After a quarter of an hour’s interchange of civil speeches, conversation began to flag; but the Governor’s cook, who perhaps wished to display his professional skill on the occasion, was yet far from completing his operations. Quite an hour passed, we were tired and sleepy, and our fat host showed no talent for conversation, so that the time hung heavily enough until the usual preface to dinner, green tea, was introduced. Doubtless the entertainment was everything that a Moorish connoisseur would have thought refined and exquisite. Orange-flower water was provided for washing the fingers, and incense was burned at the beginning of the repast. Our host was attentive enough to pick out and present to us choice pieces of meat or vegetable from the dishes that followed each other in slow order, but he fortunately did not think it necessary to show the utmost mark of hospitable attention by taking an especially delicate morsel from his own mouth and thrusting it into that of a guest. It was quite ten o’clock when, after further potations of green tea, we returned to our tents. Presently Hooker was requested, through Abraham, our interpreter, to receive the _mona_, or offering of food, which, in accordance with the Sultan’s order, was to be provided at each place where we stopped on our journey. The _mona_ on this occasion befitted the dignity of the Governor of an important province rather than the wants of three travellers who had just been abundantly fed, and whose retinue could not, with the best intentions, consume one half of the articles supplied. Opposite the door of our large tent a number of the Governor’s servants appeared, the whole group being lit up by torchlight. First, five live sheep were dragged forward, then twenty fowls, then followed a large hollow dish filled with eggs. To these succeeded a very large earthen jar of butter, and another of honey, a package of green tea, four loaves of sugar, candles of French manufacture, which are largely imported, and finally corn for our horses and mules. As if all this were not enough, there then advanced a procession of men, carrying the usual large dishes with beehive covers, each of which in turn was laid down before Hooker. It may be here mentioned that the presentation of _mona_ was henceforward a daily ceremony, repeated every evening, some time after our arrival in camp. The requisition was made by the soldiers of our escort upon the local authority, whether a governor or a mere village sheik; and this was a part of their duties which they performed with unfailing zeal and punctuality. On such an occasion as the present we had no fear of pressing too hardly on the donors of the _mona_; but in poor places, and especially in the valleys of the Great Atlas, we had an unpleasant feeling that the exorbitant demands of our rapacious escort imposed a heavy tax on the limited means of the population.