inor satraps before it reaches his sacred
hands. There is quite a phalanx of under-strappers of State in this
despotism. For instance, at Tangier there is a Bacha or Governor, a
Caliph or Vice-Governor, a Nadheer or Administrator of the Mosques, a
Mohtasseb or Administrator of the Markets, and a Moul-el-Dhoor or Chief
of the Night Police. There is a leaven of the guild system, too, as in
more advanced countries. Each trade has its Amin, each quarter its
Mokaderrin. There is a Kadi, or Minister of Worship and Justice, to whom
we paid our respects. Justice is quick in its action, and stern in the
penalties it inflicts. The legs and hands are cut off pilferers, heads
are cut off sometimes and preserved in salt and camphor, and the
bastinado is an ordinary punishment for lesser crimes. But the Moors
must be thick in the soles, nor is it astonishing, as the practice is to
chastise children by beating them on the feet. Mahomet Lamarty
volunteered to procure a criminal who would submit to the bastinado for
a peseta. In the market-place I compassionated an unfortunate thief
minus his right hand and left leg. We took a walk to the prison, which
is on the summit of the hill, Captain No. 1 thoughtfully providing
himself with a basket of bread. What a hell upon earth was that sordid,
stifling, noisome, gloomy keep, with its crowds of starving
sore-covered inmates. In filth it was a pig-sty, in smell a
monkey-house, in ventilation another Black-hole of Calcutta. Turn to the
next page, reader mine, if you are squeamish. Heaven be my witness, I
have no desire to minister to morbid tastes; but I have an object in
describing this dreadful _oubliette_, for it still exists--exists within
thirty-two miles of British territory, and it is a scandal that some
effort is not made to mitigate its horrors. Through the bars of a
padlocked door, from which spurt blasts of mephitic heat, we can descry
amid the steam of foul exhalations, as soon as our eyes become
accustomed to the dimness, a mob of seething, sweating, sweltering
captives, like in aspect as a whole to so many gaunt wild beasts. Some
are gibbering like fiends, others jabbering like idiots. They are there
young and old; a few--the maniacs those--are chained; all are crawled
over by vermin, most are crusted with excretions. The sight made me feel
faint at the time, the very recollection of it to this day makes my
flesh creep. We were fascinated by this peep at the Inferno. The moment
the