CHAPTER XXII

SOUTH TO THE FORBIDDEN SUS

We Americans pride ourselves on being an exceptionally well informed people, yet it is curious how erroneous are the opinions which we hold on many subjects, and how tenaciously we cling to our misconceptions. The great majority of our people believe, for example, that the foreign missionary is a sanctimonious, psalm-singing, hypocritical individual, with a sun-umbrella under one arm and a Bible under the other, who seeks to force on the heathen clothing and Christianity, neither of which they want, and who is regarded as a meddler and a nuisance by the officials of the country in which he is stationed. Another case in point is that of the French colonial, whom we picture as an unkempt, miserable being his bare feet thrust into slippers, his soiled white suit several sizes too large for him, who passes his time sipping absinthe in a café, perusing “La Vie Parisienne,” and counting the days until he can return to _la belle France_. These are not merely misconceptions; they are caricatures, as unjust as they are untruthful.

Whenever I hear some one remark, “Well, we must admit that the British are the only really successful colonizers,” I feel that I should like to show him Casablanca. When the French bombarded and occupied it in 1907, Casablanca was a filthy, backward, and ill governed Moorish coast town with a population of barely twenty thousand. Yet in less than two decades of French rule its population has increased more than six hundred per cent, and it is to-day one of the cleanest, best governed, and most progressive cities in all Africa.

[Illustration: A REFUGE OF THE ROVERS

The river-mouth at Azemour, on the Atlantic coast of Morocco, where the corsair galleys lay]

Indeed, there are few cities of its size in the United States which can surpass Casablanca in point of municipal improvements, for it has miles of broad, paved, tree-planted streets; thoroughly modern lighting, water, and sanitary systems; an excellent telephone service; stores which are counterparts in miniature of the great _magasins_ in Paris; several luxurious hotels; restaurants whose cuisine is vastly superior to anything found in most American cities; a state opera-house; a municipal theater; numerous beautiful parks; and a whole series of imposing public buildings in the neo-Moorish style, which is harmonious, colorful, and pleasing to the eye, if nothing more. In short, Casablanca epitomizes the great work which the French have accomplished in Morocco, where they have hauled the native out of the slough of ignorance, indolence, and superstition, in which he has been wallowing for centuries, set him upon his feet, and are teaching him to become a decent, law-abiding, progressive citizen. What was formerly an open roadstead, dangerously exposed to northwest winds, has been transformed by the construction of a huge breakwater into a safe and spacious harbor which provides anchorage for vessels of all save the largest size. There is still noticeable, of course, an air of crudity and incompleteness, such as is characteristic of all communities of rapid and sensational growth, notably those in Florida and along the Pacific coast, for steam-shovels, road-scrapers, and scaffoldings are much in evidence; streets are being broadened, straightened, and surfaced; hundreds of crowded and insanitary native hovels, hotbeds of disease, have been torn down and the sites not yet reoccupied; ramshackle Oriental structures still stand cheek by jowl with steel and concrete office-buildings.

The commercial life of the city focuses in the spacious square known as the Place de France, from the center of which rises a lofty Oriental clock-tower. Starting at the clock-tower, an extremely broad thoroughfare, lined by banks, steamship agencies, curio shops, restaurants, cafés, and consulates, runs down to the _débarcadère_, where passengers land who arrive by sea. This east and west thoroughfare divides the commercial city into two sections. To the north lies the European business quarter, with its banks, stores, office-buildings, and hotels, nearly all of modern construction. Immediately to the south, surrounded by an ancient crenelated wall, are the _souks_, which here consist not of covered passageways, as is the case in most Moroccan cities, but of a tangle of narrow, crooked, cobble-paved streets, just wide enough for two carriages to pass, the trash-filled shops being kept for the most part by Greeks, Syrians, Armenians, and Indians. Though here are to be found none of the charming examples of Moorish art which make bazaar-shopping in Fez and Marrákesh so delightful, the curio dealers, who appear to have imported their stocks from Japan and Germany, drive a roaring trade, particularly when war-ships and tourist-steamers are in the harbor.

At the back of the business quarter is the new town, devoted in the main to public buildings and apartment-houses, with numerous pleasant parks and fine, broad streets. Conspicuous on a busy corner is the new post-office, an enormous mosque-like building which looks more like a Moorish place of prayer than a place for handling letters. On the steps are native letter-writers, ready to serve the illiterate by writing epistles of love, sympathy, business, or abuse for a small consideration; while at a desk just within the door sits a youth speaking a dozen languages who is supposed to be a human postal-guide, supplying any information which may be demanded of him—usually incorrectly. The various bureaus of the local French administration are pleasantly housed in a long, low building of white plaster which might have been transported bodily from southern California; and in the park close by is a really fine equestrian group, depicting a French cavalryman grasping the hand of a Moroccan spahi, which commemorates the aid given to France by Morocco during the Great War. It is good art, and, what is more important, it is good diplomacy.

Perhaps the most striking and significant of the reforms which the French have effected in Casablanca are illustrated by the lengths to which they have gone in safeguarding the health of the native in matters concerned with food and women. The great public market is the largest, best arranged, and cleanest I have ever seen; for the noise, odors, dirt, and general confusion which are such unpleasant features of many of our American market-places, and of nearly all European, are here wholly absent. The whole place is as immaculate as the operating-room of a hospital, and the public health is further safeguarded by a vigilant corps of sanitary inspectors, who ruthlessly order into the garbage-pails any tainted meats or over-ripe fruits and vegetables.

In the northern outskirts of the city is the abattoir, its tiled decorations giving it a Moorish atmosphere hardly to be looked for in such a building, which has been constructed on the most approved lines under the supervision of slaughter-house experts from Chicago and Kansas City. I didn’t visit the upper floors, where the killing is carried on, because in my life I have witnessed more than a sufficiency of bloody scenes; but the lower floors were so scrupulously clean, even though it was a busy day, as the decks of a war-ship. What with the thoroughly scrubbed concrete floors, and the white tiled walls, and the neat white smocks of the butchers and their assistants, it is a place where a beast of any discrimination should positively enjoy being slaughtered. The animals which are here transformed with neatness and despatch into steaks, chops, and cutlets consist of cattle, sheep, and a few mules and horses. Such few pigs as there are in Morocco die of disease or old age, never by the knife of the butcher, for pork is anathema to all Moslems. In the words of Mr. Armour—or was it Mr. Swift?—every portion of an animal which enters the Casablanca slaughter-house is utilized save the squeal; and it would not be surprising were the French, with their well known reputation for thrift, to conserve even that in the form of phonograph records!

[Illustration: THE RED CITY

All the buildings of Marrákesh are of a red-brown adobe called _tabiya_, so that the city looks like a great pool of coagulated blood spread upon the russet plain. But beyond the ramparts the orange-gardens form a broad band of vivid green, and beyond them, a dozen miles to the southward, the snow-capped peaks of the High Atlas “stand up like the thrones of kings”]

Somewhat further to the east, and more convenient of access from the town, is a community dedicated to the practice of the oldest profession in the world. It is what would be known in America as a “red-light district”—the quarter of the prostitutes. Instead of attempting to stamp out vice, which would be utterly impossible in an Oriental country like Morocco—there is a native proverb to the effect that the Moorish temperament consists of five parts, and that four of them are passion—the French have wisely decided to isolate it and, by official supervision, keep venereal maladies down to a minimum. Like the Yoshiwara of Yokohama, the prostitute quarter of Casablanca is a self-contained community, with its own bazaars for the sale of food and merchandise, the whole encircled by a wall with police _goumiers_ at the gate. The “daughters of pleasure” are of every Mediterranean nationality—Berber, Arab, Moresque, Ouled-Naïl, Senegalese, Egyptian, Greek, Spanish, Syrian, even Circassian. You pay your money and you take your choice, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that you make your choice first and pay the lady afterward. The range is amazing. Every sensual whim, every national taste, is catered to. Here you can find mountains of female flesh from the Jewish quarter of Tunis and visions of slim brown loveliness from the mountains of the Ouled-Naïl; hard-faced hussies from Tangier and lustrous-eyed houris from Marrákesh; strapping, coal-black negresses from the Niger country and dainty damsels from Mogador and Saffi, their Spanish blood betraying itself in their pink and olive skins and their bewitching eyes. It should be understood, of course, that this quarter is patronized almost wholly by Europeans and natives of the lower class, particularly by the soldiery, the more well-to-do finding their lady-loves among the hordes of French, Spanish, and Italian _filles de joie_ who carry on their trade within the city. The regulations governing the quarter are very strict. Each girl is examined at frequent intervals by a government physician, and, if she is found to have contracted a venereal disease, her “ticket”—that is, her license—is taken away from her until she is cured. The whole town is new from the ground up, the narrow lanes, whose cobbles are scrubbed until they shine, being lined with quaint, charmingly decorated little houses, which might be the studios of artists, with tiled roofs, blue or bright-green doors, and softly tinted walls of rough-cast plaster. The French architect whose creation it is evidently put his heart into the task.

Because of its excellent communications by sea, land, and air, Casablanca is the commercial, just as Rabat is the political, capital of Morocco. It is four days from Bordeaux by the steamers of the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique; overnight from Tangier and about two and a half days from Marseilles by the vessels of the Paquet Line; and it is a port of call for the Belgian mail-boats which ply between Antwerp and Matadi, in the Congo. (When Mrs. Powell and I came up from Central Africa and Senegal in 1925 we disembarked at Casablanca, that being my third visit to Morocco.) A service of fast trains is now in operation between Casablanca and Rabat, fifty miles away; and the narrow-gage line to Marrákesh is shortly to be standardized, if it has not been done already. Excellent motor roads run northeast to Rabat, Mequinez, and Fez; southeast along the coast to Mazagan, Safi, and Mogador; and south to Marrákesh, which can also be reached by a longer and poorer but very interesting road via Kasbah Tadla, which cannot be taken, however, without special permission from the military authorities. Telephonic communications with the other cities of Morocco, and the cable service with France, are good and remarkably inexpensive. There is also a daily airplane service between Casablanca and Paris via Málaga and Toulouse, letters bearing an air-post stamp which are dropped into the box at the general post-office in Casablanca in the morning being delivered in Paris on the afternoon of the next day. I forget the price of an airplane ticket from Casablanca to the French capital, but, if I remember rightly, it is no more expensive than first-class travel by train and boat.

* * * * *

Should your stay in Morocco be limited, you had best take the great trunk highway which runs from Casablanca almost due south to Marrákesh, a distance of 160 miles; but, if time is no particular object, and you can spend a night or so en route, I should advise you to follow the coast road through Azemour, Mazagan, Safi, and Mogador, glimpses of these picturesque and interesting cities amply compensating the traveler for the additional distance and fatigue.

Azemour, in turn a Carthaginian colony, a Roman outpost, and a Portuguese trading-station, and containing remains of all three occupations, lies half a hundred miles to the southwest of Casablanca and a mile and a half inland, where the Um-er-Rabi’a, here wide, deep, red, and rapid, comes swirling down from its birthplace in the High Atlas to meet its mother, the ocean. The impetuous Um-er-Rabi’a—the name means Mother of Grass—the second most important river of Morocco, is as long and wide as the Thames, but quite unnavigable because of the bar at its mouth and its numerous waterfalls. Azemour, the Arabic for “wild olives,” which stands on its southern bank, once marked the southernmost outpost of the sultanate of Fez, but in 1513 it was captured by the Portuguese; Ferdinand Magellan, the first circumnavigator of the globe, who was an officer of the expedition, was wounded during the assault on the town and lamed for life.

Just beyond, set on the edge of a curving bay, unusual on this coast, is Mazagan, the port of Marrákesh and the outlet for the products of the rich region known as the Dukála. It was built at the beginning of the sixteenth century by the Portuguese, then at the height of their sea-power, but they abandoned it to the Moors in 1769, the settlers moving to Brazil, where they established another colony, New Mazagan, on the banks of the Pará. The massive ramparts and crenelated battlements raised by the Portuguese give to Mazagan a very un-Moorish atmosphere, which is accentuated during the hot season by the thousands of Europeans who flock there for the sea bathing, its splendid _plage_ of pearl-white sand being dotted with hotels, casinos, bathing-cabins, and gaily colored umbrellas. Incidentally, Mazagan is noted throughout Morocco for its oysters, crabs, and lobsters, so those who are fond of seafood would do well to stop for lunch at one of the restaurants perched on stilts above the sands.

