arms, and everything 
 became suddenly bright, animated, full of life and 
 color, while the autumnal cold was succeeded, as is 
 always the case in that climate, by the burning heat 
 of summer. Among my notes of that morning I find 
 one which says laconically : " Grasshoppers, sample 
 of Selam's eloquence." I remember, in fact, to have 
 noticed a field some distance off that seemed to be in 
 motion, an effect produced by an enormous number 
 
 (231)
 
 232 ZEGGOTA. 
 
 of green grasshoppers coining towards us in leaps. 
 Selam, who happened to be riding beside me just 
 then, gave me an admirably picturesque description 
 of the incursions of those terrible insects, which I 
 remember word for word 5 but how can I possibly 
 render the effect of his gestures, his expression and 
 the tones of his voice, which really told more than 
 the words themselves. " It is frightful, signer ; they 
 come from over there," pointing to the south, " like a 
 black cloud; the noise is heard from afar. They come, 
 they come, and at their head their Sultan, the Sultan 
 Jeraad, who leads them on ; they cover the roads, 
 the fields, houses, duars, forests. The cloud grows 
 larger and larger, on, on, on, gnawing and consum- 
 ing ; over rivers, over ditches, over walls, through 
 fire 5 the grass is destroyed, the flowers, the leaves, 
 the fruit, the grain, the bark of the trees ; on and on, 
 no one can stop them, not flaming tribes, not the 
 Sultan with his army, not all the people of Morocco 
 assembled together. Heaps of dead grasshoppers. 
 Forward go the living. Do ten die ? A hundred 
 are born. Do a hundred die ? A thousand are born. 
 Such sights at Tangier ! streets covered, gardens cov- 
 ered, sea-shore covered, sea covered, everything 
 green, everything in motion ; living, dead, decayed, 
 offensive ; a plague, a pestilence, a curse from God!" 
 And this is really so. The fetid odor arising from 
 myriads of dead grasshoppers sometimes produces a 
 contagious form of fever ; and, to cite one instance,
 
 ZEGGOTA. 233 
 
 the terrible plague which in 1799 fairly depopulated 
 both the towns and country of Bombay broke out 
 just after one of their visitations. When the ad- 
 vance guard of the invading army appears the Arabs 
 go forward to meet it, in parties of four or five hun- 
 dred, with sticks, clubs and firebrands, but only suc- 
 ceed in forcing the enemy to deviate somewhat from 
 its course ; and it occasionally happens that when 
 one tribe drives them back thus from their own into 
 the district of a neighboring tribe, the grasshopper 
 war is converted into a civil war. The only thing 
 that frees the country from this curse is a favorable 
 wind; this blows them into the sea, where they drown 
 and are swept up on the beach for days afterwards 
 in great heaps. When the favorable wind still de- 
 lays, the only possible consolation left the inhabitants 
 is to eat their enemies ; this they do before they have 
 laid their eggs, boiling them and adding a seasoning 
 of salt, pepper and vinegar. They taste a little like 
 sea-crabs, and as many as four hundred can be eaten 
 in a single day. 
 
 About two miles from camp we overtook that part 
 of the caravan which was bearing Victor Emmanuel's 
 presents to Fez. White camels were harnessed to- 
 gether, two by two, in tandem fashion, by long poles 
 attached to either side of the saddle, from which 
 swung the cases ; they were in charge of some Arabs 
 on foot and some mounted soldiers, and at their head 
 was a wagon drawn by two oxen, the onlv wagon we
 
