Morocco | Page 2

the ship's siren summons the travellers
away from Morocco, to speak and write with authority for all time of
the country and its problems.
With these facts well in mind, it seemed best for me to let the pictures
suffice for Tangier, and to choose for the text one road and one city.
For if the truth be told there is little more than a single path to all the
goals that the undisguised European may reach.
Morocco does not change save by compulsion, and there is no area of
European influence below Tangier. Knowing one highway well you
know something of all; consequently whether Fez, Mequinez, Wazzan,
or Marrakesh be the objective, the travel story does not vary greatly.
But to-day, Marrakusha-al-Hamra, Red Marrakesh, is the most African
of all cities in Morocco, and seemed therefore best suited to the purpose
of this book. Moreover, at the time when this journey was made, Bu
Hamara was holding the approaches to Fez, and neither Mequinez nor
Wazzan was in a mood to receive strangers.
So it falls out that the record of some two or three hundred miles of
inland travel is all that awaits the reader here. In time to come, when
Morocco has been purged of its offences of simplicity and
primitiveness, the tourist shall accomplish in forty-eight hours the
journey that demanded more than a month of last year's spring. For
Sunset Land has no railway lines, nor can it boast--beyond the narrow
limits of Tangier--telegraphs, telephones, electric light, modern hotels,
or any of the other delights upon which the pampered traveller depends.
It is as a primeval forest in the hour before the dawn. When the sun of
France penetrates pacifically to all its hidden places, the forest will
wake to a new life. Strange birds of bright plumage, called in Europe
_gens d'armes_, will displace the storks upon the battlements of its
ancient towns, the commis voyageur will appear where wild boar and
hyæna now travel in comparative peace, the wild cat (_felis
Throgmortonensis_) will arise from all mineralised districts. Arab and

Berber will disappear slowly from the Moroccan forest as the lions
have done before them, and in the place of their douars and ksor there
shall be a multitude of small towns laid out with mathematical
precision, reached by rail, afflicted with modern improvements, and
partly filled with Frenchmen who strive to drown in the café their
sorrow at being so far away from home. The real Morocco is so lacking
in all the conveniences that would commend it to wealthy travellers
that the writer feels some apology is due for the appearance of his short
story of an almost unknown country in so fine a setting. Surely a simple
tale of Sunset Land was never seen in such splendid guise before, and
will not be seen again until, with past redeemed and forgotten, future
assured, and civilisation modernised, Morocco ceases to be what it is
to-day.
S.L. BENSUSAN.
_July 1904._

Contents
CHAPTER I
page By Cape Spartel 3
CHAPTER II
From Tangier to Djedida 21
CHAPTER III
On the Moorish Road 41
CHAPTER IV
To the Gates of Marrakesh 57

CHAPTER V
In Red Marrakesh 77
CHAPTER VI
Round about Marrakesh 101
CHAPTER VII
The Slave Market at Marrakesh 121
CHAPTER VIII
Green Tea and Politics 139
CHAPTER IX
Through a Southern Province 159
CHAPTER X
"Sons of Lions" 179
CHAPTER XI
In the Argan Forest 199
CHAPTER XII
To the Gate of the Picture City 217

List of Illustrations
1. In Djedida Frontispiece FACING PAGE 2. A Shepherd, Cape
Spartel 2 3. The Courtyard of the Lighthouse, Cape Spartel 4 4. A

Street, Tangier 6 5. In Tangier 8 6. A Street in Tangier 10 7. A Guide,
Tangier 12 8. The Road to the Kasbah, Tangier 14 9. Head of a Boy
from Mediunah 16 10. The Goatherd from Mediunah 18 11. Old
Buildings, Tangier 20 12. Moorish House, Cape Spartel 22 13. A
Patriarch 24 14. Pilgrims on a Steamer 26 15. The Hour of Sale 28 16.
Evening, Magazan 30 17. Sunset off the Coast 32 18. A Veranda at
Magazan 34 19. A Blacksmith's Shop 36 20. A Saint's Tomb 40 21.
Near a Well in the Country 42 22. Near a Well in the Town 44 23.
Moorish Woman and Child 46 24. Evening on the Plains 48 25.
Travellers by Night 52 26. The R'Kass 56 27. A Traveller on the Plains
58 28. The Mid-day Halt 60 29. On Guard 64 30. A Village at Dukala
68 31. The Approach to Marrakesh 72 32. Date Palms near Marrakesh
76 33. On the Road to Marrakesh 80 34. A Minstrel 84 35. One of the
City Gates 86 36. A Blind Beggar 90 37. A Wandering