ork jars. These bottle-shaped jars, full of what Mohammed calls
"the liquor of the bee," cream-cheese, barley, etc., were plastered with
mud, and waterproof: when they occurred in twos and threes on every roof,
the effect was striking.

It would have been a monotonous ride to Frouga except for the Atlas
Mountains on our right, which we had been steadily nearing for days: now
comparatively close, their gleaming snow-peaks were never without
interest, and Omar told tales of travellers' experiences up in one or two
of the passes. The principal roads across the chain to Taroudant,
Ras-el-Ouad, and the Sus, pass through Frouga, and make it an important
place. It possesses an _inzella_, or sort of fondak, where men and
transport are safe for the night under the protection of the kaid of the
district.

We pitched our tents among little fields of beans and barley, planted
with olive-trees, close to a mosque, and awoke when _es-sbar_ (sunrise)
was called in sonorous tones from the top of the dome: a cuckoo answered
the mueddzin, and a pair of little doves began to coo persistently.

The gardens of Frouga are celebrated--full of vines planted like
hop-gardens, of prickly pear, figs, pears, apricots, and corn, in between
the fruit-trees. And yet the owners are not rich: the governors of the
district see to that; for supposing a man becomes richer than the
governor, X., he goes to the Government and says, "If you make me
governor instead of X., I will bring you more money than he does, and
here is a present at the same time." The Government accepts the bribe,
and gives the man a letter stating that he is made governor instead of X.
The man collects his friends and ousts X., perhaps imprisoning him for
life. A governor, therefore, never allows a man under him to possess
capital. He may be rich in cattle and gardens, but he will have to pay
the governor out of his profits from thirty to ninety shillings at stated
times all the year round, and never have any "spare cash." If he refuses
to pay, he is turned out of his own home and acres, which fall into the
governor's hands. Naturally he prefers to cling to his gardens.

Beyond Frouga lay some of the most fertile land in Morocco. We passed
wonderful crops of barley and wheat, which in an average year, for every
bushel sown, yield forty bushels. Moors say that corn in Morocco is known
to yield, not forty, but a hundred-fold. In England fifteen-fold is
considered an average crop. Moro