Elizabeth Heaphy Murray

“ If she wishes to bestow her attention on some more light and elegant occupation, she resorts to embroidery, a never-failing refuge for her unoccupied hands in her many idle hours during the long, hot, and sunny day. I remember one monstrous creature―a Moorish beauty― the wife of an official, who, on receiving me, felt my clothes and counted my fingers to see if a Nazarene woman was in all points made like herself. ”

“ It was the Mueddin, the well-known Mohammedan call to prayer. How solemnly it sounded from the minarets of the mosques all over the city, summoning the faithful to their devotions, and proclaiming in the ears of all men the unity of God, and that Mohammed is his prophet! In all Mohammedan countries, this sacred call, which no one can listen to without some degree of emotion, supersedes the use of the bells by which the Christian world is invited to the house of prayer, and which are an abomination to the true believer. ”

“ Another brings fresh flowers to adorn the grave of a departed husband, and while she lingers at the sad spot where her heart lies buried, she tells him that life is now a burden to her, that the world can no longer attract her by its pleasures, and that her most anxious desire and prayer now is, that she may soon be permitted to join him beyond the grave. ”

“ On leaving the Moorish houses and passing into the streets, one cannot but be struck by the contrast presented between the show, the glitter, and the elegance within, and the plainness, dirtiness, and even squalor, of all that one sees without. The streets in Tangier scarcely deserve the name, for they are merely narrow lanes, with nothing in the way of architectural display on which they eye can rest with pleasure. ”

“ Our Hebrew Venus had certainly reached that standard, for her arms hung down with fat, and her fingers, which were loaded with rings, had swollen over them, so that if not quite a load for two camels, she was assuredly more than enough for one.
The Jews in Morocco exhibit all the traces of the melancholy to which they are reduced; and oppression has left its visible stamp on their countenances and in their character. ”

“ The trunks were stowed away; the bundles were hidden out of sight; the birdcages were hung up, or otherwise disposed of; the dogs soon, made themselves at home, and went roaming about the ship; the children rushed on deck, screaming with delight, and were not long before they had formed many new acquaintances. In a word, the celerity with which chaos was reduced to order was one of those marvels that often perplex landsmen on board a ship, the secret of which still remains to be discovered. ”

“ The moment the Mueddin is heard, every Moor, far and near, wherever he may happen to be when the sound first strikes his ear, or however engaged at the time, throws himself prostrate on the ground, it may be in his chamber, in his shop, in the bazaar, in the street, or on the housetop; it may be when alone, or when engaged in conversation with his friends and family; it matters not how or where engaged, at the solemn summons every face is instantaneously turned to the east, the head is bowed to the dust, and the incense of prayer is offered to the one God. ”

“ Indeed, it seemed to me that I had gone back two thousand years, that I was in a country where civilization had stagnated for ages past, where commercial intercourse had left no stamp on the features of society, and where no innovations from Europe had yet crossed the Straits of Gibraltar to supersede those old manners and customs by which life in eastern countries is so strongly contrasted with that of more western lands. ”

“ The time from leaving Gibraltar, with its Highland regiments and bristling cannon, its British ships and English sailors, with its chandler's stores kept by Brown and Johnson, and its magazins of French millinery, and, in addition to these, its English prejudices, gossip, scandal, bustle, and life―the time, we say, from leaving all these and arriving at Tangier, the Silent City, Protected of the Lord, is so short that one is hardly prepared for a scene so entirely new in all its aspects. ”

“ So different, indeed, is everything that surrounds the stranger from all the modes of life to which he has previously been accustomed in England, or in any part of Europe, even in those regions which are nearest to the coast of Barbary, that it only requires one to open his eyes and to be ordinarily observant, to acquire much interesting knowledge, and much agreeable food for the future reflection. ”

“ With all the mystery attending the appearance of one who peers at you only with one eye, while she carefully conceals all the rest of her visage in the folds of her haikh, after the foresaid Fatima or Leila has sold us a dozen eggs or a pound of butter, we do not feel quite so disposed to think of these ladies only as the inmates of luxurious harems, where they repose all day on the softest couches, breathing only an atmosphere pervaded with the most fragrant perfumes, holding the amber-mouthed narghil to their lips, and constantly fanned by the black slaves who are ever at their beck. ”

“ But in Morocco, if the sight is entranced with ever recurring novelties and with much that is dazzling and beautiful, the other senses are compelled, in obedience apparently to the law of compensation, to endure much that is offensive beyond all expression, for while the ear is frequently startled by the most hideous and appalling sounds, the sense of smell is overwhelmed by indescribably abominable odours, that certainly do not come from Araby the Blest. ”

“ Learn, then, from the shores of Northern Africa what genuine beauty is, and henceforth bestow your admiration only where it is due. Beauty, then, is size, magnitude, amplitude —let me not mince matters, but say the world at once, excessive fatness. The lady whom, being now enlightened, we looked upon as the very beau ideal of Moorish beauty, was perfectly ungainly in appearance, and of the most unwieldy proportions ”

“ Mohammedan countries are perhaps the only ones where a woman can be said to possess, in some respect at least, any advantages of liberty over men. The Christian woman is unrestrained in her movements, and can freely enter the house and harems, where she is known, when she pleases; and the Moorish woman, wrapped up in the ample folds of her garments, and so disguised as to baffle whatever direction she may choose, without incurring the slightest risk of being recognised. ”

