. Life in Morocco and glimpses beyond . s strange how soon a little 46 LIFE IN MOROCCO power, and the need for satisfying the demands ofhis superiors, will corrupt the mildest of them ;and the worst are to be found among familieswhich have inherited office. The best officialsare those chosen from among retired merchantswhose palms no longer itch, and who, by inter-course with Europeans, have had their ideas of lifebroadened. The greatest obstacle to progress in Morocco isthe blind prejudice of ignorance. It is hard for theMoors to realize that their presumed hereditary foescan wish them well,
. Life in Morocco and glimpses beyond . s strange how soon a little 46 LIFE IN MOROCCO power, and the need for satisfying the demands ofhis superiors, will corrupt the mildest of them ;and the worst are to be found among familieswhich have inherited office. The best officialsare those chosen from among retired merchantswhose palms no longer itch, and who, by inter-course with Europeans, have had their ideas of lifebroadened. The greatest obstacle to progress in Morocco isthe blind prejudice of ignorance. It is hard for theMoors to realize that their presumed hereditary foescan wish them well, and it is suspicion, rather thanhostility, which induces them to crawl within theirshell and ask to be left alone. Too often sub-sequent events have shown what good ground theyhave had for suspicion. It is a pleasure for me tobe able to state that during all the years that I havelived among them, often in the closest intercourse,I have never received the least insult, but havebeen well repaid in my own coin. What morecould be wished .*. IVTHE BERBER RACE Every lion in his own forest roars. Moorish Proverb. Few who glibly use the word ** Barbarian pauseto consider whether the present meaning attachedto the name is justified or not, or whether thepeople of Barbary are indeed the uncivilized, un-couth, incapable lot their name would seem to implyto-day. In fact, the popular ignorance regardingthe nearest point of Africa is even greater than ofthe actually less known central portions, where thewhite man penetrates with every risk. To declarethat the inhabitants of the four Barbary States—Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Tripoli—are notBlackamoors at all, but white like ourselves, isto astonish most folk at the outset. Of course in lands where the enslavement ofneighbouring negro races has been an institution fora thousand years or more, there is a goodly propor-tion of mulattoes ; and among those whose lives havebeen spent for generations in field work there aremany whose skins a
Size: 1282px × 1949px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookidlifeinmoroccogli00meakuof
