the absence of police, the inconveniences of
travelling, and the innumerable wells scattered over the country, almost
sunk for the reception of inconvenient bodies--one and all tempt a man to
turn brigand; and yet Europeans are seldom attacked, in view of the fine
imposed upon the tribe in whose territory a crime is committed.

Thus the borders, where several tribes meet, are always unsafe country,
one tribe disposing of bodies which they have done to death by
depositing them in the territory of the next tribe. But even in
"Christian-ridden" Tangier a German was knifed three years ago walking
home, as was his custom, at dusk. He happened to have no money on him.
His murderer was given up to justice--that is, the basha of Tangier said
some one must die, and together with the fine the tribe outside Tangier
produced a man, who was duly executed, though whether he was the
murderer. . . . . .

Meanwhile, we were leaving the millet-fields behind us--stubbles, an
occasional stalk three feet high, no lying for birds--and were in a
country of wild lavender and stunted bushes: these consisted chiefly of
cistus or else palmetto, a little dwarf palm, the fruit of which is eaten
by goats, and the root by natives as a vegetable, while its fibrous
leaves make rope and baskets and a hundred things. A bleak undulating
country, which ran up into rocky blue gorges and grey peaks on the right
hand. The path was almost blocked at one point by an immense cairn on the
top of a ridge--a holy pile, upon which the devout Moor in passing casts
a stone, because from this spot the mountain can be made out on which the
venerated shrine of Mulai Abdesalam lies, in Beni Anos, the goal of
thousands of pilgrims each year. Though it is within a day's ride of
Tangier, the country for miles around is forbidden to any European, and
two Englishmen only have penetrated into the sacred city of Sheshawan,
which lies in the same district. Mr. Walter B. Harris and Mr. Somers, at
different times, got inside, but only at sunset, and after lying in
hiding all night had to flee for their lives at dawn.

Gradually we reached wilder and more rocky country, recalling Scotland as
far as the open moorland went. If fir-trees were planted on the sheltered
slopes, the fir-pins should, in conjunction with the natural soil, form
land capable of growing vines--an idle dream in the Morocco of to-day.

Between two hills in front of us towered a cliff of rocky red limestone,
wh