Our man would not go with us alone to Salli, though since leaving Casablanca he and his wife had taken refuge there with the lady’s parents. To obtain an escort he took us down to the custom-house where the Basha of Salli came every day to watch the imports. We arrived at the landing just as the Basha got out of his ferry, a soldier following him and also a servant carrying his dinner in a plate slung in a napkin. The governor was a stately Moor of middle age, pock-marked of course, but clean and intelligent-looking, and we addressed him as a gentleman, to have our bow but slightly acknowledged. To Driss, who spoke to him, he intimated that because of the feeling of the people at this moment he would rather not be seen talking with Europeans. The Basha then entered the custom-house, and by means of Driss as messenger conducted negotiations with us, still standing on the landing-place. The negotiations were extensive of course, and after half-an-hour, receiving and replying to various unimportant questions--Were we anxious to see Salli to-day? Would not to-morrow do as well? Had we any reason for going there?--each of which was delivered singly, at last a soldier came and said that he would go with us but we must wait till he went and fetched another. This is the way when one is not welcome. Finally permitted to cross the river, we ploughed through the sands and passed the boneyard outside the walls to the narrow gate, where we waited again till yet another soldier came; and in this order, one man in front and two behind us, we entered upon the sacred cobbled streets, now not too crowded, for it was Ramadan, when folk are active most at evening and before the sun is high. In the quarter of good homes, through which we passed first, only little children in the care of youthful slave girls seemed to be abroad; and it is hard to say which we most alarmed. There was in every instance first a surprised start, then a quiet flurry. Little girls in long dresses, wearing but one long earring and distinguishable from boys only by having two patches of hair on their otherwise shaven heads, would shift their slippers, grab them up in their hands, and go tearing off, their cloaks flying, to disappear into a broad, low, arched doorway, and down the steps behind. The black girls, older, snatched the babies they were tending, covered their faces, and shuffled off to call the women. As we passed, the single uncovered eye of many women, white and black, lined the door held an inch ajar, and once, at our glance, one of the women growing modest slammed the heavy thing and--we judged from the yell--caught the nose of one of her sisters. Sometimes they came and peered over from their low-walled roofs, pointing us out to their children, the first infidels perhaps many of them had seen; and on these occasions we always watched, for the streets were sometimes but a yard wide and we were easy marks had any of them spat.