MOROCCO.* IT is thirteen years since Dr. Gerhard Rohlfs commenced,

at Tangiers, the career of African travel which has rendered him so famous, and which Mr. Winwood Reade, who cuts his intro- duction even shorter than that by which he prefaced Dr. Schweinfiirth's recent work, sums up in a few lines. "He adopted the garb and religion of the Moors, entered as surgeon the service of the Sultan, resided at Fez, explored the Atlas, and enjoyed the bosom friendship of the Grand Sherif. At a

later date he started from Tripoli in Arab disguise, and crossed the African continent, via Lake Tchad, to the British settlement of Lagos; in the Bight of Benin. For this prodigious journey he received the gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society. He afterwards joined the Abyssinian Expedition, in the service

.of the King of Prussia, and is now about to undertake the ex- ploration of the Libyan Desert." When Dr. Rohlfs makes known to the general public the results of the latter important and interesting enterprise, it is to be hoped he will put them in a style less stiff, imperturbable, and dry than that of this work on Morocco, which has been, we are told, recently composed. Hence, perhaps, its bard, colourless style,—the impressions have passed away, and it is merely a galvanised note- book, with the additional drawback of being somewhat clumsily translated from the German, evidently by an Ame- rican, for we find money reckoned by "the French dollar" (the five-franc piece, no doubt, being meant), and the German spelling of geographical names retained. Learned societies do not care about style, but ordinary readers, however, desirous of information, do-; and to them the reading of this book, which, though it dates from so far, is the most comprehensive account of the fantastic, out-of-the-world Empire of Morocco, is more of a duty than a pleasure. The Sultan, Mohammed, whose service Dr. Rohlfs entered, whom he mentions only slightly (pp. 112- 115), but makes no attempt to describe, is dead, and Muley Hassan reigns in his stead ; but otherwise, things are going on or standing still in Morocco just as they went on or stood still when, thirteen years ago, Mustafa, the German convert to Islam, who, more cunning than Burton or Vambery, affected the naïveté as well as the zeal of the neophyte, and Abdalla, the Frenchman, ex-officer of Spahis, who had " emigrated " from Algeria, taking with him the cash-box of his company, kept a shop, in amiable partnership, at Mequinez. The drollery of this arrangement con- quers the dullness of the narrator, and we do get a laugh out of the following description :—

"Here [in the shop] I set up as surgeon and apothecary, my stock consisting of large charcoal fire, with irons at a white-heat, some pots containing ointments, emetics, and purges, and various innocuous, highly-coloured powders for cases of hypochondria and hysteria ; and I had—what had never been seen in Morocco before—a mighty sign- board, on which was painted, in large and beautiful letters, 'Mustafa, the German, Physician and Surgeon. In a country where the art of advertising is not yet born, this signboard created a sensation. From morning till evening, young and old, men and women, noblemen and beggars, stood before the shop, and spelt out the long Arabic letters. The success was complete Ab'dalla sat on one side of the shop, making or mending bellows (such was his peculiar vocation), while I quacksalvered on the other ; for to be cantid, my medical prac- tice in Morocco was more quackery than anything else. Meanwhile, the olaeard was talked of all over the town, till its fame reached the ears of the prime minister, Si-Thaib. One evening some of his servants came and took me by the hand (they scarcely gave me time to ask Abdalla to come as my interpreter); off we went, and found Si-Thaib at supper.

. . . . . He stretched out his foot, and asked me what was his com- plaint. Abdall a had previously informed me that the premier suffered from gout, and my answer, therefore, was prepared. I examined his foot, and named his disease. He was much pleased, and asked me whether I followed the hot or the cold treatment, and when I mentioned the former, I saw that I had chosen the one he preferred. Si-Thaib dis- missed us in a gracious manner, and told me I must treat him next day for his gout."

