The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1885-05-15
AMONG THE MOORS.
THE BRIEF SPACE SEPARATING BAR.
9ARISM FROM CIVILIZATION.
A Pilgrimage to the Imperial City of
Fez-A Country Full of Human In
terest-The People Reason
ably Friendly.
[Cor. London Standard. ]


formed a unit logged out of Tangier,
and barely double the time since l was
quietly at work in London library so
that it is hard to realize the fact that l am
at this moment sitting in a Moorish pal
ace, under an orange grove in the north
ern capital of Morocco. Though three or
four visitors manage every year to make
the journey, q pilgrimage to Fee has not
even in Tangier lost its importance or in
terest. Long before a caravan sets out
the journey is the talk of the place, and
it must be undertaken very quietly if the
beggers and saints of the town-who are
very numerous-dO not get wind of it,
and are not at the place of departure, Os-
tensibly to pray for the Adventures
safety, but in reality to benefit by the
aims which are expected as the reward of
such good offices. industrious of such a
public far well, we managed to be astir
early enough to get the start of the fra
ternity in question, so that a solitary
dervish mumbling a petition to Allah was
the only person to benefit by few hand
fuls of "tloss "a Moorish coin, struck, as
Sydney Smith said, about 3-penny bits,
ito enable Scotchmen to be generous
The morning was bright as any in June,
and the sun, though warm, was not OPP
pressive, as we ambled along among the
ctus-hedged gardens and orange groves
fenced in with the blue bladed aloe, which
here grows luxuriantly. Nothing in the
semblance of a road was visible, except
what countless trains of camels, mules and
donkeys had worn in the soil Sometimes
the path led over fiat, fertile plains, dotted
with patches from which the barley,
wheat, millet or Indian corn had been cut,
or speckled with herds of cattle, horses,
donkeys, and sheep, the property of some
cactus-surrOunded, mud and brush village
on the hillside, or watched by
party of wandering Berbers or Arabs,
whose camelhair or palmetto-fiber tents
were pitched hard by.
Within few minutes of leaving Tan
gier every trace of civilization, even of the
Tangier kind, disappeared, and from the
first day to the last, with the exception of
the filthy city of AL Cazar, built for the
most part by Christian slaves, the same
description might in general terms apply.
The countrv is full of human interest, but
one more monotonous in its features it is
scarcely pos :ible to imagine. Rolling
brown hills, dotted with scrub palmetto,
in one instance by heather, or, when not
cultivated, by luxuriant crops of thistles,
are everywhere the salient characteristics
of the country. Until well beyond Al
Cazar saint Houses " whitened sepul-
cheers held in profound veneratiOn, and on
no account to be defiled by the presence of
the infidel, are numerous, but after that
point, until near Fee, the evidences of
piety are rare. The country is very
thinly peopled Every now and then we
met droves of laden camels bound for
Tangier, or trains of donkeys laden with
reed crates of hens destined for the same
markets. At places the fowls would be
allowed free8Om to feed, as if they had
been herd of cattle, and then, after they
had picked up sufficient grasshoppers to
satisfy their hunger, they would be
secured, and the caravan continue its
route.
The country is scarcely cultivated Cap
able of supporting millions, a patch here
and there is about all that the people find
it necessary to till by their rude appliances,
though, after leaving out of account the
stony hilltops and other places fit only for
grazing, the amount of good clay land
and fiat river bottoms, and black Yegeta-
bic mold, capable of growing wheat
enough to supply all Europe, is enormous.
With one exception the people were rea-
sonably friendly, though watch was kept
all night in case they should be tempted
to "reuuisition" our horses. After our din
ner, generally taken in the presence of
a crowd of brown folk, wrapped up in
their white "iellabas, " or robes, we turned
in" and slept as we'll as we could, despite
the barking of dogs, the braying of dom
keys, the neIghing of the stations which
we rode, and the weird cries of our mule
eteerS anu SOlttlerS DIS luey pTdyeu lOWdEo
Mecca
At other places the sheik would arrive
almost as soon as we were in camp with
abundance of barley, butter, milk, honey,
"kous- kous fowls, eggs, and cakes, and
with dignity becoming an Arab gentle
man, refuse to accept anything in the
shape Of payment, except cup of tea in
our tent door, though all the b. ne he was
wincing at the infection of drinking what
was not brewed according to the
recognized Moorish standard of that
beverage. at other spots where we
halted the head man would be up to
shake hands and wish us peace, or to
bring some formal present of food and
beg that when we returned we would
make 1t convenient to stay longer than we
had done.
Five days was the time Teckoned on for
making the journey, but it was not until
the morning of the eighth that the stream
of people whom we met soon after fording
the S'boo river, the olive groves and vine
yards, the fig and orange orchards, the
yelled ladies, and the soldiers on fiery
steeds, warned us that we were approach
ing some great city. There were. how
ever, still interminable hills to be climbed
and descended before from an eminenCe,
there burst before us on plain running
east and west, and except at one side
surrounded by mountains, the ancient,
holy, and imperial city of Fee.