 234 ZEGGOTA. 
 
 had seen in Morocco ! It had been especially made 
 at El Araish upon the model, I should say, of the first 
 vehicle that ever appeared upon the earth's surface ; 
 squat, heavy, ill-formed, with wheels composed of 
 solid blocks of wood, and the most curious and absurd- 
 looking harness that could possibly be imagined. But 
 to the inhabitants of the duars, most of whom had 
 in all probability never seen a wheeled vehicle before, 
 it was a marvel. They ran to behold it from all di- 
 rections, pointed it out to each other, followed behind 
 and walked in front of it with visible excitement. 
 Even our mules, unaccustomed to the sight of such 
 objects, showed great reluctance to pass it, some 
 planting themselves stubbornly on their fore feet and 
 others wheeling completely around. Selam himself 
 regarded it with a certain complacency, as though 
 saying, " That was made in our country;" and this 
 was excusable, seeing that in all Morocco there are 
 very likely no more wagons than pianos, which, if 
 the estimate of a French consul is correct, would re- 
 duce the number to about a dozen. There seems, 
 indeed, to be a certain antipathy to vehicles of every 
 kind. The Tangier authorities, for example, forbade 
 Prince Frederick, of Hesse-Darmstadt, when he was 
 there in 1839, to ride out in a carriage. The Prince 
 wrote to the Sultan offering to have the principal 
 streets paved at his own expense, provided the per- 
 mission refused by the authorities were granted him. 
 " I will grant it most willingly," replied the Sultan,
 
 ZEGGOTA. 235 
 
 "but upon one condition that the carriage shall 
 have no wheels, since as Protector of the Faithful I 
 cannot permit my subjects to be exposed to the risk 
 of being run over by a Christian." Whereupon the 
 Prince, to turn the whole thing into ridicule, took 
 him at his word, and there are people in Tangier now 
 who remember seeing him going about the town in 
 a carriage without wheels, suspended between two 
 mules! 
 
 At last we reached that blessed hill for which for 
 three days past the caravan had been looking with such 
 longing impatience. After making a tedious ascent 
 we passed through a narrow gorge called in Arabic 
 Ben Tinea, which we were obliged to take single file, 
 and came out above a charming valley, flowery and 
 solitary, into which the caravan descended in festive 
 style, filling the air with shouts and bursts of song. 
 At the foot of the valley we came upon another body 
 of soldiers belonging to the military colonies, come to 
 relieve the first. There were a hundred of them, 
 very old and very young, dark, long-haired, some of 
 them mounted on enormous horses with housings of 
 unusual splendor. Their Raid, Abou-ben-Gileli, was 
 a sturdy old man of severe aspect and curt manner, 
 of wh^m, and of his soldiers, one might have said as 
 Don Abbondio did of the anonymous leader and the 
 assassins : u I can well understand that to control 
 such faces as these nothing less is needed than such a 
 face as that." Without so much as a glance at the
 
 236 ZEGOOTA. 
 
 fields of ripening wheat and barley that lined the road 
 on either side, the soldiers urged their horses for- 
 ward, and scattering in all directions on a full gallop, 
 began the powder play, five and ten firing at a time 
 into the air, wheeling to left and right, turning 
 about in their saddles in every conceivable manner, 
 and yelling all the while like demons. One of them 
 whirled his gun around with such rapidity that it 
 could hardly be seen ; another, as he flew by, shouted 
 in a tremendous voice, " Here comes the thunder- 
 bolt !" a third, whose horse had swerved a little, came 
 within a hair's-breadth of landing in our midst and 
 throwing us all to the ground with our heels in the 
 air. At a certain point the ambassador and captain, 
 accompanied by Hamed-ben-Kasen and a few sol- 
 diers, separated from the rest of the caravan and 
 went off to make the ascent of a mountain a few 
 miles away, while we continued our route. A few 
 minutes later an incident occurred which I am not 
 likely ever to forget. 
 
 A half-naked Arab boy, about sixteen or eighteen 
 years old, came towards us, driving two recalcitrant 
 oxen, by the aid of a heavy stick. The Kaid, Abou- 
 ben-Gileli, stopped his horse and called him. We 
 learned afterwards that the oxen were to have 
 been attached to the wagon which we had passed not 
 long before, and that they were several hours behind 
 time. The unfortunate boy approached trembling, 
 and stood before the Kaid, who put some question
 
 ZEGGOTA. 237 
 
 to him I did not understand. The lad stammered a 
 reply, and went white as death. 
 
 " Fifty lashes/' said the Kaid curtly, turning to his 
 men. 
 
