iminutive sloping hindquarters, is
seldom met with and hardly ever used, except quite in the south of the
country, where he is given camel's milk to drink.

People as a rule start off on their day's march with the dawn, after a
light breakfast of coffee, beaten-up eggs, and dry biscuits; halt about
ten o'clock, supposing they are near water; and, if necessary, do two or
three hours more, comfortably, before sunset. But we had made a late
start, and the sun was far up as we jogged along one after the other,
leaving behind the sands, the orange gardens, and the gimcrack Spanish
houses, at every step the open country widening in front of us.

We followed a narrow path, one of the countless footpaths which zigzag in
and out, and wind away to every point of the compass, like ants' tracks
from an ant-hill. Donkeys, mules, countrywomen, eternally pass and
re-pass along the polished ways, with the everlasting burdens of
charcoal, faggots, vegetables, and flour: life in some form moving along
them there always is.

Towards the edge of the horizon, clumps of dwarf palm and coarse grass
slanted in the breeze: here and there grey rocks stuck up on the hillside
like fossilized bones, and met the blue sky. A stream was meandering,
hidden under deep banks, on our right. We wound along the wide valley,
doing our best to keep the mules going at a respectable pace, and finding
that there was quite an art in accomplishing it on a hireling. Cadour cut
in behind, and supplemented our sticks and heels with Arabic words of
much effect, his own mule's mouth suffering badly from his jogging,
remorseless hand.

[Illustration: OURSELVES AND BAGGAGE.

[_To face p. 34._]

A raven, "a blot in heaven, flying high," sailed over our heads up in
the blue, and then, leisurely dropping, sat on a rock and croaked at
us. Morocco is a country of circling kites and keen-eyed hawks, whose
easy, buoyant flight and vibrating "hover" in the hot air are
things of undying fascination. Now and again a puff of east
wind--life-giving--would stir the whole countryside and pass on,
leaving us glowing under a sun which warmed every cranny, and made the
section of air just above the flat fields rock with heat. Two
countrywomen toiled towards us under their bundles--a couple of
figures swathed in yellowy white; they gazed at us as people gaze who
have few interests in their lives, then smiled and spoke,
gesticulated, and laughed again: a herd of goats was outlined o