At length the head of our escort turned suddenly into one of the narrow lanes, barely wide enough to let a laden camel pass; we followed and, after passing the entrances of five or six other houses, reached a low door at the end of the lane. Stooping through the mean entrance and a short passage, we found a small open court, about fifteen feet square, on each side of which was a narrow room, receiving no light except from the court. A very brief inspection showed that the whole place was swarming with insects of every kind; and as Hooker turned round to express his opinion and his intentions, it was found that the officer with his rabble escort had decamped the moment he saw us safe into the house, thinking no doubt that we had thus no option but to remain there. When Hooker announced in very decisive terms his resolution not to sleep in such a house, Mr. Hunot and our new Moorish friends, foreseeing a row between us and the Governor, urged that we should put up with the house for that night, and on the following morning negotiate for a more suitable dwelling. As we were holding council together as to what should be done, a number of men appeared on the scene, each bearing one of the customary large beehive covered dishes, as a _mona_ for our evening meal. They were instantly ordered to carry their dishes back to Ben Daoud, and inform him that we refused to stop in that house. They said they could not take away the food, as their orders were to leave it for us; but on the order being repeated in more imperative tones, they departed, most likely settling the difficulty by appropriating the _mona_ between themselves and their friends. At this point Hooker’s knowledge of the Oriental character was conspicuously shown. If it be often true in the West that people are taken at their own valuation of themselves, this becomes an invariable rule among Eastern people. It was absolutely necessary for our eventual success that it should be understood that we were persons travelling by the express authority of our own Government, and entitled to all respect from the officers of the Moorish Sultan, however high their position might be. Were we to allow ourselves to be treated as mere private persons recommended to their good offices, there was an end to all hope of breaking down the barriers by which national prejudice and ancient tradition had closed the interior of the country against the intrusion of strangers. Had we even given way for a single day, the ingenuity of the natives would have found abundant pretexts for evading our demands; it was much easier to refuse the proffered lodging at once than to give a good reason why we could not spend a second night in a house where we had passed the first.