proceeds to "bring the mountain to Mohammed," and you will doubtless
be confronted in the court-yard of your hotel by the very article for
which you have been seeking in vain. Of course he expects a good price
which shall ensure him a profit of at least fifty per cent. upon his
expenditure, but he too is open to a bargain, and a little skilful
pointing out of flaws in the article which he has brought for
purchase, in a tone of calm and supreme indifference, is apt to ensure
a very satisfactory reduction of price in favour of the shopper in
Barbary.




XV

A SUNDAY MARKET

"A climb with a friend is a descent."

_Moorish Proverb._


One of the sights of Tangier is its market. Sundays and Thursdays,
when the weather is fine, see the disused portion of the Mohammedan
graveyard outside _Báb el Fahs_ (called by the English Port St.
Catherine, and now known commonly as the Sôk Gate) crowded with buyers
and sellers of most quaint appearance to the foreign eye, not to
mention camels, horses, mules, and donkeys, or the goods they have
brought. Hither come the sellers from long distances, trudging all the
way on foot, laden or not, according to means, all eager to exchange