Note 78 — Chapter III

A tall peaked fez in Morocco is the outward visible sign of a soldier or man of the Mahksen, Government. From the Arabic word Mahksen, which is not used in other Arab-speaking countries in the sense of the Government, but simply as signifying a “Store,” comes the Spanish word “Almacen,” a store, and some say also our word, “magazine.” The inward spiritual grace is a swaggering demeanour to show the soundness of his faith, an insolence of manner not quite unknown among soldiers of other powers; and a firm determination to obtain for nothing, everything that the wretched “Pekin” has to pay for in the debased copper currency of the realm.