ice, and hands over to its new owner his late possession.

CHAPTER IV

THE FAST OF RAMADHAN--MOHAMMED--HIS LIFE AND INFLUENCE--THE FLOOD AT
SAFFI--A WALK OUTSIDE TETUAN--THE FRENCH CONSUL'S GARDEN-HOUSE--JEWS IN
MOROCCO--EUROPEAN PROTECTION.

CHAPTER IV

Manage with bread and butter till God brings the jam.
_Old Moorish proverb._

WE had not been long at the fonda before the Fast of Ramadhan began.
Ramadhan, ordained by Mohammed, takes place in the ninth month of every
Mohammedan year, and lasts for twenty-eight days, during which time the
Faithful fast from dawn, when it is light enough to distinguish between a
black and white thread, to sunset. It alters by a few days every year
according to the moon, and when it falls during summer in scorching hot
countries the agonies of thirst endured mean a penance indeed.

Ramadhan begins when the new moon is first seen. Tidings were sent from
Tangier to say that it had been observed there, which tidings Tetuan
handed on to the farthest mountain villages: a gun was fired from the
Kasbah at sunset, horns were sounded, and Ramadhan began. It sometimes
happens that Tetuan does not see the new moon till the day after Tangier
has seen it at the beginning of the fast, in which case the Tetuan people
are guilty of "eating the head of Ramadhan": this year it was not so.
During the twenty-eight days of the fast, every night, or rather every
early morning at 2 a.m., the householder was awakened by the crashing of
his knocker on his door and a shout bidding him "Rise and eat": the
mueddzin at the same time from the top of the mosque called the hour of
prayer, and long brass horns brayed to the same effect.

The month was almost over before we had learnt to sleep through it all.
As the fonda was in the Moorish Quarter our door was not exempt. Far away
up the street the knockers clanked, nearer and nearer every moment, then
the man's footsteps, then our own knocker sounded like a sledge-hammer,
and "Rise and eat" followed: the man went on to the next door, and back
again shortly up the opposite side of the street. And every Mussulman
arose in the dark and had a large meal. Again at sunrise the big gun
boomed from the Kasbah, the concussion shaking our ill-built room, and we
woke once more.

[Illustration: A CLUSTER OF COUNTRY WOMEN.

[_To face p. 100._]

No doubt the original motive of fasting and abstinence in the Old
Testament was the promotion of sanita