playing the lute, or eating sweetmeats.

In one room on the ground-floor there was a great collection of mechanical toys. Sidi Boubikir explained that the French Commercial Attaché had brought a large number to the Sultan's Palace and that my Lord Abd-el-Aziz had rejected the ones before us. With the curious childish simplicity that is found so often among the Moors in high places, Boubikir insisted upon winding up the clockwork apparatus of nearly all the toys. Then one doll danced, another played a drum, and a third went through gymnastic exercises; the toy orchestra played the MARSEILLAISE, while from every nook and corner veiled figures stole out cautiously, for all the world as though this room in a Moorish house were a stage and they were the chorus entering mysteriously from unexpected places. The old man's merriment was very real and hearty, so genuine, in fact, that he did not notice how his womenfolk were intruding until the last note sounded. Then he turned round and the swathed figures disappeared suddenly as ghosts at cockcrow.

Though it was clear that Sidi Boubikir seldom saw half the rooms through which he hurried me, the passion for building that seizes all rich Moors held him fast.

He was adding wing after wing to his vast premises, and would doubtless order more furniture from London to fill the new rooms. No Moor knows when it is time to call a halt and deem his house complete, and so the country is full of palaces begun by men who fell from power or died leaving the work unfinished. The late Grand Vizier Abu Ahmad left a palace nearly as big as the Dar Maghzen itself, and since he died the storks that built upon the flat roofs have been its only occupants. So it

is with the gardens whose many beauties he hoped to enjoy. I rode past them one morning and saw all manner of fruit-trees blossoming, heard birds singing in their branches, and saw young storks fishing in the little pools that the winter's rains had left. But there was not a single gardener there to tend the ground once so highly cultivated, and I was assured that the terror of the Vizier's name kept even the hungry beggars from the fruit in harvest-time.

The home and its appointments duly exhibited, Sidi Boubikir led the way to a divan in a well-cushioned room that opened on to the garden. He clapped his hands and a small regiment of female servants, black and for the most part uncomely, arrived to prepare dinner. One brought a ewer, another a basin, a third a towel, and water was poured out over our hands. Then a large porcelain bowl, encased in strong basket-work, was brought by a fourth servant, and a tray of flat loaves of fine wheat by a fifth, and we broke bread and said the Bismillah which stands for grace. The bowl was uncovered and revealed a savoury stew of chicken with sweet lemon and olives, a very pleasing sight to all who appreciate Eastern cooking. The use of knives being a crime against the Faith and the use of forks and spoons unknown, we plunged the fingers of the right hand into the bowl and sought what pleased us best, using the bread to deal with the sauce of the stew. It was really a delicious dish, and when later in the afternoon I asked my host for the recipe he said he would give it to me if I would fill the bowl with Bank

of England notes. I had to explain that in my ignorance of the full resources of Moorish cookery I had not come out with sufficient money.

So soon as the charm of the first

bowl palled, it was taken away and others followed in quick succession, various meats and eggs being served with olives and spices and the delicate vegetables that come to Southern Morocco in early spring. It was a relief to come to the end of our duties, and, our hands washed once more, to digest the meal with the aid of green tea served with mint. Strong drink being forbidden to the true believer, water only was served with the dinner, and as it was brought direct from the Tensift river and was of a muddy, red colour, there was no temptation to touch it. Sidi Boubikir was in excellent spirits and told many stories of his earlier days, of his dealings with Bashadors, his quarrel with the great Kaid Ben Daoud, the seige of the city by Illegitimate Men, of his journey to Gibraltar, and of how he met one of the Rothschilds there and tried to do business with him. He spoke of his investments in Consols and the poor return they brought him, and of many other matters of equal moment.

It was not easy to realise that the man who spoke so brightly and lightly about trivial affairs had one of the keenest intellects in the country, that he had the secret history of its political intrigues at his fingers' ends, that he was the trusted agent of the British Government, and lived and

thrived surrounded by enemies. So far as was consistent with courtesy I tried to direct his reminiscences towards politics, but he kept to purely personal matters and included in them a story of his attempt to bribe a British Minister, to whom he went upon the occasion of the British Mission in Marrakesh, leading two mules laden with silver dollars.

