The Coolidge examiner., 1937-02-11

a graceful fountain spouting water,
a forest of carved pillars-270 OF
them-with their long vistaS show
ing masses of white and black.
There white robed men kneel,
swaying forward and back togeth-
er, bending until their foreheads
touch the tiled pavement, rising to
their feet, bowling, sinking to their
knees again, prostrating themselves
with faces to the ground-au in per-
feet unison. And never a Soundi
Picture the scene on Friday when
fifteen or twenty thousand Moslem
men fill this great mosque.
Women are not admitted, except
into a corner of it. But you will
see them come to the gateways-
there are fourteen of these-and,
putting their heads timidly just in
side, kiss the Intels of the open
doors.
The Karouiine mosque was begun
in the Ninth century and finished
in the Eleventh; but successive sui
tans further embellished it. One of
its gates, covered with bronze orna-
ments, dates from 1136. Besides
serving as place of worship, it is
the seat of the Fez Mohammedan
university, to which hundreds of stu
dents from all parts of Morocco
flock to study theology, grammar,
Moslem law and Jurisprudence from
its renowned professors.
There are many other mosques in
Fee, but none can compare with
this, the largest in Africa.
Madrasahs, ecclesiastical col.
legeS, and Zaouias, seats of reli
gious confraternities, abound. The
former are generally housed in
beautiful buildings. The bronze
gates and the tiled halls and courts
are all that can be seen by the
Infidel now, unless he be highly
favored.
The many fonduks dotted about
the capital, like the caravansaries
of farther East, are the oriental
equivalents of our hotels. Many are
architecturally fine and date back
hundreds of years.
Only Hotels Are FOnduks.
You enter one through a massive
gateway leading into square court
yard surrounded by two or three
storied buildings. On the ground
floor are lookup shops in which
the travelling merchant can display
and sell the goods he has brought,
perhaps from distant lands. Carved
wood galleries run round the upper
stories and off them open rooms in
which the Wayfarer can lodge until
he has sold off his stock or finished
his business and is ready for the
road again. No food is supplied.
The common fonduk has stables
on the ground floor or else the trav-
elers' horses, mules, camelS, and
donkeys are picketed round h e
court, making the place noisome
with stencil.
A curious relic of the past is to
be seen on the front of one of the
houses in the Tala Sioux. From the
ornamented plaster and wood facade
jut out thirteen carved wooden
beams; on the end of each rests
a large green bronze f1attened bowl
or gong. Above each is a narrow
window in alignment. All these are
supposed to have formed part of
timepiece constructed in 1857 and
are called in consequence 'the
Clock of Bou Inania."
Through Fez rushes tumultuously
the little River Fez. You will cross
it over one bridge in the heart of
the city without noticing it; for the
bridge is lined with shops and seems
Just part of an ordinary SIOUX. For
a space the stream runs swift in
a deep chasm of blank-walled |
houses. From the garden of one a
solitary date palm rises, sharply
outlined against the sky.
Plenty of Water There.
The city seems we'll supplied with
water, which rushes noisily under
ground down the steep slopes; and
YOU wonder how the water carriers
do such a good trade with their
skin bags and the two bright brass
cups linked by a chain to their belts.
For all day long you see them CIV
ing drink to the pigeonhole shop
keepers and the paSSerSby.
In little recess in the wall be.
side the door of a dentists house
(you cannot fail to recognize the
abode of an Arab tooth-drawer, for
he displays a small glass case filed
with molars and grinders that he has
pulled a column of clear water
bubbles up fiercely like a geyser.
1t gushes out of the spoutS of the
tiled wall fountains; sparkling lets
shoot up in the marble basins in
the courts of the mosques; it flow
freely into the rectangular ston
baths at the doors of the sacre
buildings where the Faithful DC
form their ablutions before enterIf
to pray.