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Externally the gaol of Tangier does not differ greatly in appearance from an ordinary Moorish house, and even internally it is of the plan which prevails throughout the native buildings from fandaks to palaces.
There are clean fandaks in Sunset Land, but they are few and you must travel far to find them. I had letters to the chief civilian resident of Marrakesh, Sidi Boubikir, British Political Agent, millionaire, land-owner, financier, builder of palaces, politician, statesman, and friend of all Englishmen who are well recommended to his care.
Here is the Kaisarîya, restored after a fire in 1843; there is the street of the grain fandaks, and beyond is a hammám, now a dwelling-house. The site of the chief mosque is now the cathedral, in the chief chapel of which are buried the conquerors of Granáda.
Marrakesh, like all other inland cities of Morocco, has neither hotel nor guest-house. It boasts some large fandaks, notably that of Hadj Larbi, where the caravans from the desert send their merchandise and chief merchants, but no sane European will choose to seek shelter in a fandak in Morocco unless there is no better place available.
On the plains of R'hamna, where fandaks are unknown and even the n'zalas are few and far between; in the fertile lands of Dukala, Shiadma, and Haha; in M'touga, on whose broad plains the finest Arab horses are reared and thrive, I have found this instinct predominant.
One visitor alone is hardly safe among the wild half-gipsy lot who dwell there now, but a few copper coins are all the keys needed to gain admission to some fine old patios with marble columns, crumbling fandaks, and ruined baths. By the roadside may be seen the identical style of water-mill still used in Morocco, and the presence of the Spaniard seems a dream.
When it became necessary for us to leave Marrakesh the young shareef went to the city's fandaks and inquired if they held muleteers bound for Mogador. We were fortunate in finding the men we sought without any delay.
The first person questioned directed us to one of Boubikir's fandaks, and by its gate, in a narrow lane, where camels jostled the camp-mules until they nearly foundered in the underlying filth, we found the celebrated man sitting within the porch, on an old packing-case.
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