The Republican journal., 1901-11-28


paper covered. Address DR.. R. V. Pierce,
Buffalo, N Y.
Eye. The letter-writer office is the
open street, where he selects some nook
or corner partially sheltered from jost-
ling elbows. He writes upon his left
knee, the appliances of his trade spread
out before him, ink, paper, reed pens,
sand-box, and a ruling board with
strings stretched across it at regular in
tervals, upon which the paper is press
ed to indicate lines.
The interior of a Moorish house-of
the middle class, to choose an average
samples simplicity itself, but study
in color. 1t is usually one-storied, con-
tanning single apartment, very long
and lofty, with peaked doorway so low
that grown person must bend his back
to pass through it. The only other
apertures for the admission of light
and air are narrow Sits high up in the
walls, glazed windows being considered
inventions of the devil, through which
to cast Evil Eyes and other perilous
things upon true believers. The bed of
the husband and wife is placed at one
end of the long room; and at the other
end a sort of raised couch, or platform,
is provided for the children's sleeping
place: the space between being tolera-
bly, well filed up with the milestone for
grinding corn, the brazier or clay pot
for cooking with charcoal, various
culinary utensils, gourds for holding
water and goats milk, sacks of corn,
dogs, fowls, and perhaps pet lion, or
leopard. There is also a big snake OF
two about the premises, kept as we do
cats, to subdue the domestic plaques of
rats, mice and reaches. To be sure his
snakeship endangers the lives of the
chickens, and is unpleasantly prone to
preempt the sleeping quarters of the
family on chilly nights; but his presence
is thought to be indispensable in every
well-regulated household. Notwith-
standing theses primitive arrange
ments, there is somehow a pleasing air
of 'the eternal fitness" about the
orative finish, the latter probably bor-
rowed from the brightly-colored mould
ing, and the beautifully shaped pottery
suspended from the walls. Nowhere
in homes of this class do you see the
article of furniture which we know as
a table, and seldom chair At meal
time the family squats on it's heels
around a huge pot, or platter of stew,
placed in the middle of the floor, and
fingers-more or less dirty-do duty as
knives and forks. 1t is about the same
way in Moorish restaurants, except
that they are SO small you cannot get
inside to sit on the floor, but must
stand outside, in mud, or rain, or
scorching sunshine, and reach over the
heads of the passing crowd to the
Counter" on which is placed your
eggs bread, small bits of meat roasted
on stick over charcoal, coffee and
asses milk. Once in a great while, if
food of a liquid nature is to be eaten,
you may secure the momentary loan of
a ladle or brass spoon; but as rule the
''ten servants" according to the Koran,
(fngers), with which Allah has provided
you, must suffice. There are still
humber cooking places in which those
economically inclined may dine You
go to market and buy eggs, meat, what
ever you desire, and take them raw to
the cook-shops, where they are prepar-
ed for pittance.
AS everybody knows, coffee is the
beverage in which most NOLAN medans
delight; yet, strange to say, the Moors
of Morocco prefer tea. This is the way
they make it: The dried leaves are
first washed-lthink of that, my tea
loving friends Of the NorthD and then
a great quantity of crude brown sugar
is put into the gourd, or clay pot.
Then luke-warm water is turned on, and
| the final result is about as nasty syrup
| as / ever tasted. One would naturally
suppose that a people so excessively
particular about fiavors, and so skilled
since time out of mind in distilling
essences, would wish to retain the deli
cate tea-fiavor. Strange to say, it is
just that-the aroma and taste of the
tea-to which they object and take ex-
traordinary trouble to destroy. At a
''swelp' Moorish dinner of the highest
class, there are regular courses of tea,