 Three powerful fellows at once leaped from their 
 horses, and the poor wretch without waiting for them 
 to lay hold of him, without uttering a single word, or 
 so much as raising his eyes to the countenance of his 
 judge, threw himself flat on his face, as the custom 
 is, with arms and legs extended. All of this had 
 transpired in an instant ; but the stick had not been 
 lifted in the air before the commander and some of 
 the others, dashing into the midst of the group, had 
 made the Kaid understand that they could not think 
 of permitting such a brutal punishment to be inflicted. 
 Abou-ben-Gileli inclined his head, and the boy arose, 
 pale, with convulsed features, gazing alternately at 
 his deliverers and the Kaid with an expression of 
 mingled fear and astonishment. 
 
 " Go," said the interpreter, " you are free." 
 
 " Ah !" he cried with an intonation that cannot be 
 conveyed, and quick as lightning, disappeared. 
 
 We proceeded on our way, but I must say that, 
 although I have seen a man killed, I have never ex- 
 perienced such feelings of profound horror as when I 
 beheld that half-naked boy stretched out on the 
 ground to receive his fifty lashes ; and after the hor- 
 ror of the thing my blood began to boil, and I de- 
 nounced the Kaid, the Sultan, Morocco and its in-
 
 238 ZEGGOTA. 
 
 humanity in the most violent terms. It is, however, 
 undoubtedly better to wait for second thoughts. a But 
 how about ourselves ?" I presently reflected. " How 
 many years is it since we abolished whipping ? And 
 how many since it was abolished in Austria ? and in 
 Prussia 1 and throughout the rest of Europe ?" These 
 thoughts had the effect of somewhat curbing my 
 righteous indignation, and I was left with only a 
 strong feeling of bitterness. If anyone cares to 
 know how whipping is conducted in Morocco, suffice 
 it to say that when the operation is completed it 
 sometimes happens that the victim is carried to the 
 cemetery. 
 
 During the remainder of the ride to Zeggota the 
 caravan passed over a succession of hills and valleys, 
 the road running between fields of wheat and barley 
 and bright green pasture, bordered with aloes, In- 
 dian figs, wild olives, dwarf oaks, ivy, strawberry- 
 trees, myrtles and flowering shrubs. Not a tent was 
 in sight, not a living soul to be seen. The country 
 was as luxuriant, silent and deserted as an enchanted 
 garden. Once on reaching the top of a certain hill 
 we descried the blue summits of the Fez Mountains, 
 which, however, immediately disappeared again as 
 though they had merely raised their heads a moment 
 to see us pass. In the hottest part of the day we 
 arrived at Zeggota. This was one of the most ex- 
 quisite spots we saw throughout the entire trip. The 
 camp was pitched on the mountain-side, in a great
 
 ZEGGOTA. 239 
 
 rocky cavity, shaped like an amphitheatre, and worn 
 by the successive passage back and forth of man and 
 beast into innumerable paths, one above the other, 
 whose more or less regular lines had the effect of 
 graduated seats, and as a matter of fact these tiers 
 were at that very moment crowded with Arabs, who 
 sat on the ground in semicircles, like spectators in 
 some actual amphitheatre. Below us lay a wide, 
 basin-shaped plain, whose cultivated fields made it 
 look like a huge checker-board, with squares of green, 
 yellow, white, red and purple silk and velvet. Look- 
 ing through field-glasses we could see on the more 
 distant hills here a row of tents, there a Tcubba half- 
 hidden among the aloes ; in one place a camel, be- 
 yond it an Arab lying on the ground, a herd of cattle, 
 a group of women 5 sluggish, infrequent signs of life, 
 that made one feel more forcibly than their entire 
 absence would have done the profound peacefulness 
 of the scene. Above all this loveliness a white, blaz- 
 ing, blinding sky, forcing one to bow his head and 
 half-close his eyes. 
 
 But it is not so much the beauties of nature that 
 make Zeggota an undying memory with me as a cer- 
 tain experiment I made there with Ttiff. 
 
