nd cigarette-ends: he would most
hospitably take no denial in the matter of lunch, but made us come into
the house at once. His long, narrow dining-room was flanked by a small
kitchen; above, the same shaped, long, narrow sitting-room was flanked by
a small bedroom; a flight of narrow, steep stairs divided all four rooms,
and completed the Consulate: this simple plan is usual in a Moorish house
of the sort, and admirably adapted for the Eastern habits of the people.
The Consul considered it inadequate. A sunny, walled garden lay in front;
big orange- and banana-trees, both covered with fruit, shaded precious
seedlings; a large tank, filled with gold-fish, took up much space under
the windows; and in the background a high cane fence penned in turkeys,
geese, ducks, and chickens, scratching and squabbling under orange-trees.
There are no grassy lawns in these gardens: they are devoted to fruit,
shrubs, and flowers, bisected into equal divisions by tiled or grass
paths.

People in Morocco, as all the world over, collect curiosities _nolens
volens_. Mr. Bewicke's dining-room was no exception. Guns from the Riff,
eight feet long; brass powder-horns, knives, daggers, pistols, engraved
and inlaid with silver, ivory, and coral; a long brass horn, once blown
from the top of the mosque, sacred and difficult to get; copper vessels,
pots, pans, jugs, bowls; blue china from Fez; quaint Jewish candelabra
and lamps; brown and white native pottery,--all found a place.

A young Riffian named Mohr acted as butler, a coffee-and-cream-coloured
boy, with a girlish face and a head with a close weekly shave, all except
one long love-lock, which, combed out, fell over one ear in a glossy
brown curl. It is worn by all Riffs as good Mussulmans, and serves a
double purpose, that of scalp-lock when the head is decapitated by
enemies and borne by the lock instead of by the mouth, and that of
handle, by which Azrael, the Angel of Death, carries the body to heaven
on the last day. Mohr wore a Riff turban of brown string, several yards
long, wound round and round his head, a white tunic and belt: his legs
were bare; and leaving his yellow slippers behind him on the threshold,
he moved noiselessly round the table with gracious manners, and, when he
spoke, made nonchalant gestures with his hands.

Had we come a few days earlier, we should have fallen in with a thousand
men from the Beni Has`san tribe, who had come down to pay their respects
to the new