"O Friend of the Prophet, is there anything to-day?"
"Nothing, O my master," is the courteously toned reply, for the beggar appears to be a shareef or noble, and with a "God bless thee," disappears.
A miserable wretch now turns up, and halfway across the yard begins to utter a whine which is speedily cut short by a curt "God help thee!" whereat the visitor turns on his heel and is gone.
With a confident bearing an untidy looking figure enters a moment later, and after due salaams inquires for a special kind of cloth.
"Call to-morrow morning," he is told, for he has not the air of a purchaser, and he takes his departure meekly.
A creaky voice here breaks in from round the corner--
"Hast thou not a copper for the sake of the Lord?"
After a few minutes another female comes on the scene, exhibiting enough of her face to show that it is a mass of sores.
"Only a trifle, in the name of my lord Idrees," she cries, and turns away on being told, "God bring it!"
Then comes a policeman, a makházni, who seats himself amid a shower of salutations--
"Hast thou any more of those selháms" (hooded cloaks)?
"Come on the morrow, and thou shalt see."
The explanation of this answer given by the "merchant" is that he sees such folk only mean to bother him for nothing.
And this appears to be the daily routine of "business," though a good bargain must surely be made some time to have enabled our friend to acquire all the property he has, but so far as an outsider can judge, it must be a slow process. Anyhow, it has heartily tired the writer, who has whiled away the morning penning this account on a cushion on one side of the shop described. Yet it is a fair specimen of what has been observed by him on many a morning in this sleepy land.
SHOPPING[7] [7: Contributed by my wife.--B. M.]
If any should imagine that time is money in Morocco, let them undertake a shopping expedition in Tangier, the town on which, if anywhere in Morocco, occidental energy has set its seal. Not that one such excursion will suffice, unless, indeed, the purchaser be of the class who have more money than wit, or who are absolutely at the mercy of the guide and interpreter who pockets a commission upon every bargain he brings about. For the ordinary mortal, who wants to spread his dollars as far as it is possible for dollars to go, a tour of inspection, if not two or three, will be necessary before such a feat can be accomplished. To be sure, there is always the risk that between one visit and another some coveted article may find its way into the hands of a more reckless, or at least less thrifty, purchaser, but that risk may be safely taken.