European things, which were to him as toys, began to fascinate him, and his purchase of them soon became a scandal in Morocco. Bicycles, motor-cars, cameras, phonographs, wireless telegraphs, and Western animals for his zoo, were ordered by the Sultan on hearing of them. An English billiard table was brought from the coast on a primitive wooden truck built specially, for it was too heavy to bring camel-back and there are no carts in Morocco. The Sultan could not go to Europe, but Europe could come to the Sultan. He heard of fireworks and gave a lavish order, engaging also a ‘master of fireworks’ to conduct displays in his gardens. He bought a camera made of gold and engaged a photographer. Of course the Sultan’s extravagant purchases attracted to Fez many Europeans bent only on exploiting him. Hundreds of thousands he spent on jewels, which when deposited in the Bank of England brought for him a loan of about a tenth the original cost. He bought a motor-boat and kept it high and dry in his palace, though he employed a German engineer to run it. From the Krupp company, at a cost of many millions, he bought two heavy-calibre guns, as unmanageable to the Moors as white elephants to monkeys. Any agent for European arms could get an order from him, and his arsenal became a museum of European guns. It was easy to swindle the Sultan. An American came to Fez to persuade him to send ‘a Moorish village’ to the Exposition at St Louis. Being unaccredited, the man could get no proper introduction from the American Minister at Tangier, but by a clever ruse he saw the Sultan nevertheless. The American brought with him to Fez a bulldog with false teeth. Through some of his European _entourage_ the Sultan heard of the dog and ordered it to be brought to him; but the dog could not go without its master, who obtained from the Sultan some 40,000_l._, spending, I am told, perhaps 2,000_l._ on the Moorish village. While spending money in this fashion--which might in itself have made Morocco bankrupt--Abdul Aziz took no trouble to collect his taxes. To bring to order a tribe careless about paying them, it is often necessary for the Sultan to lead his forces in person. But Abdul Aziz after one or two campaigns left his army to the command of Ministers; and gradually his troops dwindled away, and, his moral force weakening, gradually, tribe by tribe, almost the entire country discontinued to pay taxes. At last only the garrison towns could be depended on for revenue. News of his European tendencies spread throughout the land. The influence of Kaid Maclean in the army was known and resented. Photographs of the Sultan had been seen by many of the Faithful. Finally, it was reported that he had become a Christian.