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door will be seen opened sufficiently to allow the fat, brown, braceleted, arm of a Moorish female to protrude, and her hand perform a solo on the knocker. Presently five or six barefooted half-clad boys will be seen running from all directions, and the first who arrives goes into the house, and reappears in a moment, generally with a small board covered with the flat-shaped loaves that the Moors delight in, which are taken off to the public bakehouse. Sometimes he is summoned to take some confidential verbal message to a distant part of the town, which message he probably tells to all his companions and friends whom he may meet on the way; so that it becomes public intelligence long before it reaches its destination. Sometimes when there are any public amusements going on to occupy the time and attention of the ragged youth of Tangier, it takes a good deal of knocking to fetch one. I have known a knocker, knocked unremittingly for half an hour, with two or three others also going, not very far off. Under these circumstances knockers become a most intolerable nui

sance.

I must not omit to observe with regard to the furniture of the houses in Tangier, that the above description is strictly applicable to those occupied by Moors alone. Most of the Jews, of the better class, use European tables and chairs, at any rate for meals; and their principal room is always furnished with a large sofa. Houses occupied by Europeans, though many of them

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are destitute of carpets and not to say nuisances, in this respects furnished suitably to requirements.

curtains (superfluities, climate), are in other European tastes and

CHAPTER VIII.

THE MARINA.

TURNING down instead of up the main street brings us to the Marina, a portion of the beach enclosed by walls. Here the custom-house is situated, and the goods for exportation collected and stored. How miserably small the export trade of Tangier is, considering that it is the principal seaport town of the country, may be estimated by the few bales and boxes of merchandise, the accumulation of several days, waiting here; which will all be carried off by one small tug-boat. It consists chiefly of hides, grain of various kinds, and, in their season, dates and oranges. Among the grain is a very large quantity of the little seed that we call canary seed; and I am told that it forms a staple article of exportation all down the coast. What it is used for I do not know, but surely it cannot be alone for feeding pet canaries.

The principal trade, indeed, is in cattle for the supply of the Gibraltar garrison, for which purpose also a large quantity of fowls are exported; but even of these the supply sent is, I was told, very unequal to the demand.

The Marina is a favourite lounge on fine afternoons when a steamer is expected in. There is a considerable

dearth of amusements, properly so called, for visitors in Tangier; and when, as was the case when I arrived, the roads are impassable, and country excursions and picnics are consequently out of the question; it is a pleasant variety to the afternoon's ride or walk on the sands; to go down to the Marina and see the passengers land from the steamer. Quite a crowd assembles for this purpose-a motley crowd, made up of all the various elements of which the population of Tangier is composed. There are the Moorish officials of the customhouse; tall handsome fellows, richly dressed in dark blue sulams, burnouses, embroidered waistcoats, crimson silk sashes, baggy white trousers, and large white turbans twisted outside the fez; and sometimes with a white haik, made of a finely woven woollen material resembling barège, and generally striped with silk, thrown over the head and shoulders, and falling in graceful folds below the knee. Their feet are bare, except for the inevitable yellow slippers. These native swells lounge or lie about, in every attitude of idleness and ease; some sit cross-legged, gossiping, smoking, or sipping coffee. Besides these are numerous other Moors belonging to the better class; and Jews of every grade are very plentiful. A throng of the half naked porters who rush into the surf to carry ashore the passengers and goods; a sprinkling of shabby, lounging Spaniards smoking cigarettes; another sprinkling of the consuls and vice-consuls of the different nations

who hoist their flag in Tangier, with maybe one or two of the doctors; these forming the élite of the European population; and again, another sprinkling of English and American tourists from the hotels. The crowd of course includes an hotel-keeper or two, and a small army of touts. In addition a rabble of all the boys of the town, and two blind beggars with their leaders. The beggars smoke cigarettes, while their leaders, small pertinacious urchins, drag them about and do the begging.

The first boat from the steamer is the pratique boat, distinguished amongst the rest by its carrying the Moorish ensign, apparently a dirty red-cotton pockethandkerchief. No other boat is allowed to approach the steamer until the captain has delivered the bill of health to the captain of the pratique boat. She brings besides, the mail-bag; which a young Jew who officiates as postman to the English legation takes charge of. It is impossible in so public a place to attempt to kidnap this young man, and take instant possession of one's own particular share of the letters and newspapers, a desire to perpetrate which act of violence is, however, strong in many an English breast. The mails, particularly in bad weather, are tardy and irregular in their arrival; and it is no uncommon occurrence to be five days without news from England.

When the next boat approaches, a general rush takes place. A swarm of porters, who have waded out through

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