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[Illustration: Isabel Savory]
IN THE TAIL OF
THE PEACOCK
By ISABEL SAVORY.
Author of "_A Sportswoman in India_"
WITH 48 ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS
AND A PHOTOGRAVURE PORTRAIT
"The Earth is a peacock: Morocco is the tail of it"
_Moorish Proverb_
London: HUTCHINSON & CO.
Paternoster Row 1903
PRINTED BY
HAZELL, WATSON AND VINEY, LD.,
LONDON AND AYLESBURY
_PREFACE_
_THIS book contains no thrilling adventures, chronicles, no days devoted
to sport. It will probably interest only those minds which are content
with "the C Major of this life," and which find in other than scenes of
peril and excitement their hearts' desire._
_Such as care to wander through its pages must have learnt to enjoy
idleness, nor find weeks spent beneath the sun and stars too long--that
is to say, the fascination of a wandering, irresponsible life should be
known to them: waste and solitary places must not appal, nor trifling
incident weary, while human natures remotely removed from their own,
alternately delight and repel. Those who understand not these things,
will find but a dull chronicle within the following pages._
_If to live is to know more, and to know more only to love more, the
least eventful day may possess a minimum of value, and even quiet
monotones and grey vistas be found and lost in a glamour born of
themselves._
_In this loud and insistent world the silent places are often overlooked,
and yet they are never empty._
_ISABEL SAVORY._
WESTFIELD OLD HALL,
EAST DEREHAM.
_February, 1903._
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
PAGE
TANGIER--COUNTRY PEOPLE--THE PILGRIMAGE TO MECCA--MOORISH
PRISONS--WE RIDE TO CAPE SPARTEL--DECIDE TO LEAVE
TANGIER AND PUSH INLAND 1