56 
TEAYELS IN AFKICA. Chap. XXIII. 
about the town. We had gone, however, but a little 
way when Bel-Ghet saw us, and reprimanded me 
severely for going out without asking his permission. 
Growing rather warm at such humiliating treat- 
ment, I told him, in very plain terms, that as long 
as the governor refrained from posting soldiers be- 
fore my door, I would regard myself as a free man, 
and at liberty to go where I chose. Seeing that he 
could not wreak his anger directly upon me, he tried 
to do it indirectly, by reprimanding my companion 
for going about with this " kafer," and confirming 
the " kafer" in his refractoriness against the will of 
the sultan. Not feeling much honoured with the title 
thus bestowed on me, I told him that as yet nobody in 
the whole town had insulted me with that epithet, but 
that he alone had the insolence to apply it. When the 
miserable fellow saw me irritated, he did not hesitate 
to declare that though well versed in the Kuran, he 
had been entirely unaware of the meaning of " kafer," 
and begged me to give him full information about the 
relations of the English to the various Mohammedan 
states. When I came to speak about Morocco, he 
.interrupted me, as, being a native of Gurara, he might 
be presumed to know the relations of those countries 
better than I did; and he insisted that the English were 
not on good terms with the emperor of Morocco, and 
were not allowed to visit Fas (Fez). I then declared to 
him that there could scarcely be a more unmistakeable 
proof of the friendly relations existing between the 
English and Mula f Abd e' Rahman than the present 
