30 
I shall defer my remarks on the religion or- worship 
of this nation till I reach Fez. 
The music at Tangier has nothing to please even the 
least delicate ears. It is executed by two clumsy bag- 
pipe players, who, upon instruments still more clumsy 
than themselves, endeavour to play in unison with in- 
struments that are never in tune, and never keep the 
same time. They have no fixed airs, as they do not use 
notes, and play only from memory. 
It very often happens that one of them wanders from 
the other, who from his louder playing is forced to fol- 
low him. This concert is not unlike an organ tuning. 
But notwithstanding this frightful harmony, such is the 
force of habit, that I became at last reconciled to the tu- 
multuous discord, and even made such a progress in it 
myself, that I succeeded in making out some of the airs 
most in use, and noted them down in the European 
characters. These airs, which are difficult to accom- 
pany by a bass, are mostly in the key of re, I shall at- 
tempt to give an essay on the Oriental music compared 
with that-of Europe. 
It is impossible for these bag-pipe players to enjoy a 
long life, on account of the extraordinary expenditure 
of their breath in playing on these instruments. They 
swell their cheeks extremely, and notwithstanding a 
circle of leather which covers them about two or three 
inches round their mouth, the quantity of saliva which 
they threw out, and the swelled state of their bodies^ 
show the violence of their exertions. 
I have already mentioned that these instruments are 
always accompanied with a large drum, whose hoarse 
sound is heard every four or five minutes, but more 
generally is struck every minute, or in some airs 
oftener* 
