"Three days will serve to sell the oil and rest the
mules," he had continued, "and three days more will bring you home." Then
he gave each man three dollars for travelling money, about nine shillings
English, and out of it the mules were to be fed, the charges of n'zala and
fandak to be met, and if there was anything over the men might buy food
for themselves. They dared not protest, for El Arbi bel Hadj ben Haida had
every man's house in his keeping, and if the muleteers had failed him he
would have had compensation in a manner no father of a family would care
to think about. The oil was sold, and the muleteers were preparing to
return to their master, when Salam offered them a price considerably in
excess of what they had received for the whole journey to take us to
Mogador. Needless to say they were not disposed to let the chance go by,
for it would not take them two days out of their way, so I went to the
fandak to see mules and men, and complete the bargain. There had been a
heavy shower some days before, and the streets were more than usually
miry, but in the fandak, whose owner had no marked taste for
cleanliness, the accumulated dirt of all the rainy season had been
stirred, with results I have no wish to record.
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