r-i

- - ^

YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

FROM THE ESTATE OF
MISS MARY B. BRISTOL
1936

MOROCCO

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3Li(}btbou0e, Cape Spartel.

MOROCCO
ITS PEOPLE AND PLACES

BY

EDMONDO DE AMICIS,
Author of " Holland," " Constantinople," Etc.

TRANSLATED FROM THE THIRTEENTH ITALIAN EDITION BY
MARIA HORNOR LANSDALE

ILLUSTRATED
IN TWO VOLUMES
Vol. I

PHILADELPHIA
HENRY T. COATES & CO.
1897

Copyright, 1897, by
HENRY T. COATES & CO.

CONTENTS VOLUME 1

PAGE
Tangiek   . 1
H A DD-EL-G HABEI A   89
Tlata De Eaisana   127
AlCAZAE EL KeBIE  145
Ben-Aouda  161
Kaeiya El-Habassi   177
Beni-Hassajst  .... 197
Sidi-Hassem   217
Zeggota  229
Feom Zeggota to Tgh'at  245

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
VOLUME I

The publishers desire to extend their thanks to Messrs. Keen and
Mead, Architects, Mr. E. T. Hazzard and Mr. S. P. Stameach for the use
of original photographs and negatives, reproduced in photogravure by
W. H. GiLBO and A. W. Elson & Co.

Lighthouse, Cape Spaetel,
Steeet in Tanqiee, ....
Nomads feom the Inteeior,
FonNTAiN, Tangiee, .
A Moorish Jewess,
Shops in Tangiee, ....
View feom the Kasbah, .
Neqeess beinging Peesents foe a Bride,
Mosque of the Aissowieh,
A Snake Charmer, ....
Moorish Beidge neae Tangiee,
SoK Di Baera, Tangiee, .
Loading a Camel, ....
Mountain and Valley in the Interior,
Arab Soldiers. From original painting by E. Aubry
Hunt,  (vii)

PAGE
Frontispiece

9
18
2226
31
40
48
53 68
74
87
103
108130

Vlll

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Natives Washing Clothes in a River,
Entrance to a Mella,
A Gaeden in Moeocco
Horseman bringing in Heads op Rebels. From
nal painting by E. Aubry Hunt,
Moorish Gateway, ....
Peasant W^oman and Child,
A Soldier op the Sultan,
Mountain Gorge on Koad to Fez,
On the way to Market, .
Panoeama op Fez, ....

ongi-

page 148
157167
172
182
201220
235
248
251

TANGIEE.

TANGIEE.

Of all straits in the vi^orld, that of Gibraltar divides,
perhaps more completely than any other, tvfo strik
ingly dissimilar countries, and this unlikeness is the
more noticeable on the outv^ard trip from Gibraltar.
Here stiU ferments the noisy, feverish, brilliant life
of a European city, and the traveller, from vi^hatever
quarter of Europe he may hail, yet feels himself at
home in numberless familiar customs and aspects of
life. Three hours later, and the very name of our Con
tinent sounds strange ; Christian signifies enemy, and
our civilization is unknown, or feared, or scoffed at.
Everything, from the very foundations of society to
the most trifling details of private life, is metamor
phosed, and all indication of the close proximity of
Europe has completely disappeared. We suddenly
find ourselves in an unknown land, without ties of
any kind, and with everything to learn. To be sure
the European coast is stiU visible from the shore, but
in our hearts there is a consciousness of immeasurable
distance, as though that narrow strip of water were
an ocean, those blue, distant hills a delusion.
(3)

4 TANGIER.
In the brief space of three hours a transformation
has taken place in our surroundings than which
nothing more astounding can be witnessed on the
face of the earth.
The emotion that one might naturally expect to
feel, however^ on setting foot for the first time on
that vast, mysterious continent, which from earliest
childhood has haunted the imagination, is sadly dis
turbed by the fashion in which the landing is accom
plished. Just as the white houses of Tangier began
to be plainly visible from the steamer's deck, a Span
ish lady standing behind me cried out, " What can
those people want f Following the direction of her
outstretched finger I saw, beyond the boats which
were coming to take the passengers off, a crowd of
ragged, half-naked Arabs standing waist-high in
water, and pointing the vessel out to one another with
excited gestures, like -so many lunatics, or rather like
a troop of brigands exclaiming, " There is our prey !"
Feeling slightly uneasy in my mind, not knowing
who they were, nor what they wanted, I descended
into the boat, with a number of my fellow-passengers.
When we were stiU about twenty feet from shore
the entire rabble fell on us, laying violent hands
upon us, and screaming in Arabic and Spanish, until
we finally understood that, the water being too shal
low to take the boats in any further, we were ex
pected to effect a landing upon their backs ; news
which while it quieted our fears of losing any of our

TANGIER. 5
own belongings, aroused no less lively ones of acquir
ing some of theirs in the form of vermin. The ladies
were taken ofi" in chairs, in a sort of triumphal pro
cession, while I made my entry into Africa astride of
an old mulatto, my chin resting on the crown of his
head and my toes trailing through the water. On
reaching dry land my mulatto handed me over to an
Arab porter, who, leading the way through one of the
city gates, conducted me rapidly along a narrow, de
serted street to a hotel close by, whence I lost no
time in setting forth, accompanied by a guide, to visit
the more frequented thoroughfares.
The first thing that impressed me — and that more
strongly than I can give any idea of — was the out
ward appearance of the population. Everyone wears
a long white linen or woollen cape, furnished with a
hood, which in most cases is drawn over the head, so
that the entire city has somewhat the look of a vast
monastery of Dominican monks. Of this shrouded
population the one-half moves about slowly, noise
lessly, sedately, almost as though trying to escape
observation, and the other remains either seated or
stretched at full length along the walls, before the
shops, or in the angles of the buildings, immovable,
with fixed gaze, like the petrified characters in their
own legends. Their walk, bearing, very manner of
looking, is strange to us ; everything reveals a habit
of thought, an order of things totally unlike our own ;
an altogether different way of regarding time and

6 TANGIER.
human fife. These people do not seem to be preoc
cupied with their own affairs, neither do they concern
themselves with their immediate surroundings nor
with what goes on about them. They all have a
vague, absent-minded expression, as though possessed
by a fixed idea, or like persons reflecting upon dis
tant scenes, or remote periods of time — dreaming, as
it were, with open eyes. No sooner, too, had I
mingled with them a httle than I became aware of a
peculiar odor quite unlike anything I had ever
noticed in a European crowd — a smell unknovsm,
far from agreeable, and yet none the less inhaled
by me with a keen curiosity, as though I hoped
to discover in it the clew to some of the surround
ing mystery. As I approached nearer, the popu
lation, which at a short distance had seemed to be
so entirely uniform, began to present a strange
variety of types. White, black, yeUow, bronze faces
passed close by me ; heads from which long locks of
hair depended, and others close shaved and polished
till they shone like metal balls ; men looking hke
dried-up mummies, and old people in whom age
was horrible ; women whose heads, and, indeed, en
tire persons, were enveloped in shapeless masses of
rags ; long-haired children, faces of sultans, savages,
wizards, anchorites, bandits ; of a people weighed
down by a boundless melancholy or unutterable
weariness, and on few or none a smile ; foUowing one
another with measured tread, silent, spectral, like a

TANGIEE. 7
procession of spirits seen flitting down the path of a
graveyard. I hardly know why, but as I looked I
suddenly felt compelled to turn my gaze upon myself
and to say, inwardly, '' I am so and so, of such and
such a place, this is Africa where I am now, and
those people are Arabs," and think about it for a few
moments before I could get the idea firmly fixed in
my mind; this accomplished, I began a tour of
some of the other streets.
The city corresponds to the character of its inhabit
ants. It is a labyrinth of narrow, tortuous lanes,
or rather passage-ways, flanked by small, square,
white houses, devoid of windows, and whose soli
tary doors barely admit the passage of one person
at a time — houses seemingly built more for conceal
ment than as habitations, and whose outward appear
ance suggests a cross between a prison and a convent.
In many of the streets nothing can be seen but the
white of the buildings and the blue of the sky ; from
time to time there is a little Moorish arch or two, now
and then an arabesqued window, a strip of red along
the foot of the waU, or a black hand painted beside a
door-way to drive off evil spirits. Almost all the
streets are littered with decayed vegetables, feathers,
rags, bones, and sometimes the bodies of dead animals
poison the air. For long distances no one at aU is to
be seen, then an occasional group of hooded Arab
boys playing or reciting verses from the Koran in
shriU, nasal tones, a beggar stretched on the ground,

8 TANGIEE.
a Moor astride of a mule, an overloaded donkey with
bleeding flanks driven by a half-naked Arab, scarred
dogs without taUs, and cats thin beyond belief. Now
and then in passing one catches a whiff" of garlic, of
smoke from the Kifi\ the smeU of burning aloe-wood,
of benzoin, of fish. And thus wandering on the
whole city is traversed, presenting everywhere the
same unvarying, dazzling whiteness, the same aspect
of mystery, of melancholy and of utter weariness.
After making a brief circuit I returned to the prin
cipal, indeed the only, square of Tangier, divided by
a long street which, ascending from the water, crosses
the entire city. The square is surrounded by wretched
little Arab shops, which would look poor and forlorn
in one of our smallest villages. On one side stands a
fountain always surrovmded by a crowd of Arabs and
negroes, drawing water in gourds and jugs ; on the
other may be seen, at any hour of the day, eight or
ten women, seated on the ground with muffled heads,
engaged in selling bread. About the square stand
the exceedingly modest establishments of the foreign
legations, which, however, rear themselves like palaces
amid their surroundings of little Moorish houses. In
this small space is concentrated all the life of Tangier,
which at best is but the life of a viUage. Hard by
may be found the solitary tobacconist of the place,
the solitary druggist, the solitary cafe — a large room
containing a billiard table — and the solitary corner
where one may occasionaUy expect to see a notice

street In 'JTangier.

TTt^iTT'lIS,'" -^ -^

TANGIEE. 9
posted up. There assemble half-naked ragamuffins,
rich Moors with nothing to do, Jews come to discuss
questions of trade, Arab porters awaiting the arrival
of the steamer, legation attaches longing for the din
ner hour, strangers just landed, interpreters, beggars.
There the courier bringing the Sultan's commands
from Fez, or Mequinez, or Morocco, jostles the ser
vant returning from the post with Paris and London
newspapers. There mingle beUes of the harem and
minister's wives, Bedouins' camels and drawing-room
lap-dogs, turbans, stiff hats, the loud notes of a piano
issuing from the window of a consulate and the wafl-
ing sing-song heard through the Mosque's half-open
door. It is on this spot that the last billow of Euro
pean civilization breaks and dissolves before the
mighty Dead Sea of African barbarism.
From the square I remounted the principal street,
and passing through two ancient gateways found my
self outside the city waUs just as dusk was beginning
to faU. Before me lay a large open space covering
the side of a hiU. This is called the Sok di Barfa, —
outer or upper market, — because market is held there
every Sunday and Thursday. Of all the spots in
and about Tangier visited by me, this was perhaps
the one that most vividly impressed upon my mind
the character of its people. It is a bare, rough, un
even stretch of ground ; half way up the incline rise
the four white walls of a saint's tomb, on the summit
stands a cemetery, beyond may be seen a few aloe

10 TANGIER.
and Indian fig-trees, and below, the battlemented
walls of the city. At this particular moment a group
of Arab women were squatted on the ground close by
the gate, with bunches of herbs lying before them; a
long line of camels crouched by the tomb, further on
rose the dark outlines of half a dozen tents, hard by
some Arabs sat in a fascinated circle listening to a
story-teller, who stood erect in the centre to recount
his tale ; cows and horses were tethered about ; on the
hiU-top, among the stones and mounds of the ceme
tery, other Arabs stood, motionless as statues, with
faces turned towards the city, figures aU in shadow,
and peaked hoods sharply defined against the pale
gold of the horizon ; and over ah this scene a sombre-
ness of color, a silence and gloom, that cannot be
described, unless indeed the words were murmured
one by one in the Kstener's ear, as though they con
tained some momentous secret.
The guide aroused me at last from my reverie and
escorted me back to the hotel, where my usual dis
like to being among entire strangers was for the first
time in my life mitigated by the circumstance of
their being all Europeans, Christians, and clad like
myself. There were about twenty persons seated
at table, of both sexes and various nationalities,
offering in themselves a pretty fair example of that
strange minghng of famflies and interests which pre-
vafls in those parts. A Frenchman bom in Algiers
married to an Englishwoman of Gibraltar ; a Spaniard

TANGIEE. 11
from Gibraltar married to the sister of a Portuguese
consul from the Atlantic coast ; an elderly English
man accompanied by a daughter born in Tangier and
a niece from Algeria; families who wandered back
and forth from one continent to the other, or scat
tered up and dovra. the two coasts, talking five lan
guages, and living half like Arabs, half like Euro
peans. Hardly had dinner begun when a lively con
versation sprang up, now in French, now in Spanish,
interspersed with Arabic words and upon topics
which were certainly far enough removed from the
ordinary subjects discussed by Europeans. Now it
was the price of a camel, now the stipend of a Pasha,
whether the Sultan were black or white, whether the
report that ten heads had been brought to Fez from
the rebellious province of Garet were true or no,
when the party of religious fanatics who eat live
sheep might be expected in Tangier, and many other
things of a like nature, aU of which aroused in my
breast the very demon of curiosity. Then the con
versation turned upon European politics, disconnected,
as such discussions among people of different nation
alities always are, and with a repetition of the usual
empty, sounding phrases which people invariably em
ploy when talking of far-off political conditions, in
venting off-hand improbable alliances and absurd
wars. Next the talk turned upon Gibraltar, that
inevitable topic ; the great Gibraltar, centre of attrac
tion for aU Europeans scattered along those coasts,

12 TANGIER.
where their sons are educated and where they them
selves go to buy their clothes, order furniture, hear
the opera, and inhale a mouthful of European air.
And finally every one feU to discussing the departure
of the Itahan embassy for Fez, and I had the grati
fication of learning that this event was of consider
ably greater importance even than I had supposed ;
that it was being talked of in Tangier, Algesiras,
Cadiz, and Malaga ; that the caravan was to be a mile
long ; that some Italian painters were to accompany
the embassy, and that it was even said that a repre
sentative of the press might be of the party! At
which piece of news I arose from the table and
modestly withdrew. Later on, when the night was
somewhat advanced, I determined to take another
turn through the town in order to see it asleep. Not
a lamp A\as burning, not a window lighted, nor was
there a single crack or chink through which a ray of
light escaped. It was like an uninhabited city, il
lumined only by the starry heavens against which
the loftier buildings stood out like great white tomb
stones, and the points of the minarets and tips of the
palm-trees were thrown into clear rehef. Proceeding
to the very foot of the principal street, I found the
gates shut, and so, turning, threaded my way through
various by-ways ; but everything was closed, motion
less, sflent Two or three times I stumbled over what
I at first mistook for bundles of rags, but discovered
to be sleeping Arabs. More than once a shudder of

TANGIEE. 13
disgust ran through me as I knew, by the crunching
of bones and soft, yielding sensation beneath my feet,
that I had trodden on the carcass of a dog. A hooded
Arab glided close by me, sliding along the wall like a
spectre. Another loomed up for a moment at the end
of a side street and disappeared; and once, as I made
a sharp turn, a hurried rustle of garments and patter
of slippers made me suspect, though nothing was to
be seen, that I had disturbed a secret meeting. As I
walked no sound broke the stillness save that of my
own footsteps, and when I paused nothing could be
heard but my ovsm breathing. It seemed to me as
though the population of Tangier consisted only of
myself, and that were I to utter a sudden cry it would
resound through the empty streets like a clap of
thunder. I thought of all the beautiful Arabians
sleeping close by, and of the many strange secrets
that would be divulged were the interiors of aU those
houses suddenly to be exposed to view like the scenes
of a theatre. From time to time I would pause be
fore a stretch of dazzling white wall, against which
the moon shone with such splendor as to make it look
as though it were lit up by electric lights. In a nar
row alley I encountered a negro carrying a lantern,
who, pausing to let me by, murmured some unintelli
gible words. Just as I was issuing from a side street
into the square a loud burst of laughter suddenly
broke the profound stillness ; it proceeded from
two young men in high hats, probably attaches of

14 TANGIEE.
one of the legations, who were passing by, taUcing
as they went. In one comer of the square, be
neath the awning of a closed shop, some rays of
light glimmered feebly, disclosing a confused mass
of whitish rags, from the midst of which issued the
faint notes of a guitar and the tremulous, lamenting
tones of a human voice, like a sound borne from
afar on the fitful breeze. I stood for some time quite
motionless, dreaming rather than thinking, until at
length, the two Europeans haying disappeared and
the light been extinguished, I bethought me of the
hotel, and turned my steps thither, weary, bewildered,
with my brain in a tumult, and a curious, unfamiliar
impression of my own personality, such as I have
often fancied would be that of a man who finds him
self suddenly transported to another planet.
On the following morning I set forth in search
of our charge d'affaires, Comm. Stefano Scovasso.
He certainly could not charge me with being un-
punctual at the appointed meeting. I had received
my invitation on the 8th at Turin, and with it a
notification that the caravan would set out from
Tangier on the 19th ; on the morning of the 18th I
presented myself at the legation doors. I had no
personal acquaintance with Comm. Scovasso, but had
heard enough about him to make me extremely
anxious to meet him. Of two friends of his whom
I had questioned before leaving home, one had in
formed me that he was a man perfectly capable of

TANGIEE. 15
going on horseback from Tangier to Timbuctoo with
no companion other than a pair of pistols, while the
other had blamed him severely for yielding to his
besetting sin, which, if appeared, was a confirmed
habit of risking his own life in order to save that
of someone else. Thanks to these indications I was
able to recognize him at a glance while stiU some
distance away — ^before, indeed, the interpreter who
accompanied me from the hotel had pointed him
out. He was standing in the doorway of the le
gation, surrounded by an obsequious group of Arabs,
who appeared to be awaiting orders. I introduced
myself, was received, promptly offered the hospi
tality of the quartier generate, and furnished with
fall information regarding the expedition. This, it
appeared, had been postponed until the first of May
owing to the fact of the English embassy being in
Fez at the time ; from which place we must await the
horses, camels, mules, and a troop of cavahy, which
was to form an escort for the journey. A transport-
ship belonging to our mflitary marine, the Dora, had
already landed the presents which Victor Emanuel
was sending to the Emperor of Morocco. The main
object of the trip, so far as the charge d'afi'aires was
concerned, was to present his credentials to the
youthful Sultan Mulai el Hassan, who had ascended
the throne in September, 1873. No Itahan embassy
had ever been sent to Fez, and the flag of United
Italy would now be carried for the first time into

16 TANGIEE.
the interior of Morocco ; the expedition was, conse
quently, to be received with extraordinary honors.
The Minister of War had sent a staff captain, Signor
Giulio di Boccard, and the Minister of Marine a cap
tain of a frigate, Signor Fortunate Cassone, then in
command of the Dora, now of a man-of-war. These,
together with the Italian vice-consul at Tangier and
our consular agent at Mazagan, formed the official
part of the embassy. Two artists — Ussi from Flor
ence and Biseo from Rome — and I were private
guests of Signor Scovasso. Everyone, with the ex
ception of the Mazagan consular agent, had already
reached Tangier.
My first care, on finding myself alone, was to study
the dwelling in which I was to be a guest ; and, in
deed, the residence of a European minister in Africa,
especially if he be making preparations for a trip into
the interior, is worthy of close observation. The
building itself was in no way remarkable — white and
bare without, having a smaU garden in front and a
smaU court in the centre, furnished with four columns
supporting a covered gallery running all around it
on a level with the second floor. It was the ordinary
gentleman's dwelling of Cadiz or Sevflle, but the
occupants, the mode of hfe, were something alto
gether novel. The housekeeper and cook were
Piedmontese, one of the servants was a Moor of
Tangier, and another a negress from the Soudan
who went about with bare feet, the Arab grooms

TANGIEE. 17
and domestics wore long white tunics, the consular
guard a uniform consisting of a fez, red caftan and
dagger. AU were in constant motion throughout the
day. At certain hours there woidd be a great coming
and going of Hebrew workmen, negro porters, inter
preters, soldiers of the Pasha, and Moors under the
protection of the legation. The courtyard was fiUed
with packing-cases, camp-beds, rugs and lanterns.
There was a continual noise of saws and hammers,
and voices of servants calling to one another by such
unfamihar names as Fatma, Racma, Selam, Moham
med, Ali, Abd-er-Rhaman. Then there was such a
queer mixture of languages. A Moor comes on some
errand, which he explains in Arabic to another Moor,
who transmits it in Spanish to the housekeeper, who
repeats it in Piedmontese to the cook ; it was a cease
less confusion of translations, explanations, misunder
standings and doubts, intermingled with exclamations
oi For dios! Alia! and familiar Italian oaths. In the
street a continuous procession of horses and mules,
before the door a permanent group composed of the
merely curious and others, poor devfls of Arabs or
Hebrews, humble aspirants for the protection of the
legation. From time to time visitors arrive, a
minister or consul, then down go all the fezzes and
turbans in lowly obeisance. Every moment brings
some mysterious messenger clad in strange attire,
and with curious, foreign-looking features. So pict
uresque is the ever-shifting variety of form and color.
Vol. L— 2

18 TANGIEE.
of pose and gesture, that only the accompanying
music is needed to persuade the looker-on that it is
all a part of a ballet representing some Eastern
scene. My next care was to borrow some books from my
host in order to satisfy myself as to what country this
reaUy was before attempting to study its habits and
customs. This land, then, shut in by the Mediter
ranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean, the Desert of Sahara
and Algeria, crossed by the great Atlas range,
watered by wide rivers and opening out into immense
plains, the home of every variety of climate, richly
endowed in the domains of aU three natural kingdoms,
possessing untold riches, and clearly intended by vir
tue of its geographical position to form the great
commercial high-road between Europe and Central
Africa, has at present a population of about eight mil-
hons, including Berbers, Arabs, Moors, Jews, negroes
and Europeans, scattered over an area larger than the
whole of France. The Berbers, who form the nucleus
of the native population, — wild, turbulent, indomit
able, — five among the inaccessible Atlas Mountains,
and are almost independent of imperial authority.
The Arabs — the conquering nation — occupy the
plains ; they are still nomadic and pastoral, and have
not entirely lost that pride which was once their
natural characteristic. The Moors — corrupt Arabs
of mixed blood, descended for the most part from the
Spanish Moors — dwell in the towns, and have the

"IRoma&s from tbe IFnterior.

TANGIEE. 19
wealth, commerce and carrying trade of the country
pretty much in their own hands. The negroes,
numbering about five hundred thousand, come origin
ally from the Soudan ; they are for the most part ser
vants, laborers and soldiers. The Jews number about
the same as the negroes, and are most of them de
scended from those of their nation who were driven
out of Europe during the Middle Ages. Oppressed,
hated, persecuted and humfliated more here, per
haps, than in any other country in the world, they
exercise their several arts and industries with that in
genuity, docility and perseverance so characteristic
of their race, consohng themselves for the injuries
they are obhged to endure in the possession of
money wrested from their oppressors. The Euro
peans have been driven back little by little from the
interior of the empire towards the coast by Mussul
man intolerance, and now amount to less than two
thousand persons throughout the whole of Morocco,
most of these residing in Tangier, and living inde
pendently in the shadow of the legation flags. This
heterogeneous population, scattered and diverse, is op
pressed rather than ruled by a mflitary government,
which, like a huge polypus, absorbs the entire vitahty
of the country. The tribes and villagers obey their
own chiefs, the cities and smaUer provinces the Kaids,
the large provinces the Pashas, and the Pashas the
Sultan — chief sherif, high priest, supreme judge, ad
ministrator of the laws which emanate from himself;

20 TANGIER.
free to altar at his own wiU or caprice currency, taxes,
weights, measures, and absolute master of the lives
and property of his subjects. Beneath the weight of
such a government and encircled by the inflexible
bands of the Mussulman religion, untouched by any
influx of European ideas and controlled by a savage
fanaticism, all that which in other countries changes
and advances here either remains stationary or falls
into decay. Commerce is choked by monopolies, by
prohibitory measures controUing exports and imports,
and by the capricious mutability of the laws ; trade, —
its activity restricted by the fetters that impede com
merce, — with its primitive machinery and childish
methods, is to-day in much the same condition as be
fore the expulsion of the Moors from Spain ; agricifl-
ture is so weighted by excessive taxation at home —
while restrained from seeking a foreign market for its
produce — that it is now only practised to the extent
of providing the barest necessities of life, and has
sunk so low as hardly to merit the name ; and, finaUy,
science, choked by the Koran and profaned by super
stition, now consists in most schools of such elemen
tary propositions as were commonly taught in the
Middle Ages. There are no printing-presses, books,
or maps ; the language, itself a corrupt form of Arabic,
is only preserved by means of an imperfect and vari
able orthography, and grows steadfly worse, and the
national character, in that general decadence, more
degenerate stiR. All the ancient Mussulman civfliza-

TANGIEE. 21
tion is withering away. Morocco, that extreme west-
em bulwark of Islamism, once the seat of a monarchy
which ruled from the Hebrus to the Soudan, and from
the Niger to the Balearics, with its flourishing uni
versities, its huge Ubraries, its famous scholars, its
armies and formidable fleets, is nothing now but a
httle state, almost unknown, filled with poverty and
decay, resisting with afl its remaining strength the
inroads of European civilization, and only retaining
its place at aU by grace of the mutual jealousies of
the various Powers.
As for Tangier, the ancient Tingis which gave its
name to the Mauritania Tingitana, and passed succes
sively from the hands of the Romans into those of the
Vandals, Greeks, Visigoths, Arabs, Portuguese and
EngHsh, it is now a city of about fifteen thousand in
habitants, regarded by its sister cities of the empire
as a " prostitute of the Christians," though as a mat
ter of fact no traces are to be seen of the churches
and monasteries founded by the Portuguese, and the
Christian rehgion is represented by one smaU chapel,
hidden away amid the consular residences.
Having possessed myself of this general outline of
the present condition of the country, I next began to
pursue various investigations on my own account in
and about the streets and by-ways of Tangier by way
of preparation for the coming journey, making notes
from day to day of such things as especiaUy struck
me. Here are some of them, incomplete and discon-

22 TANGIEE.
nected enough, but written as they were whfle the
impressions were stiU fresh, probably of more value
than a more carefully prepared description would be.
Every time I pass a handsome Moor in gala dress
I feel ashamed. Compare my ugly hat with his great
muslin turban; my wretched short coat with his flow
ing caftan of jasmine or rose-color ; in short, the gen
eral poverty and dulness of my costume, all gray
and black, with the brilliancy, the simple elegance
and dignity of his. I am like a beetle beside a but
terfly. Sometimes I stand for ever so long gazing
from my window at the edge of a pair of blood-red
trousers surmounting a yeUow slipper which can be
seen around the corner of a pillar in the square be
low, extracting such enjoyment from the sight that it
is difficult to tear myself away ; and more than any
thing else does the ca/ih arouse my envy and admira
tion, that long strip of whitest wool or silk, with trans
parent stripes, which is folded first about the turban,
falling from thence dovra the back to be wound around
the body, knotted below the shoulders, and descend,
finaUy, to the ground. Enfolding, as it were, in a
misty cloud the briUiant hues of the clothing beneath,
it stirs and spreads with every breath of wind, glows
like fire in the rays of the sun, and endows the wearer
with the diaphanous appearance of a vision. It is
this charming scarf which the enamored Mussulman
wraps about his bride on the wedding night.
Only those who have seen for themselves would

^fountain, Uangier.

TANGIEE. 23
believe the extent to which the Arabs have mastered
the art of taking their ease. In corners where we
would be embarrassed as to how to dispose of a bag
of rags or a bundle of straw, one of them wiU stretch
himself out as comfortably as though reposing upon a
bed of down. They curl themselves around every
projection, fiU up hollows, flatten themselves along the
face of a wall like a bas-relief, stretch and spread out
flat on the ground untfl they look like white cloaks
laid there to dry, roU themselves up into balls, cubes,
monstrosities without arms or legs or heads, so that
sometimes the streets and squares of the city suggest
the scene of a late massacre, aU strewn with dead
bodies and mutflated corpses.
The more I see of these people the more I am fiUed
with admiration at the freedom and nobflity of their
bearing. Whether it is owing to the cut of our
clothes or our tight shoes, or whether it is merely the
result of habit I cannot say, but it is unusual among
us to find any one whose walk is not artificial, whereas
here every one moves along with the grace and free
dom of magnificent wild animals. I have observed
them attentively, and thus far have seen none of the
bully, dancing-master, or awkward-lover gaits to
which my eye has long been accustomed by the
thousand examples to be seen dafly in our streets.
There is in the carriage of each one of them some
thing of the stateliness of a priest, the dignity of a
king and the freedom of a soldier, and it is very re-

24 TANGIEE.
markable that people who pass so much of their time
stretched out at fuU length, immovable, in a state of
semi-torpor, if their passions be aroused never so little,
exhibit a strength and vigor of voice and gesture
which nearly borders on frenzy. But even in their
most furious outbursts they still preserve a sort of
tragic dignity which would afford an exceUent exam
ple for many an actor. It will be long, for instance,
ere I forget the Arab of this morning, a taU, wasted
old man, who, having, as I was told, been given the
lie by one with ^\'hom up to then he had been carry
ing on a mild dispute, grew suddenly pale, drew back,
and then strode down the street, covering his face
convulsively with both hands and giving vent to
a wild cry of mingled anger and reproach. Seldom
have I seen an attitude so striking and so fufl of
grace. The ordinary costume consists of a sim
ple -white cloak, but what extraordinary variety
they manage to introduce into the fashion of ^vear-
ing it ! One has it open, another closed ; this one
drawn to one side, that one caught up on the
shoulder, or twisted like a rope, or floating free ; but
always it is arranged with taste in an endless variety
of lines, flowing or severe, as though draped by the
hand of an artist, or rather as an artist would fain
know how to drape it. They aU look like Roman
Senators. This morning Ussi discovered a wonder
ful Marcus Brutus in the middle of a group of
Bedouins. But unless the wearers are accustomed to

TANGIER. 25
them these cloaks are not sufficient of themselves to
lend dignity to the figure. Some of us bought them for
the journey and tried them on, but for my part I could
think of nothing but a group of old convalescents
wrapped in bath sheets.
As yet I have seen no dwarfs, deformed or lame
persons among the Arabs, though many of them have
no noses, the result of morbo celtico, and blindness is
very common, the eye-sockets being frequently en
tirely empty, a sight which always made me shudder,
reflecting as I did that in some cases at least the eye-
baUs had doubtless been torn out in pursuance of the
law of retaliation which still flourishes in the empire.
But there is nothing grotesque or despicable in the
appearance of any of the many strange, unprepossess
ing looking figures one encounters. The ample gar
ments hide all minor defects, just as the universal
seriousness and the wooden, terra-cotta or bronzed
look of the skin conceals the differences of years, so
that one constantly meets men whose age it is impos
sible to tell ; not old people, surely, and yet they do
not seem young ; perhaps we think they are old, and
then a fleeting smile wiU aU at once reveal their
youthfulness ; or, having definitely decided that they
are young, the hood suddenly falls back and exposes
a grizzled head beneath.
The Jewish men of these parts resemble their
European compatriots in so far as their features are
concerned, but their superior height, darker skin and

26 TANGIER.
long black hair, and, above all, their picturesque
dress, make them seem like an altogether different
race. They wear a garment shaped somewhat like
a dressing-gown, varying in color, but usually dark,
and bound about the waist by a red scarf; a black cap,
wide trousers appearing only a few inches below the
skirts of the coat, and yeUow slippers ; and it is in
teresting to note how many " exquisites " there are
among them, dressed in the finest materials, with em
broidered shirts, sflken scarfs, and gold rings and
chains — nothing tawdry, though. The general effect,
on the contrary, is rather severe, and at the same time
both graceful and dignified, with the exception, that
is, of a few misguided ones who have become per
verts to the high hat and long black coat. Among
the boys there are some shght, graceful figures, but
the species of dressing-gown worn by aU alike is not
adapted to their age. Every Jewish youth looks to
me like an amateur on the stage of a college dressed
for the part of Protagonist in the Ganipanello dello
Speziale. I am already satisfied that there is no exaggeration
in what has been said of the beauty of the Jewesses
of Morocco ; it has a character all its own unknown
in other countries — opulent and brilliant, the beauty
of snowy brows, great black eyes, crimson hps, and
statuesque outlines ; somewhat theatrical, to be sure,
and easfly seen from a distance ; more calculated, I
should fancy, to draw forth a round of applause than

H nnoorisb Jewess.

TANGIEE. 27
amorous sighs. One pictures it surrounded by the
torches and wreathed goblets of an ancient feast as
in its natural setting. The Tangier Jewesses do not
wear their rich national costume in public, dressing
much like Europeans except for their fantastic colors,
mazarine blue, crimson, grass-green, sulphur-yellow;
shawls and petticoats that attract the eye from one
hiQ-top to another, and make their wearers look as
though they were arrayed in the flags of aU the
nations. Passing through the Jewish quarter on a
Saturday one sees on aU sides vivid colors, florid faces,
great, soft, smiling eyes, long black tresses ; bevies of
noisy, inquisitive chfldren; an exuberance of youth
and sensual beauty which offers a striking contrast
to the austere sflence and solitude of the rest of the
city. The Arab boys make me laugh. The little ones,
barely able to toddle, but enveloped as weU in the
universal white cape, of which the big hood alone is
seen, all look like wandering extinguishers. Most
of them have their heads shaved as bare as the
back of one's hand, except for a single lock hang
ing down a foot or so in length from the crown, as
though the owners were to be suspended like pup
pets ; others wear it behind the ear or over one
temple, vdth a few tufts of hair cut in the form of a
square or triangle, to distinguish the last-born of a
family. For the most part, they have pale, attrac
tive little faces, slender, erect figures, and an expres-

28 TANGIEE.
sion of precocious intelligence. In the more frequented
parts of the city they pay no attention to Europeans,
and in the side streets usuaUy content themselves with
gazing at them fixedly, as though saying under their
breath, " I do not like you." Sometimes one wiU be
strongly tempted to caU out some piece of imperti
nence. You can see it shining in his eyes and trem
bling on his lips, but it is rarely aUowed to escape, — •
not so much by reason of any reverence for the
Nazarene as from fear of papa, who respects the
atmosphere surrounding the legation. In any case,
however, a coin has a pacifying effect, though one
must be careful to avoid pulling their pig-tails ; as
yesterday, when I gave a gentle tug at one belong
ing to a smaU creature about a foot high, he turned
on me like a little viper, spluttering out some words,
which my interpreter told me signified, " May God
roast your grandfather, accursed Christian !"
At last I have seen two saints ; that is to say, two
idiots or lunatics — since here, as elsewhere through
out Northern Africa, it is customary to venerate as
saints those whom God, in sign of especial favor, has de
prived of their reason in order that He may preserve
it in Heaven. The first one I encountered was seated
in front of a shop in the principal street. I saw him
while yet some distance off, and stood still, knowing
weU that everything is permissible for a saint, and not
especiaUy caring to be struck on the back of the head
with a stick, hke M. Sourdeau, the French consul, or

TANGIEE. 29
be spit at in the face, as once happened to Mr. Drum-
mond Hay. But my interpreter pushed me forward,
saying there was no danger, as the Tangier saints had
recovered their senses a Httle since the legations had
made a few striking examples ; and in any case the
Arabs wfll often act as shields themselves rather than
aUow a saint to compromise himself. Accordingly,
I passed close by this particular scarecrow and ex
amined him attentively. He was an old man, aU
paimch and face, with long, white hair, and a beard
straggHng down over his breast ; on his head he wore
a paper crown, a torn red mantle was thrown across
his shoulders, and he carried a little spear tipped with
gold. He was seated on the groimd, his legs crossed
beneath him, his back against the wall, gazing
wearfly at the people who passed by. I stopped
short, and he looked at me. " Now for it," I thought ;
" here comes the spear !" But the spear was dis
creet, and I was more than amazed at the calm intel-
hgence of those eyes, and the smUe, astute and fleet
ing, which lit them up for a moment as I looked, as
though he were thuiking " You expect me to lay
across your back, do you? to play the fooll" He
was undoubtedly one of those impostors who, per
fectly sane, pretend to be crazy in order to enjoy
the privileges accorded to saints. I threw him a
piece of money, watched the air of affected indiffer
ence with which he picked it up, and proceeded in the
direction of the square, which I had barely reached

30 TANGIER.
when I came across another, but this time a genuine,
saint. He was a mulatto, almost entirely naked, with
a face that was hardly human, encrusted from head
to foot with dirt, and so wasted that his entire frame
could be seen bone for bone, making him look like
the " living prodigy " in a show. He was walking
slowly around the square, painfuUy carrying a large
white banner, -^Nhich the boys ran up to kiss from
time to time, whfle another wretched-looking creature,
accompanied by two musicians performing franticaUy
upon a fife and drum, begged alms from shop to shop.
I passed close beside him, receiving a sidelong glance,
which I returned, whereupon he came to a standstUl,
and seemed to be getting something ready in his
mouth, and I moved on as nimbly as possible, taking
good care not to look behind. " You did well to get
out of his way," said the interpreter. " Had he spat
in your face, aU the consolation the other Arabs would
have offered you would have been to caU out, ' Wipe
not thy face, O fortunate Christian ! Destroy not the
mark of God's favor ! Blessed art thou, for the saint
hath spat upon thee; !' "
To-night I again heard the guitar and voice of the
first evening, and for the first tiyxiefelt the Arabian
music. In that continual repetition of the same mo
tive, almost always a melancholy one, there is some
thing that Httle by Httle steals upon the soul. It is a
kind of monotonous lament which ends by taking
possession of one's mind, just as the murmuring of a

Sbops in Uangter.

