ed with tourists, guide-book in
hand and camera at the ready, will pierce the secret places of the land,
and men will speak of "doing" Morocco, as they "do" other countries in
their rush across the world, seeing all the stereotyped sights and
appreciating none. For the present, by Allah's grace, matters are quite
otherwise.

Marrakesh unfolded its beauties to us slowly and one by one as we pushed
horses and mules into a canter over the level plains of Hillreeli. Forests
of date-palm took definite shape; certain mosques, those of Sidi ben Yusuf
and Bab Dukala, stood out clearly before us without the aid of glasses,
but the Library mosque dominated the landscape by reason of the Kutubia
tower by its side. The Atlas Mountains came out of the clouds and revealed
the snows that would soon melt and set every southern river aflood, and
then the town began to show limits to the east and west where, at first,
there was nothing but haze. One or two caravans passed us, northward
bound, their leaders hoping against hope that the Pretender, the
"dog-descended," as a Susi trader called him, would not stand between them
and the Sultan's camp, where the profits of the journey lay. By this time
we could see the old grey wall of Marrakesh more plainly, with towers here
and there, ruinous as the wall itself, and storks' nests on the
battlements, their red-legged inhabitants fulfilling the duty of sentries.
To the right, beyond the town, the great rock of Djebel Geelez suggested
infinite possibilities in days to come, when some conqueror armed with
modern weapons and a pacific mission should wish to bombard the walls in
the sacred cause of civilisation. Then the view was lost in the date-palm
forest, through which tiny tributaries of the Tensift run babbling over
the red earth, while the kingfisher or dragon-fly, "a ray of living
light," flashes over the shallow water, and young storks take their first
lessons in the art of looking after themselves.

When a Moor has amassed wealth he praises God, builds a palace, and plants
a garden; or, is suspected, accused--despotic authority is not
particular--and cast into prison! In and round Marrakesh many Moors have
gained riches and some have held them. The gardens stretch for miles.
There are the far-spreading Augdal plantations of the Sultans of Morocco,
in part public and elsewhere so private that to intrude would be to court
death. The name signifies "the Maze," and they are said to justify it