Next, as we push down the coast, comes Safi, the principal outlet for central Morocco’s wool and grain. It has no harbor worthy of the name, vessels being compelled to anchor in the open roadstead, whence communication with the shore is very difficult and dangerous when a northwest gale is blowing. The most conspicuous building in the town, and the only one worth visiting, is an old palace built by one of the Filali sultans—I think it was Mohammed XVII—whose beautifully tiled courtyards justify a brief inspection.

By far the most beautiful and interesting of the Moroccan coast towns, however, is Mogador, capital of the province of Háhá. Its dazzlingly white houses, encircled by an ancient wall, crown a little rocky peninsula jutting into the sea, which, when the wind comes from certain quarters, almost turns the place into an island, as in the case of Mont-Saint-Michel. On the landward side is a broad belt of gray-white sand-dunes—a miniature Sahara were it not studded with frequent patches of fragrant broom—and beyond, far as the eye can see, stretches the green mass of the Great Argan Forest, a densely wooded area one hundred and fifty miles long by thirty wide. Approached from this side, Mogador bursts on the view like a magic city hovering between sea and sky, which has led the Arabs, with their addiction for romantic nomenclature, to name it Es-Sueira—the Picture City. The name by which it is known to Europeans is a contraction of Sidi M’godol, a local saint who won a wide reputation by his ascetic piety. It is one of the cleanest towns in the empire and has one of the best harbors, driving a profitable trade in almonds, gums, olive-oil, and goatskins with England, France, and the Canary Islands. Mogador, in fact, provides a novel and most interesting gateway to southern Morocco, and one of which those in quest of the picturesque and unusual might profitably take advantage, for it has a weekly service of British cargo steamers, clean and comfortable, coming direct from London by way of the other Moorish ports.

[Illustration: THE MINARETS OF MARRÁKESH—

Which we were taught in our school-days to call “Morocco City”—are built for the most part of sun-dried, red-brown bricks and faced with glorious old tiles. When bathed in the rosy radiance of the westering sun they look like towers of bright pink coral inlaid with enamels in the colors of a peacock’s tail]

From Sidi M’godol’s city we turned sharply inland, the hood of the Renault now headed toward Marrákesh, due east and, as the road runs, something over a hundred miles away. For the first half-dozen miles our way wound amid a wilderness of sand-hills, their wind-smoothed surfaces casting an intolerable glare beneath the African sun; and our minds harked back to when, long weeks before, we had pitched our tents amid just such dunes in the Grand Erg Oriental of the Sahara. Here, however, the dunes were of but brief duration, and then our road plunged abruptly into the cool green depths of the Great Argan Forest. The argan, which is found nowhere else in the world, belongs to the _Sapotaceæ_ family and is a distant cousin of the gutta-percha tree. Its fruit, which ripens between May and August, is a nut somewhat resembling an olive and is a favorite food of camels, mules, goats, sheep, and cattle; from its kernel the natives extract an oil much used in the cookery of southern Morocco. But horses, like Europeans, refuse to touch the fruit in any form because of its nauseous flavor. Horses are highly intelligent animals.

And so, after a few delightful hours in the forest, and many hot and tiresome ones upon a dusty plain, dotted with clusters of conical thatched huts, called _nuállas_, like those of Central Africa, each village encircled by a _zariba_ of thorn-bush to keep off marauders, we topped a little rise just as the sun was dropping out of sight beyond the horizon’s rim, and looked down upon red Marrákesh. There are certain cities which cannot be approached for the first time by a traveler who has any imagination in his soul without a feeling of solemnity and deep anticipation. Such are Rome, Athens, Constantinople, Jerusalem, Damascus, Baghdad, Samarkand, Delhi, Peking; and to that list Marrákesh may fittingly be added. The Morocco City of our childhood, as the school geographies of those days erroneously called it; built nine hundred years ago by Yusuf ibn Tashfin and until very recent times all but inaccessible to unbelievers; the seat of monarchs whose splendors rivaled those of Harun al Rashid; associated since its beginning with cruelty and oppression; long notorious as a center of the slave-trade; its hectic history written with sword-points dipped in blood; it has ever been a city of mystery and high romance, beckoning alluringly to the adventurous traveler.

It lies in the center of a spacious plain—Bled el Hamra, “the Red”—barely a dozen miles from the underfalls of the High Atlas, whose mighty ranges sweep round it to the south and southeast in a tremendous arc, purple-flanked and topped with snow. As befits an imperial city—for it is one of the four capitals of the empire—Marrákesh is surrounded by a lofty wall, broken at regular intervals by huge square towers, wall and towers alike now crumbling into ruin. The city is encompassed and interspersed by luxuriant orange-groves and gorgeous gardens, and both within and without the walls are numerous broad open spaces of sun-baked earth, like Indian _maidans_. Rearing itself majestically above the expanse of crowded, flat-roofed houses, few of which are more than two stories in height, forming a landmark which can be seen from afar, is the Kutubia tower, a striking memorial of the architectural genius of the early Moors and one of the most famous monuments of its kind in the world. Without the town, forming a broad band of vivid green between it and the encircling plain, are acres of date-palm groves; hidden amid the greenery are low-walled gardens from which rises the fragrance of apricot, pomegranate, and orange blossoms; little rivulets, grandchildren of the Tensift, meander amid the stately trees; and from their nests atop the roofs and walls and towers white storks gaze benevolently down upon the passer-by.

It is fitting that Marrákesh should be called “the Red,” for, with the exception of the Kutubia mosque and a certain gate brought in pieces from Spain, there is not, it is asserted, a single stone building in the city, and even bricks are sparingly employed. The almost universal building material is a rammed concrete of red earth and stone called _tabiya_, and consequently everything in the city and its immediate vicinity—houses, walls, mosques, towers, ramparts, even the soil itself—is of a deep red-brown hue which changes beneath the afterglow to a gloriously rich and rosy shade of coral.

In Marrákesh, as in Fez, the Transatlantique has two hotels; one in the heart of the city, the other in the southern outskirts. The former, made over from an old Moorish palace, leaves much to be desired in the way of comfort, at least so far as the rooms are concerned; but the latter, known as the Mamounia Palace, recently completed and open only during the “high season,” is a really magnificent establishment, in fact the best application of the Moorish style to modern purposes that I have seen, which in beauty of decoration and completeness of equipment is the equal of any of the great tourist caravansaries of Florida or California.

The most conspicuous object in the city, dominating and dwarfing all else, is the splendid minaret of the Kutubia mosque already mentioned, both it and the similar but inferior Tower of Hassan at Rabat being of the same type as the contemporary Giralda at Seville; and, if tradition may be trusted, the same architect, Jabir, was responsible for all three. Its massive walls are of hand-hewn stone, mellowed by time and weather to a lovely shade of terra-cotta; inlaid in the upper portions of the four façades are enameled tiles of the “lost” shade of Persian blue, the equal of which for loveliness of color I have never seen save only in the Ulug-beg at Samarkand. Its cupola is thatched with very ancient glazed tiles of a beautiful jade green; and impaled on the slender spire itself are three glittering balls that, according to the Moors, are of solid gold, though the French _controleur civil_ assured me that they are but gilded copper. The mosque to which the Kutubia belongs is a large brick structure, the interior a forest of marble columns, which was built by Abd-el-Mumin, the first of the Almohade rulers, under whom the Moorish Empire reached the zenith of its fame and glory at the close of the twelfth century.

The life of Marrákesh, which has not far from one hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants, focuses in the great central market-place, still called the Sinners’ Concourse, because there, within the memory of men still young, were held the wholesale executions by which the sultans punished revolt and put fear into the hearts of their subjects. It is the scene of that well known painting entitled “The Justice of the Khalif”—I think it is by Gérôme, but I am not certain—in which a Moorish ruler is depicted seated on his white horse, beneath the green umbrella, surrounded by his viziers, chieftains, and slaves, while stretched in long rows on the bloodied ground are the headless corpses of those who dared oppose his will.

[Illustration: WHERE THE HEADS OF REBELS

Provided grisly ornaments for the Aguenaou Gate of Marrákesh in the not far distant past]

To my way of thinking, the _souks_ of Marrákesh, which comprise the district known as the Kaisariyeh, are the most interesting in all North Africa, and this despite the fact that the city, unlike Fez, has only one manufacture of importance, that of Morocco leather, which is here dyed in every color of the spectrum and made up into articles of every conceivable kind. The workmanship is generally inferior, however, and I should strongly advise any one in quest of leather goods—pillows, portfolios, and the like—to visit the studio of a well known French artist and his charming wife (I forget their names, but every one knows them) in the little house they have built just outside the western gate of the town. The house itself is a gem of modern Moorish domestic architecture; and the garden, with its masses of brilliant flowers, its pool, and its kiosks, is a place of sheer delight.

Hard by the street of the leather-merchants, just beyond the _souk_ where are manufactured the vividly colored cords of silk or wool used to support the leathern pouches which all Moors wear slung over their shoulders in lieu of pockets, is the armorers’ bazaar. Here weapons of every sort—rifles, pistols, simitars, and daggers—are displayed in bewildering variety. During a preceding visit to Marrákesh I had invested somewhat heavily in the short curved knives, with damascened blades, ivory or jeweled hilts, and sheaths of embossed silver, which are the favorite weapons of the Southland. Being a collector of blade weapons, I am not particularly interested in fire-arms, however, or was not until a Syrian acquaintance showed me a pair of long-barreled Moorish rifles which had been offered for sale that day by a tribal chieftain from the Sus. The barrels were nearly eight feet in length, bound with countless bands of hand-wrought silver, each of which was exquisitely arabesqued or bore an Arabic inscription. The stock of one was of some rare old wood, incrusted with silver and inlaid with ivory; the other was even richer, being set with colored enamels and semiprecious stones. Such pieces seldom come upon the market, for they were family heirlooms which had been handed down through many generations. The asking price was exorbitant, but I was determined to become their owner even if it necessitated my returning to America second-class. The negotiations, conducted by my obliging friend the Syrian, consumed the better part of a week, but the night before our departure he brought them to me at our hotel, having succeeded in beating down their owner to the limit I had fixed. To-day they repose in a glass case in an American museum, but of the hundreds who view them daily I suppose there are few indeed who pause to think of the desperate affrays in which they spoke with tongues of flame, of the unbelievers against whom they were leveled, of the turbaned sheikhs who once bore them on their red saddle-bows as they rode on their raids across the desert. To the unimaginative they are, I suppose, but queer old guns.

By reason of its situation at the mouths of the passes which lead through the Atlas to the Sahara, Marrákesh was for centuries an important center of the slave-trade, in fact the greatest market in northwest Africa for the “black ivory” brought across the desert by caravan from the Niger country and the Sudan. This accounts, of course, for the great number of coal-black faces seen in the city’s streets and for the negroid features of so many of the southern Moors. With the coming of the French the open traffic in human beings was perforce abandoned, but that should not be taken as meaning that slavery in Morocco no longer exists, for the institution still survives, though in a restricted and less ostentatious form. Most of the wealthy Moors own slaves, as do all the great caïds and pashas, a fact of which the French are perfectly aware, though for reasons of policy they close their eyes to it. They have, however, succeeded in effectually breaking up the trans-Saharan slave-trade, and, with the sealing of this great source of supply, slaves are becoming increasingly difficult to secure and have advanced enormously in price.

There are several dealers in Marrákesh—and the same is true of Fez—who are always in a position to supply trusted customers with negro slaves, both male and female, at a price, though I was told that the Circassian slave-girls, always at a premium because of their beauty, can no longer be obtained. The prospective purchaser tells the slave dealer what he wants, and the latter goes about the business of supplying his customer’s requirements just as an employment agency supplies its patrons with domestics. When I was in Marrákesh in 1925 a French official of the Bureau Arabe told me that the market price for a young girl of good physique was about three thousand francs, which was equivalent to about one hundred and fifty dollars at the rate of exchange then prevailing. Many American men, it might be remarked, spend as much as that on one of their lady-friends in the course of a single evening—and usually get less value for their money.