S*t:

TANGIEE. 31
fountain does, or the singing of crickets, or the blows
of the hammer descending on an anvil, heard at night-
faU on the outsldrts of some vfllage. I try to coUect
my thoughts, making an effort to discover the hidden
meaning of that ever-recurring word as it faUs upon
my ears. It is barbarous music, simple, yet ineffably
sweet, suggesting a primitive condition recaUing long-
forgotten dreams, my sensations when the Bible was
first read to me, awakening a yearning curiosity about
legendary peoples and lands, transporting me to the
ends of the earth, where, amid groves of strange, un-
famiHar trees, priests prostrate themselves before
golden idols ; or depositing me on boundless plains in
mournful soHtudes, where caravans of weary travel
lers, wistfuUy eyeing the unbroken horizon, recom
mend themselves to the mercy of God. Nothing
amid my strange surromidings has fiUed me with such
a melancholy longing to see my mother once more as
those few notes of a thin human voice and a discord
ant guitar.
The Moorish shop is a most extraordinary affair,
consisting of a sort of alcove about three feet from
the ground, at which the customer stands as though
it were a window ; he leans against the wall and the
shopkeeper remains seated within, in the Eastern
fashion, a part of his wares spread out before him, and
the rest disposed about on little shelves in the rear.
The effect produced by those bearded old Moors, im
movable as automatons, squatted at the back of their

32 TANGIEE.
dark little holes, is odd in the extreme. It is as
though not their goods, but they themselves were on
exhibition, like living phenomenons in the booths at
a fair. Are they alive ? Are they made of wood ?
Where is the mechanism for making them appear and
disappear ? And thus sflent and weU-nigh motion
less they pass hour after hour — the entire day — run
ning their fingers over the beads of a rosary and mur
muring prayers. It is impossible to express how
lonely, bored and melancholy they look, sitting there.
One would suppose that every shop ¦was a tomb, in
which the owner, already separated from the rest of
the living, now only awaited the coming of death.
I have seen two little boys, about five and six years
old, respectively, being conducted along in triumph,
after the solemn rite of circumcision. They ^\'ere
mounted on a white mifle and decked out in red, yel
low and green garments embroidered in gold, and so
buried in flowers and ribbons that one could hardly
see the pale Httle faces, stUl wearing an expression of
frightened bewflderment. Before the mule, which
was draped and caparisoned like a beast belonging to
royalty, inarched three musicians, playing furiously
upon a drum, fife and tambourine ; on either side
and behind came the relatives and friends, one
held the chfldren firm in the saddle, another plied
them mth sweetmeats, others loaded them with
caresses, and stiU others fired off guns in the air,
shouting and leaping aU the whfle. Had I not known

TANGIEE. 33
the significance of the ceremony I would have taken
those unfortunate boys for a pair of victims being led
to the sacrifice ; at the same time the sight was not
devoid of a certain poetic charm, though the poetic
part would undoubtedly have appealed to me more
strongly had I not been informed that the sacred rite
was performed with a barber's razor.
This evening I witnessed a remarkable transforma
tion in the person of Racma, the minister's negro
maid-servant. One of the other servants came in
search of me, and escorting me on tiptoe to a half-
closed door suddenly threw it wide open, exclaiming,
" Look at Racma !" I was so dumfounded at the
appearance of the negress, whom I was accustomed
to see going about in the costume of an extremely
modest slave, that for a moment I could not beHeve
my eyes. I would have taken her for a sultana es
caped from the imperial palace, the Queen of Tim
buctoo, a princess from some unknown kingdom of
Central Africa spirited thither on Bisnagar's magic
carpet. As I only saw her for a moment I cannot
describe her dress very particularly, but there was a
general appearance of snow-white and crimson, and
a gHtter of wide gold braid, aU seen through the trans
parent folds of a great white veil, which combined
with the black face to form a wonderful harmony of
color and an effect of barbaric magnificence which I
have no words to describe. As I drew nearer to
study the detafls more closely aU this pomp of color
Vol. I.-3

34 TANGIEE.
suddenly disappeared, swaUowed up in the lugubrious
folds of a Mohammedan sheet, the queen was trans
formed into a spectre, and the spectre vanished, leav
ing behind it that sickening wfld-beast odor pecuhar
to the negro race, which at once had the effect of de
stroying the iUusion.
Hearing a tremendous racket in the square I went
to the window in time to see a negro, stripped to the
waist, ride by on a donkey. Half a dozen Arabs armed
with sticks surrounded him, foUowed by a crowd of
yeUing boys. Thinking it was some tomfoolery I
picked up my glass to take a closer look, but quickly
drew back horrified at finding that the stains on the
negro's white trousers were made by blood which
was trickling down from wounds on his back. The
Arabs with sticks were soldiers engaged in beating
him. I asked what it all meant. " He stole a hen,"
said one of the legation soldiers. " Lucky feUow,
they are evidently going to let him off without cut
ting off his hand."
I have been in Tangier seven days, and thus far
have not beheld the face of an Arab woman. I feel
as though I were at a masquerade party where aU
the ladies have disguised themselves as spectres, just
as children do when they wrap themselves up in
sheets. They walk very deliberately, taking long
steps, their bodies slightly bent and faces covered
with the hem of a sort of linen mantle, beneath which
they wear only a long chemise, made with wide

TANGIEE. 35
sleeves and fastened around the waist with a cord
hke a monk's tunic. Nothing can be seen of their
persons but the eyes, the hand which conceals the
face, the finger-tips colored with henna, and the bare
feet, also colored with henna and shod in large, yeUow
leather shppers. Most of them only allow half the
forehead and one eye to appear, the eye being usually
dark and the forehead wax color. On encountering
a European on a side street some of them wiU cover
the entire face mth a quick movement of annoyance,
drawing close to the waU as they pass ; others risk a
glance, half shy, half curious ; whfle a few bold spirits
look squarely at you, evidently wishing to attract at
tention, and then drop their eyes with a smile. Most
of them, though, have a sad, weary, discouraged air.
The young girls who have not yet been obUged to
cover their faces are quite charming-looking, with
black eyes, fuU round cheeks, pale complexions, little
round mouths and smaU hands and feet ; but by the
time they are twenty they have already become faded,
at thirty they are old and at fifty decrepit.
There is in Tangier a sort of monstrosity, an un
fortunate creature whom it is disagreeable even to
look at ; so unlike a human being, indeed, that even a
beHever finds uneasy doubts arise in his mind. They
caU her a woman, although she resembles one as little
as she does a man. She is a miflatto with a head like
an orang-outang, short, shaggy hair, skin drawn tight
over her bony frame, and clothing consisting of a few

36 TANGIEE.
black rags. UsuaUy she is to be seen lying prone in
the middle of the square like a dead person, or else
crouched in a corner as sflent and motionless as though
she were unconscious — that is, at least, when the boys
are not tormenting her. When that is the case, she
turns upon them with tears and shrieks. She might
be fifteen years old or she might be thirty, her de
formity makes it impossible to say; she is without
friends or home; no one knows her name or whence
she came; at night she hes out in the street among
the dogs and refuse, and sleeps during most of the
day ; when she has something to eat she laughs, when
she is hungry she cries; in clear weather she is a
heap of dust, when it rains, a pile of mud. One
night, in passing, one of us wrapped a sflver piece in
a scrap of paper and slipped it into her hand, so as to
give her a pleasant surprise when she awoke ; the next
day we found her in the middle of the square sobbing
violently and exhibiting her hand, aU torn and bleed
ing. Some one had stolen her money and hurt her
in the struggle. Three days later I met her, aU in
tears, mounted on a donkey, supported by two soldiers,
and foUowed by a rabble of boys making game of
her. Some one told me they were taking her to the
hospital. Only yesterday I saw her again, lying
asleep by the carcass of a dog more fortunate than
herself. At last I have found out who those fair, unprepos
sessing-looking individuals are who bestow upon me.

TANGIEE. 37
in passing on the less frequented thoroughfares, a look
in which there seems to lurk a continual longing to
murder some one. They are Rifs of the Berber race,
who acknowledge no law but their muskets, and re
cognize neither kaid nor magistrate; audacious
pirates, sanguinary bandits in a constant state of re-
beUion, inhabiting the mountains from the Tetuan
coast to the Algerian frontier — the inhabitants, in
short, of that renowned Rif in which no stranger
may set his foot unless he have the protection of
saints and sheiks alike, of which aU manner of wild
tales are told, the neighboring people referring to
it in vague terms as though it were some far-away,
inaccessible country. They are frequently to be met
in Tangier — tall, robust men, usuaUy enveloped in a
dark cloak trimmed with little varicolored tassels ;
some of them have their faces tattooed in yeUow, and
aU alike are armed with long guns, the red cases of
which they wear wrapped around their foreheads hke
turbans ; they go about in groups, talking together
in low tones, with bent heads and quick, observant
eyes, hke parties of desperadoes looking for a victim ;
and compared with them, the most savage looking
Arab I meet looks like a friend of my childhood.
We were seated at dinner after dark one evening
when the report of several guns was heard from the
square. Running out, we could see, still a good way
off, a curious spectacle. The narrow street leading
to the Sok di Barra was hghted up for some distance

38 TANGIEE.
by large torches held high above the heads of the
crowd, and surrounding what appeared to be a box
or chest lashed on the back of a horse. This enig
matical procession advanced slowly accompanied by
strains of mournful music, drawhng nasal singing,
and the yelping of dogs. Standing alone for some
time in the middle of the square, I puzzled my brains
in the effort to make out what the significance of that
lugubrious procession might be ; perhaps the chest
contained a dead body, or a person condemned to
death, or a monstrosity, or an animal intended for the
sacrifice ; this uncertainty gave rise to a feeling of
shrinking and repulsion, and, turning away with a
shudder, I re-entered the house. A moment later the
others came trooping in with the true solution of the
mystery. The chest contained — a bride 1 whom her
relatives were conducting to her husband's house.
A crowd of Arab men and women have just gone
through the square, preceded by six old men, each
carrying a large flag of a different color. They were
chanting some prayer loudly together in tones of sup
plication, and with so mournful an aspect that I found
myself quite moved. On inquiry I was told that they
were imploring Allah for the grace of rain. I fol
lowed them in the direction of the principal Mosque,
and on reaching the door — not knowing that in this
country Christians are rigorously forbidden to set foot
inside the Mosques — was about to enter, when an old
Arab threw himself in front of me, and muttering

TANGIER. 39
something in an agitated voice which I understood to
mean " Fool, what are you about !" pushed me back,
much as one woidd drag a child away from the edge
of a precipice. I was obliged, therefore, to be satis
fied with what could be seen from the street of the
white-vaulted court-yard, not, however, distressing
myself overmuch, after having visited the gigantic
Mosques of Constantinople, at being thus excluded
from those of Tangier, stripped as they are of aU
architectural beauty, the minarets alone excepted;
and even these heavy square or hexagonal towers,
covered with many-colored mosaics, and surmounted
by turrets with conical-shaped roofs, are not to be
compared with those slight, graceful minarets which
shoot heavenwards Hke shafts of white ivory from the
summits of Stambul's seven hiUs. While I stood
gazing into the court-yard a woman made a motion
towards me with her hand from behind the ablution-
ary fountain. I might give the impression that it
was a kiss she wafted across, but I will not, the fact
being that she shook her fist at me.
I have been up to the Kasbah, the castle on the
summit of the hiU overlooking Tangier. It is a
group of smaU bufldings surrounded by ancient waUs,
where the authorities, soldiers, and prisoners reside.
I found only a couple of sleepy-looking sentinels
seated before a doorway at the end of a deserted
square, and a few beggars stretched on the ground,
scorched by the sun and devoured by flies. From

40 TANGIER.
this point a comprehensive view of Tangier may be
obtained, stretching away from the foot of the Kas
bah waUs and climbing an opposite hfll-side. The
eye almost shrinks from that expanse of dazzHng
white, only relieved here and there by the green of
some fig tree shut in between two waUs. You can
make out distinctly the terrace of each little house,
the minarets of the Mosques, the legation flags, the bat
tlements on the walls, the solitary shore, the deserted
bay, the mountains along the coast — a view suffi
ciently vast, beautiful and imposing to drive away
the most acute attack of homesickness. As I stood
gazing at this scene I was startled by hearing, far
above me, the faint tremulous notes of a human voice
uttering some words in an unfamiliar tongue. I
turned and had looked about me some time before I
finaUy discovered a smaU black speck on the summit
of a Mosque in the Kasbah. It was the muezzin
calling the faithful to prayer, and pronouncing the
names of AUah and Mohammed to aU four quarters
of the heavens; the voice ceased, and once more the
mournful sflence of noontide feU upon the scene.
It is a real misfortune to be obliged to have money
changed in this country. I gave the tobacconist a
French franc, out of which I was to receive ten sous
in change. That ferocious-looking Moor thereupon
opened a drawer and proceeded to take out and throw
down on the counter handful after handful of black,
battered-looking coins, untfl there were enough to

Diew from tbe Ikasbab.

TANGIEE. 41
make a porter's ordinary load ; then, counting them
over rapidly, ho waited expectantly for me to fill my
pockets. " I beg your pardon," said I, at the same
time trying to get back my franc, " but the fact is
I am not strong enough to deal at your shop." We
finaUy compromised, I purchasing enough additional
cigars to reduce the change to one pocketful of that
ridiculous-looking metal, which I carried off to have
explained to me. It is a species of money caUed flou,
made of copper, whose unit is worth something less
than a centime, and which is diminishing in value
every day, as Morocco is flooded with it ; and the
extent to which the Government has coined and de
based it may be understood from the fact that, whfle
it makes aU its payments in this money, it wfll
receive only sflver or gold. But every evil has its
good side, and thus this flou, this scourge of com
merce, possesses the inestimable gift of warding off
aU manner of iUs from the fortunate Moroccoans, evfl
eye in especial, by virtue of the so-caUed Solomon's
seal, a six-pointed star stamped upon the face of
each coin, and copied from the original ring which
is inclosed in the tomb of the great king, who con-
troUed by means of it both good and bad spirits.
There is only one promenade in Tangier — the
beach, which extends from the city off in the direc
tion of Cape Malabat — a beach covered with shefls
and weeds cast up by the sea and broken by large
pools of water rather difficult to avoid at high tide.

42 TANGIER.
This is the Champs Elysce, the Cascine, of Tangier.
The promenade-hour is in the afternoon towards sun
set. At that time about fifty Europeans may be seen
walking up and down in couples and groups, about a
hundred feet apart, so that anyone who looks down
from the city waUs can easily distinguish each indi
vidual a mfle away. Here, for instance, comes an
English lady on horseback, accompanied by a guide ;
farther on are two Moors from the country ; after
them the Spanish consul, with his wife ; next, a saint ;
then a French nurse, with two children ; then a party
of Arab peasant women, who wade through one of
the pools with legs bare to above the knees and
carefully-covered faces ; and beyond them at inter
vals a cap, a pot-hat, a white hood, a chignon, to
the very last figure, which surely must be that of the
Portuguese Secretary of Legation, wearing the light
trousers he got yesterday from Gibraltar ; for in this
little European colony every one knows everything
about every one. If it did not sound disrespectful,
I shoidd say that they all looked like so many crimi
nals in forced exfle, inarching up and down, or a party
of travellers who had fallen into the hands of pirates
on a desert island, and were watching for the ship to
arrive with their ransom-money.
It is almost easier to find one's way about in the
immensity of London than among this handful of
houses, which could readfly be tucked away in one
corner of Hyde Park. Afl these lanes, afleys, passage-

TANGIEE. 43
ways, hardly wide enough to pass through, are as
much alive as the ceUs of a beehive, and it is only
by giving the most minute attention to every little
detafl that you can distinguish one neighborhood
from another. Thus far, no sooner do I quit the
square or the principal street than I promptly lose
myself; and in broad dayHght it would be easy for
a couple of Arabs to pinion me in one of the deserted
passage-ways, gag, and cause me to disappear for
ever from off the face of the earth without any one
being a particle the wiser. And yet a Christian can
wander alone through that labyrinth by day or
night and, among those savages, with greater secu
rity than in some of our own cities. The poles of
half-a-dozen European flagstaffs rising from a neigh
boring terrace, ominous indications of an invisible
hand, suffice to insure a security which is not always
estabHshed among us by the presence of armed legions.
What a difference between the civflization, for in
stance, of London and Tangier ! But, after afl, every
place has its advantages. There we have those great
palaces and the underground railroad, whfle here one
can go about with his coat unbuttoned.
In aU Tangier there is not a single cart or carriage,
no noise of workshops, no sound of beUs, no cry of
street-venders ; and you never see any indication
of haste among eithisr persons or things. Even the
Europeans, utterly at a loss what to do with them
selves, spend hours at a time motionless out in the

44 TANGIEE.
square. Everything is in a state of repose and in
vites to repose. I myself, who have been here but a
few short days, begin to feel the influence of this soft,
indolent life. On reaching the Sok di Barra to-day,
I found myself irresistibly drawn back to the house,
where, after reading ten pages, the book dropped
from my hand, and when once my head had faUen
back on the cushions of the arm-chair, I had to
repeat at least two chapters from " Smiles " before
I could make up my mind to raise it again, while
the mere thought of aU the work and worry await
ing me at home exhausts me. These blue heavens,
this white city, are images of monotonous, eternal
repose ; little by little they come to represent to
those who inhabit this land the ideal of happiness,
of life. That is why my notes are interrupted at this
point. The indolence of Africa has vanquished me.
Among the numerous persons who buzzed about
the doors of the legation there was one fine-looking
young Moor who from the first day especiaUy at
tracted me. He was one of the handsomest Moors I
saw in Morocco — taU, graceful, with black, melancholy
eyes and a particularly sweet smile, the face of a love
lorn Sultan whom Danhasch, the evfl spirit in the
" Thousand and One Nights," might have placed by
the side of Princess Badoura instead of Prince Ca-
maralzaman, sure that she would not complain of the
change. He was named Mohammed, and was the
eighteen-year-old son of a wealthy Moor of Tangier

TANGIEE. 45
under the protection of the Italian legation ; a fat,
harmless Mussulman, whose life having been threat
ened for some time by an enemy, used to come almost
every day with a terrified face to implore the minis
ter's help. Mohammed could talk a little Spanish in
the Moorish fashion, that is, vsdth afl the verbs in the
infinitive, and this had enabled him to scrape acquaint
ance with my companions. He had been married a
few days before, his father having arranged the match
in order to make him settle dovm, and having pre
sented him with a bride of fifteen as beautiful as him
self. Marriage, however, had not, to aU appear
ance, worked any great change in him, and he was
stiU, as he told us, a Turh of the future, which consists
in drinking a glass of wine now and then on the sly,
smoking an occasional cigar, being very tired of Tan
gier, frequenting the society of foreigners, and cherish
ing dreams of making a trip to Spain. At this junc
ture, however, the attraction which drew him to us
was the hope of obtaining through our influence per
mission to join the caravan and thus to visit Fez, the
great metropoHs, his Rome and the dream of his
youth ; and to this end he showered bows, smfles and
hand-pressures upon us with a prodigality and grace
sufficient to subjugate the hearts of the entire imperial
harem. Like almost afl other young Moors of his
station, he kflled time by lounging about from one
street to another, and from group to group, discussing
the new horse of one of the ministers, the departure

46 TANGIEE.
of a friend for Gibraltar, the arrival of a ship, the
latest robbery, aU manner of womanish tittle-tattle, or
else sitting immovable and taciturn in a corner of the
market square, with his thoughts — who can say
where 1
With this handsome idler is indissolubly connected
my recoUections of the first Moorish house in which
I set foot, and the first Arab repast at which I risked
my digestion. One day his father invited us to din
ner, a thing I long had wished for. Late one even
ing, accordingly, preceded by an interpreter and es
corted by four servants from the legation, after
threading numerous dark, narrow streets, we arrived
at an arabesqued door, which swung back at our ap
proach as if by enchantment. Traversing a smaU,
bare, white room, we found ourselves in the heart of
the establishment. The first impression was of a
great confusion of people, a strange light and a mar-
veUous pomp of color. The host advanced to meet
us accompanied by his son and male relatives, aU
wearing large white turbans ; behind them were the
domestics, aU hooded, and farther stfll, in dark comers
and around the edges of the doors, wondering faces
of women and children ; while, notvnthstanding the
presence of so many people, their reigned over aU a
profound sflence. I supposed myself to be in a room
untfl, happening to raise my eyes, I saw the stars.
Like afl Moorish houses it was a smafl, square edifice,
with a I !ourt in the centre, from either side of which

TANGIEE. 47
opened two long, narrow rooms without windows,
having large arched doorways closed with curtains.
The outer waUs were white as snow, the cornices of
the doorways dentfled, the pavements of mosaic ;
here and there were smaU double windows and niches
for shppers. The house was in gala dress, the pave
ments covered vvdth rugs ; beside the doors stood high
candelabra with red, green and yeUow candles ; on
the tables were mirrors and bunches of flowers. The
combined effect of these various objects, in nowise
strange in themselves, was odd in the extreme. There
was something churchly about it afl, and at the same
time I was reminded of a theatre or the baU-room of
a make-believe royal palace, and yet it had a certain
graceful charm of its own. The arrangement of the
Ught and combinations of color were altogether novel,
charged with a deep underlying significance that cor
responded wonderfuUy with aU we had vaguely felt
and imagined about these people ; as though, so to
speak, it were the Hght and color of their religion,
their phflosophy ; and beholding the interior of that
dweUing, we for the first time gazed into the soul of
the race.
After some moments devoted to bows and vigorous
hand-shakings, we were invited to view the apart
ment of the newly-wedded pair. I, with the imperti
nent curiosity of a European, tried, though vainly, to
meet Mohammed's eye. His head was lowered, and
he was hiding his blushes beneath the shadow of his

48 TANGIEE.
turban. The nuptial-chamber was a long, narrow,
lofty apartment, opening on the court. At the far
ther end, on one side, stood the bride's bed, and op
posite it that of Mohammed, both decorated with rich
hangings of a gorgeous shade of crimson, fringed
around the top. The floor was spread with great
Rabat rugs, and the waUs hung with yeUow and red
tapestry. Between the two beds the bride's trous
seau was displayed hung on the wall ; stays, petti
coats, trousers, little garments of strange, unfamfliar
cut, combining aU the hues of a flower-garden in fufl
bloom ; made of wool, of silk, of velvet ; braided and
covered with gold and silver stars, like the outfit of
some child princess — verily a sight to make a writer's
head swim and an actress die with envy. From
thence we were conducted to the dining-room. Here,
too, we fovmd rugs, tapestries, bunches of flowers,
great candelabra standing on the floor, couches, cush
ions of a hundred different colors pfled up around the
waUs, and two richly-decked bedsteads, — it had been
the host's wedding-chamber, — ^near one of which the
table was spread contrary to the Arab fashion, which
is to place the dishes on the floor and eat without
forks or spoons ; whfle, in spite of the Prophet, we
caught the sparkle of a circle of venerable bottles cal
culated to remind us, in the midst of the voluptuous
ness of a Moorish banquet, that we were stfll Christians.
Before taking our places at table we seated our
selves cross-legged upon a rug around the host's sec-

IFlegress bringing I^rescnt8 for a Bri&e.

TANGIEE. 49
retary, a handsome turbaned Moor, who made tea,
we watching him, and then insisted on our taking
three cups apiece, according to custom, afl extrava
gantly sweet and flavored with mint. Between the
cups we caressed the pig-tail and shaved head of a
pretty youngster of four, Mohammed's youngest
brother, who furtively counted our fingers to be quite
sure that we had five, like Mohammedans. After fin
ishing our tea we seated ourselves at table — our host,
on being pressed, consenting to bear us company —
and began partaking one after another of the famous
Arab dishes, objects of our ardent curiosity. I at
tacked thefirstwith great confidence. Merciful heaven!
My first impulse was to fall upon the cook. Every
shade of expression which might cross the face of a
man suddenly attacked by colic, or on hearing of the
unexpected faflure of his banker, must have appeared
upon mine. In an instant I understood perfectly how
a race who ate such food must necessarfly believe in
another God and hold essentiaUy different views of
human Hfe from our own. I can give no idea of the
taste left in my mouth except by comparing myself
to some unfortunate condemned to swaUow the con
tents of aU the bottles and boxes in a hair-dresser's
estabHshment. There was a suggestion of soap, wax,
pomatum, of unguents, dyes, cosmetics; of everything,
in short, most unsuited to enter a human mouth. At
each new dish we exchanged glances of terror and
dismay. The materials must have been good, too,
Vol. L— 4

50 TANGIEE.
in themselves, for there was poultry, mutton, game
and fish ; huge dishes of inviting appearance, but
everything swimming in the most horrible sauces,
greasy, anointed, perfumed, prepared in such a man
ner that a comb seemed a more fitting instrument to
dip into them than a fork ; and yet it was absolutely
necessary to swallow some of each, so I comforted
myself by repeating inwardly tliose hues of Aleardi :
Oh nella vita
Qualche delitto icognito ne pesa,
Qualche cosa si espia.
The only eatable thing Avas the roast mutton. Not
even the Kuskussu, the Moorish national dish, pre
pared with wheat ground about as fine as bran,
steamed and dressed with milk or broth — a perfidious
imitation of risotto — not even this famous Kuskussu,
which many Europeans reaUy like, could I succeed
in swaUowing without changing color. And there
actuaUy was one of our party who partook of every
thing ; a consoling fact, however, since it demonstrates
clearly that the great men are not all dead yet in
Italy. At every mouthful our host interrogated us
with anxious looks, and we, with wildly-roUing eyes,
woifld exclaim in chorus, " Exceflent 1 delicious !" and
then hastfly swaUow a glass of wine to revive our
sinking courage. At a certain point in the repast
there came a sudden burst of music from the court,
which made us aU jump to our feet. It was a party

TANGIEE. 51
of three musicians come, according to Moorish custom,
to enliven the feast ; three Arabs with big eyes and
hooked noses, dressed in red and white, one playing a
sort of lute, another a mandolin, and the third a smaU
drum. They seated themselves just outside the door
of our apartment, near a smaU niche in which they
deposited their slippers, we resumed our places, the
dishes were once more passed around in turn (there
were twenty-three in aU, if I remember rightly, not
counting the fruit), our expressions continued to
change, and the corks to fly. Little by little our fre
quent Hbations, the scent of the flowers, the fumes of
the aloes rising from chased perfumery-stands from
Fez, and that wfld Arab music which, by dint of
continuafly repeating the same mysterious lament,
ends by taking possession of the soul with irresistible
force, caused a sort of sflent, mystic intoxication to
steal over our senses, and for a few minutes each one
of us seemed to feel the pressure of a turban on his
brow, of a Sultana's head upon his breast. Dinner
finaUy ended, we arose and scattered ourselves about
the room, the courtyard and vestibifle, gazing around
and examining everything with chfldish curiosity.
In every dark corner stood an Arab, erect as a statue,
wrapped in his long white cloak. The curtains had
been drawn across the door of the nuptial-chamber,
and through the crack coifld be seen a great stir and
movement of vefled heads ; lights came and went in
the upper windows ; we could hear the rustling gar-

52 TANGIEE.
ments and lowered voices of invisible persons ; aU
around and about us there was a ferment of unseen
life, teUing us that although we were within the waUs
we were stiU outside the home ; that the beauty, the
tenderness, the soul of the famfly had taken refuge
in its secret recesses ; that Ave were the exhibition,
and that the house remained for us a mystery. Later
on the governess of the minister's household appeared
from one of the doorways ; she had been to call on the
bride, and exclaimed, as she passed us, "Ah! if you
could only see her; such a dear little rosebud; a creat
ure from Paradise!" And stfll the music kept up its
wafling sound, the smoke from the burning aloes
ascended through the heavy air, and we wandered
and gazed, our imaginations working, working, and
stfll working, when at last we issued from that glow
ing, perfumed atmosphere, and in profound sflence
threaded our way by the light of a single lantern
through the narrow, gloomy streets.
One evening the news was passed about from
mouth to mouth that the long-expected arrival of a
party of Aissowieh would take place on the foUowing
day. The Aissowieh are one of the principal re
ligious confraternities of Morocco, founded, like all
the rest, through the direct inspiration of God by a
saint named Sidi Mohammed-ben-Aissa, bom at
Mequinez about two centuries ago, whose biography
consists of a long, rambling recital of miracles and
marveUous adventures variously recounted. The

nnosque of tbe Hissowieb.

TANGIEE. 53
Aissowieh claim to have won the special protection
of Heaven by their constant prayers and the exercise
of certain peculiar rites through which they keep
ahve in their hearts not faith, exactly, but a sort of
exaltation, a religious fever, a divine frenzy, which
breaks out occasionally into wfld acts of extravagance
and ferocity. They have a large Mosque at Fez
which is the chief estabHshment of their order, and
from whence they issue forth once a year and spread
themselves in detachments throughout the entire em
pire, coUecting such members of the society as may
be scattered about in the various towns and provinces,
to take part m the annual feasts. Their rites, re
sembling somewhat those of the Howling and Dancing
Dervishes of the East, consist in a sort of frenzied dance
accompanied by leaps, contortions, and cries, by dint
of which they work themselves up until they become
more and more excited, more furious, more frantic,
and utterly beside themselves, grind wood and iron
with their teeth, burn their flesh with red-hot coals,
cut themselves with knives, eat mud and stones, tear
live animals asunder and devour the reeking flesh,
and finaUy drop to the ground spent and unconscious.
The Aissowieh whom I saw at Tangier did not in
dulge in any such excesses as these, and I imagine
that very few, and they seldom, go to such lengths in
these days ; but what I did see was enough to make
an indelible impression upon my mind. The Belgian
minister invited us to witness the sight from the ter-

54 TANGIEE.
race of his house which overlooks the principal street
of Tangier, along Avhich the procession would have
to pass to reach the Mosque. They were expected
to arrive at about ten o'clock in the morning. As I
came down from the Sok di Barra gate about an hour
earlier the street was already thronged with people,
and the roofs of the houses covered with Arab and
Jewish women, the briUiant colors of Avhose dresses
made the white terraces look hke great boxes of
flowers. At the appointed hour aU eyes were turned
towards the gate at the end of the street, and in a
few minutes the forerunners of the party came in
sight. The whole street was so crowded with people
that untfl they got quite near it was impossible to dis
tinguish the Aissowieh from the spectators. For
some little time I could see nothing but a swaying
mass of hooded heads, and in their midst, other bare
ones which appeared and disappeared, their ovniers
being apparently engaged in knocking one another
about. Above the heads floated a few flags, and
from time to time a simultaneous cry arose from many
throats. The crowd slowly advanced, Httle by Httle
we began to note a certain method in the movements
of all those heads. The foremost formed a circle,
those behind them a double line, beyond them was
another circle, and so on. But of this order I can
not be perfectly sure either, for in my eager curiosity
to observe the individuals themselves as closely as
possible it is very Hkely that the exact order of the

TANGIER. 55
movements of the whole may have escaped me. In
the course of a few moments the leaders of the party
were directly below our terrace. My first impression
was a mingling of horror and pity. There were two
lines of men facing one another, wearing cloaks and
long white tunics, holding on to each other by the
hands, or arms or shoulders, keeping time with their ¦
feet, swaying, turning their heads from side to side,
and giving vent to a dull, murmuring sound, broken
by sobs, chokings, gaspings, and interjections of
wrath and despair. Nothing but Rubens' The Pos
sessed hy a Devil, or Goya's Raised from the Dead, or
Poe's The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar, could
give the faintest idea of the look on those faces. They
were Hvid, convulsed, with staring eyes and foaming
mouths ; feverish, epfleptic ; some wearing a fixed,
mysterious smile, others the whites of whose eyes
could only be seen, others contracted as if with
some fearful spasm, and others which were like
dead men's faces. From time to time they would
make a strange gesture to one another with swing
ing arms, and then that simultaneous cry would
arise, piercing and terrible, as of persons receiving a
death-wound; then proceeding a few steps further
they would again begin to dance, groaning and strik
ing themselves, a confused, surging mass of cowls,
wide sleeves, hairy tufts, long locks, thick shocks of
hair divided up into snake-Hke bands. A few of the
more ardent spirits went up and down between the

56 TANGIER.
lines staggering like drunken men and striking against
the waUs and doorways ; others seemed to be rapt in
a sort of ecstasy, walking slowly along erect, with
heads thrown back, half-closed eyes and hanging
arms ; others, completely exhausted and no longer
able either to cry out or stand erect, were supported
under either armpit by their companions, or swept
unresistingly along by the crowd. The dance be
came more and more disorderly and the noise more
deafening. Heads were shaken until it seemed as
though the collar-bones must break, and terrible gasp
ings came from surcharged lungs. From aU those
bodies, reeking with perspiration, there arose a sick
ening smeU like that from a cage of wild animals.
From time to time one or another of those convulsed
faces would suddenly be raised towards our terrace,
and a pair of A\'fld-looking eyes gazing fufl into my
own cause me to draAv precipitately back. From
moment to moment my inward impression of the
scene would undergo a change. Now it seemed noth
ing but an extravagant masquerade, and I was
tempted to laugh ; then it suggested the revels of a
crowd of lunatics, of sick persons in the delirium of
fever, of drunken gaUey-slaves, of men condemned
to death who were endeavoring to deaden their ter
ror, and my heart would suddenly contract, only to
forget the next moment everything but the savage
beauty of the scene and lose myself in artistic en
joyment. But Httle by httle the underlying mean-

TANGIER. 57
ing of that rite took possession of my mind ; the sen
sations which those frenzies were the interpretation
of and which every one of us must often and often
have experienced, the struggle of the human soul
laboring under the burden of the infinite, awoke in
me, and half-unconsciously I put that tumult into
words as I understood it. Yes, I feel thee, oh, mys
terious and tremendous power; I struggle in the grasp
of thine invisible hand; the idea of thee oppresses me;
I cannot contain it ; my heart is bursting, my reason
departs, this clay wrapping is rent asunder !
And so they passed on, crowding by, pale, di-
sheveUed, emitting those piercing cries with what
seemed to be their dying breath. A stumbling old
man, the image of a frenzied Lear, detached him
self from the procession and made as though he
would have dashed his brains out against a neigh
boring waU had his companions not dragged him
back in time. One young man fell full length on
the ground unconscious ; another, his hair floating
over his shoulders, his face buried in his hands, went
by with long strides, his body bowed to the earth,
like one accursed of God. There were Bedouins,
Moors, Berbers, negroes, giants, mummies, satyrs
with faces of cannibals and saints, birds of prey,
sphinxes, Indian idols, furies, fauns, devfls. There
may have been between three and four hundred, and
in less than an hour they had afl passed. The last
to come were two women (women being admitted to

68 TANGIEE.
the order as weU) who looked as though they had
been buried alive and had burst open their tombs —
two walking skeletons, dressed aU in Avhite, their hair
hanging over their faces, with staring eyes and foam
ing mouths, completely exhausted, yet stfll animated
by convulsive movements of which they themselves
seemed no longer conscious ; Avrithing, shrieking,
stumbling as they went, whfle between them rose
the gigantic figure of an old man, with a face like
a hundred-years-old Avizard, dressed in a sweeping
tunic, who, stretching out two long, emaciated arms,
laid his hands on the head of one and the other of
them in turn Avith a gesture of protection, helping
and raising them again Avhen they feU. Behind these
three apparitions, pushing and jostling one another,
came a throng of armed Arabs, women, beggars and
chfldren, the entire barbarous howling mob a mass
of human misery, which, pouring into the square,
disappeared from our view.
Another interesting sight to be witnessed in Tan
gier is the feast which is celebrated on Mohammed's
birthday. I think it possibly made a particularly
vivid impression on me owing to my having hap
pened on it rather accidentaUy.
Returning one day from a walk along the shore, I
heard the sound of guns being fired off in the Sok
di Barra. Hastening thither, I at first could hardly
recognize the place, so completely was it metamor
phosed. From the city waUs to the very summit of

