Perth Amboy evening news., 1922-12-20
Geographic News
Bulletins BY the
National Geographic society
ABOUT MOROCCO

EkGllItIueuk VI IbdiSulI IIOIl dCLApG
banditry In Morocco is only
more indication of the sudden i'm
pact of western ideas upon a Mo-
hammedan stronghold which re-
manned untouched by outside iniu-
ences until a decade ago, according
to a bulletin from the Washington,
u. c., headquarters OF the National
Geographic Society.
Such contact displays amazing
incongruities to the traveller through
this region which only yesterday was
forbidden land to the Christian.
Brass bedsteads and grandfather
clocks are set up against walls of ex-
quisite mosaic and intricate arab
esque patterns. Arabs pitch their
tents at the foot of great wireless
stations. Yelled women of the
haren ride through new-made
streets in automobiles. The streets
themselves are indicative of rapid
change; for a few years age no roads
ran into Fee. and even yet some OF
the thoroughfares are so narrow
that not even an animal, much less
g. vehicle, could squeeze through
them.
Seems a Streetless City
eff one looks down upon Fee from
an airplane, as flyers now do, 1t
would seem to be q stretches city.
Many of the narrow. aisle-hke
streets are latticed over to protect
the hooded. ghost-Iike pedestrians
great estates by tunnels, "a does the
famous Cliff Walk, st Newport. un'
| DER several Of the gardens OF sum-
mer homes there.
Conspicuous figures on the bust
| n ess streets are water carriers with
the -.goatskin water bags sung by
| Kipling. The stranger is puzzled
| when he notes that these carriers
| give freely of their supply to every
| one who asks without demanding a
fee. Later he learns that b mer-
| chants along the street pay h r
riers and, recalling that any Amer
lean department stores provides q
| drinking fountain, he gains an Ink
ling that trade carries its burden OF
service into far away places. Thirst
| for this water IL somewhat assuaged
| when the visitor learns that the pots
in which this water Is collected are
| made by the lepers who live in fan
like caves just outside the city
walls.
Funeral Gay Spectacle .
perhaps the gayest spectacle OF
a Moroccan city 10 a funeral. The
wife who has been cloistered in life
Is paid every honor in death. She
is borne aloft in a great carved box
Of many colors, and behind her sing
choral societies organized to follow
funerals. A mere man Is swathed
In cloth and bound to a board. lie
has no box.
"A marriage register il the Mo-
roccan Bradstreet. A sultan who at
tanned great eminence abdicated
some years ago leaving 800 wives
behind. but took fifty with him for
soIace in his exile. The more pre-
tentious homes of Fee are built
around a courtyard, with tiny rooms
opening out upon the court, rtsemb-
ling the setting Of q room In some
little theatre.
..The guest in a Moroccan home
passes through the court with It's
inevitable fountain, lays off his
shoes before the dining room COM
partment, as he would entering a
Chinese temple, and sits down upon
a cushion opposite his host. Ine
host would commit a serious preach
Ct etiquette IL he touched any food
before the guest had finished his
meal. After the guest has con
.Iuded the host partakes a leisurely
repast, and not until he is through
Is the food he leaves sent to the
wives, concealed, but audible. on the
upper floor.
sThe Moroccan wife has some
what less freedom OF movement
than an American domestic. Err.
day afternoon is the wives day OUT
but they may only 20 to the
terry then, from which men are e1-
cluded for the afternoon. The
-z-.k,, - NH at all Rr1leS0me.
however, to the Moroccan way OF
thinking. Markets are held there,
and in various ways h cities OF n
dead do duty for public parks.
water wheels r. as numerous
In Fee as windmills in Holland. The
! city is Melted with tiny streams, 80
| that it is almost literally true ira
| every house has a waterway beneath
1t. Islam contributes to this abun-
dant water supply, for the Moham-
medan must wash before he enters
a mosque to pray. And he prays,
Though not always in a mosque, I'VE
times a day.
Touches American Pocketbook
"Fez touches the average Amer
ican-in a very literal sense-by vir-
tue of his p~ocketbook. In Fee Mo-
| rocca leather Is cured. One Of the
most interesting industrial sights of
| the city are the followed out rocks,
resembling the o section Of a
honeycomb, in which leather is
| dipped in a solution of lines by
natives who, strangely enough, stand
In the mixture up to their waists
without injury to their skins.
Travellers in French Morocco pay
special tribute to the efficiency OF
French administration there. In
|southern Morocco lived Glaoui who
next to Raisuli. was tine most dar.
ing Of Moroccan bandits. He wa,
made administrator of the region HI
formerly plundered; ard, visitors say
there is not now a kindlier, NOR
courteous, and more agreeable gen
tleman In those parts. Nor ha
there been any trouble with ban