and near Tangier, about ninety per cent replied in the
formula which showed that they thought me a Moor.
A considerable number saluted me first, and among these
was an old employé, who was fairly astonished when I
made myself known to him.
“ MY FAITH FU L MOHAMMED” EN ROUTE.
(Riding a pack-mule with the “ batterie de cuisine.”)
Photograph by R. J . Moss,, Esq.
Another striking instance of this occurred in Fez,
where, before entering any house, I paid an unintentional
visit to the very shrine I wished to see. Out-
Jnstanc^kaile s^ e g ates I had stopped to change my
costume, and passing in apart from my faith’
ful Mohammed, after a stroll to about the centre of the
city, I asked at a shop the way to a certain house.
The owner called a lad who knew the neighbourhood,
to whom I explained what I wanted, and off we started.
In a few minutes I paused on the threshold of a finely
ornamented building, different from any other I had seen.
All unsuspicious, I inquired what it was, and learned
that we were in a street as sacred as a mosque, and
that my guide was taking me a short cut through the
sanctuary of Mulai Idreesl
Some days later, lantern and slippers in one hand,
and rosary in the other, I entered with the crowd for
sunset prayers. Perspiring freely within, but » ^
outwardly with the calmest appearance I could Mosques.
muster, I spread my prayer-cloth and went
through the motions prescribed by law, making my observations
in the pauses, and concluding by a guarded
survey of the place. I need hardly say that I breathed
with a feeling of relief when I found myself in the pure
air again, and felt better after I had had my supper and
sat down to commit my notes to paper. In the Karu-
eei'n I once caught a suspicious stare at my glasses, so,
pausing, I returned the stare with a contemptuous indignation
that made my critic slink off abashed. There
was nothing to do but to “ face it out.
One kaid even complimented me upon being evidently
an “ Arab of the Arabs”— and therefore no Berber,—
and gave me a letter of introduction UAnArabof
to the kaid of the first holy place I proposed ihe Arabs."
to visit, for now I made no secret of my
intentions. I simply told my man to reply to the inquisitive
that his master, the Fokeeh (learned one) bi
Tahar bel Mikki, the son of a merchant from Europe,
was completing his education by visiting the chief cities
and shrines of Morocco, a secondary object being the
study of Arabic, as his knowledge of it was faulty, since
he had been brought up abroad. An interview usually