Let me make it amply clear, however, that the conditions described in “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” do not now exist in Morocco, whatever may once have been the case. A slave who is dissatisfied with the treatment she (or he) is receiving can always demand to be sold, and, furthermore, can refuse to be sold to a prospective purchaser of whom he does not approve. All this is, of course, very exasperating to the old-fashioned Moors, who were brought up to believe, like the planters of the pre-war South, that their slaves were as much their property as their horses and their dogs, and that they were at liberty to treat them as they pleased and to dispose of them as they chose.

“Allah only knows what the world is coming to,” they complain bitterly, “when a slave-girl begins talking about her ‘rights’! In our fathers’ time, when a girl talked thus, she got a touch of the bastinado. Why, if this sort of thing keeps on, Morocco will soon become as impossible a country to live in as the country of the Frangi, where, it is said, a cook actually has the insolence to demand that she be permitted to go out on Sunday afternoons. By the beard of the Prophet, we Moors are coming to a pretty pass when we permit such a state of things!”

[Illustration: THE PUPPET AND THE MAN WHO PULLED THE STRINGS

Marshal Lyautey, formerly French resident-general in Morocco, entertains Sultan Mulai Yusef at _déjeuner_]

[Illustration: THE EMPIRE BUILDER

Marshal Lyautey, the maker of modern Morocco, and one of the greatest pro consuls of our time, issues orders to his chief of staff]

This seems as good a place as another to speak of the position occupied by Moorish women. To begin with, it should be explained that polygamy is by no means as universal in Morocco, or, for that matter, in any other Oriental country, as is commonly assumed, for, though a man may legally have four wives and as many concubines as he pleases, the size of his harem must of necessity conform to his financial condition. And, even if a man can afford to maintain the full quota of wives permitted him by Koranic law, he generally prefers to spend his substance on concubines, for these do the work of the house, and, if they bear their master no children, they may be sold like any other chattels. Polygamy, generally speaking, is confined to the rich, or at least the comfortably well-to-do, for the facility of divorce makes it much cheaper for a man to change wives frequently than to keep several at the same time. An American, by way of illustration, finds it more economical to keep only one motor-car, and turn it in every year or so for a new one, than to keep his garage filled with machines which stand idle a large share of the time. The age-old question of feminine jealousy also proves a deterrent to the maintenance of large matrimonial establishments, for a man who does not treat all of his wives with equal generosity is not likely to lead a very tranquil domestic life. The sultan, who is said to have upward of five hundred women in his harem, must have his troubles!

In Morocco girls frequently marry at ten or twelve, and a man is looked upon as a confirmed bachelor if he has not entered the state of matrimony before he is out of his teens. Old maids are virtually unknown, for a woman, be she ever so unattractive, is useful for doing the household chores, though a girl of slender figure stands a far slimmer chance—if I may be permitted the pun—of making a good match than does a fat one. For flesh is considered a prerequisite of feminine beauty in Morocco, and, writers of fiction to the contrary, a Moor wants no slim and dainty damsels lying around his harem. To obviate so unfortunate a physical defect, a young girl, upon approaching the marriageable age, is, like a Strasbourg goose, subjected to a systematic course of stuffing. After each meal an ambitious Moorish mother compels her daughter to swallow a dozen or so of sausage-shaped boluses compounded of flour, honey, eggs, and butter, thus producing the corpulency which the Moors consider essential to a truly lovely woman. Because of this process of fattening, and of total lack of exercise, a woman’s avoirdupois increases with her years, so that by the time she has reached her middle twenties she is, if Allah has been kind to her, a series of fleshy billows, waddling and rolling along like a four-master under full sail.

When a man marries he gives the bride’s father a money present, but this does not amount to a purchase of the girl, as some have asserted, for she always brings to her new home furniture and household utensils worth considerably more than the bridegroom’s gift, and, in case of divorce, she retains possession of them. Until a woman becomes a grandmother—usually at about thirty—and loses her beauty, she is forbidden to so much as speak to any of the opposite sex save only her husband, sons, father, and brothers; even an uncle or a cousin would not dare to salute her on the street should he be able to recognize her beneath her swathing of _burkha_, _haik_, and _barracan_. And the husband who, upon returning home, finds a pair of women’s slippers outside the _anderun_, may under no consideration enter, because he knows that some one else’s wife or daughter is within.

Thus encloistered, with no outside interests whatsoever to occupy their minds, it is not surprising that the thoughts of these prisoners of the harem should turn to sensual things. Nor should it be assumed that, by reason of the constant surveillance to which they are subjected, Moorish women are invariably chaste, for husbands sometimes are called away, slaves may be bribed or cajoled, windows may be reached by ladders, and every door has its key. Where there is a will there is usually a way. The truth of the matter is, as Mr. Budgett Meakin has remarked, that nothing short of the unexpurgated edition of the “Thousand and One Nights” can convey an adequate idea of what goes on within those whited sepulchers, the high, blank walls of Moorish homes.

All women save the wives of the rich possess sufficient skill in sewing or embroidery to be able to support themselves in case of need, for, strictly speaking, a husband is required to supply his wife only with a head-kerchief and slippers. As a rule, Moorish wives have very little money, and it is a common thing for wives to steal from their husbands in order to purchase clothes and even food. Candor compels me to admit, however, that such incidents are not unheard of in more highly civilized countries.

In Morocco divorce is a very simple matter—at least for the husband. When he tires of a wife all he has to say is, “Woman, I divorce thee! Get thou hence!” whereupon she has no option but to return to her own family. In theory, it is true, she may get a divorce from him, but this is extremely difficult in practice. All women, divorced or otherwise, are regarded as widows, and may remarry six months after the death of a husband or three months after a divorce. The husband may repent and take his wife back a first and a second time, but after she has been divorced three times he may not marry her again until she has been wedded to some one else and divorced. The Moors, who are an impulsive, hot-tempered race, frequently divorce their wives on the flimsiest grounds. For example, when a man swears by the _haram_—that is, by the forbidden—and does not fulfil his oath, he has to divorce his wife. Miss Sophie Denison, the English medical missionary in Fez of whom I have already spoken, told me of a young Moor of her acquaintance, newly wedded and genuinely in love with his wife, who, while strolling with a friend one day, took his oath over some trifling matter. Unable to keep his vow, he returned home and divorced his bride of a few weeks. The story does not end tragically, however, for when the prescribed interval had elapsed he remarried her.

* * * * *

A short distance without the splendid Aguenaou Gate of Marrákesh, one of the finest in all Morocco, are the gardens of the Aguedal, the pleasure-place of the Moorish sultans. It is in reality an enormous orchard, two and a quarter miles long and a mile and a half wide, surrounded by a lofty, bastioned wall, its fruit-trees—oranges, lemons, figs, and olives—set out in ordered rows. In the center is a reservoir, or tank, as it would be called in Persia, about six hundred feet square and edged with a marble coping. Toward one end of the inclosure is a second pool, somewhat larger than the central one. On the edge of the smaller of the two pools is a Moorish pavilion with a spacious marble terrace, where, on hot summer evenings, the women of the imperial harem sometimes come to bathe and to enjoy the comparative coolness, for during the summer Marrákesh becomes unendurably hot, the mercury frequently rising to 110° in the shade. Personally, I think that the Aguedal is vastly overrated, for, when we were there, the buildings were in a state of disrepair, the roads leading through the gardens were deep in dust, and the lake reflected the scorching rays of the African sun like a sheet of burnished copper. Toward nightfall, however, when the heat of the day has passed and the pavilions and the trees are mirrored in the peacock-tinted waters, it must be very lovely.

[Illustration: OVERLORDS OF THE SOUTHLAND

In the hot season, when the sand scorches the feet and the sky is a brazen dome, they wear atop their turbans enormous hats of straw, their flopping brims reinforced with strips of colored leather

The Grand Caïds are modern counterparts of the feudal barons of the Middle Ages, riding abroad on splendidly caparisoned horses with hordes of armed retainers at their heels]

Journeying south from Casablanca the observant traveler can hardly fail to note the steady decrease in the numbers of French soldiers, until, by the time Marrákesh is reached, the European fighting-man has almost disappeared. For, as has been remarked, the whole of the Southland is under the rule of the Grand Caïds, and its towns are garrisoned by their own soldiery—ruffianly looking nondescripts, for the most part, though the well drilled household troops of El Glaoui, the most powerful of the native chieftains, wear uniforms which vie in gorgeousness with those of the Shereefian Guard.

The military forces in Morocco consist normally of twenty-two regiments of infantry, six regiments of cavalry, and twelve battalions of artillery, which, with the special service organizations, give a total of 22,000 French troops and 47,000 Moroccans. To these must be added a force of native auxiliary troops, including the Shereefian Guard, having a strength of approximately 24,000 men, so that it will be seen that even in peace-time some 93,000 soldiers are employed to garrison the country, though this number was trebled, if not quadrupled, during the fighting in the Riff. Two divisions recruited from native Moroccans served with marked distinction in the Great War and are now quartered on the Rhine, where they have been a cause of much dissension, the Germans claiming that they are colored troops, to which the French retort that the Moroccans are Berbers and, therefore, Caucasians. That France has found in Morocco a valuable source of man-power goes without saying, and this the French intend to exploit to the fullest degree; but to assert, as has one American writer, that “the population of Morocco could furnish her [France] possibly a million of glad and willing defenders in case of need” is, of course, absurd. The total population of French Morocco, as estimated by the French themselves, is something under five and a half millions, yet Belgium, with a population nearly half again as large, even when fighting for her very existence, was never able to place anything like a million men in the field. Though such statements are doubtless good propaganda they are grossly misleading.

Though in Marrákesh there is a French garrison—composed almost wholly of spahis and Senegalese—and a considerable staff of army officers and civil officials, pains are taken to see that the military are in evidence as little as possible. This is due, no doubt, to a desire to conciliate El Glaoui, the great overlord of the Southland, who wields a power which is almost despotic. If a native jeweler has a gem which he covets, he takes it, and pays for it or not as he pleases; if he hears of a beautiful girl, he sends his slaves to her home and without so much as a by-your-leave has her brought to his harem, and her family do not dare to voice a protest; if a man defies him he has him bastinadoed or thrown into the terrible dungeons of the prison called Hib Misbah; if the tribes under his jurisdiction revolt, as occasionally happens, he drowns the rebellion in a sea of blood. Like all great Moorish gentlemen, El Glaoui is a charming host, gracious, generous to a fault, and thoughtful of his guests’ comfort, but there is that in his smoldering eyes and relentless mouth which warns one that it would not be safe to cross him.

It may be asked, in this connection, whether the people of Morocco, as a whole, are really contented under French rule and desire to see it continued. I do not think so, though in saying this I realize that I am taking issue with the opinions so loudly expressed by the members of several self-styled “American missions,” who have been invited to Morocco by the French government for purposes of propaganda and who have been flattered with free motor trips, reviews, dinners, and decorations. It is true that the agricultural population of the country is awakening to a realization that French rule means for them strict justice and freedom from oppression; the merchant class views the protectorate with favor because it spells peace and increased prosperity; the Grand Caïds will remain loyal to France just so long as they find it profitable to do so. Yet among the mass of the people, particularly in the hinterland, there exists, if not actual discontent, at least a feeling of sullen resentment that the land of their fathers should be ruled by foreigners and unbelievers. That the people of Morocco are vastly better off under the rule of France than they were under their own sultans, no fair-minded person can deny, but the same may be said with equal truth of Egypt and the Philippines, where England and the United States respectively have conferred enormous benefits on the native populations. Yet both the Egyptians and the Filipinos want to rule themselves, and the Moroccans, unless I am very much mistaken, want the same. For colonial powers have found, over and over again, that to impose their rule on native peoples, no matter how just and kindly and beneficial that rule may be, is to incur, as Kipling puts it,

The blame of those ye better, The hate of those ye guard.

Sultan Mulai Yusef was in residence in Marrákesh during my last visit save one to that city, and through the courtesy of the French authorities it was arranged that I should meet him. The audience was to take place in the imperial palace, a huge, wall-encircled congeries of buildings near the Aguenaou Gate, at ten o’clock in the morning. I was accompanied by the Vicomte de Trémaudan, an official of the French civil administration who had volunteered to act as interpreter, and by an American friend.