“ It is sometimes said that the Jew has none of the higher aspirations that inspire men of nobler character, that the great object of life with him is merely to amass money, and that so completely has this master passion degraded his character, that so long as gold shines in the distance to tempt him, he will even lick the dust to obtain it. ”

“ The gentle lover's admiration, in Morocco, increases with the size of his mistress, and his devotion becomes unlimited along with her proportions. Benighted Europeans appear to have some anticipation of the truth when they occasionally speak of a young lady who is not quite Sylph-like in form as making a good armful. The perfect Moorish standard of female beauty is considered to be attained when a woman is a load for a camel. ”

“ But, as time wore on, nature became exhausted, and the noise and mirth began somewhat to abate. The din of the Tomtom even was no longer heard so incessantly, and the musical enthusiasm of the professional who handled it evidently began to abate. Indeed, I continued myself to be the only object that had still attraction enough to excite some curiosity, and but for my presence, the wearied guests would probably have been dispersing to their several homes by this time. ”

“ Although enjoying constant communication with foreigners, and only eight leagues from Europe, the people of Tangier retain the same prejudices, the same aversion to mental advancement, as have ever characterised them for ages past, and they still continue to act upon their old creed, "What was good for our fathers is good for us." ”

“ Even in Morocco, where their condition is so melancholy, and their sphere of action so circumscribed, many of the cleverest and most intelligent artizans are Jews. As pretty merchants, goldsmiths, interpreters, and servants, they show themselves capable of acting as intelligent men of business, as ingenious artizans, as useful attendants upon travellers, and as trustworthy subordinates. The Hebrew will readily resort to any kind of occupation, no matter what it is, by which a good living can be made or money amassed ”

“ In painting the portraits of these ladies, and in sketching the scenes of their domestic life, I at once found an ample source of amusement for myself, and contributed to their gratification, at the same time, as usual, exciting their wonder, and evoking many curious questions. ”

“ The bodice she wears is composed of cloth of gold, gorgeous in appearance, and disposed about her person in what we should term a voluptuously loose manner, the skirt appended to it being of brilliant scarlet cloth, richly braided with gold. Her naked ankles were weighed down by ponderous and roughly chased anklets, and a clumsy pair of gold embroidered scarlet slippers, of Morocco leather, covered the fore part of her feet. ”

“ The Barbary Jews are much more rigid in the observance of their religious obligations than their brethren in the more civilised parts of the world are; and what with the exactions of their Mohammedan rulers, and their own voluntary sacrifices on behalf of their faith, they lead but a sorry life, and the sad expression of the countenances of the poor children of Israel impresses this fact very strongly upon the stranger. ”

“ Every passenger who could leave his bed felt some interest in the proposed sketch; and all were eager in the offer of their services to rig up an atelier.
When the captain shortly after came on deck, with his hands in his pockets, his pipe in his mouth, and hist face shining like a winter apple, he was rather astonished at the unexpected evidence of our suddenly awakened zeal and activity on which his eyes rested, and he was at a loss to conceive what use we intended to make of the ropes, pieces of wood, and other odds and ends we had borrowed from one or other on board. ”

“ What an imposing and thoughtful scene is that of the burial of Ophelia, when the Price of Denmark soliloquizes on the strange destiny of man, and traces the dust of him that kept the world in awe, until, in imagination, he finds it stopping a beer-barrel! ”

“ The whole getting up of these female guests, the crimsoning of the cheeks, the staining of the hands, eyes, and feet, the display of costly jewelry, and the selection of embroidered robes, had been the work of so much time, thought, and labor attracting the admiration―or if, in your charity, you choose rather to think so―the envy of each other. ”

“ Not being anxious to stay long near such votaries of science, I hastened on, and soon found myself in the Sokko, or Moorish market-place, which is situated outside the town, just beyond the gate. I had fortunately visited this place at a favourable time to see a good deal of the people, for I was always anxious to observe and to sketch everything striking in costume and appearance. At the period of my visit, it happened to be the evening preceding market day, and the villagers from the surrounding neighbourhood were crowding in with their wares. ”

“ Our Moorish friend, however, no way abashed by the attention and curiosity of which he was the object, sat down with the composure and self-possession peculiar to his race, and with a due sense of the dignity that pertained to his office, for he had been to England on a special mission, entrusted with a present of Barb horses, rich stuffs, &c., from His Shereefian Highness the Sultan of Morocco, Protector of the Faithful, to the Sultana of England.He was a very animated sitter, and as the sketch progressed, he related many wonderful narratives of his race and country. ”

“ In all the agony of bereavement, some were beating their breasts, and invoking the departed in piercing tones of anguish, while others, prostrated beside graves which had evidently not been long closed over the dead, called in the most endearing terms that the glowing imaginations of these children of the sun can suggest on the lost friend or relative to wait for them. ”

“ What screams of delight, what shrill whistlings, what piercing yells, what bursts of laughter, and yet―you will not believe it, you self-satisfied gentlemen of Europe, who consider your presence so indispensable at such gatherings―there was not a man in the party. ”

“ If there were no other cause to keep the Jews distinct and separate as a people from the nations among whom they dwell, the very persecution to which they are so generally subjected is sufficient to account, without considering at present any other influences, for the isolation in which they dwell, and must tend to bind more indissolubly to one another. ”

“ The French mirror in which she surveyed herself no doubt told a flattering tale, and was implicitly believed; for mirrors are defective only when they exaggerate defects, as flatterers are false only when they happen, by misadventure, to speak the truth. ”