TANGIER. 59
the hfll it was swarming with Arabs, an entirely white
and extraordinarfly animated crowd: There were, I
beheve, only about three thousand persons in all, but
they mingled and moved about so constantly as to
appear countless — a curious optical delusion. Upon
every mound, as though seated upon so many bal
conies, were groups of Arab Avomen, squatted on the
ground in the Eastern fashion, immovable, their faces
turned towards the lower end of the Sok. On one
side the crowd, separating in two dark masses, left
an open space between, doAvn Avhich a troop of horse
men hurled themselves fuU tflt, in line of battle, at
the same time discharging their long guns ; on the
other, groups of men and women had gathered about
the various performers — some playing ball, others
fencing or dancing, serpent-charmers, story-teUers,
musicians, soldiers. From the summit of the hill,
beneath a pointed tent open in front, gleamed the
huge white turban of the Vice-Governor of Tangier,
who, seated on the ground, in the midst of a circle
of Moors, presided over the fete. From that point
one could see below in the crowd the soldiers belong
ing to the various legations, dressed in their pompous
scarlet caftans, a few high hats, an occasional parasol
belonging to one of the consuls' ladies, and the two
artists, Ussi and Biseo, portfoHo and pencfl in hand ;
beyond the crowd Tangier ; beyond Tangier the sea.
The reports of the guns, shouts of the horsemen,
ringing of the water-carriers' bells, gay cries of the

60 TANGIER.
women, the music of pipes, horns, and tambourines,
aU combined to form a hurly-burly not to be described,
and added not a little to the strange effect produced
by that wfld scene under the dazzHng rays of the
noonday sun.
Curiosity attracted me in a dozen different direc
tions at once, but a cry of admiration from some
Avomen near by drCAV me first of afl to a group of
caA'alry. There were a dozen tall fellows, wearing
peaked fezes, Avhite capes, orange, red, and blue
caftans, and in their midst a youth dressed Avith
effeminate elegance, the son of the Governor of the
Rif. Drawing up in line at the foot of the city waUs,
with faces turned towards the open country, the Gov
ernor's son in the middle, they raised their hands,
and with one accord broke into a run. For the first
few paces there was some slight uncertainty and dis
order, then those twelve horses, Avith loosened bridles
and bellies even with the ground, seemed to be parts
of a single body — a furious monster Avith twelve
heads, many-colored, devouring space. The riders,
nailed to their saddles, Avith heads erect and cloaks
floating in the wind, raised their guns aloft, pressed
them convulsively against their shoulders, and fired,
at the same time raising a simultaneous cry of tri
umphant fury, then vanished in a cloud of dust and
smoke. In a fcAA^ moments they slowly reappeared,
sitting their foaming and bloody steeds in attitudes
of weary disdain, and presently the performance was

TANGIEE. 61
re-enacted. At each fresh charge the Arab women,
Hke ladies at a tournament, greeted the performers
Avith a pecifliar cry of their OAvn, consisting in the
rapid repetition of the monosyUable lit, which somids
like the shrfll exclamations of delighted chfldren.
Next I went to watch a party of about fifteen
Arabs play baU — boys, fuU-grown men, and old ones
with white beards ; some had guns slung across their
shoulders, others wore SAvords. The baU was of
leather, about the size of an orange. One of them
took it, dropped it on the ground, and kicked it in
the air, aU the others trying to catch it before it
feU, and the one aa^Ho succeeded doing as the first
had done. Thus the group of players, intent on fol
lowing the baU, got farther and farther away, untfl at
last AAT.th one accord they returned to the spot they
started from. But the curious thing about this game
consisted in the movements of the players. They
used dance-steps, measured gestures, actors' poses,
preserving a mien that was almost ceremonious, and
contradictory as weU, being both courteous and vio
lent, circling about Avith a sort of rhythm and system
the rule for which I was unable to discover. They
ran and leaped aU together in a contracted space,
pressing close to one another and intermingling
without interchanging a blow or making the sHght-
est disturbance. The baU flew up in the air, dis
appeared, bounded in among their legs and above
their heads as though no one had touched it and it

62 TANGIER.
were being bloAvn hither and thither by contrary
winds, and aU of this strenuous effort was unaccom
panied by a word, an exclamation, or a smfle. Old
and young alike Avere perfectly sflent and serious,
and as intent upon the game as though it had been
some melancholy task imposed upon them, no sound
being heard other than their panting breath and the
patter of their sHppers.
A httle farther on some negroes were dancing in
the midst of another circle of spectators to the sound
of a fife and a smaU conical drum, beaten with a
wooden stick curA'ed like a half-moon. There were
eight of them, great poAverful feflows, as black and
shiny as ebony, Avearing nothing but a long snow-
white tunic fastened around the waist by a green
cord. Seven of them holding one another by the
hand formed a circle about the eighth, and they afl
danced together, or rather kept time to the music
with an indescribable movement of the hips Avhich
set my toes in motion, and hardly any change of
position, wearing upon their faces at the same time
that satyr-like smile, that expression of purely animal
enjoyment of stupid bliss pecuhar to the negro race.
While I stood watching this scene two boys of about
ten, who were among the lookers-on, gave a sample
of the ferocity of the Arab nature which I am not
likely soon to forget. Quite suddenly, and with no
apparent cause, they leaped upon one another, and
closing Hke a couple of tigers, began to tear and bite

TANGIER. 63
each other's faces and necks with teeth and nafls, and
with a fury that was reaUy horrible to witness. Two
strong men, by using aU their force, succeeded, Avith
some difficulty, in separating them, and Avere obhged
to keep hold of them to prevent their renewing the
attack. The fencers were very funny. There were four
fencing with sticks in pairs, and it would be impossi
ble to give any idea of the extravagance and awk
wardness of the " school." I caU it a " school " ad
visedly, because I saw fencing of the same style in
other cities in Morocco. They indulge in movements
Hke those of a rope-dancer, perfectly objectless leaps
in the air, contortions of the body, kicks and blows
carefuUy announced beforehand with wfld flourishes
of the arms, every movement made with a kindly de-
Hberation that would aflow one of our fencers ample
time to stand on guard, and each combatant armed
with an enormous weight of wood, without there being
the smallest risk of anyone receiving so much as a
knock. The group of Arab spectators stood, how
ever, in open-mouthed admiration, a number of them
stealing looks at me from time to time to see if I
were not struck with astonishment. Wishing to
gratify them, I pretended to be mightfly pleased, upon
which some of them drew closer together in order to
push me a Httle more to the front, and I presently
found myself surrounded on afl sides by Arabs, and
had the chance I had been wanting to make a closer

64 TANGIER.
study of the race, of those barely perceptible move
ments of the nostrfls, lips and eyeHds, of the marks
on the skin, and the odor — in short, of aU those minor
details which escape the observer as he passes along
the streets, but which nevertheless seem to explain
so much. One of the soldiers belonging to the Italian
legation espying me from a distance hemmed in in
this way, and imagining that I was an unwflhng
prisoner, insisted upon Hberating me whether I would
or no by means of a free use of elbows and fists.
The group gathered about the story-teUer was the
smaUest of any, but the most striking. I joined it
just as, the customary opening prayer being ended,
the orator was beginning his tale. He was a man of
about fifty, almost black, with a jetty beard and great
shining eyes, enveloped hke aU the Morocco story-
teUers in a large white cloth bound about the head
with a strip of camel's hair, which lent him something
of the dignity of a priest of ancient times. Standing
erect in the middle of his circle of auditors, he held
forth slowly and in high-pitched tones, to the accom
paniment of a drum and an oboe. He may have been
recounting some tale of love, or the adventures of a
celebrated bandit, or the vicissitudes of a sultan's
career. I could not imderstand a single word, but
his gestures were so expressive, his voice so sympa
thetic, his face so speaking, that from time to time I
was able to catch a ray of meaning. He seemed to
be describing a long journey ; he imitated the gait of

TANGIEE. 65
the weary horse, pointed to the measureless stretch
of horizon, searched for any sign of water, let his
head and hands droop like those of a man utterly
spent ; then afl at once, descrying some object far off
in the distance, he seemed at first to hesitate, now
doubting, now believing the evidence of his eyes,
untfl plucking up courage he pushed forward, and
finaUy returning thanks to AUah, and laughing aloud
for joy, sank down with a great sigh of relief in the
shade of a delicious oasis which he had abandoned aU
hope of reaching. The audience remained sflent and
breathless throughout the recital, reflecting in their
faces every word uttered by the story-tefler ; and
standing thus with their souls in their eyes, they re
vealed fuUy the frank, ingenuous nature which lies dor
mant beneath those savage exteriors. The orator
moved to the right and left, sprang forward, crouched
on the ground, covered his face with his hands, lifted
his arms to heaven, and raised his voice as he grew
graduaUy more and more excited ; the musicians
played with ever-increasing fervor ; the listeners
drew closer together, becoming more breathless as
the tale went on, until at last it reached its climax in
a thundering cry, the instruments flew up in the air,
and the group, much affected, dispersed, to make
room for a fresh audience.
Three musicians, who had succeeded in attracting
a larger crowd than anyone else, made, by their ap
pearance, movements and music, a very extraordinary
Vol. I.— 5

66 TANGIEE.
impression upon me. They were afl three bow-legged,
very taU, and curved from head to foot like those gro
tesque figures which stand for capital letters in cer
tain iUustrated papers. One played a flute, another a
smafl drum with Httle beUs attached to it, and the third
an amazing instrument, like a clarionet combined in
some remarkable way with two hunting-horns, which
gave forth the most unheard-of sounds. These three
men, clad in a few rags, pressed close to one another's
sides as though they had been strapped together, and
playing continuously and desperately their one solitary
air, the same, no doubt, that they had been playing
for the past fifty years, revolved slowly around in a
circle. I do not know how they moved ; it seemed to
be a cross between dancing and walking, certain quick
motions Hke a rooster pecking, certain liftings of the
shoulders, done by aU three simultaneously and me-
chanicaUy, and so unlike any actions common among
us, so altogether new and odd, that the longer I
watched them the more puzzled I became, feeHng as
though they must be the expression of an idea or
have their origin in some peculiarity of the Arab race ;
and even now I often find myself thinking of them.
Those three poor Avretches, dripping with perspiration,
played and danced about for upwards of an hour with
an unalterable gravity, listened to by some hundred
or more persons standing in a close, immovable group,
the sun shining full in their eyes, and giving no sign
either of pleasure or annoyance.

TANGIEE. 67
The noisiest gathering of afl Avas that surrounding
the soldiers — a dozen men, old and young, some
wearing white caftans and others clad only in a tunic,
this one with a fez, that one with a hood, armed with
flint-lock muskets as long as spears, into which they
poured powder, it not being customary to employ car
tridges in Morocco. An old veteran directed the ex
ercises. First they placed themselves six on one side
and six on the other, facing one another. At a given
signal they changed places on a run and knelt with
one knee on the gromid ; then one of them sang
something, I do not know what, in a shrfll falsetto, all
triUs and quavers ; this lasted some moments, and
was listened to in profound sflence ; then with one
accord they afl leaped to their feet, formed a circle,
and bounding high in the air with a wild shout of de-
Hght reversed their guns and fired into the ground.
No one can conceive of the rapidity and fury, the
diaboHc charm and frantic merriment of that noisy,
brflHant performance, seen amidst clouds of smoke,
beneath the full blaze of the sun. A few steps from
me there stood among the spectators a little Arab girl
of ten or twelve, not yet vefled, with one of the pret
tiest faces I saw in Tangier. She had a clear, deh-
cate oHve complexion and big blue eyes, stretched
just then to theirfuUest extent with wonder at beholding
a sight far more marveUous to her than the feats of the
soldiers. This was myself in the act of drawing off
my gloves — that second skin, as the Arab boys say,

68 TANGIEE.
which Christians put off and on at wiU and without
hurting themselves in the least.
I hesitated AA^hether or no to witness the snake-
charmers' performance, but curiosity finaUy getting
the better of repugnance, I approached the group.
These so-caUed snake-charmers belong to the order
of the Aissowieh, and are supposed to derive from
their patron, Ben-A'issa, poAver to receive the bite of
any creature, no matter how venomous, AA'ithout in
curring the least harm. Many traveUers, indeed,
gifted themselves Avith strong faith, declare that they
have actuaUy seen these persons receive bites which
drcAV blood, Avithout suffering any iU effect, from ser
pents whose deadly nature was proved shortly after
wards by experiments made upon animals, and they
add that they have been unable to discover by what
means those clever charlatans succeed in rendering
the bite innocuous. The Aissowan I saw presented
a spectacle quite horrible enough, though bloodless.
He was a small sturdy Arab, with a pale, hangdog
face, hairy as a Merovingian king, wearing a sort of
blue tunic, which feU to the ground. As I approached
he was skipping grotesquely around a goat-skin
spread on the earth, from beneath which peeped the
mouth of a bag in which the snakes were confined.
As he jumped and leaped about he sang a melancholy
song to the accompaniment of a flute, apparently an
invocation addressed to his saint. This concluded, he
chattered and gesticulated for some time to induce

H Snafie (Tbarmer.

TANGIEE. 69
the spectators to throw him money. Then kneeling
in front of the goat-skin he thrust his hand in the
bag and drew forth with much care a long, greenish
serpent, very lively indeed, Avhich he carried around
for the audience to examine, and then began to handle
in afl manner of ways, much as though it had been a
bit of rope. He grasped it around the neck, held it up
by the tafl, bound it about his temples, hid it in his
breast, tAvisted it in and out of the holes of a tambou
rine, threw it on the ground, held it doAvn with his
foot, pinioned it under his arm, the horrible beast
meanwhfle rearing its flat head, darting out its tongue
and writhing about with those flexible, repulsive, ab
ject movements that seem the very incarnation of
cowardice and treachery, shooting out of its vfllainous
Httle eyes aU the rage that convulsed its body, but
never making any attempt to bite the hand that held
it. When he was tired of these exercises the Aisso
wan, taking hold of the snake by the back of its neck,
thrust a small piece of iron in its mouth to hold it
open, and then carried it around for the nearer spec
tators to examine its teeth, an inspection that seemed
to me superfluous, seeing that no one had been bitten,
if indeed the poisoned substance had not been already
extracted. After this, grasping the creature firmly
with both hands, he took the tail in his mouth and
began to work his jaws ; the beast writhed franticaUy,
and I left in disgust. Just then our charge d'affaires
appeared in the Sok. The Vice-Governor, seeing him

70 TANGIEE.
from the top of the hiU, went down to meet and con
duct him to his tent, where presently afl the members
of the future caravan, myself included, were assem
bled Before long the musicians and soldiers had
coUected in front of the tent, and the people following,
a great semi-circle of Arabs was formed, the men in
front, the gentler sex in groups in the rear, and forth
with there broke out a most diabolical uproar — danc
ing, shouting, singing, cries, reports of fire-arms —
which was kept up for more than an hour, amid dense
clouds of smoke, and accompanied by unearthly music
and the shriU cries of the women and children, to the
paternal satisfaction of the Vice-Governor and our in
tense delight. Before it ceased the charge d'affaires
slipped a smaU yeflow object into the hand of one of
the Arab soldiers with orders to give it to the director
of the festivities. The man presently returned and
delivered the latter's somewhat singular message
of thanks translated into Spanish : " The Italian
ambassador has performed a good action ; may
Allah bless every hair on his head." The fete
kept up until sunset — such a strange fete as it
Avas ! Three Avater-carriers sufficed to satisfy the
wants of afl that throng for half a day beneath the
burning rays of an African sun. A muzuneh Avas
possibly the largest coin put into circulation by
that great concourse of people ; the only pleasures
indulged in, those of sight and sound ; no flirting ;
not a single drunken person ; no one stabbed ! reaUy

TANGIEE. 71
nothing at aU in common AAdth the fetes of civilized
peoples. In addition to visiting the various sights, I and my
future traveUing companions used to take long walks
in the country surrounding Tangier, which is no less
curious and well worth seeing than the city itself.
AU around the outside of the walls extends a belt of
pleasure and kitchen-gardens, the property, for the
most part, of the foreign ministers and consuls, and
almost aU of them neglected, yet fiUed with a marvel
lous vegetation. There are long rows of aloes, looking
like huge lances, stuck in the middle of a bunch of
dirks with curved points, that being the shape of the
leaves. The Arabs utflize the thorns and leaf-fibre
to sew up wounds. There are Indian figs, too, Ker-
mus del Inde, as they are caUed in the Moorish tongue,
very tafl, with leaves a finger thick, which faU in
such numbers as almost to block up the paths ; com
mon figs, in whose shadow a dozen tents might be
pitched ; oaks, acacias, oleanders, shrubs of afl kinds
which interlace with the branches of the tafler trees,
and, together with the grass, vines, reeds and hedges,
form a thick, inextricable undergrowth, beneath which
paths and ditches are alike hidden. In many places
it is necessary to feel one's way along. You pass
from one property to another, across broken-down
hedges and over fences lying prone upon the ground,
through grass and flowers reaching waist-high, and
without seeing anyone at aU. A few Httle white

72 TANGIEE.
houses half-hidden among the trees and an occasional
weU from whence, by means of small trenches, the
ground is irrigated, are the only objects which sug
gest the idea of either OAvnership or labor. Often,
had I not been accompanied by the staff-captain, an
admirable guide, I should certainly have lost my way
in that confused mass of vegetation, and as it was we
Avere obliged to keep hafling one another, like people
in a labyrinth, in order not to become separated. We
used to enjoy plunging into that sea of green, swim
ming in it, and forcing our way with hands and head
and feet, like two savages let loose in their native
forests after languishing in prison. Beyond this belt
of gardens and parks there are no more houses, trees,
hedges, or any division of the land. It is an expanse
of green hfll and A'aUey and undiflating plain, where
an occasional herd of cattle may be seen grazing
with no keeper in sight, and a few loose horses gaUop
about. On one single occasion I recoUect seeing
someone engaged in cultivating the earth ; an Arab
was driving a donkey and a goat hitched to a tiny
plough of curious design, probably the shape of those
in use four thousand years ago ; he was making a
furrow so smaU as scarcely to be visible, in a field
covered with stones and weeds. I was assured .that
it was not uncommon to see a woman and a donkey
hitched together to the plough, Avhich may serve to
give some idea of the agricultural condition of Mo
rocco. The only fertiHzer put on the ground is the

TANGIEE. 73
ashes of the stubble burned after harvest, and the
only care taken to avoid exhausting the fertflity of
the sofl consists in letting the grass grow for pasture
every third year after planting wheat and maize in
the other two. Notvrithstanding this precaution, the
ground becomes poor after a few crops have been
grown, and then these wandering farmers move on in
search of new land to tUl, which in its turn is aban
doned for the first. Thus only a very small part of the
arable ground is under cultivation at one time ; ground
which, even with such treatment yields a hundred
fold on what is soAvn.
The most beautiful excursion of aU was to Cape
Spartel, the Ampelusium of the ancients, which forms
the northwest extremity of the African continent — a
mountain of gray-stone, about a thousand feet high,
running out into the sea in a bold promontory, with
great caverns at its base, dedicated in ancient times
to Hercides — specus Herctdi sacer. From the sum
mit rises the famous light-house built only a few
years ago and maintained by contributions from most
of the European powers. We climbed the tower up
to the very lantern itself, which throws its briUiant
warning to a distance of twenty-five mfles. From
thence the eye roams over two continents and two
seas. You can see the outermost bounds of the
Mediterranean and the Hmitless horizon of the vast
Atlantic — the Sea of Darkness — Bahr-ed-Dholma, —
as the Arabs caU it — beating against the foot of the

74 TANGIER
rocks. You see the Spanish coast from Cape Tra
falgar to Cape Algesiras, the African coast from the
Mediterranean to the Ceuta Mountains, the septem
fratres of the Romans, and vague, far away, the
mighty Rock of Gibraltar, that eternal sentinel sta
tioned at the portal of the old continents, that mys
terious boundary of the ancient world, now the Fa-
vola vile ai navigante industri.
In aU these expeditions we met but a very few
people, usuaUy Arabs on foot, who passed without
looking at us, or sometimes a Moor on horseback,
a personage of some importance, either by reason of
his wealth or office, accompanied by a troop of ser
vants, who threw us a disdainful glance in passing.
The women concealed their faces more jealously than
in town ; some of them muttering and others turning
their backs on us brusquely. Sometimes, however,
an Arab Avould stop directly in our way, and, look
ing us straight in the eye, murmur a few words
almost in the tone of one who asks a favor, and then
move off without looking back. As a rule, Ave could
not understand what was said, but it was explained
to us later that they were begging us to pray that
AUah would grant their petitions. It seems that
there is a common superstition among the Arabs
that the prayers of Mussulmans are- so agreeable
to God that He usuaUy delays answering them
in order to prolong the pleasure, while the prayer
of an infidel, a dog — that is, a Christian or a Jew —

nnoorisb 3Bri&ge near XTangier,

TANGIEE. 75
is, on the contrary, so obnoxious that, in order to get
rid of it. He grants it ipso facto. The only friendly
countenances we ever met were those of the Jewish
boys, who circled around in troops, riding their don
keys up and doAvn the hifls, and shouting out gayly
to us as they gaUoped by, Buenos dias, cahalleros !
Notwithstanding, however, the varied and novel
Hfe we were leading in Tangier, we were afl impa
tient to be off in order to get back in the month of
June, before the great heat sets in. The charge
d'affaires had dispatched a courier to Fez to an
nounce that the embassy was ready to start, but at
least ten days must elapse before his return could
be hoped for. Private information came that the
escort was already on its way ; others said that it
had not yet started ; everything was as uncertain
and contradictory as if this much-talked-of Fez lay
two thousand mfles from the coast, instead of two
hundred and twenty kflometres. We rather liked
this, though, as it made our fifteen-days' trip assume
the importance of a long journey, and threw around
Fez the vague fascination of a strange, mysterious
place. This impression was, in fact, much strength
ened by the extraordinary tales that were told us of
the city and its inhabitants, and of the perils of the
journey by those who had accompanied other embas
sies. We were informed that they had been sur
rounded by thousands of horsemen, Avho greeted
them with a furious, close fire at the risk of blind-

76 TANGIEE.
ing them ; that balls had whistled by their ears ; that
it was more than Hkely that some of us Italians would
get an ounce or two of lead in our bodies that had
been intended for the Avhite cross on our flag — an
object which the Arabs would be sure to regard as
a direct insult to Mohammed. They talked to us
about scorpions, snakes, tarantulas, clouds of grass
hoppers, spiders, huge toads, all of which we would
encounter on the road and in our oaatu tents. They
painted the entrance of the embassy into Fez in
gloomy colors, afluding to Avhirlwinds of horsemen,
dense hostfle crowds of people, and dark, covered
streets encumbered with the carcasses of dead ani
mals. They prophesied afl manner of misfortunes
during our sojourn in the metropolis — mortal inertia,
violent dysentery, rheumatism, ferocious mosquitoes,
as compared with Avhich our own are positive bless
ings ; and, last of all, they spoke of homesickness,
under which head they recounted the mournful history
of a young artist from Brussels who had accompanied
the Belgian embassy, and at the end of a week was
seized with such desperate melancholy that the minis
ter was obliged to send him back post-haste to Tangier,
in order to avoid having him die on his hands ; and this
was actuaUy so. AU of these direful accounts, how
ever, only served to whet our impatience. I recaUed
with amusement, too, an ironical saUy of my mother.
After having vainly attempted to persuade me to
renounce the trip to Morocco on account of the wfld

TANGIEE. 77
beasts, " Oh, weU," said she, " no doubt you are
right, after all. What does it matter if a panther
does devour you ? The newspapers wfll, no doubt,
pubHsh a fufl account of it !" After aU this, it is easy
to imagine how we bounded from our chairs when, one
day, Signor Salomone Aflalo, second legation drago
man, appeared at the dining-room door and pro
nounced in sonorous tones the words, " The escort
has arrived from Fez !" With the escort had also
come the horses, mules, camels, grooms, tents, the
itinerary fixed by the Sultan, and the permission to
start. It was necessary, however, to wait stfll a few
days longer in order that the men and beasts might
have a chance to rest. The latter were taken up to
the kasbah, whither I went the foUowing day to see
them. There were forty-five horses, including those
of the escort, twenty saddle-mules, and more than
fifty pack-mules, to which a good many others, hired
in Tangier, were added later on. The horses, like
aU others in Morocco, were smafl and slightly buflt,
the mules sturdy. Both saddles and packs were cov
ered with red cloth, and the stirrups made of a wide
piece of iron, turned up on both sides in such a manner
as to support and inclose the entire foot, serving at
once as a spur and a weapon of defence. The poor
creatures were almost afl of them lying on the ground,
exhausted more by the insufficiency of food than the
length of the journey, a portion of what shoifld have
gone to them having very probably been converted

78 TANGIER
into money for their oaati pockets by their care
takers. A few of the soldiers belonging to the escort
were present. They at once drew near and began
to talk, trying to make us understand, by means of
gestures, that the journey had been fatiguing, that
they had suffered much from heat and thirst, but
that, by the grace of AUah, they had arrived safe and
sound. There were negroes and mulattoes among
them, aU enveloped alike in long white capes ; taU, an
gular men, Avith hard faces, cruel-looking teeth, and
fierce eyes, whose expression made us feel that a
second escort would not be out of place to interpose
between them and us in the event of anything hap
pening. While my companions were gesticulating I
occupied myself in searching quietly about among the
mifles for the one which should have the mfldest, most
tractable and kindly expression in its eyes. It proved
to be a white one with an arabesqued saddle, and to
its tender mercies I determined to intrust my life.
From henceforth untfl our return aU the hopes of Italian
hterature in Morocco were pinned to that saddle. We
next proceeded to the Sok di Barra, where the princi
pal tents had been pitched. It gave us the greatest
delight to gaze upon those small canvas dweUings,
beneath which we were to sleep for thirty nights
amid unknown soHtudes, to hear and see so many
wonderful things, and to labor, one on a geographi
cal chart, another on an official report, another on a
picture, another on a book, forming among us a Httle

TANGIEE. 79
moving Italy travelling across the empire of the
sherifs. They were circular-pointed tents, some of
them large enough to accommodate more than twenty
persons ; aU lofty, and made of double canvas, with
sky-blue stripes, and ornamented on top Avith big
metal baUs. Most of them Avere the property of the
Sultan, and Avho knOAVS how many seraglio beUes may
have slept beneath them in the course of their famous
journeys from Fez to Mequinez and from Mequinez
to Morocco ! In a comer of the camp stood a num
ber of the escort soldiers, and in front of them, on
foot, a strange personage awaiting the arrival of the
minister. He was a man of about thirty-five, a stout
mulatto of stately appearance, wearing a large white
turban, a light -blue cloak, red trousers, and a sabre
in a leather case with a rhinoceros-skin handle.
Presently the minister arrived and presented him to
us. It was the commander of the escort, a general
in the Imperial army, named Hamed Ben Kasen
Buhamei, Avho had been detafled to accompany us to
Fez and back again to Tangier, and to answer with
his OAvn head for the safety of ours. He shook our
hands with much affabflity, and expressed, through
the interpreter, his hope that we would have a pleas
ant trip. His face and manner reassured me com
pletely Avith regard to the teeth and eyes of the sol
diers whom we had seen in the kasbah. He was not
handsome, but his countenance gave evidence of a
kindly disposition as weU as a quick, active mind.

80 TANGIER
He must have been able to read, write, and cast up
accounts ; have been, in short, one of the most highly-
educated generals in the army, for the Minister of War
to have assigned to him so important and delicate a
mission. The distribution of the tents was made in
his presence. One Avas assigned to Ai-t ; the next
largest after that of the ambassador was taken pos
session of by the naval commander, the staff-captain,
the vice-consul and myself, and from that moment
it Avas foreseen that that Avould be the noisiest tent in
camp. Another very large one was selected to serve
as the dining-room ; then others were chosen for the
doctor, interpreters, cooks, servants, and legation sol
diers, the commander of the escort and his men having
separate tents ; others stiU were to be added on the
day of departure. In short, it was easy to see that
we Avere to have a very beautiful encampment, and
I could already feel an ardent desire beginning to
stir within me to plunge into descriptive narrative.
The following day our charge d'affaires, accompanied
by the commander and the captain, went to caU upon
the representative of the Imperial Government, Sidi-
Bargas, who exercises to a certain extent the func
tions of a Minister of Foreign Affairs at Tangier. I
joined them, being curious to see a Minister of For
eign Affairs who (unless his salary has been raised in
the last twenty years, a most unlikely thing) receives
seventy -five francs a month from his Government, in
cluding aU sums designed to defray any official ex-

TANGIEE. 81
penses he may incur — a sumptuous amount, however,
as compared with the Governor's salary, which is only
fifty francs ; and it is not to be supposed that this
office is a sine cura, whose duties can be put off on
the first person who comes along. The famous Sul
tan, Abd-Er-Rahman, for instance, who reigned from
1822 to 1859, could find no one fitted for the position
but a certain Sidi-Mohammed-el-Khetib, a sugar- and
coff'ee-merchant, who, while he exercised the duties
of a minister, continued to trade regularly at Tangier
and Gibraltar. Indeed, the instructions issued to this
minister by his Government, whfle exceedingly sim
ple, might well embarrass the most finished diplomat
of Europe. A French consul has formulated them
with great accuracy as foflows : " Reply to every de
mand made by the consuls with promises ; postpone
the fulfilment of these promises to the very last possi
ble moment ; gain time ; throw every sort of difficulty
in the way of the complainants ; act so that, weary of
making demands, they wiU desist. If, however, they
begin to threaten, yield, but just as little as possible ;
if they then begin to load their guns, yield entirely,
but not untfl the supreme moment arrives." It should
be added, however, that since the Avar with Spain,
and particularly during the reign of Mulai-el-Hassan,
things have changed greatly.
We ascended to the kasbah, where the ministerial
residence is situated. Two lines of soldiers formed
wings on either side of the entrance. Crossing a
Vol. L— 6

82 TANGIEE.
garden, we entered a spacious apartment, Avhere the
Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Governor of Tan
gier advanced to meet the charge d'affaires. At the
back of the room Avas an alcove containing some
chairs and a sofa ; in one corner stood a very unpre
tending bed, under the bed a coffee service ; the
Avails were white and bare, and the floor coACred Avith
mats. We took our seats in the alcove, and regarded
the two personages confronting us, AA'ho offered an ad
mirable contrast to one another. One, Sidi-Bargas,
the minister, was a handsome old man, Avith a white
beard, fresh, clear complexion, a pair of indescrib
ably vivacious eyes, and a AAdde, smiling mouth, lined
with two rows of big teeth as white as ivory ; a
countenance that gaA'c indications at the first glance
of that astuteness, that marveUously pliable nature,
which is an absolute requisite of the office he held.
The eye-glasses and snuff-box, and certain ceremoni
ous movements of the head and hands lent him almost
the air of a European diplomat. We had before us
a man accustomed to associate with Christians — supe
rior, perhaps, to many of the superstitions and pre
judices of his countrymen — a liberal-minded Mussul
man, a Moor wearing a varnish of civilization. The
other, Kaid Misfiui appeared to be the very personifica
tion of Morocco. He was a man of about fifty, dark,
black-bearded, muscular, gloomy, taciturn, who sat
Avith unsmiling face, bent head, eyes fixed upon the
ground, and lowering brow, as though we inspired

TANGIEE. 88
him with the deepest repugnance. I observed him
out of the corner of one eye with considerable dis
trust. He looked to me like a man Avho might only
open his lips for the purpose of bringing someone's
head rofling about his feet. They both Avore large
white turbans, and were wrapped from head to foot
in diaphanous calks.
The charge d'affaires presented the commander and
the captain by means of the interpreter. Both being
officers, the introduction caUed for no especial com
ment ; but when my turn came, some sort of explana
tion as to my caUing was necessary, which the minis
ter gave in exaggerated terms. Sidi-Bargas remained
sflent for some moments, and then addressed a few
words to the interpreter, who translated them as fol
lows : " His ExceUency wishes to know why, since
your lordship's hand is so gifted, it should be kept
covered ; your lordship should remove the glove so
that the hand could be seen." This form of compH-
ment was so novel that I was at a loss how to reply.
"It is useless," observed the charge d'affaires; "the
talent lies in the head, not in the hand." It Avould have
seemed as though there was nothing more to be said,
but when a Moor once gets hold of a metaphor he
does not let it go so easily. " That is quite true," re-
pHed His ExceUency, " but the hand is the tool, and
also the symbol of the gift of the mind." And so the
discussion was carried on for some moments longer.
" It is the gift of AUah," concluded Sidi-Bargas at

84 TANGIEE.
last. " Miserly AUah," said I to myself The con
versation now turned upon the coming journey.
There were long lists of names of governors, provinces,
riverSj vaUeys, mountains and plains which we were
to meet with on our route, names Avhich resounded
in my ears Hke so many promises of wonderful things
to come, and set my imagination on fire. What could
the Red Mountain be ? What would we see on the
banks of the river of Pearls 1 What sort of governor
must he be avIio bore the name of " Son of the Mare ?"
Our charge asked a great many qu.estions regarding
the distances, Avater and shade, afl of Avhich informa
tion Sidi-Bargas had at his finger-ends, and it must
be admitted that in this respect at least he is superior
to Viscount Venosta, who would certainly not be able
to tefl a foreign ambassador the number of springs
and groups of trees to be found on the road from
Naples to Rome. Finafly, he wished us a safe jour
ney, Avith the formula, " Peace be upon your road,"
and accompanied the charge to the door, shaking us
afl by the hand, with every appearance of cordial
good-wifl. Kaid Misfiui, stfll perfectly silent, ex
tended the tips of his fingers without looking up.
" Oh, it is my hand, is it, and not my head I" said I
to myself, as I stretched out my own. We had gotten
out of the room -when the minister overtook us.
" What day do you start ?" he inquired of Comm.
Scovasso. " Sunday," was the reply. " Make it
Monday," said Sidi-Bargas earnestly. The charge

TANGIEE. 85
asked why. " Because," said he, with perfect gravity,
" it is a lucky day," and bowing to us once more he
disappeared. I Avas told afterwards that Sidi-Misfiui
has the reputation among the Moors of being a great
scholar. He was tutor to the reigning Sultan, and is,
as anyone can see by looking at his face, a fanatical
Mussulman. Sidi-Bargas enjoys the more amiable
distinction of being a great chess-player.
Three days prior to the date of our departure the
street leading to the legation was already blocked with
crowds of curious people. Ten large camels, who
were to carry a part of the provision of wine on be
fore us to Fez, came one after another, and kneeling
before the door, received their load and started off at
last, accompanied by a smaU body of soldiers and ser
vants. In-doors the bustle and confusion during
those three days redoubled. To the servants and
soldiers already attached to the legation were added
those sent from Fez. Stores kept arriving at all
hours ; the place was like a workshop, a storehouse,
or the hold of a ship. For a little whfle it looked as
though the preparations would not be completed in
time, but by Sunday evening, the third of May, every
thing was in readiness, including the lofty staff of an
enormous tri-colored flag, destined to float in the
midst of the tents. AU the personal baggage was to
be loaded on the mules during the night and dis
patched early in the morning, many hours in advance
of the rest of the party, so that on reaching the ap-

86 TANGIER.
pointed spot at night we might find everything pre
pared. I shall always remember, with sensations of keen
dehght, those last moments which we spent in the
court-yard of the legation just before setting out.
We were aU there, only the day before our party had
been augmented by the arrival of an old friend of
the charge d'affaires — Signer Patxot, formerly Span
ish Minister at Tangier, and Signor Morteo, a Gen
oese, the Italian consular agent at Mazagan. There
Avas the doctor of the Caravan, Miguerez, a native of
Algeria ; a wealthy Moor named Mohammed-Ducali,
an Italian subject, who accompanied the expedition in
the character of accountant; the second legation
dragoman, Salomone Aflalo ; two Italian seamen, one
of them Comm. Cassone's orderly, and the other a
caulker on board the Dora; the legation soldiers in
fuU gala costume ; the cooks, workmen and servants,
a crowd of unknown individuals, with whom two or
three months' intercourse, in the interior of Morocco,
would assuredly render me very familiar, and with
whom I determined to scrape acquaintance one by
one, beginning immediately, in order to make them
talk and act in the book which AA'as already taking
shape in my head. Each one had some peculiarity
of dress which contributed towards lending the en
tire assemblage a marvellously picturesque appear
ance. There Avere plumed hats, Avhite cloaks, flow
ing mantles, vefls, saddle-bags, field-blankets of

Soil bi Barra, Xlangier.