“The etiquette of the Shereefian court is very strict,” explained de Trémaudan, “and must be punctiliously observed. Upon entering his Majesty’s presence we are expected to stop and bow, to advance a little way and bow again, and then to move forward a few more paces and bow a third time.”

“I’ve met quite a number of kings and emperors in my time,” I remarked, “not to mention a whole raft of shahs and sultans, and with all of them one bow was quite sufficient; but if the sultan insists on his guests performing the Daily Dozen as they approach him, why, I have no objection.”

Alighting from our car at the entrance to the palace, where a detachment of the Garde Noire presented arms, we were conducted by chamberlains through an interminable series of courtyards, corridors, and anterooms, between rows of saluting soldiers and salaaming slaves, emerging at length into a vast marble-paved courtyard bathed in the hot African sunshine. Assembled on a terrace at the farther end of the court, and evidently awaiting us, was a group of white-clad figures, one of them, apparently a person of importance, standing somewhat in front of the rest.

[Illustration: MOST PEOPLE THINK OF MOROCCO AS A SEMI-ARID COUNTRY

Yet this cork forest at Ain Leuh is only one of many such within the empire. Nearly the whole of Morocco is mountainous—one of the Atlas peaks is higher than any mountain in the United States outside of Alaska—and many regions are rich in woodlands and streams]

“That is the sultan,” whispered de Trémaudan. “Now don’t forget what I told you about bowing.”

“All right,” I responded. “As citizens of a true democracy we’ll do our best to make an impression on royalty. Here goes.... One ... two ... three....”

We stepped out with the precision of Prussian guardsmen. When half-way down the court de Trémaudan whispered a word of command, at which we came to a sudden halt, clicked our heels together, and bowed as a single man. Ten yards on we repeated the performance. And, arriving opposite the waiting figure, we did it all over again. Whereupon a French officer, who had been watching us with considerable amusement, called out to de Trémaudan:

“But this isn’t the sultan, _mon vieux_. This is the master of ceremonies, who is waiting to conduct you to his Majesty.”

De Trémaudan’s face turned to the color of the ribbon which he wore upon his breast, and I felt as once I did when, taking part in amateur theatricals, I got too far down-stage and found myself outside the descending curtain. But I had made all the obeisances I intended to; I had no more flummeries left in my system; so, when we were shown into an inner court and from a small pavilion Mulai Yusef himself advanced to greet us, I bowed with the respect which is due to the head of any government, be it Moroccan or American, whereupon the Prince of True Believers shook me most democratically by the hand and pressed me into a chair beside him.

I don’t know how old Mulai Yusef is, but I should guess that he is somewhere in the middle forties, though it is difficult to tell the age of an Oriental. As might be expected, he has none of the characteristic features of the Moor, for he is not a Berber but an Arab. He is a man of medium height, his portliness emphasized by his voluminous garments, with a full, almost bloated face, sleepy-looking, kindly eyes which have a glint of humor in them, full red lips, a wonderfully clear olive skin, and, like all Moors of the upper class, a scraggly fringe of beard along the line of the chin. He wore a _djellaba_ of some finely woven creamy white material, the hood of which was drawn up so as to cover his head and partly shield his features; beneath the hem of his garment showed slippers of soft yellow leather. About his dress, in fact, there was nothing whatsoever to distinguish him from any other Moorish gentleman.

The little kiosk, or pavilion, in which the sultan received us was exquisitely decorated in the Moorish style, his Majesty sitting on a broad divan in the native fashion, though we were provided with incongruous-looking French chairs upholstered in yellow satin. During the audience, which lasted perhaps three quarters of an hour, the conversation touched on many things—the sultan’s hope of some day visiting the United States (which, I have found, is a stock remark of monarchs in talking to Americans), the beneficence of French rule in Morocco, what I had seen in the empire, and where I was going. All mention of political questions was noticeably avoided. So innocuous was the conversation that I had the feeling that I was talking to a puppet and that I could almost see the French official who stood in the background dexterously manipulating the strings. Negro slaves served us with tiny cups of thick black Arab coffee and Turkish cigarettes; the sultan placed his hand upon my shoulder in a sort of benediction and expressed the pious wish that Allah watch over us on our journey; and we sidled from the presence in what strove to be a dignified compromise between American informality and Eastern etiquette.

It was one of those glorious days of blue and gold, so rarely found anywhere outside of Morocco and southern California, when we set out from Marrákesh on the last lap of our long journey, our final objective the forbidden Sus. The sky was an inverted bowl of bluest Chinese porcelain, and before us a burnt-umber plain, flat as the top of a table, stretched away, away, to where the Atlas Mountains “stand up like the thrones of kings.” As we left the Red City behind us and took the ancient road by which conquerors and caravans have come up from the Sahara since ever time began, I found myself humming those lines of John McGroarty’s:

All in the golden weather Forth let us fare to-day; You and I together Upon the King’s Highway....

It was late spring, the ideal season in which to see any country, and the land was as gay with flowers as a woman’s Easter bonnet. Nowhere else have I seen flowers grow as they do in Morocco; for, instead of being interspersed, the various species hold aloof from one another, each confining itself to certain ground, which gives to the landscape the appearance of a vast, old-fashioned coverlet. Dark blue, purple, yellow, white, and scarlet—iris, bugloss, marigold, lily, and poppy—occurred in patches of several acres; as we approached the lower slopes of the mountains whole hills and valleys were blue with borage and convolvulus. At times the road wound across a carpet of green and yellow mignonette; at others it was banked by drifts of asphodel, white lilies, daisies, lavender, thyme, and broom. On one occasion, while Tomine was repairing a puncture, Mrs. Powell and my daughter picked thirty varieties of wild flowers in half as many minutes. After seeing this amazing floral splendor one understands whence the Moors obtained the inspiration for their chromatic art; but, like most really beautiful things, it is of brief duration, and under the scorching sun of Africa it soon sinks into the russet monotony of withered herbage.

It is said that when Sidi Okba made his great march from the Nile to the Atlantic he and his warriors rode in the shade of trees all the way. But even if this statement once were true—and the Arabs are fond of exaggeration—it is true no longer. Nevertheless, Morocco is by no means destitute of arboreal beauty. The cork-tree, which once provided the country with an important industry, has lost ground enormously, the Moroccans being unable to keep pace with Portuguese and Spanish competition; but it is still found in great numbers in the Ma’mora forest, twenty miles in length, which lies between the Sebu and the Bou Ragrag, and there is a similar and even larger forest not far from Mequinez. I have already spoken of the vast argan forest, nearly five thousand square miles in extent, to the east of Mogador; while on the lower slopes of the mountains the mimosa, the aloe, and the prickly pear are abundant, and higher up evergreens, pines, and junipers, cypresses and cedars, clothe the mountain valleys in mantles of vivid green. Of the individual trees, none is more remarkable than the arar, a cypress-like tree which is found both in the Moroccan and the Algerian Atlas. From its beautiful and enduring timber was built the roof of the famous cathedral at Cordova; it has been identified with the citrus-wood of the ancient Romans; and it furnishes a valuable variety of gum.

[Illustration: THE STRONGHOLD OF THE CAÏD GOUNDAFI, OVERLORD OF THE FORBIDDEN SUS

The _kasbahs_ of the Grand Caïds, like the castles of the old robber barons, invariably occupy positions of great natural strength, usually commanding mountain passes. The massive rose-red walls of the Kasbah Goundafi tower above the narrow defile in the High Atlas through which runs the trade-route between Marrákesh and the Sus]

For some reason most people think of Morocco as an extremely hot country, yet, save in the far south, it is not even a subtropical one, having, in fact, much the same climate as the lands on the opposite side of the Mediterranean, to which its flora and its general physical character bear a striking resemblance. It has been described as a cold country with a hot sun, and this is true on the whole, though it is manifestly unsafe to generalize regarding a region so extensive in area and so varied in altitude. The coast, shielded by the maritime ranges from the hot winds of the Sahara and fanned by cool breezes from the sea, has a climate akin to that of the Riviera, but without the chilling mistrals and the sudden changes in temperature which make life on the Côte d’Azur so trying at times. Inland Morocco becomes extremely disagreeable, however, during the summer heat and winter rains, the best times for visiting the interior being from late September to early December and from the end of April to mid-June. Like California, it is a country of extremes, for, looking across the orange-groves from the windows of my room in Marrákesh, when the thermometer stood at nearly 100 in the shade, I have seen snow gleaming on the Atlas, less than a score of miles away.

The Atlas, which forms the backbone of the country, is known to the Moors as Idráren Dráren—Mountains of Mountains. And it is appropriately named, for as I have remarked elsewhere, it has a greater average height than the Alps, its series of tremendous peaks culminating in Mount Tinzar, which has an estimated height of fifteen thousand feet, being higher, therefore, than any peak in the United States outside of Alaska. The Moroccan Atlas consists of five distinct ranges varying in length and height but running more or less parallel to one another. Southernmost of the five is Djebel Saghru, or Anti-Atlas, which forms Morocco’s first line of natural defense against the Sahara. Since the dawn of history caravans of slaves, spices, ostrich-feathers, ivory, and gold from Central Africa and the Niger countries have entered Morocco by the passes of the Anti-Atlas, one of them being a gap barely five paces in width, the strata of variegated marbles which form its walls having been polished to a gleaming brilliancy by the camels and bales of merchandise which have rubbed against them through countless centuries.

The main range, known as the High Atlas, which we were now approaching, is by far the longest and loftiest of the five chains. Its southern flanks, being exposed to the hot, dry winds of the Sahara, are almost totally destitute of vegetation; but the slopes facing toward the north are covered with splendid forests of oak, cedar, cork, and pine and inclose numerous well watered valleys of great fertility, in which half-savage Berber tribes, their miserable villages clinging precariously to the hillsides, cultivate tiny irrigated fields with the implements used in the days of Abraham.

For a distance of a hundred miles or more that portion of the High Atlas lying to the south of Marrákesh is a huge blank wall, unpierced by any passes practicable for motor-cars or even caravans; but further to the west a road of sorts crosses the Bibawan Pass at a height of 4150 feet and drops down into the valley of the upper Sus; while beyond it the Goundafi Pass, considerably lower but more rugged and difficult, gives access to the Susi capital of Tarundant.

Perhaps I have not made it sufficiently clear that our destination was the valley between the High Atlas and the Anti-Atlas traversed by the River Sus, from which it takes its name and whose ever-flowing stream is sufficient to turn the whole district into a garden. Once an independent kingdom, peopled by a race of warlike and highly fanatical Berber mountaineers, believed to be immensely rich in mines of gold and copper, long closed to trade by imperial decree, and still too unruly to be opened to Europeans, the Sus is one of the most inaccessible, picturesque, and interesting regions in the empire. Caravans laden with copper-ware, olive-oil, butter, saffron, wax, goatskins, dates, dried roses, gold-dust—how their mere enumeration stirs the imagination!—regularly make the four days’ journey over the rugged Goundafi Pass from Tarundant to Marrákesh; and a handful of French officials are now scattered through the district, which is gradually becoming pacified, but it is still regarded as unsafe for foreigners and is officially forbidden to colonists or travelers, permission to visit it being obtainable only from the French resident-general at Rabat, who passes the request on to the Grand Caïds who are the real masters of the country.

It is a region of savagery and grandeur; the soaring, snow-capped peaks, the ramparts of purple rock, the narrow roads bordered by dizzy precipices, the dark and gloomy forests of cypress, pine, and cedar, the leafy glens, the tumbling streams and sparkling waterfalls, the stone villages perched each on its mountain-top, all reminded us of the Grand Kabylia, which the Sus resembles, though on a vastly greater and more impressive scale. The Susi, who speak a Berber dialect called Shillah, are a hard-bitten, wiry race, distinguished in dress by their short cloaks of a brown and white striped homespun and by the fact that they do not as a rule wear turbans. Fierce fighters, shrewd traders, skilled workers in the copper mined from their native mountains, they lead hard, squalid, and frugal lives, being prodigal only in powder and human life.

Now we were in the dominions of the Caïd Goundafi, the great feudal chieftain who is overlord of the Sus; and it was thanks to him that, at the request of General Daugan, the French commander at Marrákesh, our journey was made not only safe but reasonably comfortable. For there are no hotels in the Sus, and, unless Gandoufi makes arrangements for the traveler to be put up at his _kasbahs_, one is faced with the alternatives of passing a sleepless night in a vermin-infested hovel or of making himself as comfortable as he can in the open.