 Kiff, let me say for the benefit of those who are 
 unfamiliar with it, is the leaf of a sort of hemp called 
 hashish, celebrated throughout the East for its nar- 
 cotic qualities. It is much used in Morocco, and it 
 may generally be taken for granted that those Arabs
 
 240 ZEGGOTA. 
 
 and Moors, so frequently to be seen in the towns, 
 gazing at the passers-by with dull, unseeing eyes, or 
 dragging themselves along like persons stunned by a 
 blow on the head, are victims of this pernicious plant. 
 Most people smoke the Idff^ mixed with a little tobacco, 
 in tiny clay pipes, or it may be eaten in a form of 
 confectionery, called madjun^ made of butter, honey, 
 nuts, musk and cloves. The effects are very peculiar. 
 Doctor Miguerez, who had tried it, had often told me 
 of his experiences, recounting, among other things, 
 how he was seized with an irresistible desire to laugh, 
 and how he seemed to be lifted off the ground, so 
 that in passing through a doorway, about twice his 
 own height, he had bent his head for fear of striking 
 it against the lintel. All of this so aroused my curi- 
 osity that I several times begged him to give me a 
 little piece of madjun, just enough to make me see 
 and feel some of these curious things without abso- 
 lutely losing control of myself. The worthy doctor 
 at first excused himself, saying that it would be bet- 
 ter to make the experiment at Fez, where we would 
 be more conveniently situated, but on my persisting 
 he at length, a little unwillingly, handed me at 
 Zeggota a plate on which lay the much-desired sweet- 
 meat We were seated at table : if I mistake not, 
 both Ussi and Biseo took a little at the same time, 
 but of its effect on them I have no recollection. The 
 madjun was like a bit of paste, violet-colored and 
 smelling like pomatum. For about half an hour, from
 
 ZEGGOTA. 241 
 
 the soup, that is, to the fruit, I felt nothing at all, and 
 began to chaff the doctor about his fears, but he only 
 smiled and said, " Wait, wait." And sure enough, as 
 the fruit was put on the table the first symptoms of 
 intoxication did begin to manifest themselves. At 
 first they took the form of great hilarity and rapid 
 talking j then I began to laugh heartily at everything 
 I or any one else said ; every word that was uttered 
 seemed to me the most exquisite witticism. I laughed 
 at the servants, at the looks of my companions, at my 
 chair as it tilted over, at the designs on the china, at 
 the shapes of certain bottles, at the color of the cheese 
 I was eating, until all at once, becoming conscious 
 that I no longer had command of myself, I endeavored 
 to think of something serious in order to regain my 
 self-control. Remembering the boy who was to have 
 been whipped that morning, I felt the greatest inter- 
 est in him. I would have liked to take him back 
 with me to Italy, to have him educated, to give him a 
 career. I loved him like a son. And the Kaid, Abou- 
 ben-Gileli, poor old man. Kaid-Abou-ben-Gileli ? 
 Why, I loved him too, like a father. And the soldiers 
 of the escort ! They were all good fellows, ready to 
 defend us, to risk their lives in our behalf. I loved 
 them like brothers. And then the Algerians ! I 
 loved them as well. " Why not ?" I thought. They 
 are of the same race as the Moroccoans, and after all, 
 what race is that ? Are we not all brothers, made 
 after one pattern ? We should love one another. I 
 VOL. L 16
 
 242 ZEGGOTA. 
 
 love people, and I am happy, and I threw one arm 
 around the doctor's neck, whereupon he burst out 
 laughing. From this cheerful mood I fell all at once 
 into a state of profound melancholy. All the people 
 whom I had ever offended rose up before me. I re- 
 called every pang I had caused those who loved me ; 
 was oppressed by feelings of remorse and unavailing 
 regret ; voices seemed to whisper in my ear in accents 
 of affectionate reproach. I repented, begged for par- 
 don ; furtively brushed away the great tear which I 
 felt trembling in the corner of one eye. Then a suc- 
 cession of strange disconnected memories began to 
 course wildly through my brain ; long-forgotten 
 Mends of my childhood ; certain words of a dialect I 
 had not spoken for twenty years ; women's faces ; my 
 old regiment ; William the Silent ; Paris ; the editor 
 Barbera ; a beaver hat that I had worn as a child ; the 
 Acropolis at Athens ; my bill at an inn in Seville ; a 
 thousand queer fancies. I have a vague recollection 
 of seeing the company look at me smilingly. From 
 time to time I would close my eyes and reopen them 
 without knowing whether I had been asleep or no, 
 whether minutes or hours had elapsed in the interval. 
 Then a clear idea came into my head at last, and I 
 began to speak. 
 
