Life in Morocco and Glimpses Beyond | Page 8

villages adjoining or close to those belonging to the Berbers,
and sometimes even larger than they. Always clad in black or
dark-coloured cloaks, with hideous black skull-caps or white-spotted
blue kerchiefs on their heads, they are conspicuous everywhere. They

address the Moors with a villainous, cringing look which makes the
sons of Ishmael savage, for they know it is only feigned. In return they
are treated like dogs, and cordial hatred exists on both sides. So they
live, together yet divided; the Jew despised but indispensable, bullied
but thriving. He only wins at law when richer than his opponent;
against a Muslim he can bear no testimony; there is scant pretence at
justice. He dares not lift his hand to strike a Moor, however ill-treated,
but he finds revenge in sucking his life's blood by usury. Receiving no
mercy, he shows none, and once in his clutches, his prey is fortunate to
escape with his life.
The happy influence of more enlightened European Jews is, however,
making itself felt in the chief towns, through excellent schools
supported from London and Paris, which are turning out a class of
highly respectable citizens. While the Moors fear the tide of advancing
westernization, the town Jews court it, and in them centres one of the
chief prospects of the country's welfare. Into their hands has already
been gathered much of the trade of Morocco, and there can be little
doubt that, by the end of the thirty years' grace afforded to other
merchants than the French, they will have practically absorbed it all,
even the Frenchmen trading through them. They have at least the
intimate knowledge of the people and local conditions to which so few
foreigners ever attain.
When the Moorish Empire comes to be pacifically penetrated and
systematically explored, it will probably be found that little more is
known of it than of China, notwithstanding its proximity, and its
comparatively insignificant size. A map honestly drawn, from
observations only, would astonish most people by its vast blank
spaces.[2] It would be noted that the limit of European
exploration--with the exception of the work of two or three hardy
travellers in disguise--is less than two hundred miles from the coast,
and that this limit is reached at two points only--south of Fez and
Marrákesh respectively,--which form the apices of two well-known
triangular districts, the contiguous bases of which form part of the
Atlantic coast line, under four hundred miles in length. Beyond these
limits all is practically unknown, the language, customs and beliefs of

the people providing abundant ground for speculation, and permitting
theorists free play. So much is this the case, that a few years ago an
enthusiastic "savant" was able to imagine that he had discovered a
hidden race of dwarfs beyond the Atlas, and to obtain credence for his
"find" among the best-informed students of Europe.
[2: An approximation to this is given in the writer's "Land of the
Moors."]
But there is also another point of view from which Morocco is
unknown, that of native thought and feeling, penetrated by extremely
few Europeans, even when they mingle freely with the people, and
converse with them in Arabic. The real Moor is little known by
foreigners, a very small number of whom mix with the better classes.
Some, as officials, meet officials, but get little below the official
exterior. Those who know most seldom speak, their positions or their
occupations preventing the expression of their opinions. Sweeping
statements about Morocco may therefore be received with reserve, and
dogmatic assertions with caution. This Empire is in no worse condition
now than it has been for centuries; indeed, it is much better off than
ever since its palmy days, and there is no occasion whatever to fear its
collapse.
Few facts are more striking in the study of Morocco than the absolute
stagnation of its people, except in so far as they have been to a very
limited extent affected by outside influences. Of what European--or
even oriental--land could descriptions of life and manners written in the
sixteenth century apply as fully in the twentieth as do those of Morocco
by Leo Africanus? Or even to come later, compare the transitions
England has undergone since Höst and Jackson wrote a hundred years
ago, with the changes discoverable in Morocco since that time. The
people of Morocco remain the same, and their more primitive customs
are those of far earlier ages, of the time when their ancestors lived upon
the plain of Palestine and North Arabia, and when "in the loins of
Abraham" the now unfriendly Jew and Arab were yet one. It is the
position of Europeans among them which has changed.
In the time of Höst and Jackson piracy was dying hard, restrained by

tribute from all the Powers of Europe. The foreign