146 VISIT TO BL GRAOUI. ch. vi. 



served as the dwelling of his son, the then Viceroy ; and a 

 third group, to which we proceeded, was the home of El 

 Graouij who thus avoided the inconvenience of inhabiting 

 a place subject to the authority of his rival, Ben Daoud. 

 We saw no building of the slightest architectural preten- 

 sions, or at all comparable to the house in which we 

 ourselves were lodged. Through narrow tortuous passages, 

 amidst low buildings, scarcely more than ten feet high, 

 and of the meanest appearance, we reached a whitewashed 

 building of two floors, and through a narrow door and 

 passage were ushered up a short flight of steps into a small 

 room, wherein sat a stout man of completely black com- 

 plexion, whose broad countenance gave the impression of 

 considerable energy with an habitual expression of good- 

 humoured ferocity. The room was decorated with wood- 

 work, cut into elaborate geometrical patterns and painted 

 in bright colours, the only form of decorative art known 

 to the Moors, and lighted by a lanthorn overhead through 

 small bits of coloured glass. We seated ourselves on the 

 carpet-covered cushions ranged on either side, and a few 

 of the ordinary phrases of courtesy, familiar to all readers 

 who have made a tour in the East, were exchanged, Pre- 

 sently, on a signal from the great man, the inevitable 

 green tea was served in English china tea-cups, followed 

 by a slight refection, the air of the room being meanwhile 

 perfumed with the heavy scent of incense burned over 

 charcoal. 



After this, we, without further preface, commenced 

 conversation as to the object of our journey, taking care 

 to adhere as nearly as possible to the line of discourse 

 previously fixed upon. Having in general terms ex- 

 plained that we wanted to collect the plants of the high 

 mountains. Hooker was careful to add that we did not 

 care about stones or minerals. We had been warned that 

 the belief in the existence of precious metals in the Atlas 

 is traditional in the country; and though no ruler of 

 Marocco is known to have made any effort to search 



