CHAPTER THE TWENTY-FIRST
REMINISCENCES OF TRAVE L
TH A T first night out in Barbary 1 How can I forget
it? And to how many others has it not led in
many a land! Cook had not then invaded Morocco,
and travellers made their own arrangements, as residents
still do, keeping their outfit in store. Indeed,
an important part is played in the fully equip- independence.
ped establishment in Morocco, whether European
or Moorish, by the tents and their furniture, requisitioned
from time to time for an outing or journey,
since he who travels in Morocco must take house and
provender with him.
A formidable undertaking, therefore, is the start, with
forty things to be remembered, and a constant determination
to do without this or that which will ^
be an encumbrance. The trouble is to learn
how many of the jf things in everyday use within walls
can in camp be dispensed with, and how many trifling
matters of which one would never think at other times
are essential to comfort. After all the ordinary articles
are packed in boxes and bundles and panniers, there
are fire-grates and lanterns, charcoal and barley, tether-
pins and chains and ropes, and odds and ends innumerable,
to say nothing of trappings and extra pegs.
The very list of them all would alarm the novice, and
as something is always forgotten, only to be remembered
when in camp the first night, he is wise who,
like Sydney Smith, makes a “ screaming g a te ” Gaur
of the first halt, not too far from the base of