ontinues
between him and a small imperial force, complicated by feuds between
his sometime supporters, who, however, fight half-heartedly, for fear
of killing relatives pressed into service on the other side. Those
who once looked to Raisuli as a champion have found his little finger
thicker than the Sultan's loins, and the country round Tangier is
ruined by taxation, so that every one is discontented, and the
district is unsafe, a species of civil war raging.

The full name of this redoubtable leader is Mulai Ahmad bin Mohammed
bin Abd Allah er-Raisuli, and he is a shareef of Beni Aros, connected
therefore with the Wazzan shareefs; but his prestige as such is low,
both on account of his past career, and because of his acceptance of a
civil post. His mother belonged to Anjera, near Tangier, where he was
born about thirty-six years ago at the village of Zeenat, being well
educated, as education goes in Morocco, with the Beni M'sawah. But
falling into bad company, he first took to cattle-lifting, afterwards
turning highwayman, as which he was eventually caught by the Abd
es-Sadok family--various members of which were kaids from Ceuta to
Azila--and consigned to prison in Mogador. After three or four years
his release was obtained by Haj Torres, the Foreign Commissioner in
Tangier, but when he found that the Abd es-Sadoks had sequestrated
his property, he vowed not to cut his hair till he had secured their
disgrace. Hence, with locks that many a woman might envy, he has
plotted and harassed till his present position has been achieved. But
as this is only a means to an end, who can tell what that may be?

Raisuli is allowed on all hands to be a peculiarly able and well-bred
man, full of resource and determination. Though his foes have
succeeded in kidnapping even his mother, it will certainly be a
miracle if he is taken alive. Should all fail him, he is prepared to
blow his brains out, or make use of a small phial of poison always to
hand. It is interesting to remember that just such a character, Abd
Allah Ghailan, held a similar position in this district when Tangier
was occupied by the English, who knew him as "Guyland," and paid him
tribute. The more recent imitation of Raisuli's tactics by a native
free-booter of the Ceuta frontier, in arresting two English officers
as hostages wherewith to secure the release of his brother and others
from prison, has proved equally successful, but as matters stand at
present, it is mo