MOROCO

MOROCO, though one of the capitals of the empire (for there are three, Morocco, Mequinez, and Fez), has nothing to recommend it but its great extent and the royal palace. It is enclosed by remarkably strong walls built of tabby, the circumference of which is about eight miles. On these walls there are no guns mounted; but they are flanked with square towers, and surrounded by a wide and deep ditch. The city has a number of entrances, consisting of large double porches of tabby in the Gothic style, the gates of which are regularly shut every night at certain hours. As polygamy is allowed by the Mahometan religion, and is supposed in some degree to affect population, it would be difficult to form any computation near the truth with respect to the number of inhabitants which this city may contain. The mosques, which are the only public buildings except the palace worth noticing at Morocco, are more numerous than magnificent; one of them is ornamented with a very high and square tower, built of cut stone, which is visible at a considerable distance from the city. The streets are very narrow, dirty, and irregular, and many of the houses are uninhabited and falling to ruin. Those which are decent and respectable in their appearance are built of tabby, and enclosed in gardens. That of the effendi or prime minister (according to Mr Lempriere, from whose Tour * this account is transcribed), was among the best in Morocco. This house, which consisted of two stories, had elegant apartments both above and below, furnished in a style far superior to any thing our author ever saw in that country. The court, into which the lower apartments opened, was very neatly paved with glazed blue and white tiling, and had in its centre a beautiful fountain. The upper apartments were connected together by a broad gallery, the balusters of which were painted of different colours. The hot and cold baths were very large, and had every convenience which art could afford. Into the garden, which was laid out in a tolerably neat style, opened a room adjoining to the house, which had a broad arched

entrance but no door, beautifully ornamented with Morocco-chequered tiling; and at both ends of the apartment the walls were entirely covered with looking-glasses. The flooring of all the rooms was covered with beautiful carpeting, the walls ornamented with large and valuable looking-glasses, intermixed with watches and clocks in glass-cases. The ceiling was carved wood-work, painted of different colours; and the whole was in a superior style of Moorish grandeur. This and a few others are the only decent habitations in Morocco. The generality of them serve only to impress the traveller with the idea of a miserable and deserted city.

The Elcaisseria is a particular part of the town where stuffs and other valuable articles are exposed to sale. It consists of a number of small shops, formed in the walls of the houses, about a yard from the ground, of such an height within as just to admit a man to sit in one of them cross-legged. The goods and drawers are so arranged round him, that when he serves his customers, who are standing all the time out in the street, he can reach down any article he wants without being under the necessity of moving. These shops, which are found in all the other towns of the empire, are sufficient to afford a striking example of the indolence of the Moors. There are three daily markets in different parts of the town of Morocco where provisions are sold, and two weekly fairs or markets for the disposal of cattle. The city is supplied with water by means of wooden pipes connected with the neighbouring streams, which empty themselves into reservoirs placed for the purpose in the suburbs, and some few in the centre of the town.

The caisle is a large and ruinous building, the outer walls of which enclose a space of ground about three miles in circumference. It has a moque, on the top of which are three large balls, forced, as the Moors allege, of solid gold. The caisle is almost a town of itself; it contains a number of inhabitants, who in some department or other are in the service of the emperor, and all under the direction of a particular alcade, who is quite independent of the governor of the town. On the outside of the caisle, between the Moorish town and the Jewdry, are several small distinct pavilions, enclosed in gardens of orange-trees, which are intended as occasional places of residence for such of the emperor's sons or brothers as happen to be at Morocco. As they are covered with coloured tiling, they have at a small distance rather a neat appearance; but upon approaching or entering them, that effect in a great measure ceases.

The Jews, who are at this place pretty numerous, have a separate town to themselves, walled in, and under the charge of an alcade, appointed by the emperor. It has two large gates, which are regularly shut every evening about nine o'clock; after which time no person whatever is permitted to enter or go out of the Jewdry till they are opened again the following morning. The Jews have a market of their own; and when they enter the Moorish town, caisle, or palace, they are always compelled to be barefooted.

The palace is an ancient building, surrounded by a square wall, the height of which nearly excludes from the view of the spectator the other buildings. Its principal gates are constructed with Gothic arches,

composed of cut stone, which conduct to several open and spacious courts; through these it is necessary to pass before we reach any of the buildings. These open courts were used by the late emperor for the purposes of transacting public business and exercising his troops. The habitable part consists of several irregular square pavilions, built of tabby, and whitened over; some of which communicate with each other, others are distinct, and most of them receive their names from the different towns of the empire. The principal pavilion is named by the Moors the douhar, and is more properly the palace or seraglio than any of the others. It consists of the emperor's place of residence and the Harem, forming altogether a building of considerable extent. The other pavilions are merely for the purposes of pleasure or business, and are quite distinct from the douhar. The Mogadore pavilion, so named from the late emperor's partiality to that town, has by far the fairest claim to grandeur and magnificence. This apartment was the work of Sidi Mahomet, and is lofty and square. It is built of cut stone, handsomely ornamented with windows, and covered with varnished tiles of various colours; and its elegance and neatness, contrasted altogether with the simplicity and irregularity of the other buildings, produce a most striking effect. In the inside, besides several other apartments, we find in the pavilion a spacious room floored with blue and white chequered tiling, its ceiling covered with curiously carved and painted wood, and its flucced walls variously ornamented with looking-glasses and watches, regularly disposed in glass-cases. To this pavilion the late emperor manifested an exclusive preference, frequently retiring to it both for the purposes of business and of recreation. The apartments of the emperor have in general a much smaller complement of furniture than those of the Moors in the inferior walks of life. Handsome carpeting, a mattress on the ground covered with fine linen, a couch, and a couple of European bedsteads, are the principal articles they contain. The gardens within the walls of the palace, of which he has several, are very neat; they contain orange and olive trees, variously disposed and arranged, and intersected with streams of water, fountains, and reservoirs. Those on the outside are nothing more than large tracts of ground, irregularly planted with olives; having four square walks, and surrounded by walls.