130 FIRMNESS THE BEST POLICY. ch. vi. 



appeared ou the scene, each bearing one of the customary 

 large beehive covered dishes, as a mona for our evening 

 meal. They were instantly ordered to carry their dishes 

 back to Ben Daoud, and inform him that we refused to 

 stop in that house. They said they could not take away 

 the food, as their orders were to leave it for us ; but on 

 the order being repeated in more imperative tones, they 

 departed, most likely settling the difficulty by appropri- 

 ating the'mona between themselves and their friends. At 

 this point Hooker's knowledge of the Oriental character 

 was conspicuously shown. If it be often true in the West 

 that people are taken at their own valuation of themselves, 

 this becomes an invariable rule among Eastern people. It 

 was absolutely necessary for our eventual success that it 

 should be understood that we were persons travelling by 

 the express authority of our own Government, and entitled 

 to all respect from the officers o,f the Moorish Sultan, how- 

 ever high their position might be. Were we to allow our- 

 selves to be treated as mere private persons recommended 

 to their good offices, there was an end to all hope of 

 breaking down the barriers by which national prejudice 

 and ancient tradition had closed the interior of the 

 country against the intrusion of strangers. Had we even 

 given way for a single day, the ingenuity of the natives 

 would have found abundant pretexts for evading our de- 

 mands ; it was much easier to refuse the proffered lodging 

 at once than to give a good reason why we could not 

 spend a second night in a house where we had passed the 

 first. 



A messenger was despatched to Ben Daoud. 'Tell 

 the Grovernor,' said Hooker, ' that my Sultana gives me 

 a large house with a garden to live in ; hospitality would 

 require that the Grovernor of Marocco should provide me 

 — the guest of his Sultan — with a better house ; but, in 

 any case, I shall not live in a worse one.' In a short 

 time the messenger returned with the answer : ' The 

 Grovernor has no better house to give the Christians; 