TANGIEE. 87
strange colors ; and what with the field-glasses, pis
tols, barometers, sketch-books and portfolios, we had
enough material to fit out a bazaar. It looked as
though Ave Avere about setting out for the Cape of
Good Hope. Every one Avas in a tremor of excite
ment, curiosity and delight ; and, to crown afl, the
weather was superb, Avith a delicious sea-breeze blow
ing. Evidently Mohammed was with Italy ! At pre
cisely fiA'e o'clock the minister mounted his horse,
and at the same moment every legation ran up its
flag by way of salutation. Preoccupied as I was by
the beast I bestrode, and in the uproar of departure,
I preserved only a confused impression of crowds of
people blocking up the streets, handsome Jewesses
standing on the balconies, and an Arab boy who, as
we issued from the Sok gate, shouted with a foreign
accent, " Italia !"
At the Sok we were joined by representatives of
all the other legations, who, according to custom,
were to accompany us some mfles out of Tangier.
Taking the Fez road, we fefl into a long, noisy, con
fused cavalcade, before which floated the green flag
of the Prophet.

HADD-EL-GHAEBIA.

(89)

HADD-EL-GHAEBIA.

It was a crowd composed of ministers, consuls,
dragomans, secretaries, and clerks — a great inter
national embassy representing six monarchies and
two repubHcs, and consisting, for the most part, of
persons who had traveUed over half the world.
Among others there was the Spanish consul, attired
in the charming costume of the province of Murcia,
with a dagger thrust in his belt ; the gigantic form
of the United States consul, a former cavalry colonel,
who stood a head and shoulders above the rest of the
company and rode a fine Arabian charger, harnessed
in the Mexican fashion ; the dragoman of the French
legation, a man of athletic bufld, mounted on an enor
mous white horse, who in certain positions seemed
to take on the heavy, fantastic outlines of a centaur ;
EngHsh faces, Portuguese, Andalusian, German.
Everyone was talking, the conversation being car
ried on in ten different languages, and accompanied
by bursts of laughter, the humming of tunes, and
neighing of horses. In front rode the standard-
bearer, foflowed by two soldiers of the Italian lega
tion ; behind came the cavalry escort, headed by the
(91)

92 HADD-EL-GHAEBIA.
mulatto general, carrying their guns erect on their
saddles ; on either side Avere a throng of Arab ser
vants on foot. This great company, gilded by the
last rays of .the setting sun, presented an aspect so
gloriously picturesque that every one of us showed
plainly in his face the satisfaction he felt at making
at least one figure in the tableau. One by one almost
all of those who had started with us had said fare-
weU and turned back towards Tangier ; only Spain
and the United States were left. Thus far the road
had not been very bad, and my mule being appar
ently the most docile beast in the empire there
seemed to be nothing left to desire. But absolute
happiness does not exist in this world, and accord
ingly the captain presently joined me A\'ith an un
welcome piece of news. The vice-consul, Paolo
Grande, who was to share our tent, Avas, it appeared,
a somnambulist. The captain had encountered him
himself only the preceding night on the stairs of the
legation, wrapped in a sheet, and carrying a light in
one hand and a pistol in the other. On being ques
tioned, the servants had confirmed what he had seen.
To sleep in the same tent with him might be dan
gerous, and the captain begged me, as being rather
more intimate with him than the others, to try to
induce him to place his fire-arms in some one else's
care at night. I promised to do my best. " I trust
to you, then," said he, moving off, " and the com
mander does, as weU. It seems to be a question of

HADD-EL-GHAEBIA. 93
preserving our skins." " This is unnecessary,"
thought I, and starting off in search of the vice-
consul, I presently came across him looking for me.
By dint of much questioning I succeeded in finding
out that between fire-arms and cold steel he had
with him a whole smaU arsenal, including a great
Moorish dagger. This last he described to me at
length, and I somehoAv got an impression that it had
been manufactured and put on the market for the
sole end and object of ripping open my heart. But
how on earth was I to make him understand the
situation, especiaUy if he were entirely unconscious
of it himself? I finafly decided to wait until night,
when we should aU be getting ready for bed ; but
during the rest of the ride I could not rid myself of
the disturbing thought.
We were traveUing through a gently -rofling coun
try, amid green, deserted fields. The road, if indeed
it could be called a road, was cut up into a number
of paraflel paths, sunk like the beds of streams, which
wound in and out among stones and bushes, some
times crossing and interlacing with one another.
Pahns and aloes were occasionaUy outlined darkly
against the golden horizon ; the sky began to glitter
with stars ; no one was to be seen far or near. At
one place the report of muskets was heard coming
from a group of Arabs, who, stationed on a neighbor
ing hUl-top, were saluting the embassy as it passed.
We had been riding now for three hours ; it had be-

94 HADD-EL-GHAEBIA.
come quite dark, and everyone began to Avish for the
camp. Owing to hunger in some cases and to fatigue
in others, coiiA-ersation had gradually died out. Noth
ing could be heard but the tramp of the horses' hoofs
and the loud breathing of the servants as they ran
behind us. All at once a cry Avas heard from the
Kaid, and turning, we descried an eminence on our
right afl sparkling Avith lights. It was our first en
campment, and Ave hailed it with shouts. I cannot
express the delight I experienced on setting foot for
the first time among those tents. Had it not been
that I realized the duty that devolved upon me of up
holding the dignity of Italian literature I should cer
tainly haA^e begun cutting capers. It Avas a little city
— Hght, populous, noisy. On aU sides arose the smoke
of the kitchens ; servants, soldiers, cooks, saflors
came and went, interchanging questions and orders
in aU the tongues of the Tower of Babel. The tents
were pitched in a large circle, in the midst of which
was planted the flag of Italy. Outside this circle
rows of horses and mules were tethered. The escort
had its own smaU camp apart. Everything Avas ar
ranged in military fashion. I recognized my own
abode at once, and hastened to take possession.
There were four camp-beds, mats, rugs, lanterns,
candles, smaU tables, camp stools, wash-stands with
legs striped in the Italian tri-color, and an enormous
Indian fan — a princely estabHshment, in which one
might wfllingly hve a year. Our tent stood between

HADD-EL-GHAEBIA. 95
the minister's on the one hand and the artist's on the
other. An hour after our arrival we seated ourselves
at table in the large tent dedicated to Lucuflus. I
think that must have been the gayest dinner ever
eaten within the confines of Morocco from the time
Fez was founded. We Avere sixteen, including the
American consul, his two sons, and the Spanish
consul, with his two attaches. The Italian cuisine
achieved a signal triumph. It was, I believe, the
very first occasion on which, in the midst of that
lonely country, there arose to AUah the odor of maca
roni au joux and risotto k la Mflanese. The author
of these masterpieces, a fat French cook, who had
come out from Tangier for that night only, was
clamorously summoned to receive the honors of the
proscenium. Toasts exploded like rockets — in Italian,
in Spanish, in prose, in poetry, and set to music.
The Spanish consul, a handsome Castilian of the old-
fashioned type, — big beard, big chest and big heart,
— declaimed, Avith one hand resting on the handle of
his dagger, the dialogue between Don Juan Tenorio
and Don Luis Mendia in the celebrated drama of
Jose Zorflla. The Eastern question was discussed,
the eyes of the Arab women, the Carlist Avar, the im
mortality of the soul, the attributes of the terrible
cobra capello, Cleopatra's asp, which Morocco conjurers
allow to bite them freely. Someone whispered in my
ear that he would be eternally grateful if I Avould
casuaUy mention in my forthcoming book that he had

96 HADD-EL-GHAEBIA.
cut a lion in two, whereupon I seized the opportunity
to beg that pach one of the company would furnish
me with a complete list of the wild animals he wished
to figure as having slaughtered, and the Spanish con
sul, by way of grateful acknowledgment, composed
then and there a Castflian stanza in honor of my mule,
singing which in chorus, to the tune of Italiana in Al-
geri, we trooped out of the tent to go to bed. The
camp was buried in profound sflence. Before the
tent of the minister, who had retired earlier, watched
the faithful Selam, head of the legation soldiers,
whfle in the distance a Avhite, spectre-like figure — the
Kaid of the escort — could be seen sloAvly pacing back
and forth. The sky was glittering with stars ; how
perfect it afl would haA^e been except for that som
nambulistic thorn ! As we entered the tent the cap
tain repeated his request, and I made up my mind,
since the thing had to be done, to broach the subject
so soon as we should afl be safely in bed, but the pros
pect was anything but an agreeable one. Suppose
the vice-consul shoifld not take it in good part ; I
would be inconsolable, he was such a charming com
panion. A pure-blooded, fiery Sicflian, he talked on
the most trifling subjects Avith the ardor and emphasis
of an inspired preacher, employing such adjectives as
terrible, immense, divine, at every statement. His
mfldest gesture was to wave both arms over his head.
To see him discuss anything, with those eyes starting
out of his head, and that aquiline nose, which looked

HADD-EL-GHAEBIA. 97
as though it were trying to hook his adversary, any
one would naturaUy have supposed him to be irascible
and overbearing to a degree ; instead of which he was
the kindest, most sweet-tempered young feUow one
could weU imagine.
" Courage," murmured the captain, when we were
all four in bed.
" Signor Grande," I began, " are you at aU in the
habit of walking about in your sleep ?"
He seemed much surprised at my question.
" No," he replied ; " and what is more, I should not
Hke it at all if anyone else were."
"Very odd," thought I. "Then," I resumed,
"you admit that the habit is a dangerous one for
other people ?"
He stared at me. " I beg your pardon " he said,
after a moment, " but I reaUy hardly think that this
is a subject for you to joke about."
"I beg your pardon," said I, somewhat nettled,
" but I can assure you that nothing is further from
my intention at the present moment than joking, as
it is not my custom to joke about serious matters."
" It is indeed a serious matter," said he, " and I
think it is your place to guard against its becoming
more so."
" This is reaUy refreshing," cried I. " Do you ex
pect me, then, to go out and sleep in the fields V
" WeU, it seems to me that if anyone is to go it
should be you rather than me."
Vol. L— 7

98. HADD-EL-GHAEBIA.
" Why, this is actuafly insulting," said I, bounding
into a sitting position on the side of my bed.
" Oh, we are to understand, then," shouted the
vice-consul, leaping up in his turn, " that it is an in
sult not to aflow one's self to be murdered !"
An explosion of laughter from the captain and the
commander here cut short the discussion, and before
they were able to speak Ave understood that we had
both been victims of a practical joke, the vice-consul
having been made to believe that I had been seen
wandering about the legation at night arrayed in a
sheet and carrying a pistol. The night passed with
out further incident, and by sunrise I was up and
out. The European camp was stfll buried in slumber,
but over among the tents of the escort there seemed
to be a sHght stir. All the eastern sky was tinted
rose-color. Advancing to the centre of the camp I
stood for some time gazing at the scene before me.
The tents were pitched on a grassy hill-side, dotted
over with Indian figs, aloes and flowering shrubs ;
hard by that of the minister there arose a lofty palm-
tree, leaning gracefully towards the east ; aAvay from
the hiU stretched a Avide flowery plain, bounded in
the distance by a line of deep green hills, beyond
which others could be seen, blue and almost melting
into the limpid sky. In afl that broad expanse not
a single house, or herd, or tent, or cloud of smoke
was to be seen. It was an immense garden, from

HADD-EL-GHAEBIA. 99
which every hvuig thing had apparently been ex-
pefled. A light perfumed breeze stirred the leaves
of the palm-tree — no other sound disturbed the abso
lute quiet. Turning suddenly at length, I found ten
staring eyes fixed upon me, belonging to five Arabs
seated on a mass of rock a short distance off — peas
ants who had come during the night from who knows
where to see the camp. There they sat like figures
hewn out of the stone beneath them, gazing stolidly
at me Avithout so much as winking, and giving not
the sHghtest indication of curiosity, or pleasure, or
fll-wfll, or embarrassment, aU five of them immovable
and impassive, their faces half-hidden under their
hoods, looking Hke the very impersonation of the
sohtude and sflence of the desert. I put one hand in
my pocket, the ten eyes foUowed the movement ; I
drew out a cigar, the eyes instantly fastened upon it ;
I walked forward, turned back, stooped to pick up a
stone, those ten eyes never left me ; nor were they,
I soon discovered, the only ones. Little by little I
discerned a couple here, a group there, seated about
in the grass, enveloped as weU in hooded capes, and
equaUy immovable, their eyes fixed upon me. They
looked like people risen out of the ground — corpses
with wide-staring eyes, apparitions rather than actual
persons, who might vanish at the first rays of the sun.
A long tremulous cry from the escort camp presently
distracted my attention. It was a Mussulman soldier
announcing the prayer-hour to his companions — the

100 HADD-EL-GHAEBIA.
first of the five canonical hours at which every Mus
sulman must daily say his prayers. Some soldiers
came out of the camp, and, spreading their cloaks on
the ground, knelt down with faces turned towards the
east. First rubbing their heads, hands, arms and feet
with a handful of dirt, they began reciting their
prayers in low tones, kneeling, rising to their feet,
prostrating themselves face down on the grass, raising
their open hands to their ears, and squatting on their
heels. The commander of the escort came out of his
tent, then the servants, then the cooks, till in a few
moments the greater part of the population of the
camp was on foot. The sun, hardly yet wefl above
the horizon, was already blazing hot.
Re-entering my tent, I made the acquaintance of
several oddities whom I wfll have occasion to men
tion more or less frequently in the course of this
narrative. The first to appear was one of the two
Italian seamen — the commander's orderly — a Sicflian,
born at Porto Empedocle, named Ranni. He was
a young man of five-and-twenty, tall and strong as
Hercules, of exceUent character, grave as a judge, and
possessing the singular characteristic of never being
surprised at anything, finding everything perfectly
natural, Hke Gol in the Cinque settimane in pallone,
astonished only at the astonishment of others. To
him Porto Empedocle, Gibraltar, Africa, China —
where he had been — the moon itself, had it been
brought to him, were aU precisely alike.

HADD-EL-GHAEBIA. 101
" Well, what do you say to this life f ' asked the
commander, as he helped him to dress.
" What would you have me say V was the reply.
"Why, the journey, the strange country, all this
confusion, has it made no impression upon you at afl ?"
The orderly thought about it a little while, and
then answered, quite simply, "No, no impression
at afl."
" None 1 But the camp, at least that is an en
tirely new experience for you ?"
" No, Signor Commandante, it is not."
" Why, when did you ever see such a thing be
fore ?"
" I saw it last night."
The commander looked at him a moment. " WeU,
last night, then," said he, beginning to grow a little
testy. " What impression did the camp make upon
you last night ?"
" Why," replied the worthy man, frankly, " you
see it made — weU, just the same impression on me
that it did this morning."
The commander bowed his head in an attitude of
resignation. Presently there appeared another personage quite
as curious in his way. This was an Arab of Tan
gier whom the vice-consul had hired for the jour
ney. His name was Ciua, but his master caUed him
Civa, as being more easily pronounced. He was a big,
fat youth, very sifly, but good, and anxious to do

102 HADD-EL-GHAEBIA.
right ; a great, simple chfld, who usuaUy laughed and
hid his face when he found any one looking at him. His
clothing consisted of a single long, full, white tunic,
which floated off behind as he walked in the most
ridiciflous fashion, making him look like a caricature
of a cherub. He knew about thirty words in Spanish,
and with these he managed to make himself under
stood when he was obhged to talk, but with his
master he usually employed only signs. From his
appearance I took him to be about twenty-five, but
it is easy to make mistakes in judging of an Arab's
age, so I asked him. First he covered his face with
one hand, then reflected for some moments, and
finafly answered, " Cuando guerra Espana — an,o y
medio ;" that is, at the time of the Spanish war — a
year and a half. As the war with Spain was in 1860,
it would make him seventeen.
" What a tremendous feUow for his age," said the
vice-consul. " Huge," I repHed.
The next person was the ambassador's cook, Avho
brought us our coffee. He was a pure Piedmontese,
" cut out of a single block," a pfllar of the gateway
of the Piazza CasteUo, who had come straight from
Turin, which he caUed " the garden of Italy," to
Tangier only a few days before, and had not yet
recovered himself. The poor man could say nothing
but "What a country! what a country!" I asked
him if, before he left Turin, they had not told him

•piUBD B OlUQBOIt

HADD-EL-GHARBIA. 103
what sort of a place Morocco was, and what kind
of city Tangier. He answered yes ; they had said
to him, " Now, remember, Tangier is not Turin ; it
wiU not be Hke Turin at aU ;" and he had said to
himself, " Patience, it wiU be like Genoa, then, or
Alessandria," and, instead, it had been a city Hke
that, in the midst of savages, and they had given him
two Arabs to help him who could not understand a
single word of Piedmontese. " Oh, poor me !" and,
m addition to everything else, they were to take a
two-months' journey across the Egyptian desert ! He
prophesied that we would never get back alive. " But
at least," said I, " if you do get back to Turin you
wifl have a great deal to teU about." "Ah," he
repHed, in a mournful tone, as he went off, "what
is there to say about a country where you cannot
find so much as a couple of leaves of salad !"
Breakfast over, the ambassador gave the order to
break camp. During this lengthy operation, upon
which nearly a hundred persons were engaged, I had
leisure to observe a very striking trait in the Arab
character — the passion, that is, for command. No out
ward badge was needed for one to recognize at a
glance, amid aU that crowd and confusion, the head
muleteer, the head porter, the head of the tent-ser
vants, the head of the legation soldiers. Whoever
was invested with any authority over his feUows let
it be seen and heard in and out of season Avith voice
and hands and eyes, and aU his powers of mind and

104 HADD-EL-GHAEBIA.
body, whfle those Avho really had no authority seized
upon the most trifling pretexts to give orders to their
equals, deluding themselves with a pretence of being
a little above the others. The raggedest servant
among them was made blissfuUy happy if for one
moment he could assume an imperious attitude. The
simplest operation, such as tying a rope or lifting a
box, cafled for an interchange of deafening cries, fiery
looks, the gestures of a haughty sultan. Even Civo,
modest, unassuming Civo, was very high-handed with
two inoffensive country Arabs who had taken the
liberty of looking, from quite a distance, at his mas
ter's trunks.
At ten o'clock, beneath a burning sun, the long
caravan began slowly to descend into the plain. The
Spanish consul and his two companions had left us at
daybreak ; the only persons now remaining beside the
members of the embassy were the American consul
and his sons. From the spot where we had passed
the night, caUed by the Arabs " Ain-Daha " — foun
tain of wine, from the grape-vines which once grew
there — we were to travel that day to Hadd-el-Gharbia,
beyond the mountains which inclose the plain. For
more than an hour we journeyed over slightly undu
lating ground, between fields of barley and miUet, by
Avinding paths, which occasionaUy crossed and re-
crossed one another, forming small islands of rank
grass and taU flowers. No one was to be seen either
in the fields or on the road, except at the end of the

HADD-EL-GHAEBIA. 105
first half-hour, when we encountered a long train of
camels led by tAvo Bedouins, who accosted us as they
passed with the usual greeting, " Peace be upon
your road." It was very painful to me to see those
poor Arab servants, running along-side of us on foot,
laden with umbreflas, wraps, glasses, portfoHos — con
trivances of whose very names and uses they were
ignorant — obhged to keep up on a run with the
rapid pace of our mifles, choked with dust, scorched
by the sun, fll-fed, half-naked, at everyone's beck and
caU, not ovming a thing in the world but a rag of a
tunic and a pair of old shoes, having come on foot
from Fez to Tangier only to return on foot from
Tangier to Fez, and then, who knows ? Start off
Avith another caravan to go from Fez to Morocco, and
so on, for the rest of their lives, and aU in order not to
die of hunger, and to be aUowed the privflege of rest
ing their bones at night beneath a tent. I thought as I
looked at them of Goethe's "piramide deUa esistenza."
There was a mulatto boy among them, about thirteen
or fourteen years old, good-looking and extremely
active, who fixed now on me, now on other members
of the party, his two big black eyes, beaming over
with curiosity and interest, in which a thousand un
spoken questions could be read. He was a foundling,
the fruit of who can say what strange union, and was
embarking with the Italian caravan on that exhaust
ing career which he would in aU probabflity only quit
to drop into the grave. Another, an old man aU skin

106 HADD-EL GHARBIA.
and bone, ran with his head down, closed eyes and
chnched fists and the desperate resignation of a con
demned man. Others talked and laughed in gasps.
Suddenly one detached himself from the others, shot
ahead, and passing everyone disappeared. Ten min
utes later we came upon him seated in the shade of a
fig-tree ; he had made a half-mile dash in order to
gain five minutes on the caravan, and rest himself in
the shade.
MeaiiAvhfle we had reached the foot of a smaU
mountain, caUed in Arabic the Red Mountain, from
the color of the sofl — rough, precipitous and covered
with the tangled shoots of a forest which had been
cut doAvn. This ascent had been described to us afl
the Avay from Tangier as being the most perflous one
of the journey. " Mule of mine," I murmured, " to
your care I confide my contract with my publishers,"
and so saying I urged him forward, with my mind
fuUy prepared for a head-over-heels tumble. The
path Avound up amid great rocks, apparently sharp
ened and pointed by my personal enemy with an ex
press view to leaving their impressions upon the
hinder-parts of my person. At every uncertain move
ment of the mule I could feel one of the chapters of
my future book tumble out of my head. Twice the
poor beast, faUing on his knees, landed my soul on
the confines of a better world, but finafly I succeeded
in reaching the top safe and sound, where, to my
great surprise, I found I had left afl the others be-

IIADD-EL-GIIARBIA. 107
hind, the two painters only excepted, they having
pushed on ahead so as to get a view from above of
the caravan in movement. And, indeed, the specta
cle was wefl worth a forced march. It extended from
half-way up the side of the mountain for more than a
mfle into the plain below. First came the embassy
party, conspicuous in which were the ambassador's
plumed hat and Muhammed Ducai's Avhite turban,
and on either side of and behind them a crowd of ser
vants, mounted and on foot, scattered picturesquely
about among the rocks and bushes of the hfll-side.
Behind these came, in couples or groups or in single
file, Avrapped in their white and blue cloaks, and
bowed low over their scarlet saddles, the horsemen of
the escort, looking like a procession of masquers, and
behind the escort the interminable line of mules and
horses, laden vsdth tents, boxes, furniture, kitchen
utensfls and provisions, flanked by soldiers and ser
vants, the last of whom were little more than white
and red specks in the green distance of the plain.
One would hardly beHeve how that variegated, armed,
ghttering company animated the solitary vaUey.
What a strange and at the same time festive scene it
presented ! Had I at that moment possessed the
power to turn them afl into stone, in order to study
them at my ease, I should never have been able to
resist the temptation. Turning away at length to re
sume the journey, I had another surprise. There, but
a few mfles away, lay the Atlantic, its surface as

108 HADD-EL-GHAEBIA.
blue and unruffled as a lake. One ship only was in
sight, safling very near the coast in the direction of
the strait. The commander, by using his glass, made
out that she was an Italian vessel. What Avould we
not have given to have been seen and recognized in
turn ! From the Red Mountain we descended into
another charming vaUey, aU covered Avith wild flowers,
which formed, as it were, a carpet of red, lilac and
white. Not a horse, not a tent, not a human being
anywhere to be seen. The ambassador deciding to
caU a halt, we aU dismounted and seated ourselves in
the shade of a group of trees, Avhile the baggage-train
pursued its way. Around us, a little distance off, sat
the servants, each one holding in his hand the bridle
of a horse or mule. The two painters drew out their
books to make a few sketches, but they had their
trouble for their pains, for no sooner did one of those
shirtless ones discover that he was being observed
than he promptly turned his back, or hid behind a
tree, or drew his hood doAATi over his eyes. Three,
one after another, arose and went grumbling off,
leading their beasts to some spot fifty feet farther
away. They did not even want to have the animals
draAvn. He who missed seeing Signor Biseo on that
occasion has never been face to face with Wrath.
He did everything in his power to induce them to sit
stfll — imploring, laughing at and offering them money.
Wasted breath. They replied by a negative motion
of the hand, pointing to the sky and smiling cun-

nnountain anb Dalles tn tbe llnterlor.

H ADD EL GHARBIA. 109
ningly, as much as to say, " We are not quite such
fools as that." Not even the mulatto boy, not even
the legation soldiers, brought up, one might say,
among Europeans, and already on quite familiar terms
with the two artists, were wflling to allow their images
to be profaned by a Christian pencfl. The Koran,
as everyone knows, forbids the representation of the
human figure, and of animals as wefl, as being a prin
ciple of, or temptation to, idolatry. Signor Biseo got
the interpreter to ask one of the soldiers what reason
he had for refusing to allow himself to be drawn. " It
is because," he replied, "in that figure which he
wishes to make, the artist is unable to instil the soul;
to what end then would he do it 1 God alone can
create a Hving being, and it is sacrilege to attempt to
imitate His work." The mulatto boy was next in
terrogated as to his reasons. " Draw my portrait,"
said he, laughing, " whfle I am asleep, if you choose,
it makes no difference to me, it wfll not be my fault ;
but AA'hen I can see you do it — never in the world."
Whereupon Biseo set to work to sketch one of them
who lay fast asleep, whfle his companions stood in
groups a little apart, gazing with big, wondering eyes,
now at the artist, now at the sleeper. AU at once the
man awoke, looked around, understood what was
going on, and, getting up, walked off with a gesture
of annoyance, amid the laughter of the others, who
had the air of saying, " He has done you, you are
ruined now."

110 HADD EL-GHARBIA.
Resuming our journey, an hour's ride brought us
to where the tents of the camp could be seen gleam
ing on the horizon. A troop of horse, appearing from
I knoAv not where, bore doAvn rapidly upon us, the
riders shouting and discharging their guns. Halting
about ten feet away, the leader advanced and shook
hands with the ambassador, and they all then feU in
with the escort. They were cavalry of the district
where our tents were pitched, soldiers belonging to a
sort of landwehr, which forms the principal part of
the Moroccoan army (if indeed the mflitary forces of
Morocco can properly be termed an army), and is
composed of afl males trained to bear arms from the
age of sixteen to sixty. Some of these men wore
turbans, others had red handkerchiefs knotted at the
back of their heads, and aU were attired in white
caftans When we reached the camp they were just
erecting the last tents. The spot chosen this time
was a stretch of arid, undiflating ground ; on one
side could be seen in the far distance a range of blue
mountains, on the other a chain of green hflls. About
half a mfle from the tents were two groups of thatched
huts, half-hidden among Indian fig-trees. We afl
assembled in one of the tents, and hardly were we
weU seated when a member of the legation guard
came running up, and halting in front of the ambas
sador announced, in deHghted tones, " The mona .'"
"Let them bring it," said the ambassador, rising.
Every one foUowed his example, and presently a long

HADD-EL-GHAEBIA. Ill
train of Arabs, accompanied by the commander of
the escort, the legation guard, and aU the servants,
was seen advancing through the camp, and drawing
up in hue before the tent they proceeded to lay at
the minister's feet a quantity of charcoal, eggs, sugar,
butter, candles and bread, together with three dozen
chickens and eight sheep. This was the mona, a
tribute Avhich the country people, in addition to the
heavy taxes they have to pay in money, are obhged
to furnish to aU official personages, the Sultan's sol
diers, and the embassies which pass through their
region of country. The Government fixes the
amount of provisions to be paid, but as the local
authorities assess the people at their own pleasure, it
foUows that the quantity of stuff actuaUy received by
those for whom it is intended, although always more
than is reaUy needed, is only a smafl part of what was
extorted a month before or wfll possibly be extorted
a month after the day of presentation.
An old man, apparently the chief of the customs,
addressed, by means of the interpreter, some obse
quious words to the ambassador ; the others, all of
them poor country-folk, clad for the most part in
rags, gazed helplessly from us to the tents, and then
at their property, the fruit of their tofl and sweat,
with a melancholy wonder expressive only of pro
found resignation. A rapid distribution of the pro
visions followed, the ambassador's table, the legation
soldiers, the escort and muleteers being suppHed in

112 HADD-EL-GHAEBIA.
turn. Signor Morteo, who only that day had been
appointed general intendant of the camp, handed a
gratuity to the old Arab, and he making a sign to
the others, they all turned away in sflence and took
their way back to their huts. A tremendous row
then ensued — and the same thing may be said of
every other simflar occasion throughout the journey —
anent the re-distribution of the mona among the in
dividual soldiers, servants and muleteers. It was a
most amusing scene. Two or three men marched
excitedly up and doAvn the camp carrying a sheep in
their arms and loudly invoking Allah and the ambas
sador; others shouted their claims vociferously, pound
ing on the ground with their fists; Civa waved his
white tunic about here and there in the profound con
viction that he was very terrible. The sheep bleated,
the chickens got loose, the dogs hoAA'led — suddenly
the ambassador rose to his feet, and there was in
stant sflence, only Selam continued to grumble for
some moments longer.
Selam, be it known, was a very great personage.
There were really two members of the legation guard
who bore that name, and they were both in personal
attendance upon the ambassador ; but just as, when
one says Napoleon, without any addition to the name,
every one knows that Napoleon I. is meant, so when
any of us during the journey spoke of Selam, he was
at once understood to refer to one Selam in particular.
How plainly he rises before me now as I write ; he.

HADD-EL-GHAEBIA. 113
the bridegroom Mohammed and the Emperor Avere to
my mind the three most attractive personalities I en
countered in Morocco. Selam was a strong, hand
some, active young man Avith a very quick mind; he
took everything in at a glance, did everything in a
hurry, walked in bounds, talked by looks, and was in
motion from morning to night. Every one appealed
to him about the baggage, tents, cooking, horses. He
spoke Spanish fairly weU, and knew a few words of
ItaHan, but he could make himself perfectly weU un
derstood by employing only Arabic, so speaking and
picturesque were his gestures. To give the idea of
a hfll he made such a motion as one might expect
from some fiery colonel pointing out to his men a
height to be charged ; when he scolded one of the
servants he threw himself on him as though about to
annihflate him ; he constantly reminded me of Tomaso
Salvini in the parts of Orosmane and OtheUo. In
whatever occupation he might be engaged, whether
pouring cold Avater dovm the ambassador's back or
flying by on a gaUop mounted on his chestnut horse,
he always presented a fine and dashing appearance,
and the two artists were never tired of watching him.
He always wore a scarlet caftan and light-blue trous
ers, and could be distinguished at a glance from one
end of the caravan to the other, while throughout the
camp you heard his name being continuaUy cafled in
aU directions. He ran about from one tent to another
joking with us, shouting at the servants, giving and
Vol. L-8

114 HADD-EL-GHAEBIA.
receiving orders, quarreUing, scolding, and bursting
into laughter. When he was angry he looked
like a savage, when he laughed he was like a chfld.
In the course of every dozen words that he uttered
you could hear "eil senor minisfro." For him the
minister ranked next after Allah and the Prophet;
ten guns levelled at his breast would not have made
him change color, whfle at an undeserved reproof
from the ambassador he would weep Hke a chfld ; his
age was twenty-five.
When he had finished grumbHng he came over to
where I was and began opening a box. As he leaned
over, his fez feU off and I noticed some drops of blood
on his clean-shaven head. On asking what they meant
I was informed in an off-hand manner that he had
hurt himself with one of the big mona sugar-loaves.
" I threw it up in the air," said he, " and let it come
down on my head." As I looked a little puzzled, he
proceeded to explain. " I do it so as to harden my
head; at first I used to drop to the ground half dead,
but now I only lose a few drops of blood; in time I
wiU not so much as crack the skin. AU the Arabs do
that ; my father could break bricks nearly tAvo fingers
thick on his skuU as easfly as I could a crust of bread.
A true Arab boy," he concluded, proudly, at the same
time pounding his croAvn with his clinched fist,
" should have a head like iron."
That evening the camp presented a totally differ
ent aspect from that of the night before. Every

HADD-EL-GHAEBIA. 115
one had settled doAvn into regular habits. The two
artists, their easels set up in front of their tent, were
hard at work paintmg ; the captain had gone to take
a look at the lay of the land ; the vice-consul to catch
insects ; the ex-minister of Spain to hunt partridges ;
the ambassador and the commander were playing
chess in the mess-tent ; the servants were jumping
over one another's backs, placing their hands on each
other's shoulders ; the soldiers of the escort sat in a
circle talking; others walked up and down, read,
wrote ; it was as though we had been camping a
month, and had there only been a smafl printing-press
at hand I should have been tempted to start a dafly
paper. The weather was superb, we dined with the
tent-doors open, and throughout the meal the Hadd-
el-Gharbia cavalry saluted the ambassador AAdth noisy
voUeys from their muskets, whfle a magnificent sun
set Hghted up the scene.
The seat next to mine at table was occupied by
Mohammed Ducah, and I had a chance for the first
time to observe him attentively. He was the verit
able type of a wealthy Moor ; effeminate, elegant,
obsequious, and, as I said, wealthy, since he was re
puted to own more than thirty houses in Tangier,
although just at that time his affairs were somewhat
embarrassed. He might have been about forty years
old ; was tafl and fair, with regular features and a
beard ; on his head he wore a small turban, around
which was wound a ca/ik of the finest Fez gauze.

116 HADD-EL-GHAEBIA.
which fefl in folds over an embroidered purple cloth
caftan ; he smfled so as to show his teeth, spoke
Spanish in a Avomanish voice, struck attitudes, and
had the air and manner of a languid lover. He had
been a merchant formerly, and had visited Italy,
Sj)ain, London and Paris, returning at last to Morocco
thoroughly imbued Avith European ideas and habits ;
he drank wine, smoked cigarettes, wore stockings,
read novels, and talked about his love affairs. The
principal cause that was taking him to Fez was a
claim he had against the Government, and which he
hoped, through the good offices of the ambassador, to
succeed in coUccting. He had brought his own tents,
servants, and mules, and from the look in his eyes
would no doubt have liked to bring his women as wefl,
had such a thing been possible, but upon this topic he
observed the strictest reserve ; the women of Avhom he
spoke in recounting his adventures were aU Euro
peans ; the harem was for him, too, a sacred subject. I
ventured one single question, couched in vague terms;
he looked at me, smfled modestly, and made no reply.
After dinner, determined to gratify a strong desire
I had cherished ever since setting out from Tangier,
I made a nocturnal excursion through the camp, and
it proved to be one of the most entertaining experi
ences I had on the entire trip. Waiting untfl every
one had gone to their tents, I Avrapped myself in a
white cloak belonging to the commander and salhed
forth in search of adventures.

