lling almost alone, has just returned from Imintanoot.
Another has twice crossed the Atlas. Needless to say the route to
Marrakesh is almost as devoid of other than pleasurable novelty as
a stroll on the Embankment or down the shady side of Pall Mall.
When, indeed, will folks at home grasp the fact that the Berber
clans of southern Morocco belong to a race differing utterly in
character and largely in customs from the ruffians infesting the
northern half of the sultanate?

"'Nothing but the unpleasant prospect of being held up by
brigands,' writes a friend, 'prevents me from revisiting your
beautiful country.' How convince such people that brigandage is an
art unknown south of the Oom Rabya? That the prayer of the Shluh,
when a Nazarene visits their land, is that nothing may happen to
bring trouble on the clan? They may inwardly hate the _Rumi_, or
they may regard him merely as an uncouth blot on the scenery; but
should actual unpleasantness arise, he will, in almost every case,
have himself to thank for it. (London papers please copy!)"

This letter was dated two days after the Paris correspondent of the
_Times_ had telegraphed--

"Events would seem likely to be coming to a head in consequence of
the anarchy prevailing in the Shereefian Empire. The Pretender is
just now concentrating his troops in the plain of Angad, and is
preparing to take an energetic offensive against Ujda. The camp of
the Pretender is imposing in its warlike display. All the caids
and the sons of Bu Amema surround Mulai Mahomed. The men are armed
with French _chassepots_, and are well dressed in new uniforms
supplied by an Oran firm. All the war material was embarked on
board the French yacht _Zut_, which landed it last month on
the shores of Rastenga between Cape Eau and Melilla under the
direction of the Pretender's troops."

Towards Christmas, 1902, circumstantial reports began to appear in the
newspapers of an overwhelming defeat of the imperial army by rebels
who were marching on Fez, who had besieged it, and had cut off the
aqueduct bringing its water, the Sultan retreating to the palace,
Europeans being ordered to the coast, etc., etc. These statements
I promptly and categorically denied in an interview for the London
_Echo_; there was no real "pretender," only a religious fanatic
supported by two disaffected tribes, the imperial