These _kasbahs_, which are to be found not only in the fastnesses of the High Atlas but throughout central and southern Morocco, are in reality feudal strongholds, half-palace and half-fortress. They are usually situated far from the beaten paths of travel, occupying positions of great natural strength; for, like the French and English castles of the Middle Ages, they were originally designed with a view to defense against the incursions of the border tribes. With their crenelated ramparts and keeps and bastions, their drawbridges and courtyards, their loopholed walls and massive towers, they are immensely imposing and frequently of astounding size, one of those which we visited bearing a striking resemblance to Windsor Castle. To emerge from a gloomy defile, whose rocky walls rise sheer on either hand, and be confronted by one of these stupendous strongholds frowning down from its lofty site upon the valley below, produces an impression not far removed from awe. The traveler has the feeling that he has been magically transported back into the dim and distant past, “when knights were bold and barons held their sway,” the impression of an earlier age being heightened when he sees a cavalcade of brilliantly garbed horsemen issuing from the bastioned gate and catches on the battlements the glint of steel.

[Illustration: A SEAT OF FEUDAL POWER

Hidden away in the remote fastnesses of the High Atlas are the _kasbahs_ of the Grand Caïds—African counterparts of the baronial castles of the Middle Ages]

And so, following the winding Sus, we swung down through the green and ever-broadening valley to where, set on a lofty eminence above the river’s mouth, the white battlements of Agadir—the Santa Cruz de Berbería of the Spaniards, the Gate of the Sudan—look out upon the broad Atlantic. Barbary lay behind us; our long journey was at an end. As I stood upon the hill-slopes looking down upon the cluster of square white houses which form the little town, it struck me that Agadir, remote as it is, was in a way symbolic of all North Africa. Its Berber inhabitants converted by the Arabs to Islam, it has been occupied in turn by Portuguese, by Spaniards, and by French, yet the Arabs alone have left any lasting impression. Coveted by the Germans because of its mineral wealth, it almost precipitated a great European war. Whether it will remain isolated, barbarous, and forbidden, or whether it will be opened up to civilization, only the future can determine. But I was too tired to speculate on African problems, so I left the Dark Continent to settle its own troubles and turned my attention to the evening meal. When darkness had fallen we climbed to the ancient fort atop the hill, my wife and I, and, ensconcing ourselves in an angle of the seaward ramparts, gazed out across the silent, star-lit ocean to where, four thousand miles away, lay America—and home. At our backs the ghostly bulk of the High Atlas reared itself skyward in a mighty and mysterious wall. From somewhere amid the shadows of the sleeping town below came the throb of desert drums.

So we sat, just she and I, on the fort, That crumbling shell of transient power, While o’erhead the vast armadas of all time went wheeling by And we watched their flashing signals hour on hour.

A SHORT GLOSSARY OF ARABIC WORDS AND PHRASES COMMONLY USED IN BARBARY

_Adar-ya-yan!_ Command used to bring a camel to its knees.

_Afrit_ Spirit, ghost.

_Agal_ The cord, commonly of wool but sometimes of gold, for binding the head-cloth in place.

_Ahl Kitab_ The People of the Book; that is, Christians or Jews.

_Allah_ God.

_Allahu Akbar!_ God is great!

_Andak!_ Stop! Halt!

_Anderun_ That portion of a house or tent occupied by the women.

_’Arasi_ Pleasure-gardens.

_Aselamu aleikum_ Greeting to you!

_Asha_ The evening prayer.

_Asr_ The afternoon prayer.

_’Atara_ Sweet-smelling.

_Bab_ Gate.

_Barek balek!_ Look out! Make way!

_Bairaq_ A tribal flag or banner, an ensign of rank.

_Barracan_ Woman’s outer garment.

_Barrak_ To form animals into line or square.

_Bassourab_ The striped, hooped camel-tent, shaped somewhat like a balloon, in which women travel.

_Basha_ The Arab’s pronunciation of “Pasha,” as there is no _p_ in the Arabic alphabet.

_Bey_ The hereditary title of the rulers of Tunisia; the governor of a Turkish province.

_Berkouks_ Pellets of sweetened rice.

_Bilhana!_ Wishing you joy!

_Bilshifa!_ Wishing you health!

_Bismillah!_ In the name of Allah!

_Bled_ Plain.

_Bokra_ To-morrow.

_Borj_ Tower.

_Burghal_ A dish of mince-meat and porridge.

_Burkha_ An outer garment, with slits for the eyes, which envelops a woman from head to foot.

_Burnous_ A cloak-like garment with a hood attached.

_Cadi_, or _Kadi_ A judge; a magistrate who tries cases involving the Koranic law.

_Caïd_ or _Kaïd_ A prince, a governor, a tribal ruler.

_Caftan_ A long gown with sleeves, usually of silk.

_Chéchia_ Tunisian fez.

_Cherchem_ Beans.

_Cous-cous_ A lamb stuffed with almonds and raisins and roasted whole.

_Dahir_ Decree.

_Dar_ Palace.

_Dhuhr_ The midday prayer.

_Diffa_ A meal, banquet, feast.

_Djamaa_ Mosque.

_Djebel_ A mountain, or range of mountains.

_Djemel_ A baggage camel.

_Djerid_ Palm-frond; also applied to a region in southern Tunisia.

_Djinn_ An evil spirit.

_Douar_ A large encampment.

_Eblis_ The Moslem infernal regions; hell.

_Ekhwan_ The elders of a tribe.

_El_ The.

_Emir_ A prince, an independent chieftain, a title given to certain descendants of Mohammed.

_Emshi!_ Go away! Clear out!

_Emshi besselema!_ A farewell salutation, equivalent to “Good night.”

_Erg_ Sand-dune.

_Faddhl_ To converse, gossip.

_Fakous_ Cucumber.

_Fantasia_ An exhibition of horsemanship and “powder play,” similar to the Spanish _rodeo_.

_Fatha_ The opening verse of the Koran.

_Fatta_ A dish of eggs and carrots.

_Fedjr_ The morning prayer.

_Feisha_ An amulet or charm.

_Fesquia_ Reservoir.

_Fil-fil_ The soft boots worn in the desert.

_Fondouk_ or _Fondak_ A cheap inn, a lodging-place for caravan-men.

_Foum_ Mouth.

_Franzawi_ French, a Frenchman.

_Gandoura_ A long garment, usually of cotton, resembling a night-gown.

_Ghar_ A subterranean dwelling in the Matmata country.

_Giaour_ An infidel, an unbeliever.

_Gibli_ A sand-laden desert wind.

_Girba_ A water-skin, four usually being carried on each camel of a caravan.

_Goumier_ or _Goum_ A native policeman, a light horseman; in Barbary the _goumiers_ form a force of mounted constabulary.

_Hadj_ A pilgrimage, as to Mecca.

_Hadji_ A pilgrim, distinguished by a green scarf about his turban when he has made the Mecca pilgrimage.

_Haik_ The combined head-cloth and veil worn by the desert tribes; also the veil worn by women in the towns.

_Hakim_ A physician.

_Hamad_ A stony plain, a steppe.

_Hamdullilah!_ It shall be so!

_Hamla_ Baggage camels.

_Hamman_ A bath, a bathing establishment.

_Hamra_ Red.

_Haram_ The forbidden. Synonymous with _harem_.

_Harem_ The wives and concubines of a Moslem or the apartments allotted to them. Pronounced _ha-réem_.

_Harka_ A band of fighting-men, varying in number.

_Haya alla Salat! Haya alla Falah!_ The Moslem call to prayer.

_Hejin_ A racing-camel.

_Hejira_ Flight; specifically, the flight of Mohammed from Mecca, September 13, A.D. 622.

_Henna_, or _Hinna_ A thorn-shrub and the reddish stain made from it.

_Hezaam_ A woman’s veil.

_Houri_ A nymph of the Mohammedan paradise, a beautiful and seductive woman.

_Imam_ A priest; also a descendant of Mohammed who exercises both princely and priestly powers.

_Inshallah!_ The will of God!

_Islam_ The Mohammedan religion; the whole body of Mohammedans, or the countries which they occupy.

_Jalib_ A well.

_Jehad_ A holy war.

_Jellabia_ A smock-like garment, worn under the burnous.

_Ka’aba_ The great sanctuary at Mecca, the Moslem holy of holies.

_Kadi_ or _Cadi_ A judge; a magistrate who tries cases involving the Koranic law.

_Kaibabs_ Bits of mutton roasted on a skewer.

_Kaïd_ or _Caïd_ A prince, a governor, a tribal ruler.

_Kantara_ Bridge.

_Kasbah_ A fortress or castle.

_Kasr_ A castle.

_Kahena_ Priestess.

_Keffieh_ A head-cloth.

_Kebir_ Strong.

_Khalif_, or _Caliph_ A title of the successors of Mohammed both as temporal and spiritual rulers; now used by the sultans of Morocco.

_Khalifa_ A representative or viceroy of the Khalif.

_Khallas!_ It is finished!

_Khalouk_ Rouge.

_Khams_ A charm, usually taking the form of the hand of Fatima.

_Khamsin_ Fifty; also a sand-laden desert wind which, it is claimed, blows intermittently for fifty days.

_Khoorg_ A sack or basket used for carrying dates and fodder on the march.

_Khouan_ A holy man.

_Kief halak!_ How do you do? How are you?

_Kohl_ A preparation of soot used by women to darken the eyelids.

_Koran_ The Mohammedan Scriptures, containing the professed revelations to Mohammed.

_Koubba_ A tomb, usually of a holy man; a shrine.

_Kubla_, or _Kibla_ The point at Mecca toward which Mohammedans turn in prayer.

_Leben_ Curdled sheep’s, goat’s, or camel’s milk.

_Litham_ The face-cloth, usually blue, worn by Touareg warriors.

_Madresseh_ or _Mederseh_ Theological school or college, usually connected with a mosque.

_Maghreb_, or _Moghreb_ The West.

_Magzhen_ Government, administration.

_Mansour_ Victor, conqueror.

_Mansoura_ The victorious.

_Marabout_ A holy man, a saint. The name is also applied to a shrine, usually built over a saint’s tomb.

_Masjid_ A mosque, a place of worship.

_Mehara_ A highly bred racing-camel.

_Mehari_ Plural of _mehara_.

_Mehariste_ A rider of a mehara; that is, a soldier of the Camel Corps.

_Mellah_ The name applied to the quarter occupied by the Jews in certain towns.

_Mejless_ A tribal council.

_Mektub!_ It is written!

_Meskoutine_ Accursed.

_Mihrab_ The niche in a mosque indicating the direction of Mecca.

_Mimbar_ Pulpit.

_Mirabit_ A militant monk; the genesis of _marabout_.

_Mish’ab_ A camel-stick.

_Mogh’reb_ or _Magh’reb_ The West; also the sunset prayer.

_Mou’abbir_ A pious and learned man.

_Muezzin_ A caller to prayer.

_Mullah_ or _Mollah_ A priest.

_Nargileh_ A pipe, in which the smoke is drawn through water.

_Nasria_ A bottle-shaped reservoir.

_Nazrani_ A Christian.

_Nuálla_ The conical thatched hut of central Morocco.

_Nuksh hadida_ Moorish sculptured plaster-work.

_Nullah_ A dried up watercourse.

_N’zala_ The square empty place in the center of a village.

_Pasha_ A Turkish title of rank, still used in Algeria and Morocco.

_Quaita_ A reed instrument, a cross between a whistle and a flute.

_Rabit_ A monastery fortress.

_Rahmat ullahi Allahim!_ The peace of God be upon him!

_Ramadan_ The ninth month of the Mohammedan calendar; the great annual fast of the Moslems.

_Rezel_ Gazelle.

_Rhorfa_ A house in Medenine, in southern Tunisia.

_Roumi_ A European, a Christian.

_Sahab_ Companion, particularly of the Prophet.

_Sahrij_ A pool, an artificial lagoon.

_Salaam_ An obeisance; a low bow with the hand on the forehead.

_Salaam aleikum!_ Greeting to you!

_Salaam aleikum was Rahmat Allah!_ Greeting to you and the peace of Allah!

_Serai_ A place for keeping wives and concubines; usually a portion of a palace.