HADD-EL-GHAEBIA. 117
The sky was covered with stars ; afl the lanterns,
with the single exception of the one swinging from
the top of the flag-staff, had gone out ; throughout the
entire camp there reigned the most profound sflence.
Very softly, and taking good care to avoid stumbling
over the tent-ropes, I turned to the left, and had not
gone half a dozen steps before an unexpected noise
attracted my attention. I stopped; it sounded like the
notes of a guitar issuing from a closed tent, which I
had never observed before, pitched between that of
the ambassador and our own, but about thirty feet
beyond the circle of the camp. DraAving near, I lis
tened. The guitar was accompanying a thin, sweet
voice which was singing an Arab song full of dreamy
melancholy. To whom did this mysterious tent be
long — could it be possible that a woman Avas inside 1
I walked aU around, but it was closed on all sides ;
then I got down on the ground to look underneath.
The stooping posture made me cough. Instantly the
song ceased, and at the same moment a gentle voice
close by me said, Quien esf (Who is it?) "AUah pre
serve me," thought I, " it is a woman." " One who
is very curious," I answered aloud, throwing the most
pathetic inflexion I could into my voice. A burst of
laughter was the response, and a man's voice said in
Spanish, " Good ! Come in, then, and have a cup
of tea." What a disappointment ! It was Moham
med Ducali. However, I was more than consoled
when, on pushing back the curtain, I found myself

118 HADD-EL-GHAEBIA.
in a beautiful tent hung Avith a rich flowered mate
rial ornamented with little arched vdndows, lighted
by a Moorish lamp, and the air heavy with perfume ;
a fit abode, in short, in every respect to shelter the
fairest of the Sultan's odalisques. Seated beside Du
cah, who was stretched out voluptuously on a Rabat
rug, his head pilloAved on a rich cushion, was a young
Arab of pleasing, thoughtful aspect, holding a guitar
in his hand, upon which he had been accompanying
himself; in the centre of the tent stood a handsome
tea-service, and on one side smoke was rising from a
perfume-burner. I explained to Ducali how I came
to be prowling about his tent ; he laughed, offered me
a cup of tea, made his boy sing me something, and
wished me a pleasant journey; then I stepped out
again, the curtain dropped back in place, and I found
myself once more in the sflent, deserted camp. Mak
ing my way around another tent occupied by Ducah's
servants, I proceeded towards that of the ambassador.
Stretched in front of the door in his Hght-blue cape,
vidth his sword lying close beside him, lay Selam. If
I were to awaken him and he should fafl to recognize
me at once, thought I, he would knock me dovm ; let
us therefore proceed with caution ; and drawing near
on tiptoe I put my head in the tent. The interior was
divided in two by a handsome curtain. The outer half,
which served as a reception-room, Avas furnished with
a smaU table on which lay writing materials, and
some gflt arm-chairs ; the inner half was used as a

HADD-EL-GHAEBIA. 119
sleeping- chamber by the ambassador and his friend,
the ex-minister of Spain. Thinking that I would
leave my visiting-card on the table I stepped lightly
inside, but a growl from Diana, the ambassador's dog,
arrested me, and almost at the same moment I heard
her master's voice caUing out, "Who is there?" "A
cutthroat," murmured I. He recognized my voice
at once. "Cut away," he said, and I forthwith ex
plained the object of my visit, upon which he laughed
heartfly, and grasping my hand in the darkness
Avished me all success. As I went out my foot struck
against a suspicious object. Lighting a match, I found
it was a tortoise, while a little further off sat a huge
toad, which seemed to be Avatching me ; for a minute
I thought I woifld abandon the expedition, but curi
osity presently getting the better of me, I went on
towards the intendant's tent. Just as I leaned over to
Hsten, a tafl white form rose up between me and it
and a voice pronounced the word "asleep" in sepul
chral accents. I jumped back as though I had seen a
ghost, but recovered myself as I recognized Morteo's
Arab servant, a man he had had in his employment
for many years, and who had picked up a httle Ital
ian. Like Selam, he always slept outside his master's
tent with a sword beside him. Notwithstanding my
white cloak he had knoAvn me at the first glance.
Wishing him good-night, I continued on my way.
The next tent was occupied by the doctor and the
dragoman SoHman ; a strong smefl of medicines an-

120 HADD-EL-GHARBLi.
nounced the fact ten feet aAvay; a light aa^is stfll
burning in it ; the dragoman was asleep, but the doctor
sat at a table reading. This young doctor, a cultivated
man of most gentlemanly appearance and manners,
had one curious thing about him : born in Algeria of
French parentage, he had lived for many years in
Italy and there married a Spanish wife ; he conse
quently not only spoke the three languages Avith
equal fluency, but seemed to partake of the national
characteristics of afl three countries, apparently feel
ing the same degree of patriotism for each ; in short,
he was a Latin, single and threefold, who was equafly
at home in Rome, Madrid, or Paris. He possessed a
remarkably keen sense of humor ; without uttering a
word or endeavoring to attract any one's attention he
would, with a glance or slight movement of the Hps,
turn a person or statement into ridicule in such a
manner as to raise shouts of laughter. As soon as I
appeared he guessed what I was after, offered me a
drop of something to drink, and lifting his glass to
his lips murmured, " To the success of the under
taking." " By AUah's help," I answered, and then
left him in peace to his reading. Passing in front of
the large mess-tent, now deserted, I turned to the
left, and quitting the camp circle, threaded my way
between two long lines of sleeping camels, and came
out in the midst of the tents belonging to the escort.
Here I paused to listen to the breathing of the sleep
ing soldiers. In front of the tents were heaps of guns.

HADD-EL-GHAEBIA. 121
swords, saddles, scarfs, daggers, caiks, and the flag
of Mohammed, giving it the appearance of a battle
field. Looking out into the surrounding country, I
could see no one in any direction; even the two
groups of huts were barely discernible — merely two
vague, dark spots in the landscape. I now turned
back, and after passing between the American con
sul's tent and that of his servants — both closed and
sflent — crossed the smafl opeti space in front of the
kitchens, surmounted a barricade of casks, earthen-
Avare pots, pans, and jugs, and finally reached the
Httle tent where the cook and his two Arab scuflions
slept. I thrust my head inside ; it was as black as
pitch. " Gioanin," I said, cafling the cook by name.
The poor man, who was very unhappy over the fafl
ure of a dish of fritters, and very uneasy probably at
the close vicinity of the two " savages," was stfll
awake. " Is it you I" he asked. " Yes, it is I."
He paused a moment before making any reply,
and then turning over on his bed with a groan, ex
claimed, " Oh, what a country !" " Courage," said
I. " Only think — in ten days you wifl be inside the
wafls of the great city of Fez !"
He muttered something, of which I could distin
guish only the word " Moncalieri," after which I
respected his grief and withdrew.
The next tent was occupied by the two sailors,
Ranni, the commander's orderly, and Luigi, the
caulker of the Dora, a young NeapoHtan, bright.

122 HADD-EL-GHAEBIA.
active, and prepossessing, who in the coui-se of two
days had won every one's good-wifl. Their light
was stiU burning, and they were hard at work eat
ing. Pausing a moment, I caught part of a very
amusing conversation. Luigi was asking for whom
the pencfl sketches the two artists were making were
intended. " The idea !" answered Ranni; "why, for the king,
of course." " Just as they are, without any colors ?"
inquired the other. " Oh, no ; when they get back to
Italy they wfll color them first and then send them."
" Who knows how much they wiU get for them !"
" Oh, a great deal, Magan ; a crown for each pict
ure. A king does not care how much money he
spends." Fearing that I might be seen and suspected of
wanting to spy, I was most reluctantly obliged to
forego the rest of the conversation, and stole away
on tiptoe.
Issuing once more from the camp inclosure, I took
a turn through the long lines of horses and mules,
recognizing among the latter, with tender emotion,
my white traveUing companion, who was apparently
plunged in thought, and came next to the tent of
Signor Vincent, a French resident of Tangier, one
of those mysterious individuals who have traveUed
aU over the woild, talk aU languages, and foUow every
trade — cook, merchant, hunter, interpreter, deciph
erer of ancient inscriptions ; he had joined the ItaHan

HADD-EL-GHAEBIA. 123
embassy with his tent and his horses in the capacity
of head overseer of the culinary department in order
to get an opportunity to seU some French uniforms
he had purchased in Algeria to the Governor of Fez.
Peeping in through a crack, I saw him seated in an
attitude of profound meditation upon a chest, a big
pipe in his mouth, and the place Hghted by a candle
stuck in the neck of a bottle ; a strange figure that
reminded me of the old alchemists in Dutch paint
ings who sit in their workshops thinking, their faces
iUumined by the fire in their alembics. Bent, with
ered, bony, he looked as though each turn of fortune
in his adventurous life had added a wrinkle to his
face, a tAvist to his body. Who knows of what he
may have been thinking ! Who can teU what surging
memories may have chased one another through his
brain, of adventures, journeys, strange encounters,
mad undertakings, and curious people ? And yet
aU the time he may have been entirely preoccupied
by the price of a pair of Turkish trousers or his
scanty provision of tobacco. Just as I was on the
point of speaking to him he suddenly blew out the
Hght and was swaUowed up by the darkness like some
magician. Hard by stood the tent of the commander of the
escort, a Httle beyond it that of his first officer, and
farther off stiU that of the chief of the Hadd-el-
Gharbia cavalry. The last two were closed, the
first open and empty, and I was pausing to look in

124 HADD-EL-GHAEBIA.
when I heard a light step close by, and at the same
instant felt a grip of steel on my arm. Turning, I
found myself face to face with the miflatto general.
As soon as he saw who it Avas he let go, saying, with
an apologetic laugh, " Salamu alikum! Salamu ali-
Jcum .'" (Peace be Avith you ! Peace be with you !)
He had mistaken me for a thief. I shook hands with
him, by way of acknowledgment, and resumed my
walk. After proceeding a little way I saw what ap
peared to be a man wrapped in a cloak and seated,
gun in hand, at some distance from the camp. I at
once concluded that he must be a sentinel ; and sure
enough, on looking farther, I made out another about
fifty feet beyond the first, and then a third, and so
on, till they formed a complete chain around the camp.
This vigilance, as I Avas Avell aware, was not main
tained from dread of an attack on the part of any
band of assassins, but merely to protect the tents
from the ordinary thieves of the surrounding coun
try, adepts in stealing from the encampments of the
Arab tribes. Luckily my fearless tread did not
arouse any suspicions in the minds of the sentinels,
and I was able to finish my excursion unmolested.
Passing close by Malek and Saladino, the tAvo fiery
steeds belonging to the ambassador, and stumbling
over some more tortoises, I reached the tent occu
pied by the foot-servants. They were all lying on
one smafl heap of straw, with no covering over them,
one on top of another, and buried in such profound

HADD-EL-GHAEBIA. 125
slumber that not CA-en their breathing could be heard,
Hke so many dead bodies piled up together. The
boy AA'ith the big black eyes, for the exceUent reason
that he Avas the smaUest, had been gradually pushed
half out of the tent, and I came very near treading
on his head. FeeHng sorry for him, and Avishing
to give him a pleasant surprise, I placed a piece
of money in his outstretched hand, which lay across
the grass Avith the palm up, as though asking an alms
of the spirit of the night. A cheerful murmur of
voices issuing from a tent not far away next attracted
my attention. It was the one assigned to the ambas
sador's servants and soldiers, and the inmates were
apparently eating and drinking, as I detected the odor
of kiff, and recognized the voices of the second
Selam, of Abd-el-Rhaman, of AH, Hamet, Maramii,
and Civo. It was an Arab orgy in fuU swing ; and
indeed they had a perfect right to aUow themselves
some relaxation, poor young fellows, after having
tofled the Hvelong day on foot, on horseback, in the
tents, at table ; being caUed in a hundred different
directions at once, in a hundred different languages,
for a hundred different things ; so not wishing to in
terrupt their enjoyment, I stole cautiously away. Up
to this moment my excursion had gone off wonder
fuUy weU, but it was destined not to end without one
unfortunate incident.
I had not gone more than twenty feet beyond the
soldiers' tent when I felt two strong hands grasp me

126 HADD-EL-GHAEBIA.
by the throat, while a voice choking with anger hissed
some threatening words in my ear. Wrenching my
self free, I faced about  Who was it ? Why,
the painter of the Expulsion of the DuJce of Athens,
of course — my good friend Ussi, enveloped Hke a
spectre in his long white abbaia, which he brought
from Egypt, just issuing forth to make the same
round as mine, in an opposite direction. I was now
in front of the artists' tent, having concluded the cir
cle of the camp, my nocturnal trip was over, and I
dived once more into my httle canvas dwelHng.

TLATA DE EAISANA.

(127)

TLATA DE EAISANA.

The next morning we started off before sunrise in
a thick fog that sent a chfll to one's bones, and hid
us from one another. The escort cavalry had puUed
their hoods down over their eyes, and wrapped up
their muskets ; we were aU enveloped in cloaks and
overcoats ; it was like autumn on one of the plains
of the Low Countries. Behind me I could only dis
tinguish a white turban and the light blue cloak be
longing to the Kaid, whfle the rest of the company
were nothing but indistinct shadows fading away into
the gray atmosphere. Sleepiness and the chiU
weather made every one very quiet, and we ti-avelled
in silence over an uneven country overgrown with
dwarf pahns, lentisks, broom, wild fennel, and thorns,
sometimes riding close together in a solid body, and
again scattering about in Httle groups, according to
the endless windings and twistings of the paths. The
sun appearing above the horizon shone for a few
moments upon our left cheeks and then once more
disappeared, but at the same instant the fog lifted
sufficiently for us to see something of our surround
ings. We AA-ere passing through a succession of
Vol. L— 9 (129)

130 TLATA DE EAISANA.
little green vaUeys, Avhich we traversed almost with
out being conscious of them, so gentle Avere the in
clines. The heights were covered with aloes and
wfld olive-trees ; the latter attain here to great size,
but are seldom cultivated by the natives, who use
the fruit of the argan, both as an article of food and
for burning-oil. As Ave left each vaUey behind we
looked all about in search of a village, a group of
huts, a few tents, but there was nothing of the kind
in sight. It Avas hke exploring a virgin country. Val
ley after valley, solitude after solitude, succeeded one
another until, Avhen Ave had ridden for nearly three
hours, Ave finaUy reached a place where the closer
groups of trees, wider paths, and presence of some
droves of cattle announced the vicinity of an inhabited
region. One after another a number of members of
the escort now set spur to their horses and, rapidly
passing us, disappeared over the brow of the next
hiU ; others rode quickly off across the country in
different directions ; the remainder ranged themselves
in order. In a few moments we found ourselves at
the mouth of a gorge formed by low hiUs, on whose
summits stood a fcAv wretched thatched huts ; some
Arabs — men and Avomen — watched us from behind
the bushes. As avc entered the gorge the sun burst
forth, and Avhen shortly afterwards we reached a point
Avhere the road made a sharp turn, almost at right
angles, Ave were suddenly confronted by an overpow
ering spectacle. Three hundred horsemen, arrayed

Hrab Sol&iers.

c

TLATA DE EAISANA. 131
in a thousand different hues, scattered about in mag
nificent disorder, Avere dashing towards us at fuU
speed, and musket in hand, as though advancing to
the assault of a regiment. It was the escort of the
Province of El Araish, preceded by the Governor
and his officers, coming to relieve the Hadd-el-Ghar
bia escort at the confines of the Province of Tangier,
which we had now reached. The Governor of El
Araish, an old exquisite, with a great white beard,
signed to his men to halt, shook hands with the am
bassador, and then turning once more to the eager,
trembling throng at his back, made a quick, decided
gesture, as much as to say, " unchain yourselves,"
and thereupon began as superb a lab-el-bardd (Pow
der Play) as one could weU wish to see. They ad
vanced to the charge in pairs, in bands of ten singly,
from the foot of the vaUey, from the tops of the hflls,
ahead of the caravan, and on either side of it, in aU
directions at once, firing and shouting without cessa
tion. In a few minutes the gorge was fifled with
smoke and the smefl of powder, like a battle-field ;
on afl sides were whirHng horses, flashing muskets,
fluttering caiks, flapping cloaks, waving caftans of
red, blue, yeUow, green, and orange color, and the
gHtter of swords and daggers. They passed us one
after another like winged phantoms, old and young,
men of colossal stature, Avfld, terrible figures, sitting
erect upon their saddles, with heads thrown back,
streaming hair, and guns held aloft, and as he fired

1 32 TLATA DE EAISANA.
each one uttered a savage cry, Avhich the interpre
ters translated as foflows: "Woe to thee!" "Ah,
my mother!" "In the name of God!" "I kfll
thee !" " Thou diest !" " I am avenged !" Others
dedicated their shots to particular persons : " To my
master !" " To my horse !" " To my dead !" " To my
beloved !" They fired into the air, into the ground,
behind them, bending over, and turning upside down,
as though they had been strapped to their saddles,
those Avhose turbans or caiks feU off in these manceu-
vres Avheeling about and catching them up on the
ends of their muskets on a fidl run. Some spun
their guns around above their heads, tossed them in
the air and caught them again with one hand ; their
shouts, gestures, and reckless bearing Avere like those
of men frenzied by drink, courting death with fierce
joy. Many of them urged their steeds forward as
though seeking to expose their lives, and flew on and
on, firing as they went, to turn back at last with the
pallid set gaze of men who had faced death. From
most of the horses' flanks blood was flowing, and the
riders' feet, stirrups, and the ends of their cloaks
were stained Avith it. Certain figures made a vivid
impression upon me the moment my eyes fefl upon
them. One was that of a young man with a huge
head and shoulders, and an enormous stomach, who
Avore a red caftan, and uttered cries that might have
issued from the breast of a wounded lion ; another
was a youth of about fifteen, a good-looking scape-

TLATA DE EAISANA. 133
grace, afl in white, who shot by me three times,
shouting, "My God! my God! my God!" Then
there was a tafl, lean old man with an evfl-looking
face, who flew along with half-closed eyes and a
deviHsh smfle on his Hps, as though he were carry
ing the plague on his horse's crupper ; and a negro,
afl eyes and teeth, with a great scar across his fore
head, who went by bounding furiously in his saddle,
as though struggHng to free himself from the grasp
of an invisible hand. In this manner they proceeded,
always keeping abreast of the caravan, mounting and
descending the hflls, forming into groups, dissolving
and re-forming, and again dispersing with every pos
sible combination of briUiant colors that could be
imagined, dazzHng the eye like the flutter of myriads
of flags. All this crowd of persons, and hurly-
burly of noise and movenent, bursting into unex
pected life at the appearance of the sun in that nar
row gorge, where it could afl be embraced at a single
glance, as in an amphitheatre, was so overpowering
that it took our breath away, and for some moments
no one spoke ; then there was a loud simultaneous ex
clamation of " How beautiful ! beautiful ! beautiful !"
A short distance beyond the opening of the gorge
the ambassador halted, and every one forthwith dis
mounted to rest in the shade of a group of olives, the
El Araish escort continuing to manoeuvre in front
of us, and the baggage train proceeding towards the
spot fixed upon for our next camping-ground. We

134 TLATA DE EAISANA.
had arrived at the " Kubba" of Sidi-Liamani ; in
Morocco kubba, which signifies dome, is the name
given to those smafl, square structures surmounted
by semi-circular domes where saints are buried.
These kubbas, very numerous, especiaUy in the
southern part of the empire, are generally built upon
some eminence hard by a spring and a palm-tree,
and can be seen, owing to their dazzling whiteness,
for a long distance, thus serving as guides both for
traveUers and for the faithful who come to visit them.
They are usuaUy taken care of by a descendant of
the saint — heir of his sanctity as weU — who lives in
a smaU hut close by the tomb, and subsists on the
alms of pflgrims. The kubba of Sidi-Liamani stood
on a smaU hiU only a few paces from where we were ;
some Arab peasants sat before the door, and behind
them protruded the head of the decrepit old saint — •
the present one— gazing at us with stupid wonder.
In a few minutes smoke was rising from the kitchens,
and before long we sat down to luncheon. An empty
sardine box thrown out by the cook was picked up
by one of the Arabs, carried off to the kubba, and
made the subject of minute examination and much
animated conversation. The lab-el-bar6d finaUy ended,
almost all the men belonging to the escort dismounted
and scattered about in the Httle vaUey, partly to aUow
their horses to feed and partly to rest themselves, a
few remaining in their saddles to keep watch from
the neighboring hiU-tops. During this interval I

TLATA DE RAISANA. 135
wandered about with the captain, and, guided by
certain indications pointed out by him, observed the
characteristics of the Moroccoan horses for the first
time. They are invariably smaU, so much so that
after my eye had become accustomed to them the
European horses, even those of medium height,
looked enormous to me on first returning home.
They have bright, quick eyes, somewhat flat fore
heads, very open nostrfls, and prominent cheek-bones ;
the head is almost always beautiful, the shin and
shank somewhat curved, a fact to which they owe
their pecuhar elasticity of movement. They are
sHghtly sway-backed, faUing away, as it were, be
neath the saddle, and consequently much better
adapted to gaUop than to trot. I do not, indeed, re
member ever to have seen a horse in Morocco trot.
When standing stfll or walking the handsomest among
them do not look weU, but the instant they break into
a run they are transformed into superb-looking ani
mals. Although they eat much less than our horses,
and wear far heavier harness, they stand fatigue
much better. The manner, too, of riding differs
greatly from ours. There the stirrups are so short
that the rider's legs are bent almost at right-angles ;
the reins are very long, the animal being guided by
loose, free movements of the hand ; the saddle rises
before and behind into what are technicaUy termed
by us the pommel and the palette, but these are so
high as to hold the rider in a close embrace, render-

136 TLATA DE RAISANA.
ing it extremely difficiflt for him to lose his seat. He
usually wears smaU boots of yeUoAV leather, without
heels or spurs, the stirrups serving in place of the
latter ; others, again, wear spurs formed of pieces of
iron, pointed and shaped Iflie a dagger, which they
attach to the heel by means of an iron ring and chain.
Charming things are recounted of the great love
of the Arab for his horse, the faA'orite animal of the
Prophet. It is said that he regards him as a sacred
being ; that every morning at sunrise he places his
right hand upon the animal's head, murmuring bismil-
lah (in the name of God), and then kisses his hand,
which he believes to liaA'c been sanctified by the
touch ; and that he lavishes caresses and care of every
sort upon him. AU of this may be true, but as far
as I was able to observe, this great love does not pre
vent him from tearing open his horse's flanks with
out any kind of necessity, or leaving him exposed to
the sun when he might just as well be in the shade,
or leading him an hour's Avalk to water with his feet
hobbled, or causing him to run the risk of breaking
his legs a dozen times a day for pure pastime, or,
finaUy, from neglecting his harness in a manner that,
were the most particular among them to enter a Euro
pean cavalry regiment, would send him to the lock
up for six months out of the twelve.
The heat having become intense, we waited for
several hours in the shade, but no one succeeded in
getting to sleep owing to the insects. This was the

TLATA DE RAISANA. 137
opening engagement of a tremendous warfare, des
tined to wax hotter from day to day untfl the very
end of the journey. No sooner had we lain down on
the ground than we were stuck, pricked, and stung
as though we had thrown ourselves on a bed of net
tles ; it was not only that there were innumerable
caterpfllars, spiders, ants, ox-flies, and grasshoppers,
but that these were large, aggressive, and obstinate
to an unheard-of degree. The commander, who with
a view to enHvening the company had taken the tone
of exaggerating the dangers of the road in the most
extravagant manner, assured us that these insects
were microscopic as compared with those we would
encounter as we approached Fez and after leaving it,
and that there would probably be nothing left of us
to return to Italy but a few fragments ; that only our
nearest and dearest would, with difficulty, be able to
recognize us. The cook overhearing this statement
gave a rather forced smfle and became very thoughtful.
Near by was an enormous spider's web stretched on
some bushes like a sheet spread out to dry. I can
hear the commander exclaiming, "Why, everything
in this country is gigantic, marveUous, overpowering;
the spider that spun this web, for instance, must be
at least the size of a horse ;" which reafly did not seem
unreasonable, but we could not succeed in finding
him, afl the same. The only people who were able
to sleep were the Arabs, most of them lying out in
the sun with processions of creatures marching up

138 TLATA DE EAISANA.
their backs. The two artists were trying to draw,
tormented by clouds of ferocious flics, which extracted
from Ussi — tAVO or three at a time — aU the rich vo
cabulary of Florentine oaths, "fresh, bold, the very
authority of language." The heat having somewhat
abated, the Hadd-el-Gharbia escort, the American
consifl, and the Vice-Governor of Tangier, who had
accompanied us thus far in order to give the ambas
sador the very last good wishes for a safe journey,
took their leave, and we proceeded on our way, fol
lowed by the three hundred horsemen belonging to
the Province of El Araish.
Vast rofling plains, covered here with wheat, there
with barley, beyond with yeUow stubble, or again,
with grass and flowers ; a few dark-colored tents ;
an occasional saint's tomb ; here and there a palm or
two ; in the course of a mile, perhaps, three or four
horsemen, who join the escort ; an immense sohtude,
an absolute calm, and torrents of sunshine ; these
form the sum of the entries I find in my note-book
under the head of the second march on May 5th.
After traveUing three hours we reached Tl4ta de
Raisana, where the camp was pitched. The tents,
placed in a circle as usual, stood in a small, deep hol
low, covered so thickly with grass and very taU flow
ers as almost to impede one from Avalking ; it seemed
as though we were in a great garden trench. The
beds and chests in the tents were almost hidden under
daisies, Avild poppies, primroses, crowfoot and mal-

TLATA DE EAISANA. 139
lows of afl sizes and hues ; close by the artists' tent
rose two enormous aloes, their branches covered with
blossoms. Soon after our arrival the Italian consular
agent from El Araish appeared to caU upon the am
bassador — Signor Guagnino, an old Genoese merchant,
who had liA'ed forty years on the Atlantic coast, jeal
ously preserving aU that time the pure accent of the
language of Balflla ; and towards evening an Arab
peasant turned up, no one knew where from, to con
sult the embassy doctor. He was a poor old man, bent
and lame. One of the legation soldiers conducted him
to Signor Miguerez's tent. The doctor, who .speaks
Arabic, questioned him, and having found out what
the trouble was, began looking through his medicine-
chest for a certain drug. Unable to find what he wanted
he sent for Mohammed Ducali and asked him to Avrite
on a sheet of paper in Arabic a prescription, which
the sick man would find no difficulty in having made
up when he got back among his own people, as it
was a medicine much used by them. Whfle Ducah
Avrote the old man murmured a prayer. The pre
scription finished, the doctor handed it to the patient,
who, without giving him time to protest, seized the
paper and stuffed it into his mouth with both hands.
"No ! no !" cried the doctor; "spit it out, spit it out!"
But it was too late ; he had chewed and swaflowed it
with the avidity of a starving man, and thanking the
doctor was about turning to go away. It Avas with the
utmost difficulty that they could make him under-

140 TLATA DE EAISANA.
stand that the virtue of the remedy did not consist
in the paper it was written on and persuade him
to take another prescription away with him.
This incident wifl hardly cause surprise among
those who are at afl familiar Avith the state of medical
science in Morocco, where the profession is practised
almost exclusively by quacks, conjurors and saints.
Bleeding, the juice of a few herbs and sarsapariUa for
morbo celtico ; dried snakes or chameleons for inter
mittent fevers ; red-hot irons applied to wounds ; cer
tain verses from the Koran inscribed by the practi
tioner upon his patient or else worn around the lat
ter's neck ; such are the principal remedies in use
among them. Anatomy being a study forbidden by
the Mohammedan religion, one may easily imagine
how far surgery has advanced ; suffice it to say that
the surgeons tear their patients' tonsils out with their
fingers, and undertake to operate upon stone with a
razor or the first bit of metal they can lay their hands
upon. Amputation is viewed with horror, those few
Arabs who are attended by European doctors pre
ferring to die amid the most frightful sufferings rather
than submit to an operation that would save their
lives. The consequence is, that although it is not un
common for them to lose a limb, especially from the
explosion of guns, they so rarely survive that one
hardly ever sees any one in Morocco going about in
a mutflated condition, the fcAV exceptions being
usuaUy those unfortunate wretches whose hands have

TLATA DE EAISANA. 141
been lopped off by the executioner's knife, and the
stump plunged into bofling pitch, according to cus
tom, to stop the bleeding.
Their remedies, violent as they frequently are, as,
for example, that of the red-hot iron, are often at
tended with admirable results. They are applied
brutaUy, fearlessly, pitflessly ; but whether from an
absence of nervous sensibflity or owing to a certain
fortitude engendered by their fatalistic beliefs, these
people AviU voluntarfly submit to the most frightful
pain. They bleed themselves with earthenware
cups and enough heat to roast the flesh ; drive the
knife blindly into an abscess, at the risk of open
ing an artery ; draw live coals across an ulcerated
arm with a steady hand, blowing away the smoke
from their own burning flesh without uttering so
much as a groan. The diseases most common among
them are fevers, ophthalmia, scurvy, elephantiasis,
dropsy, and, most common of afl, syphilis, handed
down from generation to generation, changed, reap
pearing under new and horrible forms ; whole tribes
are afflicted with it, thousands of unfortunates die of
it, and many more would die were it not for the ex
tremely temperate diet they are forced to observe in
consequence of their poverty and the nature of the
climate. Of European doctors there are none ex
cept in the coast toAvns ; even in Fez there are only
a few quacks, fled thither from Algeria or some Span
ish garrison. When the Emperor, or one of his min-

142 TLATA DE EAISANA.
isters, or a wealthy Moor, faUs ill, a European physi
cian is summoned, but usuaUy not until the patient
has reached the very last extremity, the disease hav
ing sometimes been neglected for years, so that it not
infrequently happens that the doctor only arrives in
time to be present at the death-bed. At first they
have a blind faith in the power of European practi
tioners ; the sight of the medicines, the chemical prep
arations, the surgical instruments, all combine to give
them a very lofty idea of the science, and they ex
pect the most wonderftd results, taking the first pre
scriptions and fofloAving the first directions with the
cheerful obedience of people certain of being rapidly
cured ; but if recovery does not immediately foflow
they lose faith at once, break off the treatment, and
go back to the quacks.
The evening passed without the occurrence of any
incident worthy of note, unless I except my discovery
of a large black scorpion under the pfllow of my bed,
just as I was about to lie doAvn. My alarm was,
however, not of long duration, for on approaching it
carefuUy, candle in hand, to make a closer examina
tion, I read upon the animal's back the foUowing re
assuring words : Cesare Biseo fece addi, 5 Maggio,
1875. At daybreak the next morning we started in the
direction of the city of Alcazar. The weather was
gloomy, and the gorgeous coloring of the escort stood
out with marveUous effect against the gray sky and

TLATA DE EAISANA. 143
deep green of the plain. Hamed Ben Kasen Buha
mei, motionless upon a mound near the camp, seemed
to be gazing Avith pride upon those fine-looking horse
men who deffled in troops before him ; silent, serious,
their eyes fixed upon the horizon, like the advance
guard of an army on the day of battle. For a long
distance we journeyed on among olives and lofty
shrubs ; then we entered a vast plain afl covered with
yellow and purple wfld flowers, Avhere the escort
broke up to perform the lab-el-bardd. This spectacle,
witnessed to-day in that great open space, upon that
carpet of floAvers, beneath that lowering sky, was so
singularly beautiful that the ambassador halted more
than once, and made every one else do the same, in
order to watch it. I hardly think that any fixed rule
can be foUoAved in the forming and dissolving of the
various groups of riders, but that morning I almost
suspected that it might be so. It reaUy seemed as
though every movement, every combination of color,
had been carefuUy thought out beforehand. Into the
middle of such and such a group of horsemen in blue
caftans another wearing a white one was sure to
thrust himself — in the midst of a bunch of white
caftans there always appeared, Hke the sure stroke
of an artist's brush, a red one. Harmonious colors
sought each other out, flowed together, mingled dur
ing each charge, and separated to form into new com
binations. There were three hundred men, and they
seemed to be an army. We saw them in afl direc-

144 TLATA DE EAISANA.
tions, fluttering around us like flocks of birds; they
deafened, dazzled, bewitched us, and fflled the two
painters with despair. " Rabble," said Ussi, " if I
only had them in my clutches in Florence !"

ALCAZAE EL KEBIE.

Vol. L— 10 ( 145 )

ALCAZAE EL KEBIR.

At a certain point on the road the ambassador
made a sign to the Kaid, the escort halted, and we,
accompanied by a few soldiers, turned a little aside
to visit the ruins of an ancient bridge. On reaching
the river-bank we paused ; there was nothing of
what we had come to see save a few rude fragments
on the opposite shore. We stood, however, for some
moments, gazing alternately on these and the sur
rounding country, each one occupied with his OAvn
thoughts, and truly the spot was worthy of that mute
tribute of respect. Two hundred and ninety-seven
years before, on the fourth day of August, those be-
flowered fields echoed to the thunder of fifty great
guns and the tramp ot forty thousand horsemen under
the command of one of the first captains of Africa
and one of the most youthful, adventurous and un
fortunate monarchs of Europe. Dovm the banks of
that river, dripping with blood and begging for
mercy, there fled a disordered throng, seeking the
water as a refuge from the implacable cimeters of the
Arabs, Berbers and Turks — the flower of Portuguese
nobflity — courtiers, bishops, Spanish soldiers, the
(147)

148 ALCAZAE EL KEBIE.
soldiers of WiUiam of Orange, Italian, German and
French adA'enturers — and the Mussulman cavalry
that day trampled under foot six thousand Christian
corpses.* We were standing on the field of the
memorable battle of Alcazar, which threw Europe
into consternation and caused a cry of joy to resound
from Fez to Constantinople. The river is the Machas-
san, and at the time of the battle the Alcazar road
crossed it by this bridge. Close by Avas the encamp
ment of Mulai Malek, the Sultan of Morocco, who
advanced from Alcazar, whfle the King of Portugal
came from the direction of Azila. The battle was
fought on the two banks of the river and the surround
ing plain. How many thoughts came crowding into
our minds as we stood there ! but, except for the
ruins of the bridge, there was not so much as a stone
to recall the past. From what direction did the Duke
de Riveiro's cavalry make their first victorious
charge ? At what spot did Miflai- Ahmed, the Sifl-
tan's brother, fight ? He who Avas to be the future
conqueror of the Soudan, a captain in the morning,
not unsuspected of cowardice, at night a victorious
king. At what point on the river did Mohammed
the Black drovsm himself? that discrowned fratricide,
the instigator of the war. In what comer of the field
did Sebastian receive the shot and the two sabre cuts
that destroyed with him the independence of Portugal
* H. M. P. De la Martiniere states that " the field Avas strewn
with 15,000 corpses." — Trans.

IRatives Masbing Clotbes in a IRiver.

¦" «S55i55PTWS53T;-.'