• Adventures in Morocco, and Journeyrthrough the Oases of urea and Taftlet. By Dr. -Gerhard Hohlts. With an Intrudnation by Winwood Read°. London: Sampson Low and Co. There was, however, a brisk competition for Mustafa, and next day a posse of police came to the shop, carried him off to the palace, and he was there and then bundled off "like a portmanteau," but without being permitted to go home and pack his own, to Ben Thaleb, the governor of Old Fez, who had written to the Sultan to beg that he might have Mustafa. The Sultan, a prompt Moor, ordered that Mustafa should be deposited at Fez the same evening, which was done. Mustafa found that he had bettered himself by this hasty hegira ; he was lodged in a good house, supplied with food, tea, horses, mules, and servants, and had no duty but that of conversing, through the medium of an inter- preter, with Ben Thaleb for two hours a day. He lived for several months at Fez, and studied the town and the people thoroughly ; but he tells UB no more about Abdalla, who was pro- bably too well accustomed to the manners of Morocco to mind much the sudden dissolution of partnership. It had not been all plain-sailing up to this point, however ; the training for the character of a renegade is not pleasant, to begin with. Morally, Dr. Rohlfs does not seem to have minded it at all,—he remarks generally that "no one can understand a religion unless he has belonged to it ; at the same time, he cannot criticise it unless he has emancipated himself from its chains." He -appears to have applied that principle to Christianity as well as Islamism ; but he did not enjoy having his head shaved with a blunt penknife (a. process which all the Moors undergo, and to which they owe the prevalence of severe ringworm), eating slippery food out of his hand from a dish common to all the male persons in the house, and sleeping on a thin mat spread on a hard clay floor. He knew only a few phrases of Arabic, but he could say, "Except God no God ; Mahommed is the messenger of God," in the vernacular, and he had only to say it often enough to get through his difficulties. The conversion, which took place at Tangiers, was indispensable then, and doubtless would be indispens- able now. Sir Drummond Hay told Dr. Rohlfs on his arrival that the popular hatred of Christians was such, that if the Sultan himself had desired new things, his wishes could never be accomplished ; and if the traveller wished to penetrate into the interior, he must become a Mohammedan. From a recent work by Miss Perrier, who cherishes a pretty distinct dislike to Chris- tians herself, we gather that matters are not mended in this respect. Mustafa, popularly supposed to be an Englishman, who had fled from his country to avoid the penalty of death, in- curred by his becoming a True Believer, started from Tangiers on foot, in company with an individual who believed that the bundle he carried contained stolen goods, probably valuable treasure, and therefore regarded him with respect. "When a Moor goes on a journey," the writer explains, "he does not take a change of raiment, were he the Sultan himself." He had been advised to avoid mention of Fez as his destination, and to give himself out as about to visit the Grand Sherif, or Descendant of the Prophet, Sidi-el-Hadj, Abd-es.Sealam, at " Uesam," or, as we are accustomed to see it written, Wamn.

This saintly personage is the same of whom Miss Perrier, in her Win V. in Morocco, gives a revolting description, and who, it is not pleasant to remember, induced an English lady to marry him some time ago. Mr. Winwoode Reade is in error when he states that Dr. Rohlfs has "revealed the existence of another spiritual potentate" besides the Sultan, who is the head of the Church. The Grand Sherif has long been kniown to exist, and indeed Mr. Reade contradicts himself in the next sentence. The Sherif is not made out to be such a loath- some wretch and monstrous hypocrite by Dr. Rohlfs, who believes that he believes sometimes, if not continuously, in his own spiritual powers (the exercise of which is described in a very curious and unpleasant chapter), and to whom Sidi pro- pounded some advanced notions. But the Sherif—who has had the courage to brave the people since in the matter of his marriage —is a shrewd man, and aware of the folly of being before one's age. "The Sultan and his grandees, and the doctors of the law," said Sidi to the renegade, who came from the land of real railway trains, and the sea of real steamships (he possesses models of these inventions of the accursed Giaour, and cherishes them as the King of Siam cherishes his Bass's bottles with the pyramidal trade-mark), will not hear of progress and improvement, and for that reason we were beaten by the Spaniards. If I only could do so, I would introduce all that the Christians have, or at all events, a good legislature and a regular army." Mustafa replied that whatever he wished, the Sultan would also wish ; a silly remark, which the Sherif answered like a sensible man. "The Sultan and I," he replied, "are both dependent on the people, and they are already vexed with me because I wear a European dress, afterthe

