Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1888-12-29
THE SULTAN


M)rocco is governed today as IL was by
the first Moslem chieftaia w no conquered
it. says a London Times correspondent I.
80 long as the law is that Of he Koran,
and is administered by descendants Of the
prophet, it will be hopeless to think Of in
PRODUCING European reforms or TO expect
national progress. European civilization
could only be built up on the ruins Of the
entire edidce Of the prophet, and SO : long
as that edifc C, religious and political,
must be bolstered up, the best bulwark of
the empire is the ignorance and fanati-
cism Of its people and the barbarism Of
its rulers.
There Is an eastern saying TO the effect
that the stick is the g1ft of Allah. All
gifts of Allah are meant for the use and
benefit of his people, SO the Moorish
gov emo rs use the stick without stint, and
the suit an benefits. Muley Hassan him
self, tho ugh avaricious and grasping, is
not especi tally cruel. In either Of his
three capitals, Fez; Miquenez and Mara
kish, the people are glad to welcome him.
For where he is, whatever acts of ex-
toration he may himself commit, and
whatever punishment he may %inflict, he
does not permit a similar license to his
ministers. Thus, when the sultan is
present in Fee, the people know that
they have only one master, whereas their
neighbors in Mequenze and Marakish are
grooming under the yoke OF many, suffer
ing cruelties and extortion at the hands
of every underling, with no compensa-
ton, but, perhaps, the pelting of Jews
with oranges, a favorite sport in which
they could not indulge if the sultan was
present. They do not object to the sui
tan's rule. He is their shereef-the
chosen Allah. 1t is his sacred
90 rob and torture and imprison. But he
is infinitely more merciful than are his
ministers; he can afford TO be 50, being
lord of all. 1t is true that the other day,
after the Benz Mgilot incident, he wreak-
cd vengeance on 300 members of a
wholly innocent tribe-so it turned out.
by cutting a hand and a foot from each
and leaving them to die by the wayside.
But this was in revenge for the murder
of his cousin, and in accordance with the
lex talionis of the Koran and therefore
the expression of a holy and proper senti-
ment rather than an act Of barbarCus
cruelty. His action in regard TO the Benz
Zemour tribe, Yves perhaps hasty and i'll
advised, but on that occasion it is but
charitable TO suggest the shereefian liver
may have been out of order. On
the whole, however, he is not unduly
addicted to injuring the pinions OF
the geese that lay golden eggs for
him. But he has many occupations that
detract enormously from his attention to
the cares of state. In many things abso-
iutcly a child, he is at once a miser and
an aichemist. He spends hours daily al
ternately counting over his treasures and
pouring over cruCibles in his endeavor to
increase them. Then, again, his amuse-
ments occupy him much. His electric
railway; his tricycles and bicycles, on
which, as a punishment, he makes the
ladies of his harem ride when disobedient.
his grain elevator, an odd kind of toy
that he has erected in the gardens of the
palace-all these and other things take
up much of his time and are the cause of
his ministers having very much more ac-
tual power than he is well aware of, and
of his people suffering a good deal more
than he would wish them To do.
In the collection Of the revenues of the
country the stick, though a potent factor,
is but a mild and benevolent agent. The
legitimate sources of revenue are the 1.-THE
on agricultural produce. the tax of 2 per
cent. on domestic animals, the tax on
shebbel, a fish that abounds in the rivers,
the monopoly Of tobacco and hascheese,
the poll tax on the Jews, duties of 10 per
cent. on all goods exported and imported,
and a gate duty levied on every camel
load of goods which enters any city or
town. But, though these are fixed i'm
posts, their sale is habitually get aside on
some pretext or another. Fines are lev
led at discretion and On all sorts of pre-
texts. A quarrel between two members
of a kabila may deprive both of half
their possessions. If a robbery is com.
mitted each inhabitant of the douar, or
village, is fined double the value Of the
stolen property. Every little village
trouble. whether domestic or public,
is made an instrument for extortion.
The governors Of provinces have the
law absolutely in their WI hands, for
they can usually check or Illustrate any
attempt on the part Of the injured person
TO make personal representations TO the
Sultan. They cannot nominally infict
sentence Of death, but this difficulty they
get over either by beating the victim TO
death, against which there is no Jaw, or
by some other form of cruelty. The
III Vi hiCtuOt5 Vi tOituIC HuUlludlly
used-as a rule, for the purpose of ex.
torting money-is practically unlimited.
One Of the favorite forms. however, is
that called the wooden jellabeer Shirt.
This is a sort Of wooden box, large enough
to receive the patient in u sitting posture
ON the inside it is studded with sharp
nails. Prisoners have been kept in this
instrument for months at a time, until at
length released by death. Another
favOrite torture is by means Of an iron
collar, by which the victim is chained to
the wall at such q height as to oblige him
= TO stand on tiptoe to avoid straEgulation.
The cutting off a hand as punishment
for theft. the loss of an eye in return for
the malicious destruction of an eye, the
amputation Of a limb for a limb, and the
punishment Of libel by rubbing the lips
Of the offender with capsicum pods are
matters of daily practice in this country,
and serve to illustrate the sort Of regime
under which the Moors live.
Two products of the barbarous appli-
cation OF their savage law are the muir.
der cairn and the Zaouia, or sanctuary.
One and the other are to be found all
through the country. The murder cairn
is but a heap of stones over the spot
uuharo a p,prJor ny q onu,c;ttoI g. rl:ol