^-O'"

-»-. ¦«*^.-

ALCAZAE EL KEBIR. 149
and Camoens' last hope ? And where did the Htter
stand in which Sultan Malek, with finger on lip, ex-
pii'ed, surrounded by his officers ? As we stood re
volving thoughts like these in our minds, the escort
remained watching us from a distance as immovable
in the midst of that famous plain as though they had
been a handful of Mulai-Ahmed's famous cavalry,
risen from the earth at the sound of our footsteps ;
and yet probably not one of those men knew that we
were standing on the scene of the " battle of the three
kings," the glory of their forefathers, and when we
all resumed our journey together they kept on looking
all about curiously as though trying to discover some
pecifliarity in the grass or flowers to account for our
interest. We now crossed the Machassan and the Warur,
both smaU affluents to the Kus or Lukkos, the Luxus
of the ancients, which flowing down from the Rif
Mountains where it has its source, empties itself into
the Atlantic at El Araish, and proceeded in the direc
tion of Alcazar across a series of arid hills, meeting in
the course of every half-hour or so an Arab or some
camels. If we keep on going, we thought to our
selves, we wifl reach a city some time. It was three
days now since we had seen a house, and we were aU
beginning to feel that for one day at least we would
gladly be rid of the monotonous solitude of the coun
try. Alcazar Avould, moreover, be the first town of
the interior that we had seen, and finaUy, we knew

150 ALCAZAE EL KEBIR.
that we were expected. Curiosity was rife, the escort
fell into line, and as we advanced we too, without
quite knowing hoAv, formed into two fines like a troop
of cavalry, the ambassador at the head and the in
terpreters on either side. The weather had cleared
and a spirit of joyful impatience took possession of
the entire caravan. After journeying thus for four
hours we reached a certain hfll-top and found our
selves quite unexpectedly gazing doAvn upon Alcazar,
lying in the plain below, surrounded by a girdle of
gardens and crovvmed with towers, minarets and palm-
trees, while at the same moment our ears were
saluted by a discharge of musketry and a burst of in
fernal music. It was the Governor of the city, who,
with his officers, a troop of soldiers and a band of
music, was coming forth to receive us. In a few
moments we met.
Ah, he Avho has never beheld the band of Alcazar,
those ten performers upon the fife and horn, centena
rians and ten-year-old boys, one and afl mounted upon
donkeys about the size of large dogs, ragged, half-
naked, with shaven heads, mummy faces and the pose
of satyrs, has missed what seemed to me the most
moumfuUy comic sight under the vault of heaven.
While the old Governor welcomed the minister, the
soldiers continued to discharge their muskets and the
band to play. We approached to within about a
half-mile of the city, where, on an arid plain, the camp
was to be pitched ; the band accompanied us, stiU per-

ALCAZAR EL KEBIR. 151
forming. As soon as it was ready, we repaired to the
mess-tent, while the escort went through the usual
manojuvres, and the band, drawn up before us, con
tinued to play with ever-increasing fury. A sup
plicating gesture from the ambassador finafly caused
them to stop, and then a rather curious scene was en
acted. Two men presented themselves almost simul
taneously on the ambassador's right and left, the one
an Arab, the other a negro. The latter, who was
wefl dressed in a white turban and blue caftan, placed
at the minister's feet a jug of mflk, a case of oranges
and a dish of Kuskussii ; the Arab, evidently a poor
man, and wearing the ordinary cape, presented a
sheep. This done, there was an interchange of fiery
glances ; they were, it seemed, mortal enemies.
The ambassador, who knew of and expected them,
sent for the interpreter, seated himself, and opened
the inquiry, they having come to get him to decide
their quarrel. The negro was a sort of steward of
the old grand sherif Bakali, one of the most influ
ential persons about the court at Fez, and proprietor
of considerable property in the neighborhood of Al
cazar. The Arab was a peasant, and a feud had ex
isted between them for some time. The negro,
strong in the protection afforded by his master, had
caused the other to be thrown into prison and fined
more than once on charges — which he supported by
many witnesses — of stealing his horses, cattle and
merchandise. The Arab, whfle constantly affirming

152 ALCAZAR EL KEBIE.
his innocence, could find no one brave enough to un
dertake his defence against his powerful persecutor.
So one fine morning, quitting his native viflage, he
betook himself to Tangier, and asking which of the
ambassadors was considered the most just and gen
erous, was gi\'en the name of the representative of
Italy. He thereupon proceeded to sacrifice a lamb
before the minister's door, by this sacred rite, Avhich
no one can refuse to regard, establishing his claim to
the protection and justice of the legation. The am
bassador granted him a hearing, interested himself in
the matter, and through the El Araish agent made
application to the authorities of the city of Alcazar ;
but unfortunately, owing to the distance, the intrigues
of the negro, and the indifference of the authorities,
the poor Arab was no better off than before, but
rather worse, as he was made the object of fresh
accusations and persecutions. Now the presence of
the ambassador in person was to cut the knot of the
difficulty. Each was told to give his ovm version of the affair,
the interpreter rapidly translating all the while.
Nothing more dramatic could wefl be imagined
than the contrast afforded by the figures and lan
guage of the two men. The Arab, a sickly, sad-
looking man of about thirty, pleaded his cause with
irresistible passion, trembling, shivering, calling upon
God, striking the ground with his clinched fists, coa^-
ering his face with his hands in an attitude of utter

ALCAZAR EL KEBIR. 153
despair, and flashing looks upon his enemy Avhich no
words can express. He declared that the other had
corrupted the witnesses and intimidated the authori
ties ; that he had throAvn him into prison solely to ex
tort money from him, just as he had imprisoned others
in order to take possession of their wives ; that he had
sworn to kfll him ; that he was the scourge of the coun
try, accursed of God, a veritable fiend; and thereupon
he displayed the scars on his bare arms and legs
made by the prison fetters, his voice meanwhile
choking with agony. The negro, every feature of
whose face bore out the truth of one at least of these
assertions, listened without looking up, and made his
reply to the charges without a change of expression,
whfle an almost imperceptible smfle lurked about the
comers of his mouth ; immovable, impassible, sinister,
Hke a statue of perfidy.
The discussion continued for some time, and ap
peared to be going on indefinitely, when the ambas
sador cut it short by giving an order which was ap
parently acceptable to both sides. Summoning Selam,
who appeared instantly, his great black eyes stretched
to their utmost, he told him to mount a horse and ride
with aU speed to the Arab's viUage, distant about an
hour and a half, and there obtain aU possible infor
mation from the inhabitants regarding the persons
and events in question. The negro thought within
himself, "These people are afraid of me; either they
wiU support what I have said or they wiU say noth-

154 ALCAZAE EL KEBIE.
ing at all." The Arab, on the contrary, thought, and
it seemed with more reason, that, interrogated by a
soldier of the ambassador, they would have sufficient
courage to speak the truth. Selam flew off like an
arrow, and the tAvo disputants withdrew. I did not
see them again, but I learned later that all the in
habitants of the viUage having testified in favor of
the Arab and against the negro, the latter, through
the representations of the ambassador, was compeUed
to restore all the money he had extorted from his
victim. While this Avas going on the remaining tents
had been pitched, the usual procession of unfortunates
had brought the customary mona, and some of the
inhabitants of Alcazar had come out to the neighbor
hood of the camp. As soon as the heat had abated a
little we all started off on foot to visit the city, pre
ceded, flanked and followed by armed soldiers. We
noticed, as we went along, some distance off, and
standing between the city and the camp, a curious-
looking buflding, all arches and domes, with an in
closure in the middle that looked like a cemetery.
They told us that it Avas one of those zaouias, now
faUen into ruins, which at the period when Moorish
civihzation flourished used to contain libraries, schools
of letters and science, hospitals for the poor, and inns
for the accommodation of traveflers, besides a mosque
and mortuary chapel, being then, as now, for the
most part the property of the religious orders. We
were now close to the gates. The city is surrounded

ALCAZAE EL KEBIR. 155
by old crenelated waUs ; near the gate through which
we are to enter rise the tombs of several saints, sur
mounted by green domes ; as we pass in our atten
tion is attracted by a noise, and on raising our eyes
we see, standing erect upon the house-tops, numbers
of large storks, who strike their beaks noisily, as if
to warn the inhabitants of our approach. As we
walk along some women take refuge in the houses,
and the children run away. The dweUings are small,
unplastered, windowless, separated by dark and dirty
lanes. The streets resemble the beds of mountain
torrents ; sometimes we come across the carcass of a
dog or a donkey lying in a comer. On we tramp
through manure, over rough stones, and into deep
holes, stumbling and jumping at every step. Soon
the inhabitants begin to crowd about us, gazing at
the strange sight wonderingly, and the soldiers ex
hibit so much zeal in clearing the way with their fists
and the butt-ends of their guns that the ambassador
is obHged to remonstrate. A throng of people go
before and foUow after us ; when any of our party
halts suddenly and faces about they aU stop, too,
some of them running away and others hiding.
Sometimes a woman shuts a door in our faces, or a
chfld gives a howl of terror at sight of us, the former
resembling a bundle of dirty rags, the latter, as a
rule, entirely naked. Boys of ten or eleven go about
clad only in a tunic tied about the waist with a cord.
Little by little the crowd grows bolder, looking with

156 ALCAZAR EL KEBIE.
marks of especial interest at our boots and shoes. A
few boys even go so far as to touch the edge of our
clothing. At the same time the rifling expression of
afl those faces is anything but friendly. A Avoman,
as she runs away, flings some words at the ambassa
dor, which the interpreter translates, " May God de
stroy your race !" A young man cafls out, " God
grant us a good day's victory over those people !"
After whfle we come to a rough, stony, open space,
where we find difficulty in walking at afl ; some hor
rible-looking old Avomen, almost entirely naked, are
seated on the ground with bundles of straw and
loaves of bread in front of them, awaiting customers.
We pass through other streets. Every hundred feet
we find a large arched doorway, which at night is
closed. All the houses are equaUy bare, cracked
and forlorn. Then we visit the bazaar ; it is covered
by a roof made of cane and tree-branches, dropping
to pieces in every direction. The shops consist of
deep niches, the shopkeepers sitting in them like so
many wax figures, whfle the display of goods is Hke
the trash boys coUect to play store with. People lie
about in all the corners, sleepy, wondering, melan
choly ; scabby chfldren, old men, who seem almost to
have lost the human form ; it is like walking through
the corridors of a hospital. The air is filled with
aromatic odors ; not a voice is heard. The croAvd,
which stfll accompanies us, is perfectly sflent, like a
procession of ghosts. Leaving the bazaar, we meet

Entrance to a nnella.

ALCAZAE EL KEBIE. 157
a Moor on horseback, some laden camels, a hag who
shakes her fist at the ambassador, and an old saint,
crowned with aloes, who laughs in our faces. At a
certain point we see some men approaching, dressed
in black, with long hair and Hght-blue handkerchiefs
on their heads ; they salute us with smiling humflity,
and their leader, a ceremonious old man, invites the
ambassador to visit the Mella or Jews' quarter, given
that outrageous name, which means " salted" or "ac
cursed" ground, by the Arabs. The ambassador
agreeing, we pass beneath a covered gateway and
plunge into a labyrinth of narrow lanes, more Avretched,
squaHd and foul-smeUing even than those of the Arab
toAvn, winding between houses that look like animals'
dens, by Httle open spaces resembling pig-sties, and
court-yards like open sewers ; whfle in every direction,
amid afl this fflth, beautiful women and chfldren give
us smfling greeting, murmuring Buenos dias ! Buenos
dias! as we pass. Now and then we have actuaUy
to hold our breath and walk on tiptoe. The ambassa
dor waxes indignant. " How can you," he says to
the old Jew, "go on Hving in this dirt ?" "It is the
custom of the country," responds the other. " The
custom of the country ! You ought to be ashamed
of yourselves. You claim the protection of the lega
tions, talk about civflization, and call the Moors
savages, whfle all the time that you have the effron
tery to look down on them you are living far worse
than they !" The Jew merely bends his head and

158 ALCAZAE EL KEBIR.
smfles, as much as to say, " What curious ideas !"
As we quit the Mella the crowd again surrounds us.
The vice-consul caresses a chfld in passing ; great
signs of wonder and an approving murmur ; the sol
diers are obHged to disperse the chfldren, who come
running up from every direction. We walk rapidly
down a deserted street, little by little the people are left
behind, untfl at last, gaining the outside of the wafls,
we find ourselves on a road bordered by enormous
Indian figs and lofty palm-trees, and draw a great
breath of relief at finding ourselves once more alone.
Such is the city of Alcazar, usuaUy caUed Alcazar
el Kebir, which means the large palace. Tradition
says that it was founded in the twelfth century by
that Abii-Yussuf Yakub-el-Mansar, of the Almohodes
dynasty, who won the battle of Alarcos against Alonzo
IX. of Castile, and erected the famous Tower of
Giralda in Sevflle. The story goes that as he was
hunting one evening he lost his way, and a fisherman
taking him into his hut for the night, the grateful
Cahph caused a palace and a number of other bufld
ings to be erected on the spot. Around these the
city graduaUy grew up. At one time it was both
rich and flourishing ; now the population numbers a
bare five thousand, including both Arabs and Jews,
and it is very poor, notAvithstanding the advantages
it enjoys from being situated on the direct route over
which afl caravans are obliged to travel on their way
from the North to the South.

ALCAZAE EL KEBIE. 159
As we passed the gate by which we had entered
the town we noticed an Arab boy of some ten or
twelve years walking slowly along, his legs very stiff
and wide apart, Avho SAvayed about in a curious man
ner. Some other boys were foUowing him. We
stopped, and as he approached we saw that a heavy
piece of iron, about eight inches long, was fastened
to his legs by means of a couple of rings passed
around his ankles. He Avas a lank, dirty boy, with
a disagreeable face. The ambassador began ques
tioning him through the interpreter.
" Who put that iron on you ?"
" My father," answered the boy roughly.
" Why did he do it ?"
" Because I wiU not learn to read."
We were all inclined to doubt this statement, but
an Arab who was standing by declared that it was
so. " And how long have you worn it ?"
" For three years," he answered, smiling bitterly.
This we thought must be a lie, but again the Arab
confirmed what he had said, adding that the boy slept
with the iron on, and that all Alcazar knew about it.
Then the ambassador, moved to compassion, made
him a httle speech, exhorting him to study, to rid
himself of the shame of that thing, and not to disgrace
his family in that fashion, and finally, when the in
terpreter had finished translating it, told him to ask
the boy if he had any answer to make.

160 ALCAZAE EL KEBIE.
" I have this answer to make," he replied, " that
if I have to wear this iron for the rest of my life I
wiU never learn to read, and that I have made up my
mind to let them kill me rather than learn to read."
The ambassador regarded him attentively, the boy
undergoing the examination imperturbably.
" Gentlemen," said the ambassador at length,
turning towards us, " our mission is concluded," and
so saying led the way to the camp, the boy re-enter
ing the town with his instrument of torture.
" In a few years," said one of the soldiers of the
guard, " that head Avill be seen dangling over one of
the gateways of Alcazar."

BEN-AOTJDA.

Vol. L— 11 ( lei

BEN-AOUDA.

At sunrise the next morning we crossed the river
Kus, on whose right bank the city of Alcazar is situ
ated, and once more proceeded across roUing, flower-
besprinkled, deserted plains, whose confines stretched
beyond our vision. The escort had broken up into
smaU bands, each of which resembled a sultan's
retinue, and was scattered over a wide circuit. The
two artists gaUoped hither and thither, pencil and
sketch-book in hand, making drawings of horses and
riders. The other members of the embassy rode
along talking about the invasion of the Goths, trade,
scorpions, phflosophy, eagerly hstened to by the party
of mounted servants who foUowed close behind. Civo
paid particular attention to the discourses on phfloso
phy, whfle Hamed, on the contrary, seemed deeply
interested in an account his master, Patxot, was giv
ing of a bear hunt in which he had come near losing
his Hfe. This man Hamed was, after Selam, the most
remarkable of the entire lot of soldiers, servants and
grooms. He was an Arab, about thirty years of age,
very tafl, dark, muscular, strong as a bull, with
smooth face, mfld eyes, a sweet smile, a gentle voice,
(163)

G

164 BEN-AOUDA.
and an airy grace of movement that contrasted
strangely with his powerful frame. He Avore a big
white turban, blue jacket and zuaves ; talked Span
ish, and was so clever at knoAving just hoAv to do
everything and please everyone that even Selam, the
glorious Selam, was inclined to be the least bit jealous
of him. They were afl, in fact, good-looking, cheer-
fid, attentive young feflows, and so eagerly solicitous
for our comfort that if one of us in riding along hap
pened to look back he straightway encountered two
rows of black eyes fixed inquiringly upon him,
anxious to knoAv if he wanted anything. " What a
pity," said I to myself, " that we cannot be attacked
by thieves, so as to put afl this devotion to the proof."
After proceeding thus for about two hours we began
to meet people. First there came a negro on horse
back, holding in his hand one of those Httle sticks,
covered with Arabic inscriptions, cafled in the lan
guage of the coimtry Jierrez, which travellers are wont
to obtain from members of the religious orders as
talismans against robbers and sickness. Next came
some ragged old women, carrying big bundles of
wood on their backs. Oh, the power of fanaticism !
Bowed and bent as they were, exhausted and panting,
they stfll had sufficient strength left to fling a curse
at us in passing. One muttered, " May the curse of
God rest upon these unbelievers !" The other, " God
preserve us from evil sjsirits !" Another hour Avent
by without our meeting anyone, and then we came

BEN-AOUDA. 165
upon a courier on foot, a poor, lean-looking Arab,
with a leather bag hung around his neck containing
the mafl. He paused on reaching us to gay that he
was on his way from Fez to Tangier. The ambas
sador thereupon handed him a letter for the latter
place, and he hurried on at a rapid pace. This was
none other than a member of the Moroccoan Postal
Service, than which no body of men in existence lead
more arduous Hves. They eat nothing on their jour
neys save a little bread and some handfuls of figs,
stop only for a few hours' rest at night, when they
sleep with the end of a burning cord tied to one foot
to ensure their aAvakening at the proper time. They
travel an entire day without seeing a tree or a drop
of water, traverse forests infested by wild boars, climb
mountains inaccessible for mules, swim rivers, walk,
run, roU down steep inclines, drag themselves up
lofty cliffs on aU-fours, under the burning August sun,
through the interminable rains of autumn, against
the choking wind of the desert, going from Tangier
to Fez in four days, and from Tangier to Morocco in
a week — travelling from one extremity of the empire
to the other barefooted, half-naked, only when they
reach their journey's end to turn around and go back
again, and receiving by way of recompense a few
miserable francs. About half-way between Alcazar
and the spot whither we were bound the ground be
gan to rise almost imperceptibly, so that before we
knew it we had reached an eminence from which an

166 BEN-AOUDA.
extensive view could be obtained of another vast
plain stretching away before us, and covered with
great patches of yeUow, red and white wfld flowers,
something like huge beds of snow streaked with
crimson and gold. Across this plain there advanced
to meet us two hundred horsemen on a gaflop, their
muskets held erect on their saddles, preceded by a
personage dressed entirely in white, whom Moham
med Ducali recognized at once, and announced aloud
as the Governor Ben-Aouda ! We had reached the
border-line of the Province of Seffian caUed Ben-
Aouda, after the famfly name of the Governor, signi
fying " son of the mare," that name which had so
impressed me on hearing it in Tangier. We de
scended into the plain, the tAvo hundred horsemen
drew up in single file beside the three hundred of El
Araish, and Governor Ben-Aouda presented himself
to the ambassador. Never, if I live to be a hundred,
Avifl I forget that countenance. He was a dried-up
old man, with a fierce eye, hooked nose, and a mouth
almost without lips, shaped in a semicircle, Avith the
points turned down. Consciousness of power, super
stition, lust, kiff, sloth and an utter Aveariness of
everything in the world were stamped upon his
features. A large white turban concealed his fore
head and ears, and at his side hung a curved dagger.
The ambassador took leave of the chief of the El
Araish escort, who at once departed with his men on
a gallop, and we resumed our journey under the

H (5ar6en in nnorocco.

BEN-AOUDA. 167
guardianship of the Seffian escort, with the usual
accompaniment of manoeuvres and the discharge of
fire-arms. The skin of our new friends was darker,
their dress more variegated, their horses handsomer,
their cries Avilder, and their charges directed with
more savage impetuosity than anything we had met
Avith heretofore. The farther we advanced the more
did everything take on a more distinctively Moroccoan
color and form. Conspicuous in all that moving
throng were twelve horsemen dressed with princely
magnificence, and mounted upon superb animals, who
attracted our attention from the first moment, espe-
ciafly as they seemed to be objects of admiration
among their companions as wefl. Five of them,
young men of colossal stature, appeared to be broth
ers ; they had paUid complexions, and big black eyes
which flashed beneath their huge turbans ; again and
again they dashed close by us with loosened reins
and heads throvm back over their shoulders, in an
attitude of haughty disdain. How natural and ap
propriate it Avould have seemed had those ten sinewy
arms clasped to the crimson saddles five odalisques
stolen from a Sultan's harem. " Superb !" we cried.
"Wonderful! Magnificent!" and they acknowledged
our applause by spurring forward with loud cries,
until they disappeared in a cloud of smoke, twirHng
their long, gold-inlaid muskets above their heads in a
perfect fury of triumphant excitement. These were
Ben-Aouda's five sons, and the remaining seven were

168 BEN-AOUDA.
his nephews. The lab-el-barod lasted for more than an
hour, at the end of which Ave had reached a garden
belonging to the Governor, where we dismounted to
rest. It was a grove of lemon and orange-trees,
planted in parallel lines, and so close together as to
form a thick roof of foliage, beneath which we en
joyed the most delicious shade and coolness, and the
perfumes of Paradise. In a fcAV moments this charm
ing oasis Avas invaded by and fiUed Avith horses, mules,
kitchen-fires, busy servants and sleepy soldiers. The
Governor dismounted with us and introduced his sons.
I take my oath that had I seen the five odalisques
clinging to them at that moment I would not have
had the face even to envy them, so handsome were
they, so stately, so charming. One after another
they shook hands Avith us, making at the same time a
slight inclination and dropping their smiling eyes in
a sort of chfldish embarrassment. Immediately after
wards they asked to see the doctor. Signor Miguerez
came forward and inquired what they wanted, and
thereupon, before us aU, without uttering a word and
almost simultaneously, they bared their left arms.
Oh, my poor odalisques ! Every one of them was
affected from shoulder to wrist with a horrible syph
ilitic disease. " Hereditary," observed one of them,
and the father repeated coldly, "Hereditary."
"And there are sulphur springs close by!" ex
claimed the doctor, " where they could easily have
been cured ; but oh, no, gentlemen, they must fool

BEN-AOUDA. 169
away their time and health with verses from the
Koran and amulets prepared by quacks !" He gave
them some medicine, they re-covered their arms, and
walked thoughtfuUy away. A little later Ave seated
ourselves upon a beautiful Rabat rug in the centre of
the garden, and luncheon was served. Governor
Ben-Aouda, seated upon another rug some twenty
feet away, had his OAvn repast served at the same
time, waited upon by a number of his slaves. An
amusing interchange of courtesies between him and
the ambassador now took place. First Ben-Aouda
sent over a jug of mflk, and the ambassador returned
the attention with a beefsteak ; next came some but
ter, which was responded to with fritters ; the butter
was foflowed by a sweet dish, and the fritters by a
box of sardines ; each gift being dispatched and re
ceived with coldly ceremonious gestures, hands laid
upon the breast, and eyes cast up to heaven with the
most comical expression of gastronomic bliss. The
sweet dish, by way of parenthesis, was a sort of pud
ding made of honey, eggs, butter and sugar, of
which the Arabs are extravagantly fond, and about
which they have a singular superstition : if while the
woman is in the act of cooking it a man should hap
pen to enter the room, the pudding goes wrong, and
even if it is fit to eat it is unsafe to do so.
"And how about wine ?" asked some one; "is no
wine to be offered him ?" Whereupon a discussion
arose ; we were assured that Ben-Aouda was secretly

170 BEN-AOUDA.
much addicted to the juice of the vine, but hoAv coifld
he possibly drink wine in the presence of his soldiers?
Finally it was decided not to send him any ; but it
seemed to me that he cast very sweet looks in the
direction of our bottles — much sweeter, in fact, than
those directed towards ourselves. During the entire
time, indeed, that he sat there on his rug his features
Avore such an evfl expression of frowning and haughty
disdain that I longed to have our forty battalions of
BersagHeri there and under my orders for just a lit
tle whfle, so that I could make them defile under his
very nose.
During the repast Mohammed Ducali told me a
rather striking incident connected with the personal
history of the Ben-Aouda famfly — in whose hands it
seems the governorship of the Seffian district has
been from very ancient times. The inhabitants of
this part of the country are famed for their bravery,
as AveU as for their turbulent dispositions, and are said
to have given splendid proof of their courage in the
recent war Avith Spain, in which, at the battle of
Vad-Rason, on the 23d of March, 1861, Sidi-Absalom-
ben-Abd-el-Krim Ben-Aouda, Governor of the entire
Province of Garb, lost his life. He was succeeded
by his eldest son, Sidi-Abd-el-Krim, a violent, disso
lute man, who ground his people down with taxes, and
persecuted them to gratify his ferocious caprices.
One fine day he suggested to a certain Gfleli Ruqui
that he should give him a large sum of money ; the

BEN-AOUDA, 171
man excused himself on the ground that he was too
poor. Upon which the Governor loaded him Avith
chains and threw him into prison. The relatives and
friends of Gfleli then sold aU their possessions, made
up the required amount, and brought it to Sidi-Abd-
el-Krim, who forthwith liberated the prisoner. No
sooner, however, did he find himself free than GfleH
assembled his famfly and friends together, and they
bound themselves with a solemn oath to kiU the Gov
ernor. The residence of Ben-Aouda stood at about
two hours distance, by the road, from the garden
where we were sitting. The conspirators attacked
it suddenly in the middle of the night, in overpower
ing numbers, kifled the sentinels, and pouring into
the house slew Sidi-Abd-el-Krim, his wives, his chfl
dren, his slaves and his servants with their daggers,
and after destroying afl they could lay hands on, and
setting fire to the house, spread themselves over the
surrounding country, raising the cry of revolt. The
relatives and aflies of the Ben-Aoudas assembled
their forces in hot haste and marched upon the rebels,
who repulsed them, and the rebeUion spread over the
entire Province of Garb ; but the Sultan sending an
army to the scene of the revolt, it was, after a san
guinary struggle, suppressed — the heads of the ring
leaders adorned the wafls of Fez and of Morocco, the
district of Beni-Malek was separated from the rest of
the province, the Governor's house rebuflt, and Sidi-
Mohammed Ben-Aouda, brother of the murdered man,

172 BEN-AOUDA.
and host of the Italian embassy, assumed the govern
ment of the district of his fathers. A passing tri
umph of desperation over tyranny, foUowed by a
tyranny stfll more oppressive. Thus may the his
tory of each individual province be summed up, as
well as that of the entire Empire. And Avho knows
but that at that very moment a Ruqui had already
been predestined for Sidi-Mohammed Ben-Aouda
himself. Before sunset we had reached the camp, pitched
not a very long distance beyond the garden, in a
solitary plain at the foot of a small hill, upon whose
summit stood a kubba and a palm-tree. The ambas
sador had hardly arrived when the mona was brought
and placed as usual before his tent, and the distribu
tion took place in the presence of the intendant, the
Kaid, and the soldiers and servants. Whfle every
one's attention was absorbed in this manner I hap
pened to glance towards the kuhba and saw a tafl,
strange-looking man coming down the incline with
long strides in the direction of the camp. There
could be no doubt about it, it was the hermit, the
" saint," descending upon us to make a scene. I did
not say a word, but waited to see Avhat would happen.
Instead of entering the camp at once he made a cir
cuit around the outside, in order to appear suddenly
in front of the ambassador's tent. I could see him
stealing nearer and nearer on tiptoe, a ghastly object,
covered with black rags, who inspired both fear and

"Iborseman bringing in 1bea5s of IRebels.

BEN-AOUDA. 173
disgust. AU at once he quickened his pace, dashed
into our midst, and, recognizing the ambassador at a
glance, flung himself against him, at the same time
howling like a maniac ; but he hardly had time to do
this before the Kaid seized him by the throat and
threw him in among the soldiers, who promptly dragged
him out of the camp, stifling his piercing cries in their
cloaks. Signor Morteo hastened to translate for our
benefit the poor wretch's invectives. " Death to aU
these dogs of Christians who go to see the Sultan and
do just as they like, whfle we are dying of hunger !"
Not long after the presentation of the obligatory
mona there arrived at the camp a party of a hundred
or more Arab and negro servants, marching in single
ffle, and bearing great round boxes covered with
lofty, conical straw tops, fflled with eggs, chicken
already cooked, puddings, pastry, roasts, kuskussu,
salad and sweetmeats, enough provision in afl to feed
a starving tribe. It was a second mona, voluntary
this time, an offering made to the ambassador by
Sidi-Mohammed Ben-Aouda, possibly to atone for his
black looks of the morning. No sooner had the
dishes been placed on the ground than the Governor
and his five sons appeared on horseback, accompanied
by a troop of servants. The ambassador received
them in his tent, and conversed with them by means
of an interpreter. What a conversation ! and what
people they were ! The ambassador asked one of
the sons if he had ever heard of Italy, and he repHed

174 BEN-AOUDA.
that he had heard it spoken of several times. One of
them wanted to know which was farthest from Mo
rocco, England or Italy. They asked how many
guns we had, the name of our capital city, and how
our king Avas dressed. As they talked they aU six
observed with great attention the knots of our cravats
and our watch-chains. The ambassador put several
questions to the Governor regarding the extent and
population of his district, but he either could not an
swer or was, as usual, afraid of some hidden, mysteri
ous object in the question ; at all events it was impos
sible to drag a satisfactory reply out of him.
" The population ?" I recoflect his saying. " Oh, I
could not tefl you the exact number."
" WeU, then, about," urged the ambassador.
" It is difficiflt to say even about Avhat it numbers,"
said he, and then proceeded to put some more ques
tions of his own. Had we liked the city of Alcazar ?
What did we think of the country ? Did we not
consider the water very good ? Would we like to
hve in Morocco ? Why had we not brought our
wives 1 How many soldiers had the captain in his
command ? How large was the commander's ship 1
Whfle this conversation was going on tea was drunk,
and finafly, with many bows, handshakings and good
wishes, they mounted, put spurs to their horses, and
presently disappeared. I use " disappear " each
time purposely, instead of "went away," just as I say
"appear" instead of "came," because, as we never saw

BEN-AOUDA. 1 75
any houses or vfllages in any direction, everyone Avho
came and went seemed to rise up out of the ground
and vanish away into air.
Like every other day this one, too, ended in a calm
and magnificent sunset and a cheerful and noisy din
ner, but the night proved to be one of the liveliest of
the journey. Perhaps because being in the Seffian
territory made it necessary to guard the camp Avith
unusual vigflance, the sentinels kept each other awake
by chanting verses from the Koran every quarter of
an hour. One would intone the prayer and the others
aU respond in chorus, at the top of their voices, to an
accompaniment of neighing horses and barking dogs.
We had just faUen into our first sleep when avc were
aroused by this exercise, and did not succeed in clos
ing our eyes again. Shortly after midnight a new
feature was added. One of the short intervals of
sflence was suddenly broken in upon by wfld cries
from the open country, which continued until day
break, sometimes close at hand, then faintly heard at
a distance, then nearby again ; tones of menace, of
sorrow, of despair, breaking forth now and again
into shrill Avails and bursts of crazy laughter that
made our blood run cold. It was the saint wander
ing about the outskirts of the camp and cafling dovm
curses from Heaven upon us. In the morning when
we came out of our tents he was stiU there, standing
erect like a spectre before his lonely kubba, tinged
with red by the rising sun, continuing to curse us in

176 BEN-AOUDA.
a hoarse, spent A-oice, and feebly waving his arms
above his head.
I looked up the cook, intending to ask his opinion
concerning this personage, but I found him so im
mersed that I had not the heart to poke fun at him.
He was making the coffee, surrounded by an im
patient throng who fairly took his breath away. The
scuUions were talking Arabic at him, Ranni, Sicilian ;
the caulker, NeapoHtan ; Hamed, Spanish ; Signor
Vincent, French. " But I do not understand a sin
gle word of all your gibberish !" he shouted desper
ately. " This is Averse than Babel ! Wfll you let me
breathe ? or do you want to kfll me ? Oh, poor me,
what a country ! what a country ! Every one of
them talking like mad, and not one who can make
himself miderstood !"
As soon as he had recovered somewhat I pointed
to the saint, who was stiU howhng away on top of the
hfll. " WeU," I said, " what do you think of those in
sults ?" He raised his eyes to the kubba, regarded the
saint fixedly for a moment, and then, with a gesture
of supreme disdain, repHed in his strong Piedmontese
accent, " I look and pass on," and so saying stalked
majesticaUy into his tent.

KAEIYA EL-HABASSI.

Vol. L— 12 ( 177 )

KAEIYA EL-HABASSL

The camp was dismantled, and we resumed our
journey in the usual order and amid the usual noisy
shouts and discharge of fire-arms of the escort — the
two hundred horsemen of Ben-Aouda. In two hours
we had reached the smaU stream that marks the
limits of the Seffian district, and just as the standard-
bearer turned to pronounce the words " Here is the
river," there suddenly started into view from behind
a piece of rising ground on the opposite shore a large
crowd of horsemen, among whom we were immedi
ately struck by the graceful and elegant figure of the
Governor, Bu-Bekr-ben-el-Habassi, whose district
Hes between the Seffian territory and the great Sebti
river. The Ben-Aouda escort turned about and
quickly vanished, while we, after fording the stream,
were at once surrounded by the new one.
Bu-Bekr-ben-el-Habassi shook the ambassador
heartfly by the hand, greeted Ducali — a former school
mate — warmly, and welcomed the rest of the party
with a gesture fuU of grace and dignity. The em
bassy then proceeded on its way, but it was some
time before any of us were able to take our eyes off
(179)

180 KAEIYA EL-HABASSI.
our new host, who was certainly by far the most at
tractive of any of the Governors whom we had seen
as yet. He was of medium height, slight, dark, with
penetrating but kindly eyes, a straight aquihne
nose and a thick black beard. When he smfled he
displayed two rows of handsome teeth. A snow-
white cloak of finest texture enveloped his entire
person, the hood being drawn doAvn over his turban,
and he rode a jet-black horse with sky-blue housings.
From his appearance one would judge him to be a
generous man, beloved and contented, and unless my
imagination deceived me, the two hundred Kariya el-
Habassi cavaliers seemed to reflect something of their
Governor's kindly disposition. They appeared to
me to wear the frank, tranqufl expression of men who
for many years had enjoyed the almost unheard of
blessing of a humane rule. This impression and the
cabans which now began to crop up much more fre
quently by the roadside, combined, with the beautiful
weather and sweet-smeUing breezes, to nourish for a
little while at least the pleasing iUusion that this dis
trict was an oasis of prosperity in the middle of the
poverty-stricken Empire of the Sherifs. A little later
we passed through a vfllage consisting of a double
row of tents, made of camel's hair, supported on a
framework of reeds and sticks ; beside each tent was
a smafl garden patch enclosed by a hedge of Indian
figs. Beyond the tents horses and cows Avere graz
ing. Some groups of half-naked chfldren stood on

KAEIYA EL-HABASSI. 1 81
the road in front of us waiting to see us pass, whfle
men and women covered with rags peered out from
behind the hedges. No one shook his fist at us ; no
one cursed us. Hardly were we weU past the vfl
lage when the whole population streamed out of their
hiding-places, and we saw that they numbered some
hundreds of AArretched-looking creatures ; black,
squaHd, wondering. The effect was as though the
population of a cemetery had risen up before our
eyes. A few of them managed to keep up with us
for some httle time, but the others were soon lost to
view behind a piece of rising ground.
The character of the country through which we
were now travelling afforded an endless opportunity
for picturesque effects in the views we had both of
the escort and the caravan. There was a succession
of deep, parallel vaUeys, formed by great waves of
earth, aU flowered Hke so many gardens. As we
dipped into each vaUey we would lose sight for a few
moments of the escort and then see it coming up from
behind the hifl back of us ; first afl the tips of the
muskets, then the turbans and fezzes, then the faces,
and gradually the entire figures and horses, as though
they were rising up from the bowels of the earth ;
whfle on reaching the summit of a hfll and looking
back we would behold afl those two hundred horse
men dashing through the smoke-fiUed vaUey, which
would echo and re-echo to the thunder of their fire.
And so on up and down — a long train of horses,

182 KAEIYA EL-HABASSL
mules, servants and soldiers foUowing at our heels,
each appearing for an instant on the summit and
then disappearing as though he had plunged dovm a
precipice. Seen thus across all those valleys the
caravan looked interminable ; it had the imposing
air of an army on the march, or an entire population
emigrating at once.
At last we came to the vfllage of Kariya el-Habassi,
consisting of the Governor's residence and a group
of huts and cottages, shaded by some fig-trees and
wfld oHves. The Governor having invited us to dis
mount for a Httle whfle at his house, the rest of the
caravan proceeded on their way to the spot selected
for our next camping-ground; whfle we, after tra
versing two or three court-yards, each enclosed by
bare waUs, came to a garden, on one side of which
was the principal entrance to the house of Ben-el-
Habassi, a white structure, devoid of windows and
silent as a convent. The Governor having vanished,
some mulatto slaves ushered us into a smafl room on
the ground-floor, white also, and having no outlet
save the main entrance and a smafl door in one
corner. There were two alcoves, three white mat
tresses spread on the mosaic pavement, and some
embroidered cushions. It was the first time since
leaving Tangier that we had had an opportunity to
repose between four wafls, and we stretched ourselves
luxuriously in the alcoves, awaiting Avith eager
curiosity the continuation of the show. The Gov-

nnoorisb (Batewai?.

