His Imperial Majesty holds a court of justice here, previous to the commencement of the holidays, and also issues orders for a general ablution by men, women, and children, of every class:  this, no doubt, is very necessary, as the common people seldom change their linen, and the greater part of them are covered with vermin.  During the fast they dare not touch any food while the sun is up, and when at night they are allowed to break their fast, they absolutely make perfect beasts of themselves.  Smoking, or chewing tobacco, and taking snuff, are strictly prohibited, by an edict from the Emperor:  the vender is punished with the bastinado, and a confiscation of all his goods and cattle, and the buyer with six years imprisonment.

Owing to the intense heat of the weather lately, there is a great scarcity of water:  so that we were obliged to carry it up in bags made of goat-skin, to supply us on the road; and coming back we took the same precaution.

When at Morocco, I was extremely anxious to visit Mogedor, a sea-port town, and the island of Erythia, now also called Mogedor, which island contains a castle of considerable strength, defended by a strong garrison, stationed there chiefly, as I have been told, to protect the gold-mines in the neighbourhood; but the distance was very great, and my time so limited, that I could not spare a fortnight, which it would at least have required to get there and back again.  I have been returned here two days, and, as I observed before, not so much gratified as I expected.

As I passed one of the courts of the palace yesterday, a fellow was receiving punishment for a robbery.  The right hand and foot were severed at the articulation, by a single blow of a large axe; the stumps were immediately immersed in a vessel of boiling pitch; and in this miserable condition he was turned about his business.  I once attended a man who had suffered these amputations; he soon recovered, and, to my great surprise, instead of sorrowing for his loss, he skipped about as nimbly as possible, and afterwards enlisted in the police.  After the fellow was turned away yesterday, a peasant, who had walked nearly two hundred miles, presented himself before the Emperor, to complain of the Governor of his province, for not having done him justice in assisting him to recover a debt of about six shillings.  The Emperor listened to his grievance, issued an order to enforce the payment of the debt, and gave the poor man a sum of money to enable him to return home.

LETTER XVIII.

Moorish Character—­Form of Devotion—­Meals—­Revenue—­Poll-tax on the Jews—­Royal Carriages—­Ostrich-riding—­Public Schools—­Watch-dogs.

Mequinez.