Identifier: travelsinatlass00thom (find matches)
Title: Travels in the Atlas and Southern Morocco, a narrative of exploration
Year: 1889 (1880s)
Authors: Thomson, Joseph, 1858-1895
Subjects:
Publisher: London, Philip
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
number will rise tosomething like 60,000, which then includes the armyand all the camp and court followers. Like other Moorish towns, Maraksh is divided intothe Kasbah, which has a governor of its own, and con-tains the Sultans palace and its adjuncts, the Medinahor Moorish civilian quarters, and the Mellah. TheMedinah, besides having its own proper walls, is alsointersected by others which divide it into secondaryquarters, capable of being shut off when necessary—anarrangement no doubt intended for the easier isolationof any outbreak among the inhabitants. Having thus formed some general idea of the city asseen from the house-tops, we may now descend andcommence a more detailed exploration of its sights andscenes. In the more business part of the town there isabsolutely nothing to remark but the passing people. M ARAKS H. 351 Narrow lanes run everywhere without plan or reason,hemmed in by blank walls of tccMa. These walls, likethe Moors, are for the most part in a sadly degenerate
Text Appearing After Image:
condition, waiting, indeed, like their owners, for thefate which Allah has decreed for them. The Moorish 352 MOROCCO. idea seems to be that it would be a sinful flying in theface of Providence to bolster up the tottering wall orpatch up its dilapidations, and hence one meets at everystep buildings in the most dangerous condition over-hanging the street. Beneath these, however, the in-habitants, strong in their faith that their day andhour is fixed, pass with the same leisurely step whichcharacterises their daily walk. Not less soundly do theowners sleep inside. Yet there are few days withouta disastrous catastrophe, and every squall or strongbreeze which crosses the city leaves behind it ruinedhouses and people buried beneath them. During ourstay several such accidents occurred, but excited noremark. It is in the commencement of winter, with itsrains and stormy weather, that most of these casualtiesoccur, not a day passing without its tale of disaster.Probably few towns in any country

Note About Images