﻿71S 



MAROCCO. 



MARQUESAS ISLANDS. 



7U 



different quarters and sutidivisions of the city in the same manner as 

 described in the article Kahira. Several open places, which cannot 

 be called squares, are used as market-places. The houses, which are 

 only of one stoiy, have flat roofs and terraces, and the rooms open 

 upon a court, which is sometimes surrounded by arcades aud embel- 

 lished by a fountain. The houses, which are mostly constructed with 

 clay and lime, have no windows, no fire-place, and no furniture, except 

 a cushion or two. Large aqueducts, which convey the water of the 

 river Tensift to the city, surround it; some of them aro 10 or 12 feet 

 deep, and partly ruined. These aqueducts supply the fountains, 

 which are numerous, and some of them have traces of delicate sculp- 

 ture. On the south of the town, but without the walls, is the imperial 

 palace : a wall of a quadrangular form, inclosing a space about 1500 

 yards long by 600 yards wide, is equal in strength and height to the 

 walls of the town. The inclosed space is divided into squares, laid 

 out in gardens, round which are detached pavilions, forming the 

 imperial residences. The floors of the rooms are tesselated with 

 Tarious coloured tiles, but otherwise they are plain, the furniture 

 consisting of a mat, a small carpet at one end, and some cushions. 

 There are 19 mo-ques, 2 colleires or medrasses, and 1 hospital in the 

 town. The principal mosque, El Kontubia, is distingniahed by a lofty 

 tower 220 feet high, a masterpiece of Arabic architecture. The 

 bazaar, or kaisseria, is a long range of shops, covered in and divided 

 into compartments, in which the agricultural and manufactured pro- 

 ductions of the country, as well as goods from China, India, and 

 England, are exposed for sale. There are manufactures of silk, 

 leather, and embroideries : the population is about 100,000, of which 

 number about 5000 are Jews, who inhabit a separate quarter of the 

 town. Outside the city (as in all Mohammedan towns) are the 

 cemeteries, which are extensive. 



In the province of Sus-el-Ac^ is Tarudant, once the capital of a 

 separate kingdom, about 60 miles from the sea-port of Agadir or Santa 

 Cruz. It is built in the middle of an exteu«ive plain, and its walla, 

 which are now in a ruinous state, are very extensive. The houses are 

 low and built of earth, and each of them is surrounded by a garden 

 and wall, so that the place rather resembles a well-peopled country, 

 than a town. The inhabitants are industrious, and the woollen 

 dresses and marocco leather made here are much esteemed ; copper 

 and saltpetre are abundant in the neighbourhood, and a considerable 

 quantity of the copper is made into domestic utensils in this town. 

 The population is 22,C00. 



In this province are also the towns of Tedti, with 15,000 indostriotu 

 inhabitants, and Tagavott, which is said to be more populous. Farther 

 to the south-west, near the banks of the river Draha, is the village of 

 Nan, 50 miles from the sea, with 2000 inhabitants. It is one of the 

 points from which the caravans depart for Sudan. 



On the southern declivity of Mount Atlas are Tafilet and Tatto, 

 two other places from which the caravans start on their route to 

 Sudan. The former, a considerable place with 10,000 inbabitanta, 

 seems to be the collective name of an assemblage of village^ in one of 

 which the governor of the province of Tafilet resides. Cailliu in traversing 

 this country neither saw nor heard of any town of the name of Tafilet. 



Education. — The Moor* send their children to school at the age of 

 ■ix years. The elementary schools, which are very numerous, both 

 in the towns and in the country, are either private or public establish- 

 ments. In these schools reading, writing, and correct pronunciation 

 are taught ; the children also learn by heart some passages of the 

 Koran. Uoya sometimes remain in these schools until they know the 

 whole of the Koran by heart, when they pass for their further 

 education into the higher schools (mudaris) where they are prepared 

 for the university of Fez, called Dar-el-I'lm (or the House of Science), 

 and other colleges. In the colleges they are instructed in grammar, 

 theology, logic, rhetoric, poetry, arithmetic, geometry, astrology, and 

 medicine. The commentaries and traditions relating to the Koran, 

 the laws, legal procedure, and all the formalities to be observed in the 

 courts, are also explained. As there are no printing establishments, 

 caligrapby is enumerated among the sciences. 



