e felt, probably,
that she was past one danger--there was no more to fear in that
direction for the present; but that if her Riffi husband ever suspected
she had "given him away," he would soon dispose of so troublesome an
incubus.

And so we found the matter had come to a deadlock: more we shall not
know. It was typical of the Moors and their ways. It was, I cannot help
thinking, rather a shady business. Taking into consideration S`lam's
manner towards us for days after, added to those intuitions which one has
and cannot put into words, it struck us that S`lam himself did not think
the bottle had only water in it.

Ask no questions in this strange land. Lies are the portion meted out to
the inquirer: it is not well to know too much. "Knowledge and virtue and
a horse's mouth should not pass through too many hands," and "If you
question knowledge, it falls from its estate"--thus the Moors.

I shall hear from Miss Z---- of Tahara's future welfare, unless she is
moved from Tetuan. If she comes to an untimely end within the next year
or so, our suspicions were not groundless. For the present we "forget,"
of course. For the whole affair--

Oh no, we never mention it;
Its feet are never heard!

CHAPTER VIII

MISSIONARIES AT TETUAN--POISONING IN MOROCCO--FATIMA'S
RECEPTION--DIVORCE--AN EXPEDITION INTO THE ANJERAS--AN EMERALD OASIS.

CHAPTER VIII

"_The friendship of man is like the shade of the acacia. Yet
while the friendship lives, it lives. When God wills it to die,
it dies!_" mused Dicky, with a significant smile. "Friendship
walks on thin ice in the East."

THREE times a week, from ten o'clock to twelve o'clock in the morning,
the lady missionaries opened their dispensary, which, as there was no man
missionary in Tetuan, was in women's hands alone, Miss Banks at the head.
Though, unfortunately, she was not an M.D. nor a qualified surgeon, the
good which she and her staff did was incalculable. The first day on which
the dispensary was open after Ramadhan over sixty Moors came to be
doctored. The day I went, there were forty-four; and the two rooms--one
for men, one for women--were as full as they would hold, while a large
surplus stood waiting their turn outside. Most of them were of the lower
class of Moors: the better class of women would ask Miss Banks to visit
them in their own houses; the better class of men would not go to lady
missionaries.

The patients sat