MODERN MOROCCO

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21520, 17 June 1933, Page 1 (Supplement)

MODERN MOROCCO

BY CECIL W. LUSTY

BERBER CUSTOMS

Moghreb el Aksa, the ancients' " Land of tho Furthest West," but now mere Morocco, one of many places on the atlas, provides an interesting and diverting study of a country where the old order and the new have been incongruously merged by the march of progress.

First impressions tend to banish completely all expectant romance. The Arabs ride not on white horses, but travel in dilapidated Ford buses or on rattling bicycles and motor-cycles; armed with daggers and walking sticks they sit in European fashion in cafes drinking French coffee and listening to radio programmes; the street urchins play yo-yo and marbles; Arabian tea is imported from China and the picturesque flowing garments provide bread for families in Birmingham and Manchester; and tho " Beau Gestes " and " Beau Sabreurs" of the French Foreign Legion in drab khaki, in accordance with General Lyauty's dictum that " a workshop is worth a battalion," build roads. Six weeks of unescorted travel in the hinterlands of Morocco and of perseverance with Arabic dialects pierces the veneer of civilisation, and one finds that Morocco is still in many respects Moghreb el Aksa. Money is stored under the soil; camel and donkey are yoked to the same primitive plough; man and beast share common, rude shelter, and " There is no God but God. and Mahomet is the Apostle of God." Morocco, when joined to the Iberian and Italian peninsulas, was first peopled by dark-skinned groups from South Europe and the Sahara regions and by a fair-skinned element from Northern Europe, the fair Gothic strain being noticeable to-day. Following Phoenician, Carthaginian and Roman coastal colonisations and invasions came upon the death of Mahomet the conquering hordes of Syrian Arabs, who converted the Berber population to the Islam faith. After centuries of schisms, during which period Moulav Idriss, a descendant of the Prophet, became the national saint of Morocco, and of invasions from the south, arose the great Sherifian dynasties. Morocco since 1912 has been a French Protectorate, but the Sultan remains the supreme head of the Sherifian empire. The chequered history of Morocco can be read in the Roman remains at Volubilis, the Almohade Koutoubyia, Marrakesh and Tour Hassan, Rabat and the Saadian Tombs. Laws and Restrictions The rural Arabicised Berbers live in tribes in a nomad state and their villages of adobe and grass huts, barricaded "by cactus hedges, are scattered over both fertile and barren country. The northern Berbers wear • pigtails by which upon death they may be drawn up to the Moslem Valhalla, but the southern tribesmen are characterised by shaved heads and by tufts of beard on chins and cheeks. The latter, the Chleuh, have come less in contact with European influences and, accustomed to the law of the silver-mounted dagger, are more unruly and ferocious. Europeans, however, aro seldom molested, the last capital offence being near Casablanca two years ago. The Riffs and other northern tribes have cords attached to their daggers so that the weapons cannot easily be drawn, but in the south tho French have not imposed this restriction. On the fringe of the Sahara, beyond Tiznit, the most southerly post which Europeans are permitted to visit, reside the Touaregs, or " blue-men," wearing blue garments and blue veils. Tradition has it that the " blue-men " were once saved from defeat by their women folk rallying to the attack and, as a mark of their shame, have ever since worn veils.

Arabian women are mainly confined indoors —often under lock 'and key. lslams are permitted to have four wives, but owing to the difficult economic times, few avail themselves of more than two. Concubinage is still permissible, while divorce can be obtained for a few francs. The divorced wife retains her goods and chattels unless she has instituted the proceedings, in which case she forfeits them. Women are forbidden the roof-tops, and missionaries tell one of Berber women who, although living within sound of the Atlantic surf, have never seen the sea. Feast ol Ramadan

The devout Berber adheres aa of yore steadfastly to his religious practices. In the towns bugle calls from mosques summon the faithful to prayer, and in the desert the Berbers, face inclined toward Mecca, prostrate themselves on the rocky soil. Between new moons occurs the great thirty-day fast and feast of Ramadan. From sunrise to sunset, when gunfire or buglo denotes the time for feasting, the beloved of the Prophet must permit no food or liquid to pass his lips. For tho town merchant this is no hardship, as he can spend the day resting or take Turkish baths, thus letting moisture percolate through pores, but tho peasant toiling under tho blazing sun in the fields gains no such respite. Should the latter swallow an insect, then ho suffers perpetual mental •torment for violating Ramadan. For this reason Berber peasants often keep their lips firmly closed and will not acknowledge salutations. Ceremony and festivity mark tho conclusion of Ramadan. Processions of chanting devotees of Mahomet leading sacred decorated cattle wend their way through mysterious narrow streets requesting alms. Displays of stick fighting, in which the " referee," who is also armed with a bamboo polo, strikes forcibly a player infringing the rules; of grotesque dancing by tho Berber equivalent of " devil dancer " in obviously copied harlequin costume, and of snake charming are included in tho " side-shows." Snakes and Horses Wrinkled musicians, when not puff, ing furiously at cigarettes, vigorously beat fingers on hollow skin drums hold over charcoal fires. The snake charmer, after working himself into a frenzy and calling upon Mahomet to protect him from evil —a call that is fervently repeated in unison by the onlookers — makes mystic passes and sibilant sounds to carpet snakes and cobras, the deadly fangs of the latter variety having been removed. A favourite trick is for tho charmer to place a date in tlio snake's mouth, insert tho head of the reptile in his own mouth and extract and oat tho dato. Two months after Ramadan is another fast and festival, when fanatic mountain tribesmen tear live sheep asunder with their hands and eat tho raw flesh. In the desert regions " powder " displays are given. A lino of horses, draped in cloth of gold, moves slowly forward, then breaks into a gallop; the riders with gun in either hand stand erect in the stirrups and suddenly discharge their firearms simultaneously. Tho trained horses immediately stop, and tho procedure is repeated. Any rider who fires out of turn has to dismount and ignominiously walk back to tho starting lino. Unfortunately these exhibitions of horsemanship are rapidly becoming rare, as. with tho steady encroachment of the European, Moghreb ol Aksa is being absorbed moro and more by Morocco.