manner of the Turks." Accordingly, when Mustafa visited Wazan at a later period, and resided there more than a year, he found the Sherif without his uniform, attired as became a cousin of the Prophet. He had made this concession to the prejudices of the people, "in order that they might pay in their money as freely as before." Among the rights of the Sherifs is that to insult people by cursing their fathers and grandfathers without receiving similar compliments in return. It would be an offence against religion to curse the family of the Prophet ; it is allowable to curse the man himself, but that is all. Mustafa occasionally made a slip in manners, as, for instance, during his stay at a place called, incomprehensibly, L'xor,—for it is spelt " Alkassar "—where there is a great pro- fusion of delicious vegetables, but asparagus, broccoli, and arti- chokes are looked upon as flowers, such as only Christians would be capable of eating. Mustafa was viewed with much curiosity by the natives, .and progressed in knowledge of their ways, chiefly owing to the following lesson :—

" Oh I Christian, don't run up and down," said an old coffee-drinker one evening, when he saw me pacing to and fro in reverie. I sat (own, and asked him if it was wrong. "No," said he, "it is not exactly wrong, but to walk backwards and forwards without any reason, like an animal, is not gentlemanly " (drif).—" God be praised," said another, "yon now believe on God and on his Beloved ; may God extirpate all lJnbelievors, and make them burn for evermore !"—" But, oh, marvel!" cried a third, "look at the Infidel dog, how he has crossed his hands! [I had sat down cross-legged, and also crossed my hands.] Certainly he is praying his sinful prayers." I quickly uncrossed my hands, and was admonished never to repeat such gestures in the company of True Believers."

The geographical, ethnological, and medical details of this work are of value and importance. We had not previously realised the great extent, the numerous population, and the sealed-book- like condition of Morocco ; which, with its oases, is, according to Dr. Rohlfs, a third larger than France,—without them, at least as large again as Algeria ; with a population of 6,500,000, of whom the vast majority are fierce, fanatical Mohammedans. The author's statistics are only comparative—the science does not exist in Morocco—but he judges by Algeria. He places the number of Jews at 200,000; that of negroes at 50,000; that of Europeans, who live only in the seaports, chiefly at Tangiers and Mogador, at 2,000. His description of the oases, Draa and Tafilet, which he calls islands of the blest," is most attractive, if we could only lose sight of the population, which is steadily increasing there, not only because the physical conditions of those delight- ful places are as favourable to the growth of men as to that of plants and vegetables, but because life and property are secure, war, taxation, and robbery are unknown. In a word, they are a long way off from the Sultan and the Grand Sherif. The cli- mates—for there are two, one for the country north, the other for the country south of the Atlas—are delightful, justifying Hemso. who says :—" The climate of the whole of this region is one of the most beautiful and most salubrious on the entire surface of the terrestrial globe." Yet, with all this, famines are common in Morocco out of the oases, a calamity which the author explains thus :—

"The Moors never store up large quantities of grain, and are there- fore wholly dependent on their crops, and these are liable to be destroyed by drought, hailstones, or locusts. Even when all goes well, the food is unvaried, and therefore unwholesome, and occasional outbursts of gluttony are followed by disease. The women weaken themselves by the prolonged suckling of their infants. Wars and robber-raids decimate the men, and the Government and the clergy bleed them to death."

