ot a copper for the sake of the Lord?"

"No, O my brother."

After a few minutes another female comes on the scene, exhibiting
enough of her face to show that it is a mass of sores.

"Only a trifle, in the name of my lord Idrees," she cries, and turns
away on being told, "God bring it!"

Then comes a policeman, a makhazni, who seats himself amid a shower of
salutations--

"Hast thou any more of those selhams" (hooded cloaks)?

"Come on the morrow, and thou shalt see."

The explanation of this answer given by the "merchant" is that he sees
such folk only mean to bother him for nothing.

And this appears to be the daily routine of "business," though a good
bargain must surely be made some time to have enabled our friend to
acquire all the property he has, but so far as an outsider can judge,
it must be a slow process. Anyhow, it has heartily tired the writer,
who has whiled away the morning penning this account on a cushion on
one side of the shop described. Yet it is a fair specimen of what has
been observed by him on many a morning in this sleepy land.

XIV

SHOPPING[7]
[7: Contributed by my wife.--B. M.]

"Debt destroys religion."

_Moorish Proverb._

If any should imagine that time is money in Morocco, let them
undertake a shopping expedition in Tangier, the town on which, if
anywhere in Morocco, occidental energy has set its seal. Not that one
such excursion will suffice, unless, indeed, the purchaser be of the
class who have more money than wit, or who are absolutely at the mercy
of the guide and interpreter who pockets a commission upon every
bargain he brings about. For the ordinary mortal, who wants to spread
his dollars as far as it is possible for dollars to go, a tour of
inspection, if not two or three, will be necessary before such a feat
can be accomplished. To be sure, there is always the risk that between
one visit and another some coveted article may find its way into the
hands of a more reckless, or at least less thrifty, purchaser, but
that risk may be safely taken.

[Illustration: _Albert, Photo., Tunis._

A TUNISIAN SHOPKEEPER.]

There is something very attractive in the small cupboard-like shops
of the main street. Their owners sit cross-legged ready for a chat,
looking wonderfully picturesque in cream-coloured jellab, or in
semi-transparent white farrajiyah, or tunic, allowing at the throat
a glimpse of saffron, cerise, or green from the garment beneath. The
whit