ung heir as Sultan, hurried to Fez, summoned every citizen to the
mosque, had the doors locked, proclaimed the news of the Sultan's death,
and surprised or forced the whole mosqueful into swearing allegiance to
the present ruler.

So far the Sultan knows only two or three places in his whole kingdom,
and has practically spent his life at one--Morocco City, or _Marrakesh_,
as the Moors call it. Nor would his journeys be reckoned blessings by the
unfortunate country through which he passed. Only able to move with an
army, that army, without any commissariat or transport, feeding itself
upon its march, wipes corn and food off the face of the land as a sponge
wipes a slate. "Where the Sultan's horse treads the corn ceases to grow."
He seldom travels with less than thirty thousand followers; and,
supposing he is passing through a turbulent tribe, fights his way as he
goes, leaving ruin and desolation behind. "They make a desert, and they
call it peace."

Hadj Mukhtar Hilalli had travelled considerably farther afield than his
sovereign; he knew Genoa, Marseilles, Egypt, and of course Mecca. The
Mussulman pilgrims passing through Constantinople on their way to Mecca
this year are, he told us, very numerous, the Sultan having ordered the
fares on the Massousieh Company's steamers to be reduced one-half for
them. He thought that about two thousand Moors would be leaving Tangier
in the early spring for the pilgrimage, returning some three months
later. Neither the Hadj's sons nor Mr. Bewicke's soldier joined in the
conversation, but continued steadily to consume tea, all eyes and ears.

At last the trays were removed; and there being no co-religious eye to
shock, Hadj Mukhtar indulged in a cigarette, while we puzzled him with a
few tricks of balance and reach, which pleased him quite as much as his
boys: everybody tried their hands, and finally the Hadj sent his eldest
son for an old, heavy sword, and, squatting on the floor, showed us a
clever piece of leverage with it and his thumb, which it was in vain to
try and imitate.

Watching our failures, he produced a snuff-box, a small cocoanut-shell,
ornamented with little silver and coral knobs, with a narrow ivory
mouthpiece, a stopper, and an ivory pin fastened to the cocoanut-shell to
stir up the snuff inside--Tetuan snuff--noted for its pungent flavour.
Hadj Mukhtar jerked the grains through the narrow mouthpiece into the
hollow of the back of his thumb, where all Moors lay i