Africa

Responsibility of the Governors - Empire beautiful and productive - Humane Efforts of the Emperor - Blind Submission to his Will - Great Number of Negroes naturalized - The Moors might be truly formidable. - Emperor's Brother - Fez divided into two Parts - Magnificent Mosques - Commercial Privileges - Indignities which Christians undergo - Singular Supply of Water - The Imperial Gardens - Propensity to defraud - Factories - Exports - Costume - Character - Manner of living - Domestic Vermin.

Fez.

Fez - Debility of the Moors - Mosques - Antiquities, Roman, Carthaginian, and Saracen - Storks held in great Veneration - Baths - Bazars - Inhabitants - Residence - Menagerie - Marvellous Preservation of a Jew - Lions - Tigers - Leopards - Hyenas.

Fez, - - .

1920

by Edith Wharton

I

Having begun my book with the statement that Morocco still lacks a guide-book, I should have wished to take a first step toward remedying that deficiency.

I

LEAVING TANGIER

To step on board a steamer in a Spanish port, and three hours later to land in a country without a guide-book, is a sensation to rouse the hunger of the repletest sight-seer.

I

VOLUBILIS

One day before sunrise we set out from Rabat for the ruins of Roman Volubilis.

I

THE FIRST VISION

Many-walled Fez rose up before us out of the plain toward the end of the day.

I

THE WAY THERE

There are countless Arab tales of evil Djinns who take the form of sandstorms and hot winds to overwhelm exhausted travellers.

I

THE CROWD IN THE STREET

To occidental travellers the most vivid impression produced by a first contact with the Near East is the surprise of being in a country where the human element increases instead of diminishing the delight of the eye.

I

It is not too much to say that General Lyautey has twice saved Morocco from destruction: once in 1912, when the inertia and double-dealing of Abd-el-Hafid abandoned the country to the rebellious tribes who had attacked him in Fez, and the second time in August, 1914, when Germany declared war on France.