Morning journal and courier., 1892-02-06

shrill cries of s'Jaleo.-JaleoIn from her companions. They are eindescribably ugly, with short, puffy bodies, tremendous heads and short, huge necks, lumpy cheeks and square jaws, nostrils fattened back almost in line with the facial angle; and lips like pair of ebonized conch shells. Their haiks are always of the blue and white checked variety, intensifying the lustre and depth of color of their coal black skins. Some of them are yelled, giving them an air of monumental coyish- ness and skittishness- Besides the haik and veil little should be said about their costume. Below the haik are cascades and cataracts of garmentary all-sorts. Two wear the cast-of trousers of some consu- lar attache. A pair of calvary boots orns- ment the feet and legs of a third. The rest are barefooted and their feet are like huge claws. They are slaves and were born in the iungles below Sahara
 But here is a bevy of Jews on their way to the place of customs at the waterside, on some errand connected with importa- tions, and few Jewish women are with them. There are three thousand of these foiA In Tangier and not oneis poor. They could not but welcome incoming ciyiliza- ton, for now none of them can ride upon horseback, and must peIforce employ a
 
 ence of Moors or Arabs connected officially with the consulate without repeated ss- lsams, kissing the hem of their rulers burnous, and other confessions of humili- ation and degradation. They are nearly all dressed similar to the Arabs, with long flowing white robes, turbaned heads, rich ly embroidered wsists and sashes, ample trousers caught with jeweled bands below the knees, blue silk stockings and low san dals upon their feet. 4 few have the red Tarboosh with blue and black tassel, beto- keniug that the wearers are Tunisian Jews.
 The women in their company give sn ex- cellent example not only of the beauty of the female members of this race as they are found near and in the orient, but also of the costumes of the better class of these in Tangiers. Long, straight gowns with out drapery and of the richest silk, green, orange or purple. encircled at the waist by cords of silk, gold and silk or chains of pure gold, constitute the sole outer gar ment, strikingly different from the Arab womsn's. Their feet are encased in col ored pointed slippers. Each woman wears black silk scarf. bound tightly across the forehead, gathered closely over the head, falling in delicate folds behind, held in place at the back by great gold or jeweled ornaments. This, with & plain band of spotless white linen drawn tightly across the chin, and a magnificent India shawl carried upon the arm or thrown csrelessly across the shoulders, completes the cos tune of these, the most stately and beau uful women of Tangier.
 Besides these there will troop by you hundreds of the Biskris-the scavengers. water-carriers and men-of- -all-work of Tan gier. bare and shaven headed, fine fea- tured and with splandid form and muscu- lar development. Impish little bootblscks of mongrel race who will perform any di- ablerie, from blacking and shining their own faces to pumping an eye ont and into its socket, for but one copper flu for each exhibition, are dancing about you Snake charmers with hideous cobra-de-copelIos wound about their filthy bodies will pass you. Necromsncers who really eat fire are as common in the streets as are those who do not at our summer resorts and nickel shocker museums. Moorish soldiers, bare legged and barefooted, and ever on the trot, skurry past you Half grown ne- groes from the Soudan with scant breeoh- clouts of untanned hides for raiment are here. Venerable Rifans, spsthetic as opi- um-eaters and withered as mummies, pass tremblingly by; while genuine Bedouins, on skinny steeds magni6cently capsri- soned, each humping beneath wondrous burnous, dash recklessly through the crowds.
 And still there are trains of donkeys and of camels laden with merchandise for far Berber villages and farther oases of the desert; women with servants in whose baskets are fowls for behesding st the re- volting "Negress Sacriices;" hundreds of Khsbyles with leather aprons and shaven heads, their strong wives, unveiled, with long chemises reaching to their feet and girdled at the waist with bright sashes, who work with their husbands everywhere and anywhere, provide an ample study of African hill-men; while thousands of the native Arab and Moorish men and women sweep by with swish of robes and jingling jewels and anklets, like weird and softly musical wraiths in white. Some of these are plodding towards khouba or msrabout to mourn beside their dead, or are gliding from home or shop to shadowy mosque to pray.
 All architectural beauty is found in carved Moresque archwsys. among which are many magnificent specimens; in bases and capitals of spiral stone pillars support ing arches, vaulting over which super structures often shut out the sky, and these are in the pure Arab style of one thousand years ago; about the facades and loALs oL IOuulalue ecI ln COOL alcoves, projecting unexpectedly from blank walls, or built upright from the cen ter of tiny squares. the only places in all this ancient city where sunlight ever reach es the earth; and behind the massive walls in interiors, whose structural grace and ex- quisite ornamentation are an endless feast of artistic delight.
 The shops of Tangier are all merely tiny inches in the walls. The Moorish mer- chant enters his little black den through . trap door; lowers the shutter which falls often in steps to the street and sits in the center of his possessions, which are all within reach. voiceless and grave the day long like forssken Punch in a psnto- mime. Every manner of 6 shop is just like this. In some workmen are embroi- dering the white burnous, utilizing their Sreat toes to hold tight the disengaged thread. In others greasy fritters are fried in A solemn and stately manner while one waits. Some display ostrich eggs and na- tive ornaments. Here and there is a seller of herbs and vegetables. Again white robed and bearded men are surrounded by cratef of charcoal and tiny bundles of fa- gots. In others almost priceless oriental draperies are packed and punched around a merchant who smokes and dteams as If no thought of traffic ever entered his head
 The ancient and venerable letter and scroll writer has his niche, or chair at srchway side, and waits with that stoic patience only an Indian or a Moslem can command, to indite epistle or trace sacred passage from the Koran upon gg-shell, or on ribbon for some devout one's amulet Snoemakers squat cross-legg-d, sewing and hsmmerlng upon slippers and sandals only. Bread-sellers crouch against walls and doorways. Groups of swarthy Kha- byles with their copper ewers are ever be- fore the gurgling old fountains. Yelled women wriggle and mince to and from market, or khouba or mosque Stately Arabs appear and disappear, their flowing robes shutting out the vistas of the mar row streets. Cloth vendors higgle- -hapgle at the cracks of massive doors barely ajar. Funeral corteges pass on the run-for the deaG Moslem arrives in paradise that much more speedily. Girls with dough-coyered boards resdy for the bakeries are as feet ss the funerals. The donkeys loaded with streetgarbage force you against the walls Other donkeys with panniers packed with fruits, orange-b blossoms and roses fill the shadowy ways with the attars of sunny valleys.
 The same weird, wild scenes of semi barbaric life that were here a thousand years ago are here to-day, everyday, all day, and will remain. And If you wander these ghostly ways st night all is still. shsdowful, silent. You see the white, silent walls about you. You know that white, silent form whisk past you. And away up there through infinite space you see the white, silent stars looking down. EDGAR L. wAKznAs.