actual - DSpace@GIPE

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MEQUINEZ. 31
itself in the southwestern part of .the city. The street which we
followed was a foot deep in miry muck, and the stench was terrible,
but we pursued our way to the honse of a rich Jew, entering
through a door not five feet high and passing along a narrow
hall of like height into a most beautiful court, guarded by an iron
grating above and surrounded by the custo~ary small oblong
rooms. Tho doors and half of the walls were covered with very
pretty tile mosaic-work, the doors were of intricately carved lind
colored wood, and the arches of the most graceful patterns lind
enriched with plaster arabesques and scrolls, quite after the style
of the famous Moorish palace of Granad_the Alhambra. The
oeilings of the rooms were domed and of intricately carved and
oolored woods. The women of the household were engaged in
various domestic duties and yet were clothed in heavy gold.embroidered
dresses and gay silk bandannas, as if prepared for a fete.
A baby lay in a cradle in one room, and about a dozen, ·children
all as richly dressed as the mother, were lolling around in another.
The chambers, up.stairs, were quite as lavishly decorated as those
below. We went upon the roof, where from a little belvedere, we
looked out upon the city, its waIls, and those of the Sultan's
Palace. The city and walls have a very rough-and-tumble appearance
from without as from within: apparently nothing is ever repaired
in Morocco. The male lIlembers of the Jew's family were
clothed in long dark gowns and black skull-caps. They also wore
great locks of hair extending outward above the ears like a pair of
. horns. They were very amiable people and treated us to aguardiente
aud almouds. From the belvedere we looked down upon
the Jewish oemetery not far distant. The graves are in the usual
Hehrew style, simple outlines of head and foot stone and low
sides joiniug the two.
We returned to onr house through the bazaars. Here horsemen
and loaded oamels aud donkeys are frequently p8B8iug and at certain
hours of the day, with the haggling and fighting buyers, form
an exceedingly auimated scene. We visited one fondak that was
crowded with itinerant dealers in second-haud dry goods and
olothes of all sorts. The buyers, men and women, were sitting
about near the walls and the sellers were walking around crying
out the oharacter, quantity and price of their goods. Judging
from the specimens we saw, the filthy hab.its and snrronndings of
the people have resnlted in many horrid diseases snch as leprosy
and ophthalmia. We noticed aIao great orowds of beggars, most