208
68. Moonlight 212
69. A Moorish Girl 216
70. A Narrow Street in Mogador 218
71. Night Scene, Mogador 220
72. House Tops, Mogador 222
73. Selling Grain in Mogador 224
74. Selling Oranges 226

_The Illustrations in this volume have been engraved in England by the
Hentschel Colourtype Process._

BY CAPE SPARTEL

[Illustration: A SHEPHERD, CAPE SPARTEL]

CHAPTER I

BY CAPE SPARTEL

Over the meadows that blossom and wither
Rings but the note of a sea-bird's song,
Only the sun and the rain come hither
All year long.

_The Deserted Garden._

Before us the Atlantic rolls to the verge of the "tideless, dolorous
inland sea." In the little bay lying between Morocco's solitary lighthouse
and the famous Caves of Spartel, the waters shine in colours that recall
in turn the emerald, the sapphire, and the opal. There is just enough
breeze to raise a fine spray as the baby waves reach the rocks, and to
fill the sails of one or two tiny vessels speeding toward the coast of
Spain. There is just enough sun to warm the water in the pools to a point
that makes bathing the most desirable mid-day pastime, and over land and
sea a solemn sense of peace is brooding. From where the tents are set no
other human habitation is in sight. A great spur of rock, with the green
and scarlet of cactus sprawling over it at will, shuts off lighthouse and
telegraph station, while the towering hills above hide the village of
Mediunah, whence our supplies are brought each day at dawn and
sun-setting.

Two fishermen, clinging to the steep side of the rock, cast their lines
into the water. They are from the hills, and as far removed from our
twentieth century as their prototypes who were fishing in the sparkling
blue not so very far away when, the world being young, Theocritus passed
and gave them immortality. In the valley to the right, the atmosphere of
the Sicilian Idylls is preserved by two half-clad goatherds who have
brought their flock to pasture from hillside Mediunah, in whose pens they
are kept safe from thieves at night. As though he were a reincarnation of
Daphnis or Menalcas, one of the brown-skinned boys leans over a little
promontory and plays a tuneless ghaitah, while h