An exceedingly unpleasant chapter on the diseases of the Moors represents the condition of these people in a sad light. All the learning of the famous physicians, who once lived in Morocco and Spain, is lost ; while all the diseases they treated flourish 'almost unchecked, save by the medium of amulets and prayers. There are no apothecaries' shops, the physician pre- pares his medicines, administers them, and if the patient be a person of importance, has to partake of them in the first instance. Rheumatism, which is very prevalent, is treated by the application of hot iron, as are gout and dyspepsia. For an extraordinary description of this practice and the practitioners, the reader is referred to the book (page 81). The author says :—" I created quite a revolution in the Faculty at Fez, when I announced that I possessed a new remedy, called the cold fire, this being lunar caustic ; and it had a splendid success, so much so, that my colleagues began to meditate mischief against me, so that I. thought it best to announce that my stock of cold fire was ex- hausted." Small-pox is very common, leprosy and elephantiasis are frequent, diseases of the lungs are scarcely known. The following is worth notice :—" Hydrophobia," says the author, "is unknown. It seems that dogs which are fed on raw meat do not go mad." Diseases of the eye are very comiron. Surgery is more advanced than medicine, and broken bones are ingeniously mended. "Amputation is never practised, the Moors regarding it as sinful. Hands or feet which are cut off as a punishment for crime are carefully buried, that they may not be missing on the Resurrection-day ; the stumps are dipped in boiling butter or oil, to stop the bleeding." Dr. Rohlfs had good reason to be thank- ful for this prohibition, when a horrible and treacherous attempt to murder him was made, after he had journeyed through the oasis of Draa, and was approaching the Algerian frontier. The assassin was the Sheik of the village, whose guest the traveller had been for ten days. He ate daily out of the same dish, and even after playing at Islamism himself, he cherished the illusion that he would therefore be sacred to a Mussulman :—

" With much difficulty and privation [says the author, who had started on his daring journey from Tangiers with an English bank-note for .45 as his sole resource] I had succeeded in scraping together a little more money, for the conditions under which the latter is carried out in Morocco are very different to those with us. Thus the physician who has no strong kinsfolk to back him up must be careful to avoid administering any internal medicine to a sick person, for should the invalid unluckily die, then either the medicine or the physician has- caused his death. On the other hand, if by the use of proper remedies the physician cures a patient, then it is not he or the medicine which has done good, but the care is attributed to some saint—perhaps to Mohammed—in rarer cases to God. It is therefore best to practise in. the way that is useful in the country,—by fire and amulets."

The booty to be gained by murder was very small—only what the translator calls "sixty French dollars ".-,-but the Sheik pursued his guest, after he had taken leave of him, and gone on his way

with a pilgrim. The Sheik had given them a guide, who lighted a fire on the spot where they lay down to sleep, and piled it up to show his master the way to them. Dr. Rohlfs woke to find his friendly host standing over him, with the smoking mouth of his long gun still pointing at his breast. The bullet had missed his heart, but broken his left arm. He was seizing his pistol, when the assassin nearly slashed his hand off with his sahre.. Then he fainted, and the ruffians made sure of him, as they- thought, for they inflicted on him nine wounds, and robbed him of everything but his blood-stained clothes. Although he ,was close to the river, he could not get to its but lay two days and two nights in helpless agony and burning thirst. When he had quite given up all thoughts of living, two men came and rescued him. His left arm was only hanging by skin and muscle, his right hand was in a similar plight ; his first request, when he had been carried into a house, was for a knife, and when it was brought he desired his host—another sheik—to sever his hang- ing arm. "That may be the custom among you Christians," said the marabout, "but we never cut a member off ; and as you, praised be God, are now in your right senses, you will retain your arm." And so he did.

In a political chapter on "Consulates," we regret to observe a spirit of dislike to England on the writer's part, and a tendency to grumble against us in a wolf -and-lanab style to which Germans are addicting themselves of late. If, as Dr. Rohlfs thinks, it would be desirable for the German Empire to have a repre- sentative in Morocco, as England and France have, we do not suppose our Government would object, and we are quite sure we shall do nothing more than laugh if the suggestion, put with so funny a mixture of shrewdness and naiveté, be carried out :—

" The best thing will be," says the astute doctor, u to choose a time when the Sultan and his whole Court and Government is [sic] assem- bled in Robat (meaning Council, presumably), and let the Ambassador of the German Empire be conveyed there in a man-of-war, in order that Morocco might have a visible proof of the power of our country. In the preliminary arrangements, of coarse, a present should not be wanting, but the gift of a few thousand chassepots would be as welcome- to the Sultan, as they could be easily spared by us."

To be sure, the gift would be welcome, and to be sure, the few thousand chassepoits could be spared, but the only serious enemy Morocco has is Spain. And why arm a Government hie the Moroccan, even against Spain?