"And when I came to him," said the old man, "I said, "By Allah's Grace I am a rich man, so I have

brought you some share of my

:

wealth.' But he would not even count the bags. He called with a loud voice for his wife, and cried to her See now what this son of a camel-driver would do to me. He would give me his miserable money.' And then in very great anger he drove me from his presence and bade me never come near him again bearing a gift. What shall be said of a man like that, to whom Allah had given the wisdom to become a Bashador and the foolishness to reject a present? Two mules, remember, and each one with as many bags of Spanish dollars as it could carry. Truly the ways of your Bashadors are past belief."

I agreed heartily with Sidi Boubikir; a day's discourse would not have made clear any other aspect of the case.

S. L. BENSUSAN.

With

THE war-balloon has had a chequered and somewhat strange career. in ten years of the memorable occasion when the Brothers Montgolfier first launched their huge paper globe into space the balloon had been recognised as an important accessory of warfare. It was then the early years of the Revolutionary War, and the French Academy lent its aid in establishing, in strict secrecy, a school of aeronautics on behalf of the Republic. A corps of military students to the number of fifty was formed, and every day in fair weather service-like practice went forward with a captive balloon kept constantly inflated. The function of the balloon was to supply facilities not only for reconnaissance but also for signalling, and within a twelvemonth the new instrument was put to a practical and satisfactory test. On the eve of the battle of Fleurus in June, 1797, Colonel Coutelle with two colleagues made reconnoitring ascent, rising to the height of several hundred feet and remaining aloft in safety while repeated and prolonged observations were carried out; and the decisive victory gained over the Austrians by General Jourdan on the following day was largely attributed to the important information which Colonel Coutelle had obtained from his aerial post of observation.

This was a good beginning for the balloon which had thus proved itself of signal assistance in strategic operations. It becomes, then, a matter of great surprise, admitting of no obvious solution, that Napoleon regarded the aeronautical school with

disfavour and presently abolished it altogether. As at least a partial explanation, however, there has been advanced the following story which is given on the authority of Las Cases in his PRIVATE LIFE OF NAPOLEON AT ST. HELENA. It was the time of his coronation and Napoleon had allowed the ascent of a balloon to form a part of the festivities. This balloon, however, was dismissed without passengers, and being thus left merely to fate appeared to have behaved itself during the night in a manner which might well be deemed preternatural, for at dawn it was found to be on its direct way to Rome and already to be nearing that city. Nor was this all, for with steady course it passed on till it poised itself over St. Peter's and the Vatican at which point, as though its purpose had been fulfilled, it made a determined swoop to earth and finally flung itself into the lake Bracciano. Moreover, as if to make the portent the more palpable, it first rent itself on the ground and next, ere it plunged itself into the water, carefully deposited a portion of its crown on the tomb of Nero. It would appear that Napoleon, regarding this incident as a sort of prodigy pointing to his own destiny," henceforward forbade the use of balloons in his army.

An important and interesting statement respecting the utility of the balloon is made by Colonel Coutelle in a report during the campaign of 1794.

I received the order to reconnoitre Mayance, and I posted myself between

our lines and the place within easy distance of its guns. The wind was strong, and to offer more resistance I rose alone, with a diminution in my favour of two hundred lbs. I was at more than two hundred and thirty yards from the ground, when three successive squalls beat me back again to earth with such force that many of the bars that strengthened the bottom of the car were broken. On each occasion the balloon rose with such force and rapidity that thirty-two men at each rope were dragged some distance; it is therefore clear that had the ropes been fixed to anchors they would have broken. The enemy did not fire. A general and some of the staff came out of the town waving white handkerchiefs, which I signalled to our headquarters, and our general went out to meet them. When they met, the Austrian general said: "Monsieur le General, Je vous demande en grâce de faire descendre ce brave officier; le vent va le faire périr; il ne faut pas qu'il soit victime d'un accident étranger à la guerre : c'est moi qui ai fait tirer sur lui à Mauberge." The wind fell: I was able to ascend again; and on this occasion, without a glass, I could count the cannon on the ramparts and see the people walking in the streets.

An abortive attempt was made to revive the French aeronautical school during the African campaign of 1830, and it appears that the Austrians made use of balloons for reconnaisance before Venice in 1849. It is also worthy of mention that balloons were at least dreamed of during the Crimean War. Sir William Reid, the Governor of Malta, in a communication to the War Office in 1855, wrote: "As balloons were successfully used more than sixty years back by a French army, they may perhaps be made of some use in the Crimea just now. To raise an observer even two hundred or three hundred feet above a fortified position might enable assailants to form more correct ideas on inner intrenchments than when only viewing such a position from a height of equal altitude."