_Shaduf_ The sweep and bucket used to draw water from a well.

_Sharaqua_ To rise, as the sun; whence _Sirocco_, a wind from the east, the desert.

_Sharq_ The East.

_Shat_ or _Chott_ A canal, estuary, salt lake.

_Shehada_ The Moslem profession of faith: _Ash hadu illa illaha ill Allah, wa ash hadu inna Mohammed an rasool Allah_.

_Sheikh_ The chief of a tribe or clan; also the chief magistrate of a village. Pronounced “_shake_.”

_Sheikh-ul-Islam_ The highest ecclesiastical authority in Islam.

_Sheitan_ The Evil One.

_Shereef_ A member of an Arab princely family descended from Mohammed through his daughter Fatima. It is one of the titles of the sultan of Morocco, and the term “shereefian” is applied to his government.

_Sherifa_ A female descendant of Mohammed.

_Sidi_ A lord, a prince.

_Sitt_ A lady.

_Sokhab_ A tiara of small coins worn by desert women, as the Ouled-Naïl.

_Souk_ A bazaar, a market-place.

_Spahi_ A native cavalryman (Tunisian, Algerian, or Moroccan) in the French service.

_Sura_ A verse of the Koran.

_Taiyib!_ Well! Good!

_Tarboosh_ A cylindrical cap of red or brown felt, higher and straighter than the Turkish fez.

_Tel_ A hill.

_Tell_ The name applied to that portion of Barbary lying between the coastal plains and the high mountains.

_Tobh_ The single garment worn by Arab women of the poorer classes.

_Ulema_ The official interpreters of the Koranic law.

_Vizir_, or _Wazir_ A councilor of state; a cabinet minister.

_Wadi_, or _Wad_ River or small stream. The French spell it _oued_.

_Wahran_ A ravine.

_Wakf_ A religious or benevolent foundation.

_Wakil_ A councilor.

_Wazir_ The same as _vizir_.

_Ya_ Yes.

_Zariba_ A thorny hedge, natural or artificial.

_Zawia_, or _Zaouia_ A monastery; originally the house of a religio-military brotherhood.

_Zemzimayah_ A water-bottle.

_Zouave_ A French infantryman wearing a uniform modeled on the dress of the Zouaoua, a tribe living in the mountains of the Grand Kabylia.

FOOTNOTES

[1] The historical sketch of Carthage and its people in this chapter is largely drawn from “African Shores of the Mediterranean,” by C. F. and L. S. Grant.

[2] See “In the Desert,” by L. March Phillips.

[3] See Colonel Powell’s “The Last Frontier.”

[4] See “In the Desert” by L. March Phillips.

[5] For a full account of Eaton’s remarkable exploit the reader is referred to Colonel Powell’s “Gentlemen Rovers.”

INDEX

Abd-el-Aziz, Sultan, 348, 353

Abd-el-Kader, 159, 295 _et seq._, 331

Abd-el-Krim, 367 _et seq._

Abd-el-Mumin, Sultan, 436

Abd-er-Rahman, Sultan, 347

Abdallah-ibn-Abad, 212

Abou Bekr, Arab conqueror, 106

Abul Hassan, Sultan, 331-332

Adjim (Djerba), 142

Adrar, of the Iforas, 163, 174

Ægusa, Battle of, 63

Æsculapius, 59

Africa, Roman province of, 79

Agadir (Morocco), 350, 457-458

Agrigentum, Battle of, 62

Ahaggar Plateau (Sahara), 173

Ahmed Pasha, bey of Constantine, 252-253

Air, hills of (Sahara), 174, 218

Aïssa, Marabout, 234, 402

Aïssaoua, sect, rites of, Biskra, 233 _et seq._ Mequinez, 402

Alaoui Museum, near Tunis, 47 _et seq._

Alaric the Goth, 79

Alcázar, or Al Kasar (Morocco), 364

Algeciras (Spain), 8, 423

Algeciras Conference, 351 _et seq._

Algeria, 215 _et seq._ agriculture, 316 _et seq._ conquest, 159, 313 _et seq._ government, 311 _et seq._ inhabitants, 314 minerals, 318 motoring, 307 _et seq._ railways, 306 roads, 305 _et seq._ Tell, 311

Algiers (Algeria), 278 _et seq._ Arab city, 281 El Biar, suburb of, 298-9 French city, 280 gardens, 299 Great Mosque, 283 Jardin d’Essai, 300 mosque of Sidi er Rahman, 283 museum, 301 Mustapha Supérieur, 298 _et seq._ New Mosque, 283 Notre Dame d’Afrique, Church of, 303 occupation of, French, 293 _et seq._ palace of deys, 282 palace of governor-general, 299

Alhucemas (Spanish Morocco), 366

Ali V, Sultan, 334

Alides, dynasty of, 347

Alix, General, 356

Almohades, dynasty of, 331, 346, 408, 436

Almoravides, dynasty of, 337, 346

Americans in the Foreign Legion, 336 _et seq._

Americans in the Riff, 368-369

Amor Abbada, Moslem saint, 109

Amr ibn al Asi, Arab conqueror, 106

Andalusians, 16, 34

Anti-Atlas Mountains, 454-455

Arab invasion of North Africa, 80, 106 _et seq._, 114, 243, 341 _et seq._

Argan Forest, Great (Morocco), 432-433

_Argo_, 151

Argonauts, 136, 150-151

Army in Morocco, French, 445-456

Arouj, corsair chief, 284, 331

Atlas Mountains, 10, 239, 451 _et seq._

Augustus, Emperor, 78, 121, 309

Aurés Mountains, 150, 189, 240, 253

Azan, Colonel Paul, 335

Azemour (Morocco), 431

Azrou (Morocco), 378

Babor, Mount, 267

Balearic Islands, 69

Bamaku (French Sudan), 184

Barb horses, 405

Barbarossa, corsair chief, 20, 252, 269, 284 _et seq._, 320, 331

Barbary, climate, 9, 10 topography, 10, 238-239

Barbers of Tunis, 41

Bardo, palace of, near Tunis, 46 _et seq._

_Bataillons d’Afrique_, 326

Batna (Algeria), 241

Bekri, Arab geographer, 155

Belisarius, 80, 114

Beni-Abbés (Morocco), 168

Beni-Isguen (Algerian Sahara), 217

Beni-M’zab, 212 _et seq._

Berbers, 57, 61, 101, 117, 125, 139, 340 _et seq._

Bey of Tunis, 45

Beylerbeys, Turkish, 286

Bibawan Pass (Morocco), 454

Biskra (Algeria), 10, 152, 216 _et seq._ Aïssaoua, performances of, 233 _et seq._ climate, 224 “Garden of Allah,” 226 _et seq._ Ouled-Naïl, dancing-girls of, 230 _et seq._ Villa Landon, 226 _et seq._

Bizerta (Tunisia), 14 _et seq._

Blake, Admiral Robert, 290

Bled el Hamra (Morocco), 434

Bled Kebira (Tunisia), 122, 124 _et seq._

Blue Gardens at Rabat, 410

Boabdil, king of Granada, 330, 347

Bokharis, 402

Bône (Algeria), 291, 294

Bonnier, Colonel, French explorer, 167

Bordeaux, routes from, 7

Borku (French Equatorial Africa), 174

Bou-Hamara, 348, 354

Bou-Kornein, peaks of (Tunisia), 44, 60, 65

Bou-Ragrag, river (Morocco), 409

Bou-Zarea Hills (Algeria), 303

Bougie (Algeria), 264 _et seq._

British policy in Morocco, 349 _et seq._, 370 _et seq._, 385

Bugeaud, Marshal, 296

Bu-Maza, “goat-man,” 297

Byrsa, 57 _et seq._, 84

Byzacium, 115

Byzantines in Africa, 79, 106, 114, 243

Cæsar, Julius, 78

Cæsarea (Algeria), 108

Caïds, Grand, 357 _et seq._, 362, 445, 455

Caius Gracchus, 78

Calcius Herculis, 240

Cambē, 56

Camels, 208 _et seq._, 218

Cameroons, 164, 352

Canaanites, 57

Cannæ, Battle of, 67

Cape Spartel, 344

Caracalla, Emperor, 408

Caravans, 208

Carpets, Tunisian, 36

Carthage, 17-18, 24, 32, 56 _et seq._ agora, 85 Admiralty Palace, 84, 86, 89 amphitheater, 89-90 aqueduct, 87, 105 area, 82 Byrsa, 57 _et seq._, 84 Cathedral of St. Louis, 94 cemeteries, 93 circus, 89 _et seq._ Cothon, 84 _et seq._, 88-89 Eschmoun, Temple of, 59, 88 forum, 85 harbors, 84 _et seq._, 88-89 Megara, suburb of, 84 Museum, Lavigerie, 86, 95-96 Odéon, 89 population of Punic City, 82 Punic remains, 86 racing, 91 _et seq._ Roman remains, 86 _et seq._, 89 _et seq._ sarcophagi, Punic, 96 Scorpianus, house of, 92 _tabulæ execrationis_, 92-93

Casablanca (Morocco), 353, 424 _et seq._ abattoir, 427-8 communications with Europe, 430 markets, 427 new town, 426-427 Place de France, 426 prostitutes’ quarter, 428-429 _souks_, 426

Cato, Marcus, 72, 78

Cervantes, Miguel de, 288

Ceuta (Spanish Morocco), 365 _et seq._, 370-371, 403

Chabet Pass (Algeria), 264 _et seq._

Charles II, king of England, 290

Charles V, king of Spain, 20, 42

Cherchel (Algeria), 309-310

Chergui, island of (Tunisia), 121

Chotts; see Shats, 149 _et seq._

Christian slaves, Tunisia, 42-43 Algiers, 288 _et seq._

Christians persecuted, Carthage, 79, 85, 89 El Djem, 116

Cirta, 250 _et seq._

Cisneros, Cardinal Ximenes de, 320

Citroen, André, 181

Citroen tractor expeditions, 181 _et seq._

Clausel, Marshal, 253, 331

Cleopatra, 309

Colomb-Béchar (Algeria), 184, 223, 323

Color line in French North Africa, 166

Compagnie Générale Transatlantique services to North Africa, 7, 266, 430 hotel at Constantine, 259 hotel at El Hamma, 144, 148 hotel at El Oued, 194 hotel at Fez, 382 hotel at Marrákesh, 435-436 hotel at Mequinez, 401 hotel at Michelet, 274 hotel at Taza, 379 hotel at Tenes, 310 hotel at Tlemcen, 331 hotel at Tozeur, 156

Congo, French, 160

Constantine (Algeria), 247 _et seq._ Arab town, 257 cathedral, 257 Corniche Road, 249 Djamaa-el-Kebir, 256 gorges of the Rummel, 248 _et seq._ history, 250 _et seq._ Hôtel Transatlantique, 259 Jews of, 258-9 _kasbah_, 256 museum, 257 palace of Ahmed Pasha, 255-256 Place de la Brèche, 258 _souks_, 258

Coppolani, French explorer, 166

Cork industry, 452

Corsairs, Algerine, 255, 269, 284 _et seq._ Moorish, 417 _et seq._ Tunisian, 42-43

Cucumbers, 119

Daia (Algeria), 323

Dakar (Senegal), 184

Damrémont, General, 253

Darfur (Sudan), 174

Dates, 155-156

Daugan, General, 359

d’Aumale, Duc, 296

de Brazza, Savargnan, 160, 166

Decatur, Stephen, 291

de Chambrun, General Vicomte, 388

Defoe, Daniel, 289

de Foucauld, Vicomte Charles, 167 _et seq._

Delattre, Father, 95

de Lesseps, Ferdinand, 152

de l’Isle, Brière, 166

Denison, Miss Sophie, 385, 394, 443

de Trémaudan, Vicomte Louis, 448

Dido, 17, 24, 56

Divorce in Morocco, 443-444

Djebel Amur, 215

Djebel Saghru, 454

Djebel Zaghouan, 102, 104

Djelfa (Algeria), 219

Djerba, island of, 122, 135 _et seq._ character of, 137 _et seq._ costumes, 139 Hara Srira, 139-140 Houmt-Souk, 140 _et seq._ inhabitants, 138 Jews in, 139-140 Skull Fort, 141 synagogue, 139-140 wild flowers, 138

