nageable. When
turned out to grass, they soon become wild. Crossing a field one day,
mounted, I was set upon by a troop of these wild, grazing horses, and
was instantly knocked to the ground, where I lay stunned. A cavalry
officer, who was riding with me, had only just time to escape, and saved
himself by dismounting, and letting his horse go.

It was some hours before we could rescue the horses of our party from
their wild mates, sporting and bounding furiously over the plains. The
barb horses being all stallions (for the Moors consider it a crime to
geld so noble an animal), the fiercest and most terrific battles ensue
on a stud breaking loose from their pickets. These battles are always
between strangers, for the barb is the most affectionate of horses, and
if he is known to another, and become his mate, he will, as the Arabs
say, "die to be with him."

[18] These trained bands of negroes call themselves _Abeed-Sidi-Bokhari_,
from the patron saint whom they adopted on settling in Morocco, the
celebrated Sidi-Bokhari, commentator on the Koran, and a native of
Bokhara, as his name implies. His commentary is almost as much venerated
as the Koran itself.

[19] The _lex talion_ is frequently enforced in North Africa.

[20] Maroquine Moors drench you with tea! they guzzle sweet tea all day
long, as the Affghans gulp down their tea, with butter in it, from
morning to night.

[21] Native Jews manage most of the business of the interior, and farm
the greater part of the monopolies. But the Emperor must have some
European merchants connected with these Jews to maintain the commercial
relations of his country with Europe. The Jewish High Priest of Mogador
is a merchant, it being considered no interference with his sacred
functions.

[22] See Appendix at end of Vol. II.

[23] Muley Abd Errahman is averse to treating his governors with extreme
rigour. Mr. Hay gives an appalling account of private individuals
arrested on suspicion of possessing great wealth--"The most horrible
tortures are freely resorted to for forcing confessions of hidden
wealth. The victim is put in a slow oven, or kept standing for weeks in
a wooden dress; splinters are forced between the flesh and the nail of
the fingers; two fierce cats are put alive into his wide trousers, and
the breasts of his women are twisted with pincers. Young children have
sometimes been squeezed to death under the arms of a powerful man,
before the eyes of their parents."