82 
The town contains a great number of schools. 
The most distinguished are established at the mosques 
of Caroubin and of Muley Edris, in a small house 
and mosque called JEmdarsa, or academy. 
In order to form an idea of the manner of instruc- 
tion, imagine a man sitting down on the ground with 
his legs crossed, uttering frightful cries, or singing in 
a tone of lamentation. He is surrounded by fifteen or 
twenty youths, who sit in a circle with their books or 
writing tables in the hand, and repeat the cries and 
songs of their master, but in complete discordance. 
This will give an exact notion of these Moorish schools. 
As to the subjects which are treated of here, I can assert 
that, though disguised by various names, morality and 
legislation identified with their worship and dogmas, are 
the sole topics; that is to say, all their studies are con- 
fined to the Koran and its commentations, and to some 
trifling principles of grammar and logic, which are in- 
dispensable for reading and understanding even a little 
of the venerated text. From what I have seen, I be- 
lieve that most of the commentators do not understand 
themselves. They drown their meaning in an ocean 
of subtilties or pretended metaphysical reasoning, and 
entangle themselves often in such a manner, that they 
are unable to extricate themselves. They then invoke 
the predestination, or the absolute will of God, and thus 
reconcile every thing. 
This learned class are eternal disputers in verba ma- 
gistri; as their understandings are not strong enough to 
understand the thesis which they defend, they have no 
other foundation on which they can support themselves 
but the word of the master or of the book which they 
eite, right or wrong. Setting out from this principle, 
