Free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1888-1908, 1899-06-03
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FLOWING

ness, thanks to the rich beauty of
earth and sky, and the remnants of
what was once civilization of a high
order, is always interesting, and, above
all, picturesque
! The rites and ceremonies of the reli-
igion Of the prophet are in themselves
an inexhaustible study for the artist
as well as for the historian and the
philosopher. Take, for example, the
procession OF the Sheep feast, which is.
so to speak, the Easter of the Lent OF
Ramadhan. Imagine a background of
sky of the brightest blue above line
OF green foliage; place in the fore
ground the brilliant white Of the
snowy robes of the sultan, Of the gar
'ments Of his retinue, of the wells OF
the women watching from the walls,
with the CLINT of gun barrel and spear
in the African sunshine, and what
picture it makes to the minds eye!
What, again, can more adequately ex-
press the poetry of motion than tbs
wild rush of the Arab cavaliers in the
Sheep race? The game OF powder, that
is to say, the waving and firing in the
air OF innumerable guns, which is the
part of the show the Arabs love best.
gives the fantasia a warlike character
which makes it the favorite sport o.
those born horsemen and warriors.
The Sheep feast, which the Arabs
call 'the great feast" is a serious bust
ness. On that occasion every Moslem
family must sacrifice a sheep; anC care
is taken to choose an animal with fine
pair Of horns, because it is to them that
fhn G41 oh nh an
crossing the ricate, the bridge, narrow
as q hair and sharp as razor, which
is suspended above hell, and across
which he must pass to paradise. The
lsacrifcial act is commemorative Of tbs
ram caught in a thicket," divinely
provided to avert the sacrifice of Isaac
by Abraham. In no Mahommedan
country is the faith Of Islam more
dramatically fierce than in Morocco. as
is exemplifed in the city of Fee, with
its $50 mosques. One Of these mosques
is sanctuary for even the most des-
perate criminals, for Fee is holy city.
It is also one of remarkable beauty,
situated in a charming valley domin-
ated by high mountains, and studded
with groves of lemon and pomegran-
lite trees, ana cleaning with the white
wash Of which the law OF the prophet
prescribes the use at regular intervals
From the sanitary point of view, how
ever, a Moorish town or village is but
a whited se%ilcher. Those women in
the sketch are doing their family
washing in the village welI-a grue-
some thought on which the European
mind does not love to linger. Agricul-
turally, too, Morocco is as backward
as in every other respect. The Arab
plow, drawn by Gender OK and an ass,
does but scratch the marvelously fer
tile ground, which, in Roman times,
made the Barbary coast the granary
of Southern Europe. In short, one
may say today of Morocco, just what
was said Of it by an Englishman who
went there with Lord Howard. the am
bassador of Charles IL. in 1863: ct
were to be desired that such indus
trious and public spirited persons did
inhabit there as might make an i'm
provement Of the goodness Of the soil
and of the conveniences of the place 4"
For, as Rudyard Kipling puts it, Gin
the east nothing ever changes" and
Morocco, despite its geographical po-
sition, is nothing if not Oriental