had given judgment, and that if the Jew still refused he was no
longer a man of his word. Strange to say, this quickened a dormant
conscience underneath all the dishonesty, or it pricked the Jew's pride;
at any rate, after a torrent of protestations, from his tight
waistcoat-pocket he produced a pile of dollars, and handed them over to
us. The money had taken an hour to draw: as far as actual value went it
was not worth it.

The French Consular Agent, the dignified Moor, had to all intents and
purposes failed us at the critical moment, since he would not exert his
lawful authority over a French-protected Jew. But a Moor's faults may be
summed up in one word--_weak_. As in the above instance, refusing to face
circumstances or to follow one definite line of action to the end, he
invariably acts on the principle of "going roundabout." In the course of
time evasion has come to appear to him the best line to pursue, and he
has sunk like a stone into a slough of compromise, a tarn of apathy.

Such weakness, incompatible with Moorish fanaticism and courage, is due
probably to tyranny.

Living under a tyrannical government and religion, both of which, welded
together, form the one dominant factor of his life, the Moor is afraid of
each, and stands in dread of the ruin it is in their power to work in his
life. Not only this, but he lives in fear of his countrymen and their
long guns, of his wives and their poisons, of evil spirits.

Morocco, as has been said, accepted Mohammedanism of necessity, not from
choice, at the hands of the conquering Arabs, and it is accepted to-day,
as the corrupt Government is accepted, with a shrug of the shoulders and
"What God wills cannot but be." Weakened by blind submission, and at the
same time holding nothing for which they have fought or wrought--no
truths made adamant in the furnace of persecution, no Magna Charta won on
the sword-point of patriotism, all of which are so much tonic and
discipline to a nation, breeding grit, developing backbone--the Moorish
people are paralyzed by a despotism which allows no originality of
thought and action; they are no longer capable of "running straight,"
but, suave and polite to a fault, lack that species of courage which
conduces towards plain-speaking.

After all, who and what are to blame except the people themselves? One
writer curses the religion, another curses the Government. _Cui bono?_
Climate and the fertility of soil may have influenced the