Commerce. — The Hoghrebins carry on a very active commerce with 

 Sudan, Egypt, and Arabia by caravans, and with several parts of 

 Europe by sea. Caravans set out from Tetuan, Fez, Marocco, and 

 Tafilet, each consisting of about 150 persons and 1000 or 1500 camels ; 

 wh«a they unite at Tatfa or Akka, on the Oraha River, the point 

 where they enter the desert, they consist of about 500 or 600 persons, 

 vrith 16,000 and even 20,000 camels. Towards the southern border 

 of the desert they come to the oases of Touadenni and El-A'rauan, 

 where there arc immense deposits of rock-salt, of which they buy 

 large quantities for the market of Sudan. From Timbuctoo, as a 

 central point, the merchants traverse the adjacent countries, exchanging 

 their goods for those of Sudan. They import into these countries 

 rock-salt, wooUen-doth and dresses, scarfs, tobacco, Turkish daggers, 

 and blue cloth, and take in return ivory, rhinoceros' lioms, iucense, 

 ^old in bars and powder, oatricb feathers, gum-arabic, cotton, assafcotida, 

 indigo, and slaves ; two-thirds of the imports, which are valued at 

 10 millions of Spanish dollars, are again exported. 



The caravans which go to Mecca are chiefly composed of pilgrims, 

 and are much more numeroiu. They depart only once in the year, 

 and follow two routes. The northern route leads from Fez through 

 Teza over the Leaser Atlaa, traversing the northern districts of Algiers 



and Tripoli, in which latter country it may be said to terminate at 

 Kairoan. Hence it passes southward through Gadamis and Fezzan 

 to Alexandria and C!:iiro, and ultiuiately to Mecca. The southern 

 road passes from Marocco to Tefza, aul thence through the southern 

 districts of Algiers and Tunis to Gad;mii3 and Fezzan, whence it 

 leads to Alexandria and Mecca. ludigo, cochineal, ostrich-feathers, 

 skins, an.l leather, with the woollen articles manufactured in Fez, 

 Tefza, and Tafilet are exported by these caravans, and they import 

 the cotton and silk goods of India, some Persian silk-stutfa, rose-oil, 

 amber, musk, balsam, and spices, but particularly cotton, wool, and 

 raw silk. 



European vessels visit the harbours of Tetuan, Rabatt, Saffi, and 

 Mogador, and export the produce of the empire to Italy, France, 

 Spain, England, and Holland. The principal imports are tissues of 

 cotton, wool, and silk ; hemp, flax, and raw silk ; sugar, metals, 

 spices, drugs, dyes, hardware, tea, specie, ka. The exports by sea 

 comprise fruits, wool, and woollen tissues, olive oil, wax, hives, grain, 

 oxen, gums, bark, leeches, ostrich-feathers, ivory, specie, &c. The 

 principal part of the trade is in the hands of the English and French. 

 Among the less important articles exported are scarfs of wool and 

 silk, marocco leather slippers ami shoes, the black cloaks of Tarudaut, 

 and the shawls of Fez and Tefza. 



In 1839 the number of foreign ships that entered the ports of 

 Marocco was 372 ; the departures numbered 456. The former brought 

 cargoes valued at 581, 080^. ; the latter took away goods to the value 

 of 484, 000^ The trade of Marocco is greatly clogged by monopolies. 

 The cultivation of the soil is free, but noue of the products can be 

 exported till a duty has been paid to the emperor by those who have 

 the monopoly of the export trade. The monopoly is renewed every 

 year, and accorded to those who at^ree to pay the highest export duty. 

