166 
CHAPTER XV. 
Description of Morocco. — Saints. — Palace of the Sultan — Jews.- — Gardens.— 
Ravens.- Lepers. — the Atlas Mountains. — Brebers. — Vocabulary of this 
Language. 
The town of Marraksk, or Morocco, which is the an- 
cient capital of the kingdom of the same name, has been 
ruined by a number of successive wars, and depopu- 
lated by the plague, and represents at this moment 
only a shadow of its former prosperity, when it contain- 
ed about seven hundred thousand souls, whose industry 
maintained its agriculture, arts and trade. It contains, 
at this moment, hardly thirty thousand inhabitants. 
The walls which surround the town have survived 
the ravages of time and of man, and give some proof of 
the former splendour of this place; they embrace a cir- 
cumference of about seven miles, the interior of which 
is covered with ruins, or converted into gardens, \he 
remainder forms the present town, and though the walls 
of the houses are in a line, and form streets; yet there 
are many great spaces left wholly unoccupied. 
I made a great many astronomical obvervations, and 
found the longitude of my house called Benhamed 
Dugueli, and situated almost in the centre of the cir- 
cumference of the walls, to be 9° 55' 45" W. from the 
observatory at Paris, the latitude 31° 37' 3" N. and the 
magnetical declination 20° 38' 40" W. 
The streets of the town are very uneven in width, 
and the same street is in some places very large, and in 
others very small. The entries to houses of conse- 
quence, are formed by lanes, so narrow and crooked 
that a horse can with difficulty pass them; which enables 