Djerid, Tunisian, 149, 154

Djidjelli (Algeria), 266

Djorf (Tunisia), 142

Djurjura Mountains, 249, 264, 269, 273

Dodds, General, 166

Donatists, 243, 251

Douls, Camille, 166

Dourneaux Duperré, 166

Dra’a, river, 365

Dragut, corsair chief, 114, 141

Dunes, sand, 174 _et seq._, 186 _et seq._

Dutch bombard Algiers, 291

Duveyrier, Henri, 166

Eaton, William, 290

Edward VII, King, 349

El Araish (Morocco), 366

El Bahira, lake of, 19, 44, 83

El Beloui, “the Barber,” 110-111

El Biar (Algeria), 298-299

El Djem (Tunisia), 115 _et seq._, 126

El Eubbad (Algeria), 333

El Glaoui, khalifa of Marrákesh, 362, 446

El Golea, oasis of, 160, 174

El Hamma (Tunisia), 144 _et seq._

El Hiba, Moorish pretender, 357

El Juf, oasis of, 163

El Kahena, Berber chieftainess, 117, 125

El Kantara (Algeria), 222, 240-241

El Kantara (Tunisia), 136

El Oued (Tunisia), 194

El Roghi, Moorish pretender, 385

En-Nasr, Berber ruler, 268

Ennedi Mountains, 174

Entente Cordiale, 349

Eschmoun, god of the Carthaginians, 59

Es Sueira (Morocco), 432

Exmouth, Lord, 291

Faidherbe, General, 166

Falconry, 200

Fan, dey of Algiers slaps French consul with, 293

Fatimite wars, 155

Felicitas, St., martyrdom of, 79, 90

Ferdinand V, king of Spain, 269

Ferryville (Tunisia), 15

Fez (Morocco), 380 _et seq._ climate, 390 Companions of the Sick, 389-390 drainage system, 380 Great Prayer, 396 _et seq._ history, 381 hotels, 382 Karueein Mosque, 383 leather-work, 387 massacre of, 355 mederseh, 383 military camp, 395 Mulai Idris, mosque of, 384 museum, 384-385 palace of Bou Djeloud, 390 Palais Jamaï, 382 population, 381 situation, 380 _souks_, 386 _et seq._ Treaty of, 355 Ville Moderne, 395 women, 390 _et seq._

Fezzes, manufacture of, 381

Filali dynasty, 347

Flaminius, Roman consul, 67

Flatters, Colonel, 166

Foreign Legion, 162, 323 _et seq._, 336 _et seq._

Fort National (Algeria), 273-274

Foum-es-Sahara; see El Kantara (Algeria)

Foureau, Fernand, 161-162, 166

French policy, Algeria, 311 _et seq._ Morocco, 349 _et seq._ Tunisia, 26-7, 49, 312 _et seq._

Gabés (Tunisia), 117, 122, 136, 152

Gabés, gulf of, 112, 119, 121, 151

Gafsa (Tunisia), 156

Galleys, Carthaginian, 61 _et seq._ corsair, 287

Gallifet, General, 160

Gambetta, French statesman, 94

“Garden of Allah,” 222

Garden of the Hesperides, 366

Gazelle hunting in the Sahara, 200

Gelaa Matmata (Tunisia), 125-126

Genseric, 79, 215

German colonies in Africa mandated to France, 164

German policy in Morocco, 349 _et seq._

Ghadames (Sahara), 166

Gharbi, island of (Tunisia), 121

Ghardaia (Algeria), 156, 212 _et seq._

_Ghars_ of Matmata, 127 _et seq._

Ghiata Mountains (Morocco), 378

Gibraltar, 370-371

Goletta; see La Goulette

Gordian, Emperor, 116

Goths in North Africa, 79

Goundafi, Grand Caïd of the Sus, 363, 456

Goundafi, pass of (Morocco), 454

Gouraud, General, 356

Grand Caïds, 445

Grand Erg Occidental, 173-174

Grand Erg Oriental, 173-174, 179 _et seq._

Grande Mademoiselle, 403 _et seq._

Great Prayer near Fez, 396 _et seq._

Greeks in North Africa, 80

Guemar, oasis of (Algerian Sahara), 197

Guinea, French, 160

Guraya, Mount (Algeria), 267

Hadrian, Emperor, 87, 105, 316

Hadrumetum, 56, 113

Haedo, Spanish historian, 302

Hafsides, dynasty of, 268

Háhá, province of (Morocco), 432

Hamadchas, sect of, 406

Hamilcar, 61, 63, 65 _et seq._

Hammamet, gulf of, 112

Hamman Meskoutine (Algeria), 260 _et seq._

Hammon, god of Carthaginians, 59-60

Hannibal, 63 _et seq._, 121

Hanno, 63-64

Hara Srira (Djerba), 139-140

Hasdrubal, 65, 77

Hasdrubal Giscon, 68

Hassan, Arab conqueror, 80, 85

Hassan, Sultan, 348

Hassan Tower at Rabat, 408

Hatchet, defile of the (Tunisia), 65

Hercules, Pillars of, 18

Herodotus, 123

Hesperides, Gardens of the, 56

Hichens, Robert, 226

Hippo Zarytus, 56

Hoggar Plateau (Sahara), 173

Hohenzollern, William, 350

Homer’s description of Djerba, 137, 142

Horace, 103

Horses, Barb, 405

Houmt-Souk (Djerba), 136, 140 _et seq._

Hounds, Saluki, 200

Hussein Pasha, dey of Algiers, 292 _et seq._

Iarbas, King, 56

Icosium, 283

Idráren Dráren Mountains, 453

Idris, Mulai, 345, 381

Idris II, Mulai, 345

Idrisi dynasty, 346 _et seq._

Ifni, Spanish colony of, 364-365

Igidi (Sahara), 173-174

Imperial Road to Tafilalt, 378

Innaouene, river, 379

In Salah, oasis of, 168

Isly, Battle of, 297

Isly, Duke of, 296

Italian interests in Tunisia, 14

Italian policy in Morocco, 371 _et seq._

Ivory Coast, 160, 184

Jabir, Moorish architect, 436

Jackson, James, English traveler, 405

Jarabub (Tripolitania), 198

Jason and the Argonauts, 136, 150-151

Jewelry, Kabyle, 276

Jews, Algeria, 258-259, 316 Morocco, 342 Tunisia, 53

Jol, 309

Joubert, French explorer, 166

Juba I, king of Mauretania, 103

Juba II, king of Mauretania, 309

Jugurtha, 251

Julia Cæsarea, 309

Jusserand, Jean Jules, 27

Justinian, Emperor, 80

Kabyles, 270 _et seq._

Kabylia, Grand, 11, 263 _et seq._

Kabylia, Lesser, 269

Kabylia, rebellion, 297

Kairouan (Tunisia), 49, 80, 100 _et seq._ carpets, 36, 111 Djamaa Amor Abbada (Mosque of the Saber), 109 Djamaa Sidi Okba, 105, 107 Djamaa Sidi Sahab (Mosque of the Barber), 110 El Beloui, tomb of, 111 history of, 106 _et seq._ hotel, 107

Kasbah Tadla (Morocco), 430

_Kasbahs_ in the High Atlas, 456-457

Kayes (Senegal), 184

Kedija, Mount, 274

Kef (Tunisia), 103

Key of David, 132

Khair-ed-Din, corsair chief, 252, 284 _et seq._

Kherrata (Algeria), 264

Koceila, Berber chief, 117

Kolea (Algeria), 308

Ksar-er-Rabit in Sousse, 115

Kubr-er-Rumia (Tomb of the Christian Woman), 308

Laghouat (Algeria), 159, 219

La Goulette (Tunisia), 19 _et seq._, 44, 80

Lalla Maghnia (Algeria), 313, 374

La Marsa (Tunisia), 44

Lambessa (Algeria), 241

Lamoricière, General, 297

Lamy, Lieutenant, French explorer, 166

Larache (Morocco), 366

Largeau, Victor, French explorer, 166

Laroussi, Si Sayah, Grand Marabout of the Tidjania, 199

Lavigerie, Cardinal, 94-95, 220-221

Leather-work, Fez, 387 Marrákesh, 437 Tunis, 38-39

Légion Etrangère, 323 _et seq._, 336 _et seq._

Lella Setta Hills (Algeria), 329

Leptis (Tripolitania), 70

Libya, 58, 133, 151

Libyan Desert, 175

Lipara, Battle of, 62

London, Declaration of, 349-350

_Lotophagi_ (Lotus-Eaters), 141

Lotus, quest of, 141 _et seq._

Louis IX, king of France, 80, 94

Louis XIII, king of France, 403

Louis XIV, king of France, 404

Lyautey, Marshal, 168, 355, 357

Maclean, Caïd Sir Harry, English soldier of fortune, 352

Macta, Battle of the, 295

Madrid, Treaty of, 363

Magellan, Ferdinand, 431

Maghreb-el-Aska, 339

Mahomet XVI, Sultan, 347

Ma’mora, forest of (Morocco), 452

Mansoura, ruins of, 334

Marabouts, 115, 147, 197 _et seq._

Marchand, Major, French explorer, 178

Marinides, dynasty of, 346

Mark Antony, 369

Marrákesh (Morocco), 434 _et seq._ Aguedal, 444 Aguenaou Gate, 444 architecture, 435 Bled el Hamra, 434 climate, 444 hotels, 435-436 Kutubia Tower, 435-436 leather-work, 437 mosque of Abd-el-Mumin, 436 Sinners’ Concourse, 436 _souks_, 437 visit to sultan, 447 _et seq._ Marseilles, 7, 11 _et seq._

Martel, Charles, “Hammer of God,” 345

Mascara (Algeria), 323

Masinissa, king of Numidia, 65, 69, 248, 251, 309

Matmata Plateau (Tunisia), 121, 123 _et seq._

Mauretania, 163, 167, 173, 344

Mazagan (Morocco), 431-432

M’Donnell, Ida, escape, 291

Medenine (Tunisia), 121, 130 _et seq._

Medjerda, river, 117

Medrassen (Algeria), 245

Megara, 78, 84

Meggarine, Battle of, 159

_Méharistes_, 154, 201

Mekinez; see Mequinez

Melilla (Spanish Morocco), 365

Meninx, 137

Mequinez (Morocco), 400 _et seq._ Aïssa, tomb of, 402 Bab Bardain, 401 hotel, 401 Mansour Gate, 401 palace of Mulai Ismail, 402 _et seq._ school for princes, military, 405 school of native arts, 402 stables of Mulai Ismail, 404

Mercenaries, War of, 64, 103

Mers-el-Kebir (Algeria), 320

Metabia, Arab tribe, 215

Metaloui (Tunisia), 156

Metameur (Tunisia), 134

Michelet (Algeria), 274

Michigan, University of, excavations at Carthage, 99

Micipisa, 251

Miknasa, dynasty of the, 346

Mjerda River, 313

Mogador (Morocco), 432

Montpensier, Duchesse de, 403 _et seq._

Morocco Abd-el-Krim, 367 _et seq._ airplane services, 430 British policy, 348 _et seq._, 370 _et seq._ capitals, 400 climate, 9, 453 conquest by the French, 163-164, 314 divorce, 443-444 forests, 452 French policy, 349 _et seq._, 414, 416, 446-447 German policy, 349, 358 government, 312, 359 _et seq._ Grand Caïds, 357 _et seq._, 362 history, 339 _et seq._ inhabitants, 340 _et seq._ Italian policy, 371 _et seq._ Jews, 342 military forces, French, 445 Moors, 343 _et seq._ Moroccan troops in Great War, 359 polygamy, 441 population, 343-344, 446 protectorate declared by France, 355 railways, 376-377, 430 Riff, 353, 355 _et seq._, 364 roads, 306, 377-378 slavery, 437 _et seq._ Spanish policy, 349 _et seq._ Spanish zone, 363 _et seq._ steamer communication, 430 Sultan Mulai Yusef, 356, 361, 414 _et seq._ Tangier, 364 _et seq._ topography, 453-454 wild flowers, 451-452 women, position, 440 _et seq._

Motoring, Algeria, 307 _et seq._ Morocco, 306, 377-378 Sahara, 156 _et seq._ Tunisia, 117, 124