 " Once," I said, " I went to ... ." Where was 
 it I went ? Who went ? It had all escaped me. 
 Thoughts sparkled for an instant and expired like 
 fire-flies crowded, mixed, confused. At one moment
 
 ZEGGOTA. 243 
 
 I saw Ussi with his head elongated, like the reflection 
 in a bad mirror j the vice-consul with a face two feet 
 wide ; and the others tapered off, swelled out, contorted, 
 like extravagant caricatures, making grimaces at me 
 that were inexpressibly comic; and I laughed and 
 wagged my head, and dozed, and thought that they 
 were all crazy j that we were in another world ; that 
 nothing I saw was real ; that I was not very well ; 
 that I did not know where I was ; that it was getting 
 strangely dark and silent . When I came to my- 
 self I was lying on my own bed in our tent, with the 
 doctor seated beside me, holding a lighted candle and 
 regarding me attentively. 
 
 "There," said he smiling, "it is over, but this 
 must be the first and last time."
 
 FROM ZEGGOTA TO TGH'AT. 
 
 (245)
 
 FKOM ZEGGOTA TO TGH'AT. 
 
 WHILE I am running hither and thither looking for 
 my mule, which I find at last I really do not know 
 how, squeezed in among the baggage, the embassy 
 has gotten under way. I would still be able to over- 
 take it were it not that just as I reach the entrance 
 to the camping-ground my horse stumbles in descend- 
 ing the rocky incline, the saddle slips and the writer 
 falls ; it is a good half-hour before I can get every- 
 thing properly adjusted once more, and meanwhile, 
 farewell embassy. It is evidently written that I am 
 to continue the journey alone, followed only by a lag- 
 ging servant, who, when I am attacked, will come to 
 the rescue just in time to see me draw my last breath. 
 The will of Allah be done ! The country is deserted, 
 the sky cloudy $ every half-hour or so I can see upon 
 the summit of some distant hill a long, variegated 
 procession, in whose midst I recognize the ambassa- 
 dor's white horse and Selam's red caftan, and for a 
 few minutes do not feel so utterly alone 5 but the 
 cavalcade disappears and the silence and solitude once 
 more fall upon me like a pall. At about an hour's 
 distance from the camp I meet a returning body of 
 
 (247) "
 
 248 FEOM ZEGGOTA TO TGH'AT. 
 
 horsemen, some dozen or so, under the leadership of 
 the redoubtable Abou-ben-Grileli, the old Kaid of the 
 fifty lashes, who throws a sinister glance at my back 
 in passing. I smile deprecatingly and hurry by on the 
 other side. Issuing from the beautiful valley, over- 
 looked by our camp of the night before, I enter 
 another one, very large, shut in by precipitous hills, 
 clothed with aloes and olives, forming, as it were, 
 great green walls on the right and left of a wide, 
 straight road, closed at the lower end by a curtain of 
 blue mountains. Presently I meet some Arabs, who 
 stop to watch me pass, and gaze all about in amaze- 
 ment at my being unescorted. Will they attack me, 
 or will they not I One of them turns, and tearing 
 off a stout branch from a neighboring tree, runs 
 towards me. It has come, then ! and I stop my beast 
 and grasp my pistol. The man begins to laugh, and 
 holds the stick out, explaining that it is intended to 
 aid me in my efforts to get the mule forward. Just 
 then two of the soldiers belonging to the escort ap- 
 pear, coming towards me on a gallop. It seems that 
 after all, my hour has not come. The soldiers place 
 themselves on either side of me and fall to prodding 
 my beast with the barrels of their guns, at the same 
 time crying, " Embasciador, Embasciador." The am- 
 bassador has sent them back to see what has become 
 of me. They deserve some reward, so I stop and 
 offer them a bottle of wine I happen to carry in my 
 pocket. They do not say either yes or no, but re-
 
