TRAVELS IN BARBARY. 
courts ; and the apartments are painted, adorned 
with arabesques, and often decorated with gold 
and silver. The markets of Fez are immensely 
crowded, as there is no other place which can 
be called a town in this part of the kingdom j 
and the wandering inhabitants of the surround- 
ing districts resort thither to purchase every arti- 
cle of which they stand in need. Fez retains also 
some shadow of that fame for learning which was 
once so eminent. The studies are confined to the 
Koran and its commentators, to a slight tincture 
of grammar and logic, and to some clumsy astro- 
nomical observations, for computing the time of 
their religous exercises. They have Euclid in 
great folio volumes, neither copied nor read. 
The teacher sits cross-legged on the ground, and 
sings or cries, in a lamentable tone, words which 
the scholars, sitting round him, repeat. Anato- 
my is prohibited by their religious prejudices, 
and medicine, as a science, is totally unknown. 
The two most eminent saints at present in 
Morocco are Sidi Hamet and Sidi Alarbi ; and 
scarcely any thing is done throughout the empire 
without their being consulted. The character of 
saint is not understood to im,ply any measure of 
austerity or self-denial. It is solely supported by 
the power of foretelling the future, and of work- 
ing miracles. The districts which these saints 
inhabit pay no tribute unless to them 5 and the 
