teresting of all known seas: its shores hallowed
by associations connected with the entire progress of civilization; the
cradle, as it has been aptly called, of the human race, the battle-field
of the world, and still the connecting link between Europe, Asia, and
Africa.

All around us, upon the sloping hill-side, were delightful villas,
painted in bright colors, and half buried in thrifty foliage, each
located in an atmosphere redolent of fruits and flowers; its front ever
open to that glorious sea-view. The broad piazzas of these smiling homes
were hung with hammocks, telling of luxurious out-door life. Family
groups could be seen taking their morning coffee on the verandas; and
the voices of many children rang out clear and bird-like, floating up to
the eyrie where we were perched. Down towards the shore lay brown,
dingy, dirty Tangier, with its mud-colored groups of tiled roofs, its
teeming population, its mouldy old walls and arched gates, and its
minarets, square and dominant. On our way back, we again passed through
the slave market, and saw a freshly arrived caravan pitching their tents
after a long and weary journey. A snake-charmer was busy amusing an idle
group of boys and girls in one of the small squares, and a group of
dancing girls, with tambourines and castanets, looked wistfully at us,
hoping to get an audience; but our yet unhonored breakfast awaited us,
and the mountain excursion had imparted healthful appetites.

It was quite the thing to patronize one of the little dingy cafes, and
so we patiently endured the punishment of drinking an egg-shell cup of a
muddy compound called coffee, but nothing short of compulsion would have
induced a repetition of the same. A dose of senna would have been
ambrosia compared to it. In passing through a narrow court we saw a
group of children sitting cross-legged, in a circle, on the floor of an
open house, with books in their hands, presided over by a sage-looking
Moorish party, with long, snow-white beard, and deep-set dark eyes that
seemed to burn like gas jets. The guide explained that it was a native
school; and the children, who were all talking aloud at the same time,
in a drawling, sing-song tone, swaying back and forth incessantly, were
learning their lessons. When we inquired what special branch was being
taught them, he answered: "The Koran; they learn it from the beginning
to the end." "And is that all the instruction imparted to them?" we
asked. "Of cour