Quantities of slaves were on sale in the _mahalla_, and it was a pleasure to witness their absolute indifference to what was going on. They were free to run about round the slave-traders’ tents, and merry were the pranks they played upon one another and on the Moors. Just opposite Kaid Maclean’s tent, where I was installed, was a man who possessed seven, most of them young girls and boys, and a happier band I never saw. They laughed and gambolled from morning to night, and in their mischief often came and had a peep at me, running away again half frightened at their temerity. No doubt the freedom of the camp and the many strange sights it presented formed a delightful contrast to the desert journey they had so lately accomplished, for none of them had as yet learned to speak Arabic. Poor little things! they had yet much to suffer in the cold Atlas before they reached their various destinations in Morocco. At last, after nine days, my fate was decided upon. I was to return to Marakesh in the company of Kaid Maclean, and nothing could have met my wishes more completely than this did. It was by the Kaid’s own entreaties that this had been decided upon, and now that I was sufficiently recovered in health to travel, we were both anxious to start. The cold weather was setting in, and already we were experiencing sharp frosts of a night, and we dreaded that every day’s delay would increase the probability of our being snowed up in the high passes of the Atlas. Dr Linares dined with us our last evening, and he envied much the fact that we were leaving the desert behind so shortly, with every chance of making a quick journey, while he was to remain with the Sultan and travel back by the short stages by which the _mahalla_ proceeded. We could no longer claim the glory of being the only three Europeans in Tafilet, for the camp had received an addition, in the persons of seven French deserters from the “Legion étrangère,” who had tramped all the way across the desert from Algeria, a march which had taken them some two months to accomplish. They arrived robbed of everything but their ragged uniforms, and half-starved, to find but poor consolation in the Sultan’s camp, although, in hopes of gaining employment, they became Moslems. Arabic names were given to each; but possessing no knowledge of the language, they could not remember them, or who was who, much to the amusement of the native soldiers, who, ill-fed though they were, spared whenever they could some trifle of food. On their arrival at Marakesh they were sent to Mogador, and handed over to the French authorities to suffer the punishment they had merited for their desertion. There was still another Frenchman in the camp, a Mons. Delbel, who to all intents and purposes was a Moslem, and was everywhere received as such. He has since published his notes upon the journey in the journal of the Geographical Society of Paris.