Mozabites, 212 _et seq._

Mtouggui, khalifa of High Atlas, 300

Mulai Hafid, Sultan, 353

Mulai Idris (Morocco), 405

Mulai Ismail, Sultan, 402 _et seq._

Mulai Yusef, Sultan, 163, 356, 414 _et seq._, 447 _et seq._

Murabti, dynasty of, 346

Mussolini, Benito, 371

Mustapha Inférieur, 274

Mustapha Supérieur, 298

Neal, Admiral Sir Harry, 292

Nefta, oasis of, 193-194

New Carthage (Cartagena), 66

Oases, Saharan, 154

Okba ibn Nafi, Sidi, 106 _et seq._, 229-230

Omar, Arab khalif, 106

Oran (Algeria), 318 _et seq._

Othman ibn Affan, 106

Oued Biskra, 222

Oued Rir, revolt, 159, 204

Ouergha, valley of (Morocco), 368

Oujda (Morocco), 352, 374

Ouled-Naïl, dancing-girls of, 230 _et seq._

Ouled-Naïl Mountains, 219

Ourgla (or Wargla), oasis of, 156, 159, 213

Outih, 56

Ovid, 91

Palet, Lieutenant, French explorer, 166

Payne, John Howard, author of “Home, Sweet Home,” 55

Penon, at Algiers, 285-286

Perdicaris, Ion, kidnapping, 348

_Pères Blancs_, 221

Perfume-sellers of Tunis, 33 _et seq._

Perpetua, St., martyrdom, 79, 90

Perrégaux, General, 253

Pétain, Marshal, 368

Phenicians, 56 _et seq._

_Philadelphia_, U.S.S., in war with Barbary corsairs, 291

Philip II, king of Spain, 365

Philippeville (Algeria), 260

Piali Pasha, 141

Pillars of Hercules, 366

Polygamy in Morocco, 441

Pomaria, 330

Portuguese in Morocco, 431, 457

Preble, Commodore, 291

Ptolemy, 155

Punic Wars, 61 _et seq._

Quintus Fabius Maximus, 67

Quiza, 319

Rabat (Morocco), 408 _et seq._ Blue Gardens, 410 Borj-el-Hassan (Hassan Tower), 408 modern city, 412 museum, 409 palace of Sultan Yakoub, 409 school of native arts, 409 _souks_, 411

Railways, Algeria, 306 Morocco, 376-377, 430 Sahara, 184-185 Tunisia, 155-156

Raisuli, Moroccan bandit, 348, 352

Ramadan, observance, 44-45, 206

Redemptionists, order of, 289

Regulus, Marcus Attilius, 17, 63

Renault, Louis, automobile manufacturer, 183

Renault twelve-wheel cars in Sahara, 156, 179 _et seq._

Rhodes, Cecil, 221

_Rhorfa_ of Medenine, 131 _et seq._

Riff (Morocco), 353, 364 _et seq._

Rio de Oro, Spanish colony, 365

Roads, Algeria, 305 _et seq._ Morocco, 377-378 Tunisia, 117-118

Romans, Algeria, 241 _et seq._, 265, 268 Tunisia, 60 _et seq._, 115 _et seq._, 144, 155

Roosevelt, Theodore, 348, 351

Roudaire, Colonel François, 152

Routes to North Africa, 7-8

Rovers, Sallee, 409, 417 _et seq._

Rummel, gorges of, at Constantine, 249-250

Saddlery of Tunis, 38-39

Saffron Islands, or Zaffarines (Morocco), 366

Safi (Morocco), 432

Sahara, 195 _et seq._ agriculture, 196-197 Algerian, 311-312 area, 171 climate, 9, 195-196 color, 190 conquest, 158 _et seq._ date cultivation, 155-156 oases, 154, 176 _et seq._ railways proposed, 184-185 scheme for flooding, 152 topography, 172 trade routes, 193 Tunisian, 149 wells, 176 _et seq._

Sahel, Algerian, 279 Tunisian, 113, 115, 117

St. Gerónimo, buried alive, 301 _et seq._

St. Louis, death on last Crusade, 17

St. Vincent de Paul, captured by corsairs, 43

Salah Reis, corsair chief, 269, 309

“Salammbô,” Flaubert’s, 64, 103

Salé (Morocco), 409, 417

Salisbury, Lord, 161

Sallee Rovers, 409

Saluki gazelle-hounds, 200

Sand-storms, 191 _et seq._

Santa Cruz de Berbería (Morocco), 457

Say (French Sudan), 161

Say, Louis, French explorer, 166

Sbeitla, Battle of, 110

Scipio Africanus, 17, 68 _et seq._, 74 _et seq._

Sebkha-en-Rouan, 83

Sebkhet-es-Sedjoumi, 19, 44

Selene, Princess, daughter of Cleopatra, 309

Selim, Sultan, 252, 285

Selkirk, Alexander, 289

Sempronius Gracchus, 121

Senegambia (French West Africa), 160

Senussi, 198

Septimius Severus, 247

Setif (Algeria), 264

Shat-el-Djerid, 152, 155

Shat-el-Fejej, 152

Shat Gharsa, 152, 155

Shat Melrir, 152, 222

Shats, 149 _et seq._, 153 _et seq._

Sidi Abdallah (Tunisia), 15

Sidi-bel-Abbès (Algeria), 323 _et seq._

Sidi Bou Medine, 333

Sidi-Brahim, Battle of, 297

Sidi-Ferruch (Algeria), 293

Sidi M’godol, 433

Sidi Okba (Algeria), 229

Sidi Okba; see Okba ibn Nafi

Sidi Salah (Tunisia), 120

Skull Fort in Djerba, 141

Slave-trade, 214, 437-438

Slaves in Barbary, Christian, 288 _et seq._

Solomon, Byzantine, general, 243

Somaliland, French, 164

Sophonisba, 68

Sousse (Tunisia), 56, 107, 113 _et seq._

Spain invaded by Carthaginians, 65 _et seq._

Spanish policy in Morocco, 349 _et seq._

Spanish rule in North Africa, 140, 252, 269, 284 _et seq._, 320-321, 343, 353, 363 _et seq._

Staoueli, Battle of, 293

Staoueli wine made by Trappist monks, 318

Steeg, Théodore, French resident-general in Morocco, 360

Stone Age, relics, in Morocco, 344

Sudan, French, 161

Suleiman the Magnificent, Sultan, 286

Sus (Morocco), 451 _et seq._, 455 _et seq._

Susi, characteristics, 455-456

Syphax, king of the Massæsylians, 68-69, 251

Syracuse to Tripoli, route, 8

Syrtes, 123, 150-151

Tababort, Mount, 267

Tabarca (Tunisia), 79

Tacape, 122

Tafilalt (Morocco), 378

Tafna, Treaty of, 295, 331

Tamanrasset (Sahara), 168

Tangier (Morocco), 364 _et seq._, 372, 419 _et seq._

Tanguin, Battle of, 296

Tanith, Carthaginian, goddess, 18, 59-60, 89

Taourirt (Morocco), 379

Taparura, 119

Tarik, Berber general, 345

Tarundant (Morocco), 454-455

Tasili Plateau, 173

Taza (Morocco), 378-379

Tchad, Lake, 166, 178, 184, 193

Tebessa, 241

Tell, Algerian, 238

Tell, Tunisian, 112

Temacin (Algeria), 207

Tenes (Algeria), 310-311

Tensift River (Morocco), 435

Tertullian, 90

Tetuan (Spanish-Morocco), 366

Thamugas, 242 _et seq._

Thapsus, Battle of, 78, 103

Thines, 24

Thysdrus, 115 _et seq._

Tibesti Plateau (Sahara), 174

Tidikelt, oasis of, 154, 166

Tidjania (Algerian Sahara), 199

Timbuktu (French Sudan), 154, 161, 167, 169, 178, 184, 193, 208

Timgad, 241 _et seq._ arch of Trajan, 245 baths, 245 forum, 244 library, 244-245

Timhadit (Morocco), 378

Tinzar, Mount (Morocco), 453

Tisouros, 155

Tizi-Ouzou (Algeria), 273

Tlemcen (Algeria), 329 _et seq._

Togoland (West Africa), 164, 352

Tomb of Christian Woman, 308

Touareg, 161 _et seq._, 168 _et seq._, 177, 201

Trade routes across Sahara, 207-208

Trajan, Emperor, 114

Transat; see Compagnie Générale Transatlantique

Trinitarians, order of, 289

Tripoli, American naval demonstration, 291

Tripolitania, 8, 106

Triton, sea-god, 150

Tritonis, Lake, 150

Troglodytes of Southern Tunisia, 123 _et seq._

Tuat, oasis of, 154

Tummo Mountains, 174

Tunis, 20 _et seq._ Alaoui Museum, 47 _et seq._ aqueduct, Roman, 44, 87 arrival at, 20 _et seq._ Bab Cartagena, 55 Bab-el-Bahar, 28 Bab Souika, 40, 52 barbers, 40-41 Bardo, palace of, 45 _et seq._ Belvedere, park of, 44 bey of, 44, 48, 51-52 Bou-Kornein, peaks of, 44 _et seq._ cemetery, Jewish, 54-55 cemetery of St. George, 55 _chéchias_, manufacture, 40 Dar-el-Bey, palace of, 43-44 Djamaa-es-Zeitouna, 50 Djamaa Sidi Mahrez, 52 executions, 45 hats, 39 Jewesses, 53 _et seq._ _kasbah_, 42-43 leather goods, 38 loot of Carthage, 32 Medina, 28 mosaics, ancient, 49 mosques, 50 _et seq._ Night of the Prophet, 51 Payne, John Howard, author of “Home, Sweet Home,” 55 perfume-sellers, 33 _et seq._ Porte de France, 42 porters, 29 Ramadan, observance, 44-45 routes, 8 saddlery, 38-39 slippers, 40 Souk des Etoffes, 36 Souk-el-Attarin, 33 Souk-el-Blagdjia, 40 _souks_, 30 _et seq._, 51 women, 52

Tunisia, 102 _et seq._ agriculture, 103-104, 112 area, 111 _et seq._ character of country, 102, 111 _et seq._ conquest, 314 declaration of French protectorate, 160 Djerid, 149, 154 French policy, 26-27, 49, 311 _et seq._ government, 312 hot springs, 146 olive culture, 113, 120 railways, 155-156 roads, 117-118 Roman remains, 115 Sahara, Tunisian, 149, 155 Sahel, 113, 115 Shats, 149 _et seq._ sponge-fishing, 119, 121, 138 Tell, 112 topography, 112

Turks in Algeria, 284 _et seq._, 331

Tussid, Mount, 174

Ulric, Admiral, 291

Ulysses, 136, 142

Um-er-Rabi’a, Moroccan river, 431

United States at war with corsairs, 291

Utica, 56, 69, 72

Vagas, Martin, Spanish commander, 285

Valée, Marshal, 253, 296

Van de Capellen, Admiral, 291

Vandals in Africa, 79, 87, 114, 243, 330, 344

Vienna Congress, 291

Villa Cisneros (Rio de Oro), 365

Volubilis, 344, 401, 404, 407-408

Von Bülow, German chancellor, 351

Wadai (French Equatorial Africa), 174

Wad Fas (Morocco), 380

Wadi Martil (Morocco), 366

Wadi M’zab (Algerian Sahara), 214

Wahabis in Djerba, 139

War Mountains, 174

Wargla; see Ourgla

Wattasi dynasty, 347

Weapons, Tunis, 37 Marrákesh, 437-438

White Fathers, order of, 86, 94-95, 221

Wild flowers, Djerba, 138 Morocco, 451-452

Women, Algiers, 282 Djerba, 139 El Hamma, 147 Fez, 390 _et seq._ Marrákesh, 440 _et seq._ Tunis, 52

Xanthippus, 17, 63

Yakoub, Sultan, 334, 408

Yarmorasen, Sultan, 330, 332

Yazid, Sultan, 347

Yusuf ibn Tashfin, Sultan, 434

Zab, 222

Zaffarines (Spanish Morocco), 366

Zaghouan (Tunisia), 87, 104

Zama, Battle of, 70

Zarzis (Tunisia), 136

Zenata Berbers, 330

Ziban (Algeria), 222

Zinder (Niger Territory), 161, 166, 193

Zouaves, 279

Zuara (Tripolitania), 8