and imprecations deserving a more direct and personal
application of their footgear. Most of the wealthier Jews had acquired
European or American protection, and were safe enough. They lived in the
Frankish quarter and dressed in ultra-European style. They made rather a
depressing spectacle on Saturdays, when, garbed in black broadcloth,
with bowler hats, they drifted through the sunlit streets on their
Sabbath constitutional from one town gate to the next and back. They
were keen trade competitors, and gained or lost fortunes by gambling in
the almond export-market or catching a grain-famine at the psychological
moment. One of them had retired to a leisured affluence on the proceeds
that a big cargo of almonds had yielded him at a startling turn in the
market. He was a hospitable soul who met me once entering the landward
gate in a travel-stained burnoose and insisted on dragging me into his
gorgeously-carpeted house to drink _aquardiente_ and look at his
"curios." These consisted chiefly of modern firearms, some of
first-class London make, which hung on his walls as ornaments, having
been bought haphazard without ammunition or sporting intent. I nearly
had a fit when he showed me a double .577 Express hopelessly rusted by
the damp sea-air and offered to lend it me if I could find "shots" for
it. The reverse of the shield was illustrated by another acquaintance of
mine who had made a large fortune by importing Russian wheat to Morocco
in famine time and had lost it in a short but striking career in
England, during which he was said to have entertained Royalty,
astonished the racing world and married a well-known actress in light
comedy. He, too, was of hospitable intent, but had generally left his
purse at home when the reckoning came. On the other hand, he always
carried the "stub" of the cheque-book which had seen him to the apogee
of his meteoric career, and a glance at its counterfoils (by his express
invitation) was well worth the price of a drink or two.

The local Islamic attitude toward Moorish Jews was one of contemptuous
tolerance. They could certainly travel, in native dress, where no
Christian could. Once, in the _patio_ or go-down of a European merchant,
I met a greasy, unkempt Jew in a tattered gaberdine watching my
commercial friend as he weighed what I took to be a double handful of
crude brass curtain rings such as traders used to sell by the gross
along the West African coast. They were solid gold and