immense dish of _coos-coosoo_, or a
steaming pile of hot mutton and raisins, cooked in oil, which lay on the
round trenchers, when the great beehive-like straw covers were raised:
some of the hot cakes accompanying them might be managed, but the rest
was handed over to the expectant servants, to whom coos-coosoo is as
roast beef to the British labourer, though less stimulating, for it only
consists of wheat or millet or maize flour, granulated, steamed, and
eaten hot, sometimes crowned with chicken.

Following hard on the mona came a message from the khaylifa asking for
medicine. Graphically answering my question as to what was the matter
with him, the messenger stroked his waist: we found a pill, which was
carried off with much gratitude.

A short time elapsed, and then, to our horror, four slaves arrived,
carrying great preparations for tea--brass trays, urn, and the whole
paraphernalia--mint and sweetness filling the room. Again the servants
benefited; and even a third time, after we were actually in bed; for the
door was bombarded, and three women came in, and laid a great almond
pudding, of much delicacy, covered with stripes of grated cinnamon, at
our feet.

That night was the one bad experience of our time in Morocco. Though the
guest-room was new and apparently clean, some matting had been laid on
the floor, which we had not removed, and with the darkness its occupants
came out in such numbers that, in spite of "Keating" round the legs of
each bed, the long hours were taken up in warfare, and we never slept.
Next day the room was scoured out, and the lively matting ejected, while
we were strolling round Sheshaoua between heavy showers of rain, which
reduced the clay country to a state of quagmire. However, Sunday, after a
peaceful night both inside and out of doors, broke fresh and clear: all
the great loose thunder-clouds had packed themselves into long cloudlets
with ruled horizontal bases; and in clear, rarefied air, standing up
almost unearthly in their beauty, the Atlas range from end to end, was to
be seen at last. Chiselled peak after peak, upon which no traveller has
ever set foot, glistened in the sun, apparently about ten miles off, in
reality more like thirty or forty. It was one of those mornings which
have been thoroughly washed, and the swirling pea-soup river bore witness
to the operation as surely as the air of purity which the whole country
wore. All was radiant: down below, the orange grove o