It was not, however, till 1859, in the Italian

campaign of that year, that the balloon was again turned to much practical use in military service. We then find the Special Correspondent of THE TIMES writing thus of some reconnoitring endeavours which were under the management of the civilian aeronauts MM. Godard: "On the day before the battle of Solferino, June 23rd, 1859, even with the best glass nothing was seen at Solferino, which is ordinarily visible from the hills near Castiglione. In the afternoon, however, the Brothers Godard tried from the hill a balloon ascent on a larger scale than some days before from Castenedolo. And on the Austrian side, where this ascent was seen, it is supposed that their plans were discovered by the MM. Godard."

But only three years later the balloon was used in warfare on a very different scale and with far better results. This was in the American War, and one of the earliest accounts of its operations gathered from а report in THE TIMES of April 14th, 1862, not long after the war had commenced in earnest, points to very special and signal service rendered by the military aeronauts. The reconnaissance, according to this correspondent, established the fact that shells had been thrown at too great a range to be sufficiently effective against the Confederate batteries: "This defect in mortar-practice has since been remedied."

It is well at this point to glance at the balloon equipment hitherto adopted, and at the all important matter of the various methods of inflation which have been tried. The gas-balloon was not the only form made use of. The older or hot-air aerostat had also been put to the test, and a committee of Austrian engineers had declared that, though a Montgolfier balloon would need to be of very bulky proportions, having

In

a diameter of at least sixty feet, yet its freedom from troublesome encumbrances, and therefore its relative portability, its durability and safety, and above all the readiness with which it could be brought into action, were very strongly in its favour. stead of requiring very cumbersome and dangerous apparatus for its inflation this operation could in general be carried out by merely collecting such brushwood as may be presumed to be at hand in all military operations, and when once the process is begun the complete inflation, in the absence of any troublesome amount of wind, would generally occupy not longer than some twenty minutes.

For the gas-balloon there are three separate modes of inflation. First, by coal-gas, in all ways the most convenient but seldom practicable in actual warfare; secondly by pure hydrogen gas, prepared by the usual vitriolic process, of the practical working of which we have now to speak; and thirdly by the same gas produced by passing steam through red-hot tubes. This indeed was the very earliest process introduced with apparent success in the French aeronautic school already spoken of, and in the most recent phase of warfare in South Africa the same gas, as is well known, was conveyed from England in steel cylinders, or from some other centre such as Cape Town where a hydrogen gas-making plant was specially established.

The method of preparing gas by the vitriolic process, or in other words by the action of dilute sulphuric acid on iron or zinc, has been that most usually adopted, and this, as we shall now show, was very thoroughly tested and approved of in the American Civil War. The plant, required to be always at hand and therefore to be transported wherever the balloon was wanted, may seem sufficiently bulky

and troublesome. As actual gasgenerators there were needed two large and strongly built tanks of wood made acid-proof inside, and fitted with necessary valves and hose, while lime purifiers and coolers were also wanted. But it was found that the required acid was readily procurable, as also scrap iron, and thus no very serious practical difficulties were experienced in the field. The chief of these, undoubtedly, were wind and weather; but in a general way a squad of about thirty men could convey the inflated balloon, and for the rest four wagons, with four horses each, sufficed. It was claimed that the reconnaissances, which were effected daily when weather permitted, were of the greatest value, and that any change in the occupation of the country would be at once detected. Captain Beaumont, speaking, it will be remembered, of the military operations and manœuvres then in vogue, declared that earth-works could be seen even at the distance of eight miles, though their character could not be clearly detected. Wooded country was unfitted for balloon reconnaissance, and only in a plain could any considerable body of troops be made known. Then followed such a description as one would expect to find:

During the battle of Hanover Court House, which was the first engagement of importance before Richmond, I hapthe heavy firing began. The wind was pened to be close to the balloon when rather high, but I was anxious to see, if possible, what was going on, and I went up with the father of the Aeronaut. The balloon was, however, short of gas, and as the wind was high we were obliged to come down. I then went up by myself, the diminished weight giving increased steadiness; but it was not considered safe to go more than five hundred feet on account of the very unsettled state of the weather. The balloon was very unsteady, so much so that it was