KAEIYA EL-HABASSI. 183
ernor presently reappeared, wrapped from head to
foot in a ca'ic of gHstening white. Depositing his
yeUow slippers in one corner, he seated himself bare
foot on one of the mattresses between Ducali and
the ambassador. The slaves brought in jugs of milk
and dishes of sweetmeats, Ben-el-Habassi himself
making the tea, which he poured into exquisite cups
of Chinese porcelain, his favorite servant, a young
mulatto with tattooed face, handing it around. It
would be impossible to give any just idea of the grace
and digni y displayed by this, in aU probability,
grossly ignorant Governor of a few thousand tented
Arabs, who in the whole course of his life had most
likely never met more than fifty civflized persons.
Dropped into the most aristocratic salon in Europe,
no one could have discovered the slightest excuse for
ridiculing anything about him. He was as clean,
dainty and perfumed as an odaHsque just out of the
bath. At every gesture the caic, flying back, would
reveal here a touch of red, there of blue, and again
of orange, afl the briUiant coloring of the hidden cos
tume, untfl we longed to tear off the vefl and see
what marvels there might be concealed beneath, as
chfldren treat their doUs. He conversed with great
affabflity and no apparent curiosity, quite as though
he had seen us all the day before. He told us that
he had never been out of Morocco, but that he would
greatly like to see our raflroads and large palaces,
and he knew that there were three cities in Italy

184 KAEIYA EL-HABASSI.
named respectively Genoa, Rome and Venice. Whfle
he Avas talking the smafl door behind him was softly
pushed open and the head of a pretty little miflatto
girl of ten or twelve was thrust in ; after roUing her
big eyes rapidly around with an expression of
mingled curiosity and terror, she disappeared. This
Avas one of the Governor's chfldren, the mother being
a negress. He saw her, but only smfled. A long in
terval of silence now foUowed. Aloes were burning
in a perfumery-stand in the centre of the room ; be
fore the door stood a troop of wondering slaves; be
hind the slaves rose a group of palms, and beyond
the palms smfled the limpid African sky. I suddenly
found myself overpoAvered with Avonder at my sur
roundings. I could not believe that I was the same
person as he who was wont to occupy that little room
in Turin. The Governor afl at once arising I was,
however, quickly recaUed to a sense of the reahty of
the situation. Shaking hands with each in turn he
donned his sHppers, and with a graceful bow disap
peared through the smafl doorway. " He has gone
to report to the favorite," said someone, and I could
not help wishing that I coifld hear her questions.
" HoAV do they look ? What are they Hke 1 How
do they talk ? How are they dressed ? Oh, my be
loved, let me see them just for one single moment
through the crack of the door and I wfll load you with
caresses !" And no doubt, her courteous lover
yielding, the mysterious beauty did peep at us from

KAEIYA EL-HABASSL 185
behind some hiding-place, only to exclaim in terror,
" AUah preserve us ! What fearful-looking people !"
On our way to the camp, which was pitched about
half a mile beyond the Governor's house on a high,
level plateau covered with dry grass, we for the first
time felt the fuU power of the heat, so much so that,
as Tadino says of the populace of Mflan during the
plague, we aU began to " chiudere li denti et inarcane
le ciglia;" and this was on the 8th of May, not more
than a hundred miles from the shores of the Medi
terranean, with the great plain of the Sebu stretching
away before us. Notwithstanding the heat, however,
the camp at Kariya el-Habassi was enlivened towards
evening by an unusual number of visitors. On one
side a long line of Arabs, seated on the ground,
watched the lab-el-bardd of the escort cavalry ; on the
other were more Arabs playing baU, whfle a little
farther off a group of women, muffled in their coarse
hdiks, gazed at us with much astonishment, gesticu
lating to one another, and parties of chfldren ran
aU about. Certainly the population of Ben-el-Ha
bassi seemed less savage than their neighbors of
Garb. Biseo and I approached the baU-players, who
stopped as soon as they saw us, but after consulting
among themselves, recommenced their game. There
were fifteen or twenty of them, for the most part
taU, broad-shouldered, sinewy youths, wearing noth
ing but a tunic fastened in at the waist, and a sort of
coarse, filthy linen cape wrapped around the body

180 KAEIYA EL-HABASSL
like a ca/ik. They played somewhat differently from
those whom I had seen in Tangier. One gave the
baU a kick high in the air Avith his foot, and the
others all tried to catch it as far from the ground as
possible, bounding up in great vertical leaps as though
they were trying to fly ; the one who caught it kicked
it in his turn. Frequently in the rush one of the
heavier ones would fafl, dragging down some of his
companions with him, and the others tripping over
them, the whole party woifld roU over and over for
some distance, in a tangled, confused mass, kicking
and laughing, without caring in the least what was
being exposed to the light of day. More than one,
as he rolled about, displayed a curved dagger fastened
at his belt, and others had little waUets tied about
their necks, probably containing verses from the
Koran, worn to keep off scurvy. Once the baU fall
ing at my feet, a sudden idea occurred to me ; pick
ing it up, I held it out on one palm, and with the
other hand made two or three cabalistic signs above,
then threw it back. For a few moments none of the
players dared to pick it up. They went close to it,
touched it gingerly with their feet, examined it, and
it was not untfl he had seen me laugh and make signs
to show that I had been joking that one bold spirit
picked it up, laughing as weU, and threw it back to
his companions. Meanwhfle the chfldren, who had
been running hither and thither, began to crowd
around us. There were about fifty of them, and if

KAEIYA ELHABASSI. 187
their combined wardrobe had been offered for sale, it
is not likely that a pedler could have been found
wflHng to give fifty centimes for the lot. Some of
them were extremely pretty, many scurvy, almost afl
coffee-colored, a few a sort of greenish-yeUow, as
though their skin had been stained with some vege
table substance, and some of them wore pig-tafls in
the Chinese fashion. At first they kept about ten
feet away, watching us suspiciously and exchanging re
marks in a low voice ; then seeing that we did not make
any hostfle demonstrations they drew gradually nearer,
until they were almost touching us, and began stand
ing on tiptoe, stooping down, bending here and there,
so as to see every part of us, just as though we had
been two statues, we remaining all the whfle per
fectly stiU ; then one of them touched my shoe with
the tip of one finger, withdrawing his hand quickly
as though he had burned it ; another sniffed at my
sleeve. By this time we were entirely surrounded
and hemmed in. AU sorts of exotic smeUs saluted
our nostrils, we began to fancy that we felt a creep
ing sensation up bur backs. ". Come," said Biseo,
" it is high time we were rid of them ; I have an in-
faflible method," and so saying he briskly took out
his sketch-book and pencfl, as though he were about
to draw some of the faces about us. In a twinkling
the whole troop had scattered like a flock of birds.
In a few minutes we saw some women approaching
us. "Miraculous!" we said to one another; "but

188 KAEIYA EL-HABASSI.
perhaps they are coming to stab us in the name of
Mohammed," and we stood on our guard. But they
Avere only some poor, weak, sick creatures Avith
hardly sufficient strength to stand on their feet or
hold their arms up to keep the haik over their faces.
Among them was one quite young woman, who was
sobbing piteously, showing one tear-bedimmed blue
eye. Seeing that they were looking for the doctor
I pointed out the way, upon which one of them made
me understand by signs that she wished to know if
they would have to pay. I said " no," and they
moved off unsteadfly in the direction of the doctor's
tent, I foUowing to be present at the consultation.
" What is the matter ?" asked Signor Miguerez, in
Arabic, of the first one. "I have a terrible pain
here," she said, pointing to her shoulder. " What is
it ?" he asked. I do not recollect her reply, but the
doctor told her that he would have to see the place,
and directed her to bare her shoulder. The woman
did not stir. There lay the great difficulty ; it was
always " I have something here, lower doAvn, higher
up, here, there," but not one of them, not even old
nonagenarians, would let the doctor make an exami
nation, all insisting that he " could guess." " Now
wifl you or AviU you not let me see the place ?" asked
Miguerez finally. The woman still made no motion.
" Very well, that being the case I will attend to the
others," and he turned to the rest, whfle the first
one went sadly away. The others had no need to

KAEIYA EL-HABASSL 189
uncover, so the doctor distributed piUs and powders,
and dismissed them with a " God bless you." Poor
creatures, not one of them was probably yet thirty,
and they had aU lost their youth, a loss which means
the beginning of the excessive tofl, the brutal treat
ment and the contempt that go to make the old age
of an Arab woman a thing of horror. An instru
ment of the passions up to twenty, she is a beast of
burden for the rest of her life.
Dinner that evening was enhvened by a visit from
Ben-el-Habassi, and the disastrous night that fol
lowed by a terrible invasion of insects. Already,
during the hot part of the day, I had foreseen trouble
ahead from the extraordinary signs of life in the
grass. The ants formed in long black lines, the
beetles lay in heaps, the grasshoppers were as thick
as flies, and added to these were many new insects
which we had not seen before in any of our other
halts, and which fflled me with dark suspicions.
Captain di Boccard, a connoisseur in entomology,
furnished me with their names. Among others there
was the cicindela campestris, a living pitfaU which
closes the mouth of its hole with its great head, and
drops dov\Ti suddenly, dragging with it such insects as
may have been incautious enough to walk over it ;
the Pheropsophus africanus, which shoots a puff of
corrosive vapor over its pursuing enemy ; the Meloe
majalis, which can hardly drag along its huge abdo
men, like that of a person with dropsy, stuffed with

190 KARIYA EL-HABASSL
grass and eggs ; the Carabus rugosus, the PatneMa
scabrosa, the Cctonia opaca, the Cossyphus Hoffnian-
seggi — animated leaves which Victor Hugo would de
scribe in a way to make your blood curdle. Then
any number of great lizards, spiders, centipedes as
long as your hand, singing crickets as large as a
thumb, green bugs the size of a sou-piece, afl of
which came and went as though they were preparing
by common agreement for some warhke enterprise.
And as if this were not enough, hardly were Ave
seated at table when, on reaching out my hand to
pour out something to drink, I espied a ridiculous-
looking locust peeping at me around my glass, aa'Iio,
instead of flying away in alarm at my threatening
gesture, calmly continued to gaze at me with imperti-
nant audacity. At length, to complete our demoral
ization, as we got up from table Hamed appeared
with the look of a man who has just passed through
some great danger, and proceeded to display before
our very eyes nothing less than a tarantula, a verit
able lycosa tarentula, impaled upon a toothpick, that
terrible spider which " cuando pica cS un hombre " —
when it bites a man — said he, " AUah have mercy
upon him ! The unfortunate one begins to laugh and
cry, to sing and dance, and nothing but good music,
reaUy good music, the Sultan's band, for instance, can
save him !" Now let the reader try to imagine for
himself with what sensations I looked forward to the
night. I and my three companions had, however,

KAEIYA EL-HABASSI. 191
ceased talking, the lights were out, and we had been
some moments in bed before any one felt anything ;
this, however, was merely a slight interval of truce.
The commander suddenly leaped into a sitting posi
tion, caUing out, " I am fairly alive !" and then we
aU began to have sensations. At first there were
only Hght touches, timid prickings, ticklings, the ten
tative provocations of light advance-guards, to which
we could afford to pay no attention. But before long
the main body of the army took the field, and vigor
ous defensive operations became necessary. The
battle waged fiercely, but the harder we fought the
more rapidly did the enemy send reinforcements to
the front. They came from beneath the bolsters,
crept up from the foot of the beds, dropped from the
top of the tent ; they seemed to be carrying out some
prearranged order of attack, to belong to different
parts of a great strategic design, conceived in the
brain of an insect of genius ; apparently it was a re-
Hgious war ; in short, we were finaUy obliged to
change our policy or acknowledge ourselves beaten.
" The Hght !" shrieked the vice-consul. We aU
four bounded simultaneously to the ground, lit the
light, and the massacre began. The rank and
file were slaughtered indiscriminately, while the lead
ers, the great men, were first classified by the cap
tain, then condemned by the commander, the vice-
consul placed them on the pyre and I dehvered the
funeral oration in prose or choice verse, which wfll be

192 KAEIYA EL-HABASSL
published after my death. In a short space of time the
ground Avas strcAvn with wings, claAvs, legs and heads,
the survivors dispersed, and we, weary of slaughter,
after ha\'ing mutuaUy appointed one another cheva
liers of A'arious orders, once more laid our tired heads
upon our pilloAvs. But what an uproar we made !
What mad rejoicings, even though there Avas not a
whole skin among us ! What shrieks of laughter
that shook us from head to foot and did us good, body
and soul !
At sunrise the next day Governor Ben-el-Habassi
again presented himself to accompany the ambassador
to the confines of his district. No sooner had avc
descended from the high ground of the encampment
than Ave saAV, stretching away before our eyes to the
horizon, the immense plain of the Sebu. This river,
one of the largest of the Moghreb, descends from the
Avestem slope of that spur of mountains which extends
from the upper Atlas towards the Strait of Gibraltar,
flows over a course of nearly two hundred and forty
kilometres, sAveUed by numerous tributary streams,
and describing a circuit near its mouth empties into
the Atlantic Ocean at Mehdia, where the deposit of
sand, as at the mouths of almost afl the rivers of
Morocco of that size, prevents the entrance of ships
and causes tremendous inundations at the season of
the overflow. The basin of this river embraces at
one end aU that district lying between El Araish and
Sla, and at the other borders on the high basin of the

KAEIYA EL-HABASSL 193
Muluya (that large river that marks the eastern
boundary of the Moghreb), and opens to Europeans,
by the coast and Taza, a way to the city of Fez, and
not to Fez alone, but to the great city of Mequinez
— the third capital — as weU. Thus it includes, one
may say, the political life of the empire and the prin
cipal seats of the wealth and power of the sherifs. It
is worthy of note that the Sebu marks the northern
boundary beyond which the Sultan never passes un
less in tune of war, the three cities of Fez, Morocco
and Mequinez, in which he resides by turns, aU lying
to the south of it, as weU as the twin cities of Sla-
Rabat, which he visits on his way from Fez to Mo
rocco — this detour being made in order not to cross
the chain of mountains which closes the vaUey of the
Sebu to the south, inhabited by a tribe caUed the
Zairis, a mixed Berber race, who share with that of
Beni-Mtir the reputation of being the most turbulent
and indomitable inhabitants of those mountains. An
hour's ride brought us to the Sebu. It seemed to me
as though I were looking at the Tiber floAving across
the Roman Campagna. At this point it was about
three hundred and fifty feet wide, mud-colored,
swoUen, rapid, shut in between two lofty banks
almost vertical and perfectly bare, rising from two
strips of muddy ground. A couple of antedfluvian
boats, propeUed by a dozen or so Arabs, were ap
proaching the shore. These boats would be sufficient
in themselves to give a fair idea of Morocco. For
Vol. I.— 13

194 KAEIYA EL-HABASSL
hundreds of years sultans, pashas, caraA-ans and am
bassadors have crossed the river on just such old
hulks as these, with their feet resting in mud and
water, sometimes at the risk of being drowned. And
when, as frequently happens, the bottoms have holes
stove in them, caravans and embassies, and pashas
and sultans Avait, sometimes for several hours, in sun
or rain, untfl the boatmen have closed them up with
mud or anything else they can lay hands on. And
for hundreds of years horses, mules and camels, for
want of a piece of board six feet long, ha\'e risked
breaking their legs, or actuafly have broken them, in
the effort to jump on board from the bank. It never
seems to have occurred to anyone to bufld a bridge
of boats, or bring a six-foot plank to the spot ; whfle
should anyone reproach these people for not having
done either the one or the other he would be looked
upon with profound amazement, as though he had
taken them to task for not performing some Avonder-
ful feat. In many places the rivers are crossed in
cane boats, and troops are usuafly gotten over on
floating bridges, made of inflated skins with earth and
tree branches on top. We all dismounted, and de
scended the bank by a steep path. The first boat,
after making Iavo or three wide circuits to avoid the
currents and eddies, landed all the Italians on the
other shore, from AA'hence we viewed the passage of
the entire caravan. What an extraordinary picture
it was ! I can see it before me now, with all the at-

KAEIYA EL HABASSI. 195
tendant bustle and excitement. One of the boats is
sliding along in mid-stream, loaded with the Moors
and camels belonging to the baggage-train, and a
little farther off the other boat is bringing over the
horses and riders of the Fez escort, in whose midst
the flag of Mohammed may be seen floating free, and
by it the shining dark skin and musHn turban of the
Kaid. Across the river, in the middle of a confused
mass of horses, mules, servants and packing-boxes,
which covers the bank for some distance, gleams the
graceful white figure of Governor Ben-el-Habassi,
seated upon a mound, in the shadow of his beautiful
black horse wiih its sky-blue saddle, and surrounded
by his officers. On top of the bank, which looks like
the waU of a fortification, behind a long row of Arabs,
seated on the edge, with their legs hanging over, are
the Governor's two hundred horsemen drawn up in
line, who, seen thus from below, against the blue
background of the sky, look Hke so many giants.
Some naked black servants are plunging in and out
of the river, shouting and throwing the water about ;
a party of Arabs are washing out their rags on the
bank in the Moorish fashion, dancing up and down on
top of them Hke marionettes ; others swim the river ;
flocks of storks fly overhead ; far off down the bank
a column of smoke rises from a group of Bedouin
tents ; the boatmen chant aloud a prayer to the
Prophet for a successful issue to the undertaking;
the water sparkles in the sun like gold, and Selam,

196 KAEIYA EL-HABASSL
standing erect, ten feet in front of us, in his famous
caftan, supplies in this great, gay, barbarous picture,
the most delightfuUy harmonious dash of red a painter
could possibly desire. The passage consumed several
hours. As fast as it landed, each detachment of the
caravan got under Avay ; at length the last horses
Avere safely over. Governor Ben-el-Habassi mounted
and rejoined his soldiers on the top of the opposite
bank. As he was about to start the ambassador and
aU of us waved our hands in token of salute, upon
which the Kariya el-Habassi guard responded with a
tremendous discharge of musketry and disappeared
from A'iew, but for several moments longer we could
distinguish through the smoke the graceful white
figure of the Governor, standing erect in his stirrups,
with one arm extended towards us in sign of good
Avishes and fareweU. Accompanied then by only
the Fez escort, we made our entry into the district
of Beni-Hassan, of melancholy fame.

BENI-HASSAN.

(197)

BENI-HASSAN.

We traveUed for more than an hour through fields
of very high barley, above which projected here and
there a black tent, a camel's head or a column of
smoke ; snakes, scorpions and Hzards ran across our
path. In that brief space of time the sun had
already scorched our saddles so that we could hardly
touch them with our hands. The glare blinded us,
and the dust had choked everyone into silence. That
plain stretching away ahead of us like an ocean gave
me a sort of fright, as though the caravan might be
condemned to travel across it forever. But curiosity
to see those haughty Beni-Hassans of whom I had
heard so much, at close quarters, revived my spirits.
" What sort of people are they ?" I asked one of the
interpreters. " Thieves and cut-throats," was the reply. " Be
ings from the other world, the hardest characters in
Morocco." Upon which I scanned the horizon more anxiously
than ever. The " beings from the other world " did
not, however, keep us waiting long. Far away ahead
of us we presently descried a cloud of dust and a very
(199)

200 BENI-HASSAN.
few minutes later were surrounded by a crowd of
three hundred mounted savages — green, yeUow,
scarlet, white, purple, ragged, disordered, panting,
looking as though they might be fresh from some
scene of riot. Through the thick clouds of dust that
enveloped us we saw the Governor — a long-haired,
black-bearded giant foUowed by two gray-headed
Vice-Govemors, all three armed with guns — approach
the ambassador, shake hands with him and withdraw.
Straightway the charges, firing and shouts of the es
cort began. They were like so many maniacs. They
fired between our mules' legs, over our heads, close to
our shoulders. Seen at a Httle distance they must have
seemed exactly like a band of assassins in the act of
attacking us. There were terrible-looking old men,
with long white beards, so wasted as to be nothing
but skin and bone, but who seemed good for centuries.
There were young men with great shocks of black
hair, which waved in the wind like manes ; many of
them had bare chests, arms and legs ; their turbans
were masses of red tatters wound around their heads ;
torn caiks, wornout saddles, harness made of rope,
and swords and daggers of outlandish shapes. And
then their faces ! " It is absurd," said the commander,
paraphrasing Don Abbondio. " It is absurd to sup
pose that such people as these are going to deny
themselves the luxury of kflling us." Every indi
vidual face told a tale of blood, and they looked
askance at us in passing, as though they were trying

peasant limoman anb Cbilb.

BENI-HASSAN. 201
to conceal their expressions from us. A hundred of
them rode behind us, a hundred on our right, and a
hundred on our left, scattered over the plain to a great
distance. This plan of stationing a guard on either
side was something new, but it was not long before
the reason was made manifest. The farther we ad
vanced the more frequent became the tents, untfl we
passed through actual viflages, surrounded by Indian
figs and aloes, and from aU these tents poured a
stream of Arabs, clad in nothing but tunics. Singly
and in groups, on foot, on horseback, on donkeys,
two, sometimes three, astride of one animal ; women
with chfldren on their shoulders ; old men leaning on
boys, aU of them breathless and eager to see us — and
it may be not to see only. Little by little we were
surrounded by an entire population ; then the soldiers
of the escort began to disperse them ; they dashed
here and there, riding fuU tflt into the largest groups,
shouting, striking out, overturning horses and riders,
and scattering curses and abuse in every direction.
But as fast as the crowd was broken up in one spot
it would reassemble in another, and continue to ac
company us on a run. Through afl the dust and
smoke, amid the constant flash and report of fire
arms, we would catch glimpses of the wide, open
country. In the distance tents, horses, camels, herds,
groups of aloes, columns of smoke, crowds of people,
standing perfectly still and gazing in our direction in
attitudes of profound amazement. We had certainly

202 BENI-HASSAN.
reached an inhabited district at last ! This blessed
population of Morocco does exist, then, and is not
mythical after all ! At the end of an hour of rather
rapid traveUing avc once more found ourselves in a
lonely country, and accompanied only by the escort,
and barely a mile beyond, on emerging from behind
a group of Indian fig-trees, we came unexpectedly
upon Avhat was ahvays a most joyful sight — the flag
of Italy Avaving from the centre of our little movable
city, the last tents of which were even then being
erected. The camp was pitched this time on the
banks of the Sebu, which describes a wide curve
from the point Avherc we had crossed it in the morn
ing to that A\'hich avc had now reached. A close chain
of sentinels on foot and armed with muskets was
drawn all around the tents. Apparently there was
no doubt that this district was considered unsafe.
Had I had any uncertainty on this head it Avoifld
have been quickly dispeUed by what I was presently
told about the inhabitants. The Beni-Hassans are the
most turbulent, audacious, quarrelsome and thievish
people of the entire Sebii vafley. The last proof
they gave of this was a sanguinary revolt which
broke out in the summer of 1873, when the reigning
Sultan ascended the throne. It began with the sack
of the Governor's house, from which they carried off
everything, even to the women. SteaHng, indeed, is
their chief profession. Assembling in armed and
mounted bands, they make raids across the Sebu and

BENI-HASSAN. 203
throughout the adjoining districts, stealing afl they
can carry or drag away, and kflling, as a precautionary
measure, aU whom they meet. They are weU-disci-
plined ; have their chiefs, their laws and their privi
leges, which are acknowledged to a certain extent
even by the Governor, who sometimes makes use of
them to regain possession of stolen property. They
steal as a means of levying a sort of fine. The in
jured party, instead of wasting time in useless inves
tigations and complaints, gets back his belongings on
the payment of a certain sum agreed upon with the
robber chief. As to the boys, it is universaUy ac
cepted as the most natural thing in the world that a
boy should steal everything he can lay' his hands
upon. If he happens to get a baU in his breast, or
have his head broken, so much the worse for him.
Of course no one supposes that people like being
robbed; and, moreover, there is no rose without a
thorn, as their fathers ingenuously teU them. An
eight-year-old boy brings in very Httle ; one of twelve
considerably more, and a youth of sixteen a great
deal. Each thief has his ovm especial line. There
is the grain thief, the cattle thief, the horse thief, the
merchandise thief, the thief of the duar* and the thief
of the road. This last finds his most profitable vic
tims in the Jews, who are forbidden by law from
carrying arms. But the most common depredations
* The name given to Arab encampments.

204 BENI-HASSAN.
of aU are those committed in the duar. In this par
ticular line there are many incomparable artists, not
only among the Beni-Hassans, but aU through Mo
rocco. They go on these burglarious expeditions on
horseback, and the great art consists not so much in
the cleverness as in the rapidity of the act. The
point is not to escape unseen, but to escape without
being caught. They dash up, seize and vanish be
fore the A'fllagers have time to even recognize them.
Thefts committed on the wing, flashes of lightning,
prestidigitatory games on horseback. But they
plunder on foot as wefl, and here again are masters
of the art. SteaHng into the dnar naked, because
dogs do not bark at naked men, or cloaked from head
to foot in order to slip the more readily out of the
hands of anyone who may lay hold on them, or carry
ing heaps of leaves in their arms so that the horses,
mistaking them for bushes, wfll not take fright.
Horses, indeed, are the most highly valued booty of
aU. The thief flings his arms around the animal's
neck, draws his legs up beneath his beUy, and off he
goes like an arrow. Their audacity is somethmg in
credible ; there is not a camp, even be it that of a
pasha or an ambassador, to Avhich they do not man
age to gain access, notwithstanding the most vigflant
watchfulness. They craAvl, ghde, flatten themselves
against the ground, covered Avith grass, straw, leaves ;
dressed in sheep-skin, disguised as beggars, sick
men, idiots, soldiers, saints. They risk their lives

BENI-HASSAN. 205
for a chicken, and are wiUing to go ten miles in the
hope of getting a crown. They have actuaUy stolen
the money-bags from beneath the very heads of sleep
ing ambassadors. And so it was not so much to be
wondered at that on this night, notwithstanding the
cordon of sentinels, they managed to get away with
a sheep which the cook had tied for safe-keeping to
his own bed. On discovering his loss in the morn
ing he stood motionless before his tent for half an
hour, with arms folded upon his breast and gloomy
eyes fixed upon the horizon, exclaiming from time
to time, " Ah ! Madona santa, che pais ! che pais !
che pais .'"
I mentioned above the duars. It is impossible to
talk at any length about Morocco without describing
them, and, I am very weU able to do this both from
what I saw of them for myself and what Signor Morteo,
who has been in the country twenty years, told me.
Signor Morteo, by way of parenthesis, is a singular
type of man. A Genoese by birth, stfll young, mar
ried to a beautiful English woman, the father of two
charming chfldren and wealthy enough to live in ele
gance in any capital in Europe, he prefers to remain
in voluntary exfle in Mazagan, a little towna on the
Atlantic coast, about two hundred kflometres from
Morocco, surrounded by Arabs and Moors, occupied
solely with his famfly and his business, not setting
eyes for months at a time on a European face, and
keeping up no connection with the civflized world

206 BENI-HASSAN.
beyond subscribing to two flliistrated papers. From
time to time he goes on a tour through Italy or France ;
but he tires of it almost as soon as he gets there, and
from the boxes of the Scala or the Grand Opera
sighs for his Httle Moorish house, bathed by the
ocean waves, his herds of cattle and his duar, the
ignorant, peaceful life of his adopted African home.
In that land where not so very long ago a French
consular agent became so tortured by melancholy
that he went crazy, and another attempted to bury
himself ahve in the sand on the sea-shore, he has never
had a single attack of spleen. He talks Arabic, eats
like the natives, Hves among them, studies them, loves
them, and takes their part on all occasions. Pie has
contracted a few of their faults and many of their
good qualities ; in short, there is nothing European
left about him but his famfly, his dress and his Ge
noese accent. Notwithstanding which, no one could
possibly have shown himself more charmingly Italian
than did he, from the first day of our journey to the
last. Interpreter, intendant, guide, companion, he
made himself useful to and beloved by aU, and no one
ever thought of disagreeing with him save upon one
single point — we wanted Morocco to become civflized,
whfle he contended that civflization would only ren
der the people tAAace as melancholy and four times
more unhappy than they already were, and I must
confess that if he Avas Avrong I was more than once
tempted to agree with him.

BENI HASSAN. 207
The duar is usuaUy a settlement of ten, fifteen or
twenty famflies, connected by some bond of relation
ship, each famfly having its own tent. These tents
stand in two paraflel lines, about thirty feet apart, so
that a sort of rectangular space is left in the middle, open
at both ends. The tents are almost iuA'ariably alike ;
they are made out of a large piece of black or chocolate-
colored material, woven from the fibre of dwarf palms
or from goats' or camels' hair ; this is stretched over up
right stakesorthick reeds, connected by awooden cross-
piece, on which the roof rests, their shape stiU resem
bling that of the habitations of the Numidians of the
time of Jugurtha, which Sallust compares to overturned
ships with their keels in the air. During the autumn
and winter the covering is drawn down to the ground
and held in place by means of cords and pegs, so as to
effectuaUy exclude both wind and rain. In summer
a wide aperture is left aU around, so that the air may
circulate freely, and this is protected by a low hedge
of rushes and dried brambles. Owing to these pre
cautions the tent of the duar is much cooler in sum
mer and better protected through the rainy season
than the same class of Moorish dweUings in the cities,
since the latter are Avithout either proper ventflation or
glazed windows. The maximum height of a tent is
about eight feet, the maximum length about ten.
Any which may exceed these dimensions belong to
wealthy sheiks, and are extremely rare. A partition
made of rushes divides the dweUing in two parts, in

208 BENI-HASSAN.
one of Avhich the father and mother sleep, and in the
other the children and the rest of the family. A few
osier mats, a brightly-colored and arabesqued wooden
box, containing clothing ; a small looking-glass, manu
factured in Trieste or Venice ; a high tripod, made
of canes and cOA-cred Avith a hdik, under which the
family bathing is done ; a couple of stones for grind
ing wheat ; a loom, such as AA-as used in the days of
Abraham ; a rough tin lantern, a few earthenware
jugs, a fcAV goat-skins, a fcAv dishes, a distaff, a sad
dle, a gun, a big dagger, such is the entire furnishing
of one of these dAvellings. In one corner a hen gathers
in her brood of chickens, a brick oven faces the en
trance, and on one side of the tent is a small vegetable
garden ; beyond are some round holes, faced Avith stone
and cement, in which grain is stored. In almost
every large dimr there is one tent standing a little
apart, occupied by the school-master, Avho receives a
salary of a dollar a month, beside a good many pro
visions. AU the boys are sent there to repeat over
and over again the same verses from the Koran, and
Avhen these are learned by heart, to write them on pieces
of wood ; but as the majority of the pupils leave school
before they have learned to read, in order to assist
their parents at their work, they soon forget what
little they have learned. Those fcAV who are wiUing
and able to study keep on untfl they are twenty, and
then go to some toAvn to complete their education,
eventuaUy becoming talebs, which signifies notary or

BENI-HASSAN. 209
lawyer, and is the same thing as priest, since Avith
the Mohammedans the civil and religious laAv is iden
tical. The Hfe of the duar is of the simplest descrip
tion. At daybreak every one gets up, says his
prayers, the coavs are milked, the butter made and
the sour milk that is left, drunk ; for drinking-cups
they use conch and limpet-shells, which they pur
chase from the people living on the coast. Then the
men go to their work in the fields, not returning until
towards nightfall. The women meantime carry wood
and water, grind flour, spin the coarse fabrics in
Avhich they and their husbands are clothed, twist rope
for their tents from the fibre of the dwarf palm ; send
their husbands' mid-day food to them and prepare the
Kuskussu for the evening. The Kuskussu is mixed
with beans, gourds, onions and other vegetables ;
sometimes it is sweetened, spiced and dressed Avith a
meat sauce, and on feast days meat is served with it.
On the return of the men, supper is eaten, and at
sunset everyone goes to bed ; but sometimes one of
the old men will tefl a story after supper, seated in
the middle of the famfly circle. Throughout the
night the duar is plunged in profound silence and
darkness ; only a few families wfll occasionally leave
lanterns burning before their tents to guide any way
farer who may have missed his path. The dress of
both men and women consists of a cotton tunic,
fastened about the waist ; a cloak and a very coarse
haik. As the latter is only washed once or twice a
Vol. I.— 14

210 BENI-HASSAN.
year, on the occasion of some very great solemnity,
it is usuaUy the color of the owner's skin, or stiU
darker. More pains are taken, howcA'cr, in the
care of the body, since, untfl the ablutions commanded
by the Koran ha\'e been duly performed, no one can
say his prayers. Most of the women bathe the entire
person every day, retiring for the purpose beneath
the haik-coyered tripod ; but, nevertheless, Avorking
and sleeping as they do, they are always dirty to an
incredible degree, and this notwithstanding the fact,
oh, wonder of wonders ! that they use soap. Many
of the duar Arabs pass their spare time in playing
cards, and a favorite amusement among the men is
to lie flat on their backs and tefl their children stories;
but as the latter grow up their parents are apt to be
come indifferent towards them, a feeling returned by
the chfldren on their part. Many a duar boy gets
to be ten or fourteen years of age without ever hav
ing seen a house, and it is amusing to hear the ac
counts of Moors or Europeans, aa'Iio haA'C taken them
into service in their houses in town, of their bewflder
ment on first finding themselves in a room ; hoAv
they feel the walls and stamp on the floor, and with
what intense delight they look out of the windows
and run dovtm the stairs.
The great events in these roving villages are the
weddings. The relatives and friends of the bride
conduct her, Avith much shouting and many discharges
of fire-arms, to the duar of the groom seated upon the

BENI-HASSAN. 211
back of a camel and entirely enveloped in a white or
hght-blue cloak. She is perfumed, her nails are
stained with henne, her eyebrows blackened with
burnt cork, and she is usuaUy fattened up for the
occasion Avith a certain herb called ebba, much used
by young girls. The groom's duar, for its part, in
vites aU the neighboring duars to attend the festivity,
as many as from one to two hundred men, mounted
and armed with guns, often responding to the invita
tion. The bride dismounts before the house of her
future husband, and, seated upon a saddle padded and
decked with flowers, witnesses the fete. Whfle the
men go through a " powder play " the women and
girls form a circle in front of her, and dance to the
music of a pipe and drum afl around a haik spread on
the ground, into which every guest throws a piece of
money in passing for the use of the young couple,
whfle a crier announces the amount of the gift in
stentorian tones and invokes a blessing on the giver.
Towards evening the dancing and firing cease, the
guests aU seat themselves on the ground, and enor
mous dishes of Kuskussu, roast chicken, mutton
cooked on a spit, sweetmeats and fruit are handed
around, the supper lasting mitil midnight. The next
day the bride, dressed aU in white, her hood drawn
doAvn and a red scarf wrapped around her head so as
to cover the mouth, makes a tour among the neigh
boring duars to coUect more money, accompanied by
her friends and relatives. After this the groom goes

212 BENI HASSAN.
back to his tofl in the fields, the bride betakes herself
to the mfllstone, and love flies away.
Dancing also forms a part of the ceremonies when
any one dies. The nearest relative of the deceased
recounts his virtues, while the others croAvd around
dancing Avith mournful gestures and postures, cover
ing themselves Avith mud, tearing their hair and
scratching their faces ; then the body is washed,
wrapped in a piece of new cloth and borne on a lit
ter to the cemetery, where it is buried, resting on the
right side, with the face turned to the east. Such is
their manner of life and such are the customs which
are, so to speak, patent ; but the inner existence, who
knows anything of that ? Who can disentangle the
threads from which the Aveb of duar Hfe is woven ?
Who knows how the first words of love are spoken ;
what forms food for gossip ; in what strange manner,
with what strange detafls, jealousy and envy are born
and resisted ; what virtues shine ; what sacrifices are
made ; what abominable passions hold sway between
those four canvas waUs ? Who can trace the origin
of their astounding superstitions? Who can sort
that odd medley of traditions, half-pagan, half-Chris
tian ? — the cross marked on the skin, vague beliefs
in the existence of satyrs, the prints of whose forked
feet they find on the ground ; the infant carried in
triumph when the grain first begins to shoot ; the
name of Mary invoked in aid of women during their
confinement ; those circular dances so suggestive of

BENI-HASSAN. 213
the rites of sun-worshippers. One thing oply is per
fectly clear about them, and that is their poverty.
They Hve on the scanty products of poorly cultivated
land, out of which must also be squeezed enough to
satisf}' the heavy and variable demands of the sheik
or chief of the duar, a functionary elected by them
selves, who is directly under the orders of the Gov
ernor of the district. A tenth part of the crops must
be paid either in money or in kind to the Governor,
and an average of one franc for every beast. A
hundred francs a year is demanded for every piece
of ground requiring the labor of two oxen, whfle on
aU the great annual feasts they are obHged to make
the Sultan a present amounting to nearly five francs
for every tent. They pay out money or furnish beasts
as the Governor may decree, whenever the Sultan, or
a pasha, or an embassy, or a troop of soldiers passes
through the district. And if with afl this any one
does manage to save a Httle money it only exposes
him to the extortions and persecutions of the Gov
ernor, not veiled nor excused by any shadow of pre
text, but conducted with open violence. To be re
puted wealthy is a real misfortune, and he who has a
little hoard buries it in the ground, spends it secretly
and feigns poverty and hunger. No one wifl accept
a rusty coin in payment, although he may know it to
be perfectly good, for fear he may be thought to have
buried treasure, and so be exposed to persecution.
When a rich man dies, his relatives, in order to avert

214 BENI-HASSAN.
the plundering of his property by the Governor,
make him a present. Presents are made by appH-
cants for justice, to avert oppression, to avoid being
reduced to starvation ; and when at length famine
grips them, and bhnded by desperation these unfor
tunate creatures puU dovm their tents, seize their
guns and raise the cry of revolt — what happens?
The Sultan lets loose three thousand furies on horse
back, who forthwith sow death throughout the rebel
lious province. Heads are cut off, herds stolen,
women abducted, crops fired, the land reduced to a
wfldemess of blood and ashes, and the messengers
returning to the seat of government announce that
the rebeUion is crushed. If, on the other hand, it
spreads, and in spite of aU the Governor's efforts the
rebels finaUy succeed in routing the enemy's forces
and remaining masters of the field, what is gained
beyond a brief period of Hberty at the cost of thous
ands of lives ? They elect another Sultan, bring on
a dynastic war between the different districts, and
quickly find themselves in the grasp of a despotism
stiU more severe than that from which they broke
loose; and so it has been going on for the past ten
centuries. At daybreak on the morning of the 10th the cara
van got under way, accompanied by the three hun
dred horsemen of Beni-Hassen and their Governor,
Abd-AUah — servant of God. Throughout the entire
morning we continued to travel across the plain be-

BENI-HASSAN. 215
tween fields of barley, wheat and maize, broken by
wide patches of wild fennel and flowers, and dotted
over with groups of trees and black tents, which
looked Hke the great heaps of coal one sees here and
there on the Tuscan downs. We saw many more
herds, horses, camels and parties of Arabs than on
any previous day. Far ahead of us we could descry
a chain of pale-gray mountains on the horizon, and
in the middle distance, between them and the cara
van, two kubbas, the first iUuminated by the sun's
rays, the other barely visible. They were the kub
bas of Sidi-Gueddar and Sidi-Hassem respectively,
and between them runs the boundary-line of the
Beni-Hassan district ; the camp was to be pitched
close by the most distant of the two. Long, how
ever, before we had reached this spot Governor Sidi-
Abd-AUah, who from the moment of setting out had
appeared thoughtful and iU at ease, approached the
ambassador and made signs that he wished to speak
to him. Mohammed Ducali conducted the interview.
"WiU the Itahan ambassador pardon me," said the
haughty Governor, " if I should be so bold as to ask
his permission to turn back with my escort ?"
The ambassador asked why he wished to do so.
" Because," replied Sidi- Abd-AUah, knitting his fierce
black eyebrows, " my house is in danger." Nothing
less ! What a charming task it must be to govern
the Beni-Hassans !
The ambassador consenting, Sidi-Abd-AUah took

21 6 BENI-HASSAN.
his hand and pressed it to his breast with an expres
sion of the liveliest gratitude ; then Avheeling round,
the entire A-aricolored, ragged, horrible throng
sj)urred off at fuU speed, and in a few moments were
no more than a cloud of dust on the horizon.

