staple animal
food; vegetables are much the same as in Morocco.

The great drawback to Tripoli is its proximity to the desert, which,
after walking through a belt of palms on the land side of the
town--itself built on a peninsula--one may see rolling away to the
horizon. The gardens and palm groves are watered by a peculiar system,
the precious liquid being drawn up from the wells by ropes over
pulleys, in huge leather funnels of which the lower orifice is slung
on a level with the upper, thus forming a bag. The discharge is
ingeniously accomplished automatically by a second rope over a lower
pulley, the two being pulled by a bullock walking down an incline. The
lower lip being drawn over the lower pulley, releases the water when
the funnel reaches the top.

The weekly market, Sok et-Thlathah, held on the sands, is much as it
would be in the Gharb el Jawani, as Morocco is called in Tripoli. The
greater number of Blacks is only natural, especially when it is noted
that hard by they have a large settlement.

[Illustration: _Photograph by G. Michell, Esq._

OUTSIDE TRIPOLI.]

It would, of course, be possible to enter into a much more minute
comparison, but sufficient has been said to give a general idea of
Tripoli to those who know something of Morocco, without having entered
upon a general description of the place. From what I saw of the
country people, I have no doubt that further afield the similarity
between them and the people of central and southern Morocco, to whom
they are most akin, would even be increased.

XXXV

FOOT-PRINTS OF THE MOORS IN SPAIN

"Every one buries his mother as he likes."

_Moorish Proverb._

I. FIRST IMPRESSIONS.

Much as I had been prepared by the accounts of others to observe the
prevalence of Moorish remains in the Peninsula, I was still forcibly
struck at every turn by traces of their influence upon the country,
especially in what was their chief home there, Andalucia. Though
unconnected with these traces, an important item in strengthening this
impression is the remarkable similarity between the natural features
of the two countries. The general contour of the surface is the same
on either side of the straits for a couple of hundred miles; the
same broad plains, separated by low ranges of hills, and crossed by
sluggish, winding streams, fed from distant snow-capped mountains, and
subject to sudden floods. The very colours of the earth are the same
in several