 The duties therefore are constantly varying, und are all arbitrarily 

 imposed. The import duties amount to about 10 per cent, on the 

 value ; they are sometimes arbitrarily raised, and often corruptly 

 levied. 



Government. — The government is absolutely despotic, even more so 

 than in the Turkish empire ; the people are much oppressed, aud the 

 Christian merchants exposed to great losses by capricious ordinances. 



(Graberg, Specchio Geografico e Slatittico deW Impero di Marocco ; 

 Jackson, Bittory of Marocco ; London Geograpkkal Journal ; Caillid, 

 Travel* through Central Africa, &c.) 



MARPLE. [Cheshire.] 



MARPURO. [Mabbubo.] 



MARQUESAS ISLANDS were so called in honour of the Marquis 

 Mendo9a de Canete, by Mtindaha de Neyra, who discovered them in 

 1595. They are situated in the Pacific, and extend about 200 miles 

 in a north-west and southeast direction, between 10° 30' aud 7° 60' 

 S. lat., 138° and 140° 20' W. long. 



The largest islands of the southern group are Santa Dominica, or 

 Hiwaoa, Santa Christina, or Tahuata, and Hood's Island, or Tiboa. 

 Tbey are about 10 miles long from soutli-south-west to north-north- 

 east. The principal islands of th'3 northern group are Noukahivah, 

 Uahuga (sometimes called Washington Island), Uapoa, and Obivaoa. 

 Noukahivah, the largest, is nearly 20 miles long from south-east to 

 north-west, and 70 miles in circumference. 



An elevated ridge of rocky mountains traverses each island length- 

 ways, and in the larger one rises to an elevation of 2000 or 3000 feet. 

 The mountains have on both sides high offsets, which extend to the 

 shorea, and thus divide the lowland along the shores into valleys. 

 The mountains in the interior are mostly bar<>, rugged, and inacces- 

 sible. The coast is rocky, abrupt, and beaten by a surf. Noukahivah 

 is of volcanic origin, which may be the case with the rest also. The 

 soil is rich ; in the valleys it is clay, mixed with vegetable mould, but 

 on the lower declivities of the hills it is thin, and covered by coarse 

 grass in tufts. There aro numerous harbours, aud many of them 

 very safe, as Resolution Bay, on Tahuata ; and the three harbours, 

 Anna Maria, or Tayo-Hoae, Cho-Ome, or Comptroller's Bay, and 

 Hapoa, or Tshitshagofi', on Noukahivah. 



The climate is rather warm. The thermometer seldom descends 

 below 64° or 68°. In May it ranges between 72° and 77°, aud in 

 June about 80°. Winter is characterised by abundant showers of 

 rain. Sometimes however not a drop of rain falls for nine or ten 

 months, the consequence of which is famine. The prevailing wind is 

 the eastern trade-wind, which blows strongest in autumn. The south- 

 west wind prevails in winter, and the north wind is frequent in 

 summer. Thunder-storms are of rare occurrence. The climate is 

 very healthy, and diseases are rare. The fruit-trees are chiefly the 

 cocoa-nut, bread-fruit, and papaw. The inhabitauts also cultivate 

 bananas, plantains, sweet-potatoes, and taro. From the bark of the 

 mulberry-tree they make their garments. The wild cotton is superior 

 to that which is cultivated in some other islands, aud the sugar-cane 

 is abundant, large in growth, aud of excellent quality. Tobacco is 

 extensively cultivated. There are no auimals except hogs and rats. 

 Fish is abundant, aud constitutes one of the most common articles 

 of food. 



The inhabitants belong to the same race that peopled the Society 

 and Sandwich Islands. Their complexion is of a dark copper. The 

 men vary in height between 4 feet 10 inches aud 6 feet, aud many of 

 them are said to be remarkable for their syniraetrioal forms. They 