SIDI-HASSEM.

(217

SIDI-HASSEM.

The district into which we were about to enter is
a sort of colony divided into farms among the fam
flies of a large number of soldiers, in each of which
mihtary duty is imposed upon every male chfld, and
every boy bom, so to speak, a soldier, renders such
service as he is able from childhood, receiving a fixed
stipend even before he can carry a gun. These mfli
tary famflies are, moreover, exempt from taxation,
and their estates are inaHenable so long as the male
succession continues. Thus they constitute a regu
lar mflitary organization, disciplined and faithful, by
whose aid the Governor can tranquUly " devour," as
the local phraseology has it, a rebel province without
fear of the sword he wields being turned against him
self. It might be termed a corps of mflitary tax-col
lectors, which brings much more in to the G^Dvemor
than it costs him to keep, since in Morocco the army
is particularly useful to the department of finance,
and the principal tool used by the administrative
machine is the sword.
Hardly had we crossed the border of Beni-Hassan
when we saw a crowd of horsemen in the distance
(219)

220 SIDI-HASSEM.
coming towards us at a gaflop, preceded by a green
flag. An unusual circumstance was their being
ranged in two long lines, one behind the other, with
the officers in front. When they Avere about tAventy
feet distant from us they halted suddenly and simul
taneously, and their commander, a stout old man Avith
a Avhite beard, amiable expression and an extremely
high turban, held his hand out to the ambassador,
saying : " You are welcome ! You are welcome !"
and then to us, " Welcome, welcome, welcome."
We then proceeded on our way. These new cava
liers were very different from those of Beni-Hassan ;
they had cleaner clothes and brighter arms, almost
afl their yeflow slippers were embroidered in red,
their swords had rhinoceros-horn handles, and they
wore hght-blue cloaks, white caftans and green belts.
Many of them were quite advanced in years, but it
was that hardy form of old age which seems likely to
be indefinitely prolonged ; others, again, were very
young. I recoUect one couple in particular who could
not have been more than ten years old, handsome and
fufl of life. They looked at us smiHngly, seeming to say,
" WeU, now, you have not such hangmen's faces, after
aU, as we were led to expect." There was one old
negro of such gigantic stature that had he stretched
his feet doAvn out of the stirrups he would almost
have stood on the ground. One of the officers
wore stockings ! In about a half an hour we met
another troop, carrying a red flag and commanded by

H Solbier of tbe Sultan,

SIDI-HASSEM. 221
another old Kaid, who fell in with the first, and later
on stiU another, and so on, sometimes only a half
dozen men in the party, sometimes many more, each
carrying its flag and on its way to swefl the ranks of
the escort. When the number was finally complete
the usual exercises began. It was easy to see that
these were regulars ; they went through their manoeu
vres with far more precision than any whom we had
yet seen. One of these was new to us — one soldier
dashed ahead with loosened bridle-rein ; another fol
lowed close after him also on a fuU run ; aU at once
the leader rose in his stirrups, and turning entirely
around, fired his musket into the other's breast, the
latter, at the same instant, firing into his side, so that
had the guns been loaded they must have dropped
dead simultaneously. Once a horse feU when going
at fuU speed, precipitating his rider over his head to
such a distance that we thought he surely must be
kiUed, instead of which he leaped to his feet and re
gained his saddle in a tAvinkling, returning to the
charge more furiously than ever. Each one shouted
his OAATi pecuHar cry. " Look out ! Look out !"
" You are aU witnesses !" " It is I !" " Here comes
death !" " Wretched me !" (one who had missed his
aim). " Make room for the barber !" (it was the sol
diers' barber), and one had the curious cry, " To my
painted one !" which made aU his companions laugh.
The interpreter explained that what he meant was,
" to my sweetheart, who is as beautiful as a painting,"

222 SIDI-HASSEM.
an odd thing for people who not only have the great
est aversion to any representation of the human form,
but actuaUy have no very clear idea of Avhat a paint
ing is Hke. The two boys charged together, shouting,
"Make Avay for the brothers !" and then fired into the
ground, with heads bent so low as nearly to touch their
saddles. In this manner avc approached the kubba
of Sidi-Hassem, where the camp was to be pitched.
Poor Hamed Ben-Kasen Buhamei ! Untfl now I
have only alluded to you in passing, but as I think
of how I saw you that morning helping the servants
to drive m the stakes of the ambassador's tent I feel
that I must give some expression to my admiration
for and gratitude towards you. What a kindly gen
eral he was ! From the day we set out he had never
yet had one of the soldiers or servants whipped ;
never for an instant displayed the slightest ifl-humor ;
had always been the first out of his tent in the morn
ing, and the last to go to bed at night ; had never let
it appear to even the most observing eye that his
salary of forty francs a month struck him as being a
httle low ; he had not the least shadow of self-im
portance ; he would help us to mount, examine our
saddles to see that they were firm ; give our stubborn
mules a blow in passing ; was always at hand for
everyone and everything ; threw himself doAvn beside
our tents like any humble mule driver ; smfled back
whenever he saw us smfle ; offered us Kuskussu ;
leaped to his feet at the ambassador's slightest motion.

SIDI-HASSEM. 223
Hke a puppet on springs ; said his prayers five times
a day Hke a good Mussulman ; counted the eggs of
the mona ; oversaw the slaughter of the sheep ;
looked at the artists' sketch-books without giving a
sign that he was scandalized; and was, in short, as I
should suppose, the man the most ad hoc for this par
ticular mission whom his majesty, the Sultan, could
possibly have selected from among the entire ranks
of his bare-foot generals. Hamed-Ben Kasen fre
quently recalled Avith pride the fact that his father
had been a general in the war with Spain, and he
sometimes spoke of his own sons, who were with their
mother at Mequinez, her native city.
" It is three months," he said one day, with a sigh,
" since I last saw them."
Perhaps what he reafly meant was " since I last
saw her," but he said " them " from modesty.
After having witnessed the presentation of the
mona — including on that occasion a prodigious dish
of Kuskussu, which five Arabs could barely carry —
we took refuge as usual in our tents to wait untfl the
dafly 104° in the shade should be over. The ther
mometer stayed at that point until four o'clock in the
afternoon, and during that time the camp was plunged
in absolute sflence ; at four it came to life again.
The artists took up their brushes ; the doctor inter
viewed his patients ; one would go off to take a bath ;
another to shoot at a mark ; another to pay a caU in
one of the other tents ; another to watch the exer-

224 SIDI-H.4SSEM.
cises of the escort ; another to see the cook Avrestling
Avith Africa ; another to visit a neighboring duar ; and
thus everyone had something to teU about Avhen Ave
aU met at dinner, and the conversation was like a
display of fireworks. That evening I went with the
commander to view the manceuvres of the escort in a
large open space near the camp. About a hundred
Arabs were seated in a long line on the edge of a
ditch looking on. No sooner did they espy us than
some of them got up and, foUoAved by others, came
after us, untfl at last they all Avere crowding behind
us. We pretended not to notice them, and for a fcAV
minutes no one uttered a sound. Then one said
something, we could not make out what, that made
the others afl laugh ; then another spoke, and then a
third, and so on, and at every remark there would be
a fresh burst of merriment. It was perfectly clear
that they were laughing at us, and Ave soon noticed that
the observations and mirth corresponded Avith our ges
tures and certain inflexions of the voice. It was the
most natural thing in the world. They thought us
ridiculous, but what were they saying ? This we Avere
very curious to know. Just then Signor Morteo passed
by. Making a slight sign to attract his attention, I
begged him to keep his ears open Avithout appearing
to do so, and to give me a literal translation of the
jests of those big chfldren. One of them said some
thing almost immediately which, as usual, provoked
much laughter.

SIDI-HASSEM. 225
"He says," translated Signor Morteo, "that he
does not see Avhat purpose is served by our coat-tafls,
unless they are to conceal real tails."
A moment later there was another remark and an
other laugh.
" He says that the part at the back of your head
is where the inhabitants perform their lab-el-bardd."
A third remark, and a third shout of mirth.
" He says how odd these Christians are. In order
to appear tafler they put jugs on their heads and
props under their heels."
Just then one of the camp dogs came running up
and crouched at our feet. Some one said something,
but the laughter that foUowed sounded a little forced.
" This is going too far," said Signor Morteo. " He
said that the dog had come to lie down with his fel-
loAv-dogs ; it is time to settle them ;" and so saying he
wheeled about suddenly and said a few words in
Arabic in a warning voice. It was like a clap of
thunder ; a moment later not one of them was to be
seen. Poor feUows ! let us be just to them. Setting
aside the charges concerning the " inhabitants " and
the brotherhood with the dog, they surely had a per
fect right to say about us what we, as a matter of
fact, Avere struck by every time we compared our
selves with them. Ten times a day, when those superb
horsemen were wheeHng about us, we would say to
one another, " Oh, yes, we are civflized, no doubt,
and we represent a great nation, and we hav^e more
Vol. L— 15

226 SIDI-HASSEM.
science in our ten heads than is to be found in the
entire Empire of the Sherifs, but astride of these
mules, dressed in these garments and these colors and
these hats, great heavens ! what figures we cut be
side them !" Ah, how true it was ! The very least
of those tattered riders was more graceful, more
stately, more calculated to excite a woman's admira
tion than afl the dandies of Europe put together.
Another curious little scene took place that evening
at table. The two oldest Kaids in the escort came
to see the ambassador, and sat down beside him. On
being asked if they had ever heard of Italy they both
replied in the same breath, and with violent gesticu
lations, " Never ! Never !" as though eager to deny
some charge that had been preferred against them.
Then the ambassador, with the patience of a school
master, gave them some geographical and political
points concerning our mysterious country, to which
they Hstened wide-eyed and open-mouthed, like two
chfldren. " And what is the population of your country ?"
asked one.
" Twenty-five miflions," replied the ambassador.
They made a gesture of amazement.
" And Morocco," said the other, " how many mfl-
Hons has it ?"
" Four," answered the ambassador, to sound them.
" Only four !" they exclaimed ingenuously, gazing
at one another.

SIDI-HASSEM. 227
Those tAVO worthy generals knew no more about
Morocco than they did about Italy, and no more pos
sibly about their ovm district than the rest of Morocco.
Before going they said something stiU more amusing.
Signor Morteo showed them a photograph of his wife,
saying :
" AUow me to present my wife."
They looked at it again and again with the great
est interest, and then said :
"And the others?"
Either they did not know, or, as is more Hkely, had
forgotten, that Christians are unlucky enough to be
aUowed only one apiece.
Sleep that night was out of the question. The
cocks crowed, the dogs barked, the sheep bleated,
the horses neighed, the sentinels sang, the water-
seUers rang their beUs, the soldiers quarreled over
the redistribution of the mona, the servants tripped
continuaUy over the tent-ropes, the camp seemed to
be an open market. But there remained only four
more days of travel, and we had a magic word that
consoled us for everything — " Fez !"

ZEGGOTA.

We made an early start for Zeggota, inspirited by
the thought that on that day we should behold the
mountains of Fez in the distance. There was an
autumnal freshness in the air, and a light mist ob
scured the surrounding country. A crowd of Arabs
Avrapped in their cloaks formed two wings at the en
trance to the camp. The soldiers of the escort were
huddled together in a close chflly group behind us,
and the children of the neighboring duars gazed out
Avith sleepy eyes from behind the tents and hedges.
Ere long, however, afl this changed, the sun came
out, spectators crowded around us, the horsemen scat
tered in afl directions, the air resounded with shouts
and the rapid reports of fire-arms, and everything
became suddenly bright, animated, fufl of Hfe and
color, whfle the autumnal cold was succeeded, as is
always the case in that climate, by the burning heat
of summer. Among my notes of that morning I find
one which says laconicaUy : " Grasshoppers, sample
of Selam's eloquence." I remember, in fact, to have
noticed a field some distance off that seemed to be in
motion, an effect produced by an enormous number
(231)

232 ZEGGOTA.
of green grasshoppers coming towards us in leaps.
Selam, who happened to be riding beside me just
then, gave me an admirably picturesque description
of the incursions of those terrible insects, Avhich I
remember word for word ; but hoAV can I possibly
render the effect of his gestures, his expression and
the tones of his voice, which really told more than
the words themselves. " It is frightful, signor ; they
come from over there," pointing to the south, " Hke a
black cloud; the noise is heard from afar. They come,
they come, and at their head their Sultan, the Sultan
Jeraad, who leads them on ; they cover the roads,
the fields, houses, duars, forests. The cloud grows
larger and larger, on, on, on, gnawing and consum
ing; over rivers, over ditches, over waUs, through
fire ; the grass is destroyed, the flowers, the leaves,
the fruit, the grain, the bark of the trees ; on and on,
no one can stop them, not flaming tribes, not the
Sultan with his army, not aU the people of Morocco
assembled together. Heaps of dead grasshoppers.
Forward go the living. Do ten die ? A hundred
are born. Do a hundred die ? A thousand are born.
Such sights at Tangier ! streets covered, gardens cov
ered, sea-shore covered, sea covered, everything
green, everything in motion ; Hving, dead, decayed,
offensive ; a plague, a pestflence, a curse from God!"
And this is reaUy so. The fetid odor arising from
myriads of dead grasshoppers sometimes produces a
contagious form of fever ; and, to cite one instance.

ZEGGOTA. 233
the terrible plague which in 1799 fairly depopulated
both the towns and country of Bombay broke out
just after one of their visitations. When the ad
vance guard of the invading army appears the Arabs
go forAvard to meet it, in parties of four or five hun
dred, with sticks, clubs and firebrands, but only suc
ceed in forcing the enemy to deviate somewhat from
its course ; and it occasionaUy happens that when
one tribe drives them back thus from their own into
the district of a neighboring tribe, the grasshopper
war is converted into a civfl war. The only thing
that frees the country from this curse is a favorable
wind ; this blows them into the sea, where they drown
and are swept up on the beach for days afterwards
in great heaps. When the favorable wind stifl de
lays, the only possible consolation left the inhabitants
is to eat their enemies ; this they do before they have
laid their eggs, boihng them and adding a seasoning
of salt, pepper and vinegar. They taste a little Hke
sea-crabs, and as many as four hundred can be eaten
in a single day.
About two mfles from camp we overtook that part
of the caravan which was bearing Victor Emmanuel's
presents to Fez. White camels were harnessed to
gether, two by two, in tandem fashion, by long poles
attached to either side of the saddle, from which
swung the cases ; they were in charge of some Arabs
on foot and some mounted soldiers, and at their head
was a wagon drawn by two oxen, the oiflv wagon we

23 1 ZEGGOTA.
had seen in Morocco ! It had been especiafly made
at El Araish upon the model, I should say, of the first
vehicle that ever appeared upon the earth's surface ;
squat, heavy, fll-formed, with wheels composed of
soHd blocks of wood, and the most curious and absurd-
looking harness that could possibly be imagined. But
to the inhabitants of the duars, most of whom had
in afl probabflity never seen a wheeled vehicle before,
it Avas a marvel. They ran to behold it from all di
rections, pointed it out to each other, followed behind
and walked in front of it with visible excitement.
Even our mifles, unaccustomed to the sight of such
objects, showed great reluctance to pass it, some
planting themselves stubbornly on their fore feet and
others wheeHng completely around. Selam himself
regarded it with a certain complacency, as though
saying, " That was made in our country;" and this
was excusable, seeing that in afl Morocco there are
very hkely no more wagons than pianos, which, if
the estimate of a French consul is correct, would re
duce the number to about a dozen. There seems,
indeed, to be a certain antipathy to vehicles of every
kind. The Tangier authorities, for example, forbade
Prince Frederick, of Hesse-Darmstadt, when he was
there ui 1839, to ride out in a carriage. The Prince
wrote to the Sultan offering to have the principal
streets paved at his own expense, provided the per
mission refused by the authorities were granted him.
" I wfll grant it most wiUingly," repHed the Sultan,

/fountain (5orge on IRoab to iTcj

ZEGGOTA. 235
"but upon one condition — that the carriage shall
have no wheels, since as Protector of the Faithful I
cannot permit my subjects to be exposed to the risk
of being run over by a Christian." Whereupon the
Prince, to turn the whole thing into ridicule, took
him at his word, and there are people in Tangier now
who remember seeing him going about the town in
a carriage without wheels, suspended between two
mules! At last we reached that blessed hfll for which for
three days past the caravan had been looking vpith such
longing impatience. After making a tedious ascent
we passed through a narrow gorge called in Arabic
Ben Tinea, which we were obHged to take single file,
and came out above a charming valley, flowery and
solitary, into which the caravan descended in festive
style, fifling the air with shouts and bursts of song.
At the foot of the vafley we came upon another body
of soldiers belonging to the mihtary colonies, come to
relieve the first. There were a hundred of them,
very old and very young, dark, long-haired, some of
them mounted on enormous horses with housings of
unusual splendor. Their Kaid, Abou-ben-GfleH, was
a sturdy old man of severe aspect and curt manner,
of whom, and of his soldiers, one might have said as
Don Abbondio did of the anonymous leader and the
assassins : " I can wefl understand that to control
such faces as these nothing less is needed than such a
face as that." Without so much as a glance at the

236 ZEGGOTA.
fields of ripening wheat and barley that lined the road
on either side, the soldiers urged their horses for
ward, and scattering in all directions on a full gaUop,
began the powder play, five and ten firing at a time
into the air, Avheeling to left and right, turning
about in their saddles in every conceivable manner,
and yeUing aU the Avhfle Hke demons. One of them
Avhirled his gun around Avith such rapidity that it
could hardly be seen ; another, as he flcAv by, shouted
in a tremendous voice, " Here comes the thunder
bolt !" a third, Avhose horse had swerA'cd a little, came
within a hair's-breadth of landing in our midst and
throwing us afl to the ground with our heels in the
air. At a certain point the ambassador and captain,
accompanied by Hamed-ben-Kasen and a few sol
diers, separated from the rest of the caravan and
went off to make the ascent of a mountain a fcAV
mfles aAvay, whfle Ave continued our route. A few
minutes later an incident occurred which I am not
likely ever to forget.
A half-naked Arab boy, about sixteen or eighteen
years old, came toAA^ards us, driving tAvo recalcitrant
oxen, by the aid of a heavy stick. The Kaid, Abou-
ben-GfleH, stopped his horse and cafled him. We
learned afterwards that the oxen Avere to have
been attached to the wagon which Ave had passed not
long before, and that they were several hours behind
time. The unfortunate boy approached trembling,
and stood before the Kaid, who put some question

ZEGGOTA. 237
to him I did not understand. The lad stammered a
reply, and went white as death.
" Fifty lashes," said the Kaid curtly, turning to his
men. Three powerful feflows at once leaped from their
horses, and the poor wretch without waiting for them
to lay hold of him, without uttering a single word, or
so much as raising his eyes to the countenance of his
judge, threw himself flat on his face, as the custom
is, with arms and legs extended. All of this had
transpired in an instant ; but the stick had not been
hfted in the air before the commander and some of
the others, dashing into the midst of the group, had
made the Kaid understand that they could not think
of permitting such a brutal punishment to be inflicted.
Abou-ben-Gfleli inclined his head, and the boy arose,
pale, with convulsed features, gazing alternately at
his dehverers and the Kaid vnth an expression of
mingled fear and astonishment.
" Go," said the interpreter, " you are free."
" Ah !" he cried with an intonation that cannot be
conveyed, and quick as Hghtning, disappeared.
We proceeded on our way, but I must say that,
although I have seen a man kflled, I have never ex
perienced such feehngs of profound horror as when I
beheld that half-naked boy stretched out on the
ground to receive his fifty lashes; and after the hor
ror of the thing my blood began to bofl, and I de
nounced the Kaid, the Sultan, Morocco and its in-

238 ZEGGOTA.
humanity in the most violent terms. It is, however,
undoubtedly better to Avait for second thoughts. " But
how about ourselves ?" I presently reflected. " How
many years is it since we aboHshed whipping ? And
how many since it was aboHshed in Austria ? and in
Prussia ? and throughout the rest of Europe ?" These
thoughts had the effect of somewhat curbing my
righteous indignation, and I was left with only a
strong feeling of bitterness. If anyone cares to
know how whipping is conducted in Morocco, suffice
it to say that when the operation is completed it
sometimes happens that the victim is carried to the
cemetery. During tbe remainder of the ride to Zeggota the
caravan passed over a succession of hflls and vaUeys,
the road running between fields of wheat and barley
and bright green pasture, bordered with aloes, In
dian figs, wfld olives, dAvarf oaks, ivy, strawberry-
trees, myrtles and flowering shrubs. Not a tent was
in sight, not a liA^ing soul to be seen. The country
Avas as luxuriant, sflent and deserted as an enchanted
garden. Once on reaching the top of a certain hifl
we descried the blue summits of the Fez Mountains,
Avhich, however, immediately disappeared again as
though they had merely raised their heads a moment
to see us pass. In the hottest part of the day we
arrived at Zeggota. This was one of the most ex
quisite spots we saw throughout the entire trip. The
camp was pitched on the mountain-side, in a great

ZEGGOTA. 239
rocky cavity, shaped like an amphitheatre, and worn
by the successive passage back and forth of man and
beast into innumerable paths, one above the other,
whose more or less regular hues had the effect of
graduated seats, and as a matter of fact these tiers
were at that very moment crowded with Arabs, who
sat on the ground in semicircles, like spectators in
some actual amphitheatre. Below us lay a wide,
basin-shaped plain, whose cultivated fields made it
look hke a huge checker-board, with squares of green,
yeflow, white, red and purple silk and velvet. Look
ing through field-glasses we could see on the more
distant hflls here a row of tents, there a kubba half-
hidden among the aloes ; in one place a camel, be
yond it an Arab lying on the ground, a herd of cattle,
a group of women ; sluggish, infrequent signs of life,
that made one feel more forcibly than their entire
absence would have done the profound peacefulness
of the scene. Above aU this loveliness a white, blaz
ing, bhnding sky, forcing one to bow his head and
half-close his eyes.
But it is not so much the beauties of nature that
make Zeggota an undying memory with me as a cer
tain experiment I made there with kiff.
Kiff, let me say for the benefit of those who are
unfamfliar with it, is the leaf of a sort of hemp cafled
hashish, celebrated throughout the East for its nar
cotic qualities. It is much used in Morocco, and it
may generally be taken for granted that those Arabs

240 ZEGGOTA.
and Moors, so frequently to be seen in the tOAvns,
gazing at the passers-by with duU, unseeing eyes, or
dragging themselves along like persons stunned by a
blow on the head, are A'ictims of this pernicious plant.
Most people smoke the kiff, mixed with a Httle tobacco,
in tiny clay pipes, or it may be eaten in a form of
confectionery, caUed madjun, made of butter, honey,
nuts, musk and cloves. The effects are very pecuHar.
Doctor Miguerez, avIio had tried it, had often told me
of his experiences, recounting, among other things,
how he Avas seized with an irresistible desire to laugh,
and how he seemed to be lifted off the ground, so
that in passing through a doorAvay, about twice his
OAvn height, he had bent his head for fear of striking
it against the lintel. AU of this so aroused my curi
osity that I several times begged him to give me a
little piece of madjun, just enough to make me see
and feel some of these curious things without abso
lutely losing control of myself. The worthy doctor
at first excused himself, saying that it would be bet
ter to make the experiment at Fez, where Ave would
be more conveniently situated, but on my persisting
he at length, a little unwiUingly, handed me at
Zeggota a plate on Avhich lay the much-desired sweet
meat We were seated at table : if I mistake not,
both Ussi and Biseo took a little at the same time,
but of its effect on them I liaA-e no recoUection. The
madjun was like a bit of paste, violet-colored and
smeUing Hke pomatum. For about half an hour, from

ZEGGOTA. 241
the soup, that is, to the fruit, I felt nothing at afl, and
began to chaff the doctor about his fears, but he only
smfled and said, " Wait, wait." And sure enough, as
the fruit was put on the table the first symptoms of
intoxication did begin to manifest themselves. At
first they took the form of great hilarity and rapid
talking ; then I began to laugh heartily at everything
I or any one else said ; every word that Avas uttered
seemed to me the most exquisite witticism. I laughed
at the servants, at the looks of my companions, at my
chair as it tflted over, at the designs on the china, at
the shapes of certain bottles, at the color of the cheese
I was eating, untfl all at once, becoming conscious
that I no longer had command of myself, I endeavored
to think of something serious in order to regain my
self-control. Remembering the boy who was to have
been whipped that morning, I felt the greatest inter
est in him. I would have liked to take him back
with me to Italy, to have him educated, to give him a
career. I loved him like a son. And the Kaid, Abou-
ben-GfleH, poor old man. Kaid- Abou-ben-GfleH ?
Why, I loved him too, Hke a father. And the soldiers
of the escort ! They were aU good feflows, ready to
defend us, to risk their lives in our behalf. I loved
them Hke brothers. And then the Algerians ! I
loved them as weU. " Why not ?" I thought. They
are of the same race as the Moroccoans, and after afl,
what race is that ? Are we not afl brothers, made
after one pattern ? We should love one another. I
Vol. I.— 16

242 ZEGGOTA.
love people, and I am happy, and I threw one arm
around the doctor's neck, whereupon he burst out
laughing. From this cheerful mood I fefl aU at once
into a state of profound melancholy. All the people
whom I had ever offended rose up before me. I re
caUed every pang I had caused those Avho loved me ;
Avas oppressed by feelings of remorse and unavafling
regret ; voices seemed to whisper in my ear in accents
of affectionate reproach. I repented, begged for par
don ; furtively brushed away the great tear which I
felt trembhng in the corner of one eye. Then a suc
cession of strange disconnected memories began to
course wfldly through my brain ; long-forgotten
friends of my chfldhood ; certain words of a dialect I
had not spoken for twenty years ; women's faces ; my
old regiment ; Wflliam the Sflent ; Paris ; the editor
Barbera ; a beaver hat that I had Avorn as a child ; the
Acropohs at Athens ; my bifl at an inn in SeviUe ; a
thousand queer fancies. I have a vague recoUection
of seeing the company look at me smilingly. From
time to time I would close my eyes and reopen them
without knowing whether I had been asleep or no,
whether minutes or hours had elapsed in the interval.
Then a clear idea came into my head at last, and I
began to speak.
" Once," I said, " I went to . . . ." Where was
it I went? Who Avent ? It had afl escaped me.
Thoughts sparkled for an instant and expired like
fire-flies — crowded, mixed, confused. At one moment

ZEGGOTA. 243
I saw Ussi with his head elongated, like the reflection
in a bad mirror ; the vice-consul with a face two feet
AAdde ; and the others tapered off, sweUed out, contorted,
like extravagant caricatures, making grimaces at me
that were inexpressibly comic ; and I laughed and
wagged my head, and dozed, and thought that they
were aU crazy ; that we were in another world ; that
nothing I saw was real ; that I was not very weU ;
that I did not know where I was ; that it was getting
strangely dark and sflent — -. When I came to my
self I was lying on my own bed in our tent, with the
doctor seated beside me, holding a lighted candle and
regarding me attentively.
" There," said he smiling, " it is over, but this
must be the first and last time."

FEOM ZEGGOTA TO TGH'AT.

(245 )

FEOM ZEGGOTA TO TGH'AT.

While I am running hither and thither looking for
my mule, which I find at last I reafly do not know
how, squeezed in among the baggage, the embassy
has gotten under way. I would still be able to over-
. take it were it not that just as I reach the entrance
to the camping-ground my horse stumbles in descend
ing the rocky incline, the saddle slips and the writer
faUs ; it is a good half-hour before I can get every
thing properly adjusted once more, and meanwhile,
farewefl embassy. It is evidently written that I am
to continue the journey alone, foflowed only by a lag
ging servant, who, when I am attacked, wfll come to
the rescue just in time to see me draw my last breath.
The wfll of Aflah be done ! The country is deserted,
the sky cloudy ; every half-hour or so I can see upon
the summit of some distant hifl a long, variegated
procession, in whose midst I recognize the ambassa
dor's white horse and Selam's red caftan, and for a
few minutes do not feel so utterly alone; but the
cavalcade disappears and the sflence and soHtude once
more fall upon me Hke a paU. At about an hour's
distance from the camp I meet a returning body of
(247 )

248 FEOM ZEGGOTA TO TGH'AT.
horsemen, some dozen or so, under the leadership of
the redoubtable Abou-ben-Gfleh, the old Kaid of the
fifty lashes, Avho throAVS a sinister glance at my back
in passing. I smfle deprecatingly and hurry by on the
other side. Issuing from the beautiful vafley, over
looked by our camp of the night before, I enter
another one, very large, shut in by precipitous hifls,
clothed Avith aloes and olives, forming, as it were,
great green AvaUs on the right and left of a Avide,
straight road, closed at the loAver end by a curtain of
blue mountains. Presently I meet some Arabs, Avho
stop to Avatch me pass, and gaze aU about in amaze
ment at my being unescorted. Wfll they attack me,
or AviU they not ? One of them turns, and tearing
off a stout branch from a neighboring tree, runs
toAvards me. It has come, then ! and I stop my beast
and grasp my pistol. The man begins to laugh, and
holds the stick out, explaining that it is intended to
aid me in my efforts to get the mule forAvard. Just
then two of the soldiers belonging to the escort ap
pear, coming toAvards me on a gaUop. It seems that
after all, my hour has not come. The soldiers place
themselves on either side of me and faU to prodding
my beast with the barrels of their guns, at the same
time crying, " Embasciador, EmJjasciador." The am
bassador has sent them back to see what has become
of me. They deserve some reward, so I stop and
offer them a bottle of Avine I happen to carry in my
pocket. They do not say either yes or no, but re-

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FEOM ZEGGOTA TO TGH'AT. 249
gard one another smUingly, giving me to understand
by signs that they have never tasted any. " Try it,"
I say, with an accompanying gesture. One of them
takes the bottle, pours a little into the palm of his
hand, licks it up and remains thoughtful for a moment,
while the other does the same. Then they look at
each other, laugh and make a motion of assent.
"WeU, drink it, then," and they do, one emptying
half the bottle at a gulp and the other finishing it ;
each then places a hand on his breast and gazes
heaA'euAvard, with an expression of intense approba
tion. We resume our journey, noAV and then meet
ing parties of men, women and children, afl of Avhom
regard me with the same look of amazement ; finafly
one asks a question, receiving a quick negative sign
from the soldiers, and I am able to make out that
they suppose me to be under arrest ; the man had
said, " There goes a Christian who has robbed the
ambassador." Some vfllages of white houses crown
the summits of the hifls flanking the valley. The
kubbas become more frequent, as AveU as the palm
and fruit-trees, and the flowering oleanders and roses.
The whole country is a vivid green, and here and
there we begin to notice indications that the land is
divided into separate estates. At last we enter a
gloomy deffle, winding between two high walls of
rock, on coming out of which we find ourselves at
the camp. We have reached the banks of the
Mikkes, an affiuent of the Sebu ; near by is a smaU

250 FEOM ZEGGOTA TO TGH'AT.
bridge of masonry, built sixteen years ago, in a basin
formed by a circle of rocky hiUs. The sky is as gray
as a leaden roof, beneath it everything looks duU and
ashy. The thermometer marks 104°, and for seven
hours no one stirs out of his tent, whfle the only
sounds to break through the close oppressive atmos
phere are the singing of the crickets and the twang
of Ducali's guitar ; a profound sense of dullness
weighs every one down, but towards evening all this
is changed. A light shower freshens up the air ; some
brflhant sunbeams shine through the opening of the
gorge like an electric current, gilding half the camp ;
couriers arrive from Fez, and others from Tangier ;
curious villagers approach ; two-thirds of the caravan
plunge into the river ; and dinner is furthermore en
hvened by the arrival of a ncAV personage, come from
the great city of the Sherifs — a Moor named Sheflal,
stifl another protege of the Italian legation, who has
a lawsuit pending with the Sultan's Government the
most voluminous turban, the roundest face, the bless-
edest, greasiest type of a Moor we have encountered
since leaving Tangier. The next morning we are
off at daybreak, escorted only by the forty soldiers
under Hamed Ben Kasen ; a revolt has broken out
in the provinces bordering on Algeria, and afl the
cavalry of the district of Fez has been dispatched
against the rebels. " We shafl see a great many
heads on the gates of Fez," observed Ducali. For
two hours we journeyed on among the hifls, through

panorama of 3f es.

PROM ZEGGOTA TO TGH'AT. 251
broom and lentisks ; then we came out on the
vast plain of Fez, encircled by hflls and mountains,
yellow with grain, sprinkled over with large duars,
traversed by the Blue Fountain river — which flows
into the Mikkes, and by the River of Pearls, a tribu
tary of the Sebu, which runs through the sacred city
of the Empire ; overflown by crowds of cranes, wild-
geese, turtle-doves, partridges and herons ; luxuriant
in its vegetation, bathed in light, peaceful and smil
ing as an enormous garden. We pitched our tents
on the bank of the Blue Fountain river, and the
hours flew by enlivened by hunting, visits to the
duars, the accounts brought to us by Fez Jews of the
grand preparations the army were making, emis
saries from court bringing us the Sultan's greeting,
Arab famflies fording the river single-file, first the
camel, then the men, then the women, carrying the
chfldren on their backs, then the boys, then the dogs
swimming, caravans going by, crowds of sight
seers coflected around the camp, an enchanting sun
set, and the most brifliant night ever beheld by the
eye of mortal man.
En route again by daybreak, once more the road
takes us among the hifls, then winds down into the
plain beneath, where it runs between two steep banks
AA'hich effectuaUy shut out the vieAV. All at once a
resounding voice is heard, " There is Fez !" Every
one stops short. Directly in front of us, several
mfles away, and just at the foot of the mountains, we

252 FROM ZEGGOTA TO TGH'AT.
can see a great forest of towers, minarets and palm-
trees, slightly vefled in mist. A joyful " We have
arrived !" breaks forth simidtaneously from every
mouth, in Italian, Spanish, French, Arabic, Genoese,
Sicflian, NeapoHtan, and to the first wondering sflence
a buzz of conversation succeeds. Starting off once
more, we proceed to our last camping-ground, at the
foot of Mount Tgh'at, on the banks of the River of
Pearls, an hour and a half from Fez. Here through
out the entire day there is a bustle, a coming
and going, that make it seem like the headquarters
of an army in action. Messengers arrive from the
Sultan, from the chief minister, from the head-master
of ceremonies, from the Governor of Fez ; officers,
major-domos, merchants, relatives of the Moors in the
caravan, all well-dressed, spruce, ceremonious, bring
ing with them an aroma of the court and metropolis,
and conversing in measured tones and with stately
gestures of the great army, the enormous crowds, the
enchanting palace awaiting us. Eight o'clock of the
foUowing morning is the hour appointed for our en
trance into the city. By daybreak every one is
afoot, there is a great stir among the razors, clothes-
brushes, combs and curry-combs, and a delightful ex
citement that more than atones for aU the fatigues of
the journey. The ambassador dons his gold-laced
hat, Hamed Ben Kasen his dress sword, Selam a pink
caftan, Civo a green handkerchief, which he winds
about his head — a sure indication of the approach of

FROM ZEGGOTA TO TGH'AT. 253
some A'cry great solemnity ; all the servants put on
white cloaks, all the soldiers of the escort bring out
their shiniest weapons, all the Italians draAv forth the
most elegant clothing their trunks contain. We
number about a hundred, all counted, and it is safe
to say that Italy has never been represented by an
embassy more oddly made up, more gayly colored,
more joyously expectant, or more impatiently awaited,
than this one. The weather is superb, the horses
stamp, the haiks wave in the morning breeze, every
face beams, and every eye is fixed upon the ambas
sador, who counts the minutes on his watch. Eight
o'clock ! At a sign we aU leap to our saddles, and
at last are off.
Ah, what a thing it is to stay a child always ! I
can feel my heart thump.

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