 fifty lafhea, who thrown a fciivLs**.-r ebiiu i- at my back 
 in powsing. I smile deprecating! j and hurry by on lit 
 other side. Issuing from the beautiful valley ? pver- 
 kx>ked by our camp of the night before, I enter 
 .uiiOther one, very large, shut in by precipitous Mis, 
 clotlied with aloes and olives, forming,- as it were ? 
 great green walls on the right and left of a wide, 
 straight road, closed at the lower end by a curtain of 
 blue mountains. Presently I moot some Arabs, who 
 stop to watch me puss, aud ga/:e all about in amaze- 
 ment ftl my bevnj: v,jv^;-<>rt?--d. Will they attack me, 
 or wili ifc-y *- ' - (iii>ni turns, and tearing 
 
 off a e&ot -'.-i-Mn M--^ & ii%h^>nog tree, runs 
 
 - ;. " 
 
 aid me in my efforts ia g* - t^e t> 
 
 then two of the soldiers belonging u the < 
 
 pear ? coming towards me on & gallop. It seems that 
 
 after all, my hour has not come. The soldiers place 
 
 themselves on either side of me and fall to prodding 
 
 my beast with the barrels of their guns, at the same 
 
 time crying, u Embastiador, !mbctsciadt>r" The an> 
 
 bassador has sent them back to see what has b- 
 
 . They deserre some reward, so I stop and 
 of wine I happen to carry in my 
 
 es or no, bw 
 On the Way to Market
 
 FKOM ZEGGOTA TO TGH'AT. 249 
 
 gard one another smilingly, giving me to understand 
 by signs that they have never tasted any. " Try it," 
 I say, with an accompanying gesture. One of them 
 takes the bottle, pours a little into the palm of his 
 hand, licks it up and remains thoughtful for a moment, 
 while the other does the same. Then they look at 
 each other, laugh and make a motion of assent. 
 "Well, drink it, then," and they do, one emptying 
 half the bottle at a gulp and the other finishing it ; 
 each then places a hand on his breast and gazes 
 heavenward, with an expression of intense approba- 
 tion. We resume our journey, now and then meet- 
 ing parties of men, women and children, all of whom 
 regard me with the same look of amazement ; finally 
 one asks a question, receiving a quick negative sign 
 from the soldiers, and I am able to make out that 
 they suppose me to be under arrest ; the man had 
 said, " There goes a Christian who has robbed the 
 ambassador." Some villages of white houses crown 
 the summits of the hills flanking the valley. The 
 Jcitbbas become more frequent, as well as the palm 
 and fruit-trees, and the flowering oleanders and roses. 
 The whole country is a vivid green, and here and 
 there we begin to notice indications that the land is 
 divided into separate estates. At last we enter a 
 gloomy defile, winding between two high walls of 
 rock, on coming out of which we find ourselves at 
 the camp. We have reached the banks of the 
 Mikkes, an affluent of the Sebu ; near by is a small
 
 250 FROM ZEGGOTA TO TGH'AT. 
 
 bridge of masonry, built sixteen years ago, in a basin 
 formed by a circle of rocky hills. The sky is as gray 
 as a leaden roof, beneath it everything looks dull and 
 ashy. The thermometer marks 104, and for seven 
 hours no one stirs out of his tent, while the only 
 sounds to break through the close oppressive atmos- 
 phere are the singing of the crickets and the twang 
 of Ducali's guitar j a profound sense of dullness 
 weighs every one down, but towards evening all this 
 is changed. A light shower freshens up the air ; some 
 brilliant sunbeams shine through the opening of the 
 gorge like an electric current, gilding half the camp ; 
 couriers arrive from Fez, and others from Tangier ; 
 curious villagers approach ; two-thirds of the caravan 
 plunge into the river ; and dinner is furthermore en- 
 livened by the arrival of a new personage, come from 
 the great city of the Sherifs a Moor named Shellal, 
 still another protege of the Italian legation, who has 
 a lawsuit pending with the Sultan's Government the 
 most voluminous turban, the roundest face, the bless- 
 edest, greasiest type of a Moor we have encountered 
 since leaving Tangier. The next morning we are 
 off at daybreak, escorted only by the forty soldiers 
 under Hamed Ben Kasen ; a revolt has broken out 
 in the provinces bordering on Algeria, and all the 
 cavalry of the district of Fez has been dispatched 
 against the rebels. " We shall see a great many 
 heads on the gates of Fez," observed Ducali. For 
 two hours we journeyed on among the hills, through
 
