Life in Morocco and Glimpses Beyond

re the house, And the co

sh Pr

exists in the homes of its people, especially those of the country-side; but Moorish city life is no less interesting or instructive. If an Englishman's house is his castle, the Mohammedan's house is a prison-not for himself, but for his women. Here is the radical

page 64] in others bare mud, in which are no windows, lest their inmates might see or be seen. Even above the roofs of the majority of two-storied houses (for very many in the East consist but of ground floor), the wall is continued

he room as to be out of reach. In the warmer parts of the country you would see latticed boxes protruding from the walls-meshrab?yahs or drinking-places-shelves on which porous earthen jars may be placed to catch the slightest breeze, that the God-sent beverage to which Mohammedans are

's t

patter of bare feet on the tiles within, but if you are a male, you are left standing out in the street. In a few[page 65] m

e asks, pausing on the

s, my

ome,

the placing of hands on hearts. As these exercises slacken, your host advances to the inner door, and possibly disappears through it, closing it carefully behind him. You hear his stentorian voice commanding, "Amel trek!"-"Make way!"-a

ing the first-floor landing, reached by a narrow stairway in the corner. Above is the deep-blue sky, obscured, perhaps, by the grateful shade of fig or orange boughs, or a vine on a trellis, under which the people live. The walls, if not tiled, are whitewashed, and often[page 66] beautifully decorated in plaster mauresques

ng from their retreats have been admonished to withdraw again. The long, narrow apartment, some eight feet by twenty, in which you find yourself has a double bed at each end, for it is sleeping-room and sitting-room

ely confined, except when allowed to visit the bath at certain hours set apart for the fair sex, or on Fridays to lay myrtle branches on the tombs of saints and departed relatives. Most of the ladies'[page 67] calls are roof-to-roof visitations, and very nimble they are in getting over the low partition walls, even dragging a ladder up and down with them if there are high on

white-wool-white. A long and heavy blanket of coarse homespun effectually conceals all features but the eyes, which are touched up with antimony on the lids, and are suffic

daily airing, either on foot or on mule back. Beneath a gauze-like woollen toga-relic of ancient art-glimpses of luscious hue are caught-crimson and purple; deep greens and "afternoon sun colour" (the native name for a ric

ear his wrath. But his everyday reception-room is the lobby of his stables, where he sits behind the door in rather shabb

r idea of the customs which familiarity has rendered most dear to us. It is as difficult for us to set aside prejudice and to consider his systems impartially, as for him to do so with regard to our peculiar style. There are but two criteria by which the various f

9] on the part of orientals. Those who are ignorant of life towards the sunrise commonly suppose that they can confer no greater benefit upon the natives of these climes than chairs, top-hats, and so on. Hardly could they be more mistaken. The Easterner despises the man who cannot eat his dinner without a fork or other implement, and who canno

ee! yonder Moor has heard it too, and is already spreading his felt on the ground for the performance of his nightly orisons. Standing Mekka-wards, and bowing to the ground, he goes through the set forms used throughout the Mohammedan world.

as it died among the tree tops-that wind which was a gale last night. The hurried tread of the night guard going on his last-perhaps his only-round before returning home, had awakened me from dreaming slumbers, and I was about to doze away into th

Photo.,

FROM THE BRITISH

OF FOREIG

ge