ranks as
equal, the fact remains that Government officials are all in their own
sphere little despots, governing districts many days' journey from Court,
with every chance of robbing and oppressing those under them, until the
day of reckoning comes, when the Court, hearing how fat their fine bird
has grown, summons him to the capital, and the process of plucking and
imprisoning their wealthy servant follows.

Life exists upon life, from the _sheikhs_ (farmers), who live upon what
they can squeeze out of the peasants, to the _bashas_ (governors), who
exist on tithes, taxes, and extortion wrung from the sheikhs and
townspeople, up to higher officials, who receive no salaries, and line
their pockets by a process of bleeding the bashas and others . . . . . .
thus _ad lib_. Even the gaolers--also unpaid--earn their living by
extorting money from the prisoners. The whole system of government reacts
upon itself; for the venality of the officials drives the tribes to
redress their wrongs at intervals by raids and open rebellion, to punish
whom there follows slaughter upon slaughter, and the country is laid
waste.

Hence the principal reasons--wheels within wheels--which account for the
Morocco of 1902: its prehistoric customs, its uncultivated acres.

No reformer, no missionary, will alter the condition of Morocco. The
Moors themselves have made it what it is; but since for an Ethiopian to
change his skin is no light matter, there is small probability of the
Moors themselves unmaking it.

A gloomy prospect, yet one which, taking the case of the people and
looking upon it from a "happiness" point of view, must not be altogether
judged from a European standpoint. The likes and dislikes of Moors are
not the likes and dislikes of Europeans, and most of them view their good
times and bad times with equal calm, as merely the will of Allah. Besides
which, anything in the shape of law and order and daily routine rasps
their raw nature. Just as a Moor prefers to eat to repletion when there
is food, and to go without when there is not, so he would choose a
desultory and irresponsible life, alternating between perfect freedom and
excessive tyranny, to any regular humdrum form of government which Europe
could offer him.

The country people we met, if hard-worked, had at the same time cheerful
enough faces: their enjoyment of life probably equals that of the English
labourer.

On the whole, it is possible that, when the day comes--a