PICTURESQUE MOROCCO.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12931, 29 July 1905, Page 5 (Supplement)

PICTURESQUE MOROCCO.

m its PEOPLE AND THEIR WAYS. Momcco, poor old Morocco, the last State itC ' f 6 ?' bigoted ' »'l .learning^an'd "ZZ™ dld ° mage; a land of strange T, s ™ d ways, and stranger people" he,, CtZF* a ° to-day. a 'go— is the Morocco of ° ! «'«»,«„, win and Alwria ' much of the old Tunis "ucient iple ? 7 ei 'n- W / U dviHse tllis beautiful lJi '% cultivate their wild, menting the c, ate 7 n f +i • ieatls ornapublic notices 0 5 / Cltl , es ' are bub read, which might cfreafc.arid Mnli* ' c Mdien, for Allu'li is well and love th^Sultan'and'tl^ J and allegiance." ''' 1)101 ' llets ; retribute ~,l^,1 1S . tlle wonderful colour of the nlace agw« * Tamper fi'Min n' 1 ° i Approaching S l- 7 m V lO SC;l ' lhe "SW walls of the Xteii"w "" l " ,lU '« 1 *** d t S be , hvocu tlie Wuesca below " 10 Jizure vault above. r.k!S l ' h ll I-, 0 , ail " graceful ■, minarets oftho shi aUtlh,^l,ai)eS ilbwc the ttth these iou'pi <; 11 all foui K ' ( ' cs of colour 1 ar i? °" c lmiss of variegated in it for m-f. VUl> • n l6Oll ' ;t)ues pveclomiiiafcfa g? 1S l f e s^i-'^ ThroS'il ' OUr of ' l]w Prophet", i » 11,0 "arrow, tortuous streets be™x;rTi y ,feorers «»w «• nil's ?a" doorw «ys unexpected detons ,™ -V y f^ utiful °' tile P«t2, "•„ almost • ° St under mm 7 sueccocliiig coats of whitewash. Arabs, Moors, Kabyles, Berbers, negroes -the dements which go to make the native and X'u'f 1 gIC With ( '° nkeys ' Hebrews ' and the few foreigners of the place This ST Sf ?T"o l humanity surged oh the Inner Gate, converging and SS I 81 ' '""" 6iUl ™ •UnofiTtiS St B ,;V™" 1 "",""". at which «<i 1» d™ J ?' ley ai,l,eared ta diSßolve kaleidoscope!' 8 ■ coiour particles in 1 ii.fo°_ii7 ,f ' 1660 l ' e ° l)le of a cn,mb-on°v.-Vwh of Ml already crumbled—empire, on which for nearly a' century have been AfrS iT 01 ° tlmi ' any ° fclier art of N <'rth Atuu, the avaricious eyes of the great waited li iT H f ° 1 !' ey seemto have \ ed like .vultures for the wasting body 7 their victim, so to weaken that without danger to themselves they could obtain their prey.

To the eye a'.l looks peaceful. Out in the Sok vendors are selling their wares; great earthen jars, pans and water coolers - surround the portable shacks of : the potters ; 1 ' ,-T' Ve ? et . i ! bleS ' great piles of melons ana other fruits lie in interesting heaps on the ground. Snake charmers and negro dancers perform their tricks, the storyteller recounts the legends of the days of Okba and Mulai-Idrees. Here and there interesting groups gather about some traders or 101 l listlessly oil the low benches oi the shops. To and fro pass men intent on business, carrying great baskets filled with produce, or maybe bearing away live sheep on their shoulders. In this market on feast days the expert horsemanship of the Moroccan is displayed in the game of powder play, This relic of the old-time war. dance is also performed on foot, frequently occurring in one of the few open places in tho town.

_ Under settled conditions .the people arc industrious as a whole, but their religious superstitions and social customs, primitive implements and methods, form innumerable drawbacks to individual as well as to national development. The town Moroccan, naturally, is a better educated man'than his brother from the country, and in the coast towns lie is also less fanatical towards infidels in genera'l, although cruel and' cunning when these elements of his nature are called into play. Imagine a' thill, tall, bearded; clean-cut individual, black hair and eyes,; his • complexion ranging in colour from that of the negro to Caucasian fairness, clothed in richly embroidered undergarments, over which gracefully fall the folds of a finely-woven haik or jellaba, his 'stockinged feet shoved into yellow slippers, on his shaven head a Ved fez, about vliich is. wound a spotless white turban—and you have a type of the town Moroccan. : '