 FBOM ZEGGOTA TO TGH'AT. 251 
 
 broom and lentisks ; then we came out on the 
 vast plain of Fez, encircled by hills and mountains, 
 yellow with grain, sprinkled over with large duars, 
 traversed by the Slue Fountain river which flows 
 into the Mikkes, and by the River of Pearls, a tribu- 
 tary of the Sebu, which runs through the sacred city 
 of the Empire ; overflown by crowds of cranes, wild- 
 geese, turtle-doves, partridges and herons ; luxuriant 
 in its vegetation, bathed in light, peaceful and smil- 
 ing as an enormous garden. We pitched our tents 
 on the bank of the Blue Fountain river, and the 
 hours flew by enlivened by hunting, visits to the 
 duars, the accounts brought to us by Fez Jews of the 
 grand preparations the army were making, emis- 
 saries from court bringing us the Sultan's greeting, 
 Arab families fording the river single-file, first the 
 camel, then the men, then the women, carrying the 
 children on their backs, then the boys, then the dogs 
 swimming, caravans going by, crowds of sight- 
 seers collected around the camp, an enchanting sun- 
 set, and the most brilliant night ever beheld by the 
 eye of mortal man. 
 
 En route again by daybreak, once more the road 
 takes us among the hills, then winds down into the 
 plain beneath, where it runs between two steep banks 
 which effectually shut out the view. All at once a 
 resounding voice is heard, " There is Fez !" Every 
 one stops short. Directly in front of us, several 
 miles away, and just at the foot of the mountains, we
 
 252 FKOM ZEGGOTA TO TGH'AT. 
 
 can see a great forest of towers, minarets and palm- 
 trees, slightly veiled in mist. A joyful " We have 
 arrived !" breaks forth simultaneously from every 
 mouth, in Italian, Spanish, French, Arabic, Genoese, 
 Sicilian, Neapolitan, and to the first wondering silence 
 a buzz of conversation succeeds. Starting off once 
 more, we proceed to our last camping-ground, at the 
 foot of Mount Tgh'at, on the banks of the River of 
 Pearls, an hour and a half from Fez. Here through- 
 out the entire day there is a bustle, a coming 
 and going, that make it seem like the headquarters 
 of an army in action. Messengers arrive from the 
 Sultan, from the chief minister, from the head-master 
 of ceremonies, from the Governor of Fez ; officers, 
 major-domos, merchants, relatives of the Moors in the 
 caravan, all well-dressed, spruce, ceremonious, bring- 
 ing with them an aroma of the court and metropolis, 
 and conversing in measured tones and with stately 
 gestures of the great army, the enormous crowds, the 
 enchanting palace awaiting us. Eight o'clock of the 
 following morning is the hour appointed for our en- 
 trance into the city. By daybreak every one is 
 afoot, there is a great stir among the razors, clothes- 
 brushes, combs and curry-combs, and a delightful ex- 
 citement that more than atones for all the fatigues of 
 the journey. The ambassador dons his gold-laced 
 hat, Hamed Ben Kasen his dress sword, Selam a pink 
 caftan, Civo a green handkerchief, which he winds 
 about his head a sure indication of the approach of
 
 FKOM ZEGGOTA TO TGH'AT. 253 
 
 some very great solemnity ; all the servants put on 
 white cloaks, all the soldiers of the escort bring out 
 their shiniest weapons, all the Italians draw forth the 
 most elegant clothing their trunks contain. We 
 number about a hundred, all counted, and it is safe 
 to say that Italy has never been represented by an 
 embassy more oddly made up, more gayly colored, 
 more joyously expectant, or more impatiently awaited, 
 than this one. The weather is superb, the horses 
 stamp, the Jia/iks wave in the morning breeze, every 
 face beams, and every eye is fixed upon the ambas- 
 sador, who counts the minutes on his watch. Eight 
 o'clock ! At a sign we all leap to our saddles, and 
 at last are off. 
 
 Ah, what a thing it is to stay a child always ! I 
 can feel my heart thump.

 
 pill. 
 
 A 000 131 257 
 
 Si 
 
 ^