peculiar," I acquired much of my information on the
manners and customs of the people. Watches are only worn and looked at
for amusement. Instead of by hours, time is thus noted: El Adhen, an
hour before sunrise; Fetour (repast) el Hassoua, or sunrise; Dah el Aly,
ten in the morning; El Only, a quarter past twelve; El Dhoor, half-past
one; El Asser, from a quarter past three to a quarter to four; El
Moghreb, sunset; El Acha, half-an-hour after sunset; and El Hameir,
gun-shot. Meals are taken at Dah el Aly, El Asser, and El Moghreb. The
houses are built with elevated lateral chambers, but there is a narrow
staircase leading to the Doeria, a reception-room, where visitors can be
welcomed without passing the ground-floor. The walls are plastered, and
covered with arabesques or verses of the Koran incrusted in colours. The
wells inside the houses are only used for cleansing linen; water for
drinking purposes is sought outside.

Among many singular customs--singular to us--I noted that a popular
remedy for illness is to play music and to recite prayers to scare away
the devil. An enlightened Moor might think the practices of the Peculiar
People quite as strange, and question the infallibility of cure-all
pills at thirteen-pence-halfpenny the box. The dead in Morocco are
hurried to their graves at a hand-gallop. That, I submit, is no more
unreasonable than many English funeral usages, such as incurring debt
for the pomp of mourning. At Moorish weddings the bride is carried in
procession in a palanquin to her husband's house amid a _fantasia_ of
gunpowder--the reckless rejoicing discharges of ancient muskets in the
streets. Well, white favours, gala coaches, and _feux de joie_ at
marriages of the great are not entirely unknown among us. Nobody sees
the Moorish wife for a year, not even her mother-in-law, which I
consider a not wholly unkind dispensation. The Moorish wife paints her
toe-nails, which, after all, is a harmless vanity, and less obtrusive
than that of the ladies who impart artificial redness to their lips.
And, lastly, the Moorish wife waits on her husband. Personally, I fail
to discover anything blamable in that act, though I must concede that it
is eccentric, very eccentric. These allusions to the Moorish wife in
general lead up naturally to one in particular in whom I took a
professional interest, for she was as remarkable in her way as Lady
Ellenborough or Lady Hester Stanhope, or that strong-minded Irishwoman