The coarse brown jellaba of camel's - or goat's hair, sometimes handed down through several generations; occasionally sandals, and a' small, tight-fitting woollen cap, make up the costume of the countryman, although one finds him oftener barefoot and bareheaded, his head shaved save for the little queue which characterises the Berber and Kabyle, who believe that at the last day this will be used a's a sort of handle with which they will bo hauled up ' to heaven. He is often a nomadic trader and arranges his journey so as to be at the town on certain market days, 1 and at these times one may see these men, descendants, maybe, of the same stock: as the, modern gipsy, with their goods on heavy draught camels or overloaded donkeys, steadily trudging their way over the rough caravan trails. These men earn indeed their bare existence, which may be swept away in a nionAmt by mountain brigands or the town robbers, who often sit in high places. THE lIRIGANDS. At the present time, however, the traveller is nowhere safe, even under the walls of Tangier' itself,' since only recently Raisuli and a bind of his followers pounced upon and looted a caravan almost in the Sok-el-Barra,- within a few hundred yards of the British Legation. Homes of foreign residents on the outskirts of the city have been robbed and some of the inmates killed. Here is a country in which'it' is :is dangerous to be rich as to be poor. I he poor man is often oppressed by the rich, his mite confiscated, and at times the unfortunate is sentenced to the most inhuman, punishments by the local judges or Government officials, Jphese judges are generally the prominent merchants in the town, nd their Courts, where , offenders'' appear, are • their little booths, in which they sit cross-legged, fanning flies and waiting for! trade. Criminals and men arrested for treason or, being rich are tried by the bashaws or hi'trh officials. Victims of these last offences arc generally shackled with chains and imprisoned in noisome dungeons, and torture and decapitation generally follow. Many of the sightless, earless, and maimed beggars of-the"'town bear witness to-the most inhuman of tortures, punishments for maybe such trivial offences as petty larceny, or in some cases to satisfy the spite of a rival or enemy, for bribes in the hands 01 a skilful villain form 110 small argument with their judges. So while the poor man, the possessor of a lone donkey or. camel, has 110 redress for his wrongs, the possessor of too many horses, mules, slaves, and wives, must also be careful how . lie treads for. these things mean wealth, and wealth means power, and when one sheik approaches 111 wealth that of a more powerful sheik, or the amassed goods of a Minister attract the covetous eye of one higher 111 authority the object of envy is often presented with a polite request to make gifts to this higher authority. Requests for more gifts follow, until often the weaker is ruined Should he remonstrate or refuse-lie. suffers the penalty of lack of allegiance to his superior. Woman is considered soulless, and 111 conseauence is generally little more than, a shire The wives of the wealthier class are confined and . closely ' watched within the harems of their lord and; master object Saves to his will and ' passions . I hose of the poorer classes work like the beast . of burden, with whom they are often harnessed in the plough or at the field wells used m irrigating the ln'nd. representatives of the About Morocco the representatives 01 the great Powers have woven network upon network of political schemes, seeking to, entainde her in their meshes or for their tamgie 11 to curry favour with her Governown A,, receipt revolution brought about SittaXu tap.riUrf the lives of the hated nsara (foreigners), some solution. foi their protection seemed necessary. Tue me 'seemed ripe.for an understanding as ! * ?i first claims on Morocco, and the ? - nts naturally dwindled down to Great SS Se. -ith Spain a close third- . N ;r^S y iSt»"; »h» <«• Mu.ai f bd "h vu'r o peans and things.inmerly welcomed I)( f rrowe d their money ■Sd:i"«lto ptoms by bur•nd 1 nt afant ties of useless things at the ss» , rio»»«=»«'' i ' ertb - t " cra

ling the displeasure of his people, lias been to a great extent the cause of the recent uprising. Those of the natives who are not indifferent pay allegiance either to the Sultan, to the pretender, Raisuli, or to a few minor leaders. Many of the interior tribes know little about the present conditions and care less.

"If the French come we will light," said a Moroccan. "We a're better armed now than we have ever been before ; our old flintlock guns are beaten info knives and spear heads, and Allah has given to us new rifles. In the hills and in the J. ground by our houses every man has much powder and ammunition hidden, aind there are guns for all. Yes, we will fight, and Raisuli will be our chief. Why do the French come here? Is it not our country? They think we are asleep, but the Moor is not asleep. Every night you can see our camp fires' burning on the distant hills, where the mountain tribes are waiting for the French to land. Raisuli has many soldiers, couriers will ride from village to village, and in, a night we will have an army of strong people." In the end the French will conquer this country of eight million inhabitants and overrun its three hundred thousand square miles of productive soil, some of the richest in . Africa. They will develop it and ,do many things good for it and its people, as they have done in Algeria and Tunis; in addition they will also do as they have done in those countries, destroy much of its character and quaint, artistic individuality, and pursue a discriminating policy against the natives. . '