A Ride in Morocco Among Believers and Traders (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. Excerpt from book: Section 3CHAPTER IV THE ROAD TO TETUAN?LIFE OF THE PEASANTS?OPPRESSION The ride to Tetuan is the expedition usually prescribed for the more adventurous tourist, who lands at Tangiers and places himself in the hands of an hotel guide, or Cook's agent. More than one ' Mrs. Brown' went to Tetuan on a mule to make a first acquaintance with the East while I was in Tangiers; and, as many of my readers may do the same, it may interest them to learn my experience. The man I had with me was ambitious of becoming an hotel guide; but at the time I employed him he had not so far ruined himself, and I found him an excellent servant, though very soon afterwards I had to give him up, and leave him to the enjoyment of preying upon the tourists which the weekly steamers land in Tangiers. A feeling of insecurity on the back of a donkey, and the unsympathetic nature of the hired mule, had decided me upon buying a Riff pony, about thirteen hands high, a silver gray with black points. He was very much out of condition, having been owned by a Frenchman; but he was only two years old, and I believed that good treatment and care would improve him. We got to understand each other and became the very best of friends, for he had plenty of life, and was sometimes in the wildest spirits; but there was not a scrap of vice in his whole nature, and he was so sensible that, even in the middle of a gallop, I could stop and get down to recover my stick or pick a flower, and he would stand like aTHE ROAD TO TETUAN 27 rock for me to mount again. I stabled him at the hotel, paying for my own groom and feeding him myself. It is one of the good features of Tangiers as a winter resort that horses can be bought cheaply and kept economically. But I rode to Tetuan on the regulation hired mule like any other ' Mrs. Brown, ' being determined to ...