CHAPTER XIX.

SAINTS IN MOROCCO.

I HAVE alluded more than once to the saints of Morocco. There is a suspiciously close resemblance between the saints of all countries, but those of Morocco are the most remarkable, that I at least, have ever heard of.

For one thing, they still continue to exist bodily, in this world; while the saints of other countriesthose at least of which we know most about-have all long ago retired from active life-here. In Tangier you can enjoy the satisfaction of giving half a farthing to a saint in the streets, and you can witness a saint wrapped in dignity and a white burnous, mounted on a mule, and taking his afternoon airing on the sands. You can talk to a saint, shake hands with a saint, take tea with a saint; I had the honour of being introduced to a saint's wives, two of them; and being apologised to for the absence of the rest-a considerable number I believe of that establishment!

These are saints that there can be no mistake about. Nor about the saintesses; two fat, foolish, untidy young women, the two that I saw were.

Of course I know that there have been saints in other countries, plenty of them; and we have had them in England too, though scarcer. They didn't seem to thrive on our soil.

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Certainly we believe in saints in England. We call our churches after them, and every now and then our clergymen gravely announce a special service in honour of some one of them. But like the barber in Nicholas Nickleby, we find it necessary to "draw a line somewhere, and we draw it there." We don't go beyond saints deceased. And the greater way back we can put them in the eras of history, the more comfortable we feel about them; the farther off they are, the better we like them: "distance lends enchantment to the view." If any one in inviting us to a tea-party, promised us that we should meet "a saint," we should consider it as hyperbolical language. We should never expect to be introduced to an individual having a halo or a turban round his head, and capable of putting chopped up little children or kesksooed cats together again. We would be perfectly aware that the expression referred to some "Father," or "Gospel Preacher," according as the tendencies of the lady giving the invitation were Ritualistic or Evangelical. We know that the sanctity of these gentlemen will be only expressed by an abstinence from meat on Friday, or dancing on any day, according to their "High" or "Low" views. We never for an instant imagine that either of them would know a baby or a cat, from a young pig or a rabbit, if judiciously disguised in a pie or a kesksoo. We feel assured, too, that they wash themselves regularly, and pare their nails; and one

look at them is sufficient to show that they are excellent clients of the hairdresser's.

There is nothing at all remarkable about such saints as these; therefore, unless we happen to be young ladies with "views" or "tendencies," we are not particularly eager about tea-parties where we are to meet them. And (though, of course, we believe in them) we are wonderfully cool even about our historical saints: witness the few, very few, confiding females, who alone on their especial days attend their commemorative services.

But in Morocco it is quite another thing. Not only are the historical saints, of whom there are plenty, held in the highest veneration and esteem; but there, real living, moving, walking, eating and drinking, marrying saints, can be seen; saints who can work miracles (and what good is a saint who can't?), and who will yet condescend to accept half a farthing from you, or drink tea or champagne with you.

Saintship in Morocco is of two kinds, acquired or hereditary. The saints of the former class are distinguished by their exceeding personal filth, and outrageous eccentricity of behaviour. This kind of saintship is adopted as a profession, and generally, I believe, proves a tolerably lucrative one. When a man decides upon becoming a saint, his first proceeding is to abstain from changing his clothes, washing, shaving, or combing him

self, for a year. It is a simple process, and involves little trouble and no expense. Having by these easy