50 JEWISH FESTIVAL. oh. ii. 



in Algeria and throughout Western Marocco. Eude geo- 

 metrical patterns in ill-defined blue and green tints are 

 usually enriched by round spots of bright red, laid on 

 with something like sealing-wax over the glazing, and 

 easily removed with spirit. The only thing deserving 

 notice as representing art-manufacture is the gold em- 

 broidery, usually worked on silk or velvet. This is used 

 for curtains or hangings by some wealthy Moors, and for 

 personal wear by the Jewish women and children. At 

 this festival season the younger children frequently 

 appeared with caps or diadems richly embroidered ; but 

 the women more often wear a light silk handkerchief, 

 with the fringe hanging freely, but kept in its place by a 

 fillet of black or red velvet worked in gold, and forming 

 a very ornamental head-dress. 



Travellers have indulged in enthusiastic descriptions 

 of the beauty of the Marocco Jewesses. Those who 

 have visited Tetuan will have seen a fair specimen in 

 the person of our host's sister, a tall comely girl, free 

 from the tendency to corpulence which is too common, 

 and whose regular features are set off by a pair of fine 

 dark eyes. But those for whom expression is an essential 

 element of beauty in the human countenance will usually 

 find something wanting to complete the attractions of the 

 undeniably handsome women of this country. 



It so happened that the occasion was especially favour- 

 able for seeing something of the life of the Israelite society 

 of the city. This was the last of the festival days of the 

 Passover, and towards evening there was a large gathering 

 of neighbours in the ground-floor apartments of our house. 

 The women were richly dressed in loose garments of light 

 silk and a profusion of gold embroidery. It was almost 

 impossible to recognise our host's mother, a corpulent 

 woman, who had hitherto appeared in a shabby costume 

 of the scantiest proportions in which the developments of 

 her ample person were unpleasantly apparent. Arrayed in 

 festival splendour, she now assumed a regal attitude, and 



