HOSPITAL FOR STORKS.

Fez has an hospital which is very richly endowed, and used only for the treatment of lunatics. It is very strange, that a great part of the funds to maintain this establishment has been bequeathed by the wills of various charitable testators for the express purpose of assisting and nursing sick cranes and storks, and of burying them whem dead.

rocco's present made me uncover it ea- els. Notwithstanding the confusion and gerly, and I found two black loaves. disorder of this camp, I calculated that As I was by no means prepared for such it contained about six thousand men. a present, I could not, at the moment, make any conjecture of its meaning, and was for a time so much staggered, that I 'knew not what to answer; but those who were about me began eagerly to wish me joy; saying, "How happy you are: what good fortune! You are now the brother of the Sultan; the Sultan is your brother." I then began to recollect that among the Arabians the most sacred sign of fraternity consists in presenting each other with a piece of bread, and both eating of it; and therefore these two loaves sent me by the Sultan were his token of fraternity with me. They were black, because the bread made for the Sultan is baked in portable ovens of iron, which gives this black colour to their outside, but they are very white and very good within.

Next day, having received the visits of some cousins and other relations of the Sultan, I went with the Kadi to make my visit to the eldest brother of the emperor, Muley Abdsulem, who had the misfortune to be blind. Our conversation, which lasted nearly an hour, turned chiefly on philanthropical subjects.

They believe that the storks are men from some distant islands, who at certain seasons of the year take the shape of birds to come here; that they return again at a certain time to their country, where they resume their human form till the next season.

For this reason it would be considered as a crime to kill one of these birds. They tell thousands of ridiculous stories upon this occasion. Undoubtedly it is the utility of these animals, who are continually making war with the reptiles that abound so much in hot climates, which has occasioned the general respect and anxiety for their preservation. But the love of the marvellous here as elsewhere has substituted absurd fables for the actual truth.

SCHOOLS AT FEZ.

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 Emdarsa, or academy.

The Sultan, Muley Soliman, appeared to be about forty years old; he is tall and lusty; his countenance has the expression of kindness; it was rather handsome, and not too brown; it was distinguished by large and lively eyes. He spoke fast, and comprehended quickly. His dress was very simple, not to In order to form an idea of the mansay plain, for he was always wrapt up in ner of instruction, imagine a man sitting a coarse Hhaïk; his gait was easy. He down on the ground with his legs crosis Fakih or doctor in law, and his educa- sed, uttering frightful cries, or singing in tion is entirely Mussulman. His court a tone of lamentation. He is surrounded has no splendour. During all the time by fifteen or twenty youths, who sit in a of his stay at Tangier he was always en- circle with their books or writing tables camped to the west of the town in tents, in the hand, and repeat the cries and placed without any order; those of the songs of their master, but in complete Sultan were in the centre of a large and discordance. This will give, an exact vacant space, surrounded with a parapet notion of these Moorish schools. As to of painted cloth, representing a wall. In the subjects which are treated of here, I Muley Abdelmelek's tent, which was can assert that, though disguised by varivery ample, there was no other furniture ous names, morality and legislation, than two mattresses, a large carpet, and a identified with their worship and dogmas, silver candlestick, with a lighted wax are the sole topics; that is to say, all their candle. Round each tent the horses and studies are confined to the Koran and its mules of its proprietor were fastened, and commentations, and to some trifling prinin the whole camp I saw only two cam- ciples of grammar and logic, which are

At last I accustomed them to reastanding even a little of the venerated son; a thing which they had never thought text. From what I have seen, I believe of in the whole course of their studies. that most of the commentators do not By degrees they left off their silly anunderstand themselves. They drown swers to which they had accustomed their meaning in an ocean of subtilties themselves. I observed, however, that or pretended metaphysical reasoning, these doctors fell into another inconvenand entangle themselves often in such a ience not less troublesome, and that was, manner, that they are unable to extri- that they began to support themselves on cate themselves. They then invoke the my words; so that they only changed predestination, or the absolute will of their colours, their tactics were still the God, and thus reconcile every thing.

indispensable for reading and under- me.

same.

This learned class are eternal dispu- I repeated to them a thousand times ters in verba magistri; as their under- that they should not maintain a point bestandings are not strong enough to under- cause Ali Bey had said so; but that, bestand the thesis which they defend, they fore they began to dispute, they should have no other foundation on which they examine with their own reason whether can support themselves, but the word of the thing was probable, whether it was the master or of the book which they possible, or had ever occurred, and then cite, right or wrong. Setting out from they might discuss it; at last I obtained this principle, they are never to be con- this result; and I hope that the spark of vinced, because no reason can be equal, light may in time produce good consein their minds, to the word of their mas- quences among them. ter or the sentence of their book.

SCIENCES AT FEZ.

Several of the most learned men of For.geometry they have Euclid, whose Fez frequented much my little circle, and work they shewed me in great folio I have too often been witness of these te- volumes, much corroded, because no one dious and endless disputes. Frequently has the courage to read it, and still less I availed myself of my ascendency over to copy it, except perhaps a dozen of them to put a stop to their debates; but pages. For cosmogony, they rest on the wishing to produce a greater and better Koran; their cosmography is taken from effect, I undertook to inspire them with Ptolomy, whom they call B-tlamous. doubts both on their masters and their Their astronomy is reduced, to a few books. In fact, having gained this of the first principles which are necessapoint, I opened a new career to the ry to their calculating the time by the' minds of these men, whose improveable sun, with astrolabes, very clumsy, and talents has been paralized by a sort of constructed separately for each latitude, spiritual stagnation.

As to mathematics, they know noHaving thus prepared my plan, I often thing but the solution of a small number entered into a discussion with them, and of problems. They study no geography. when, after some arguments which they In physics they follow Aristotle, but could not refute, I had put them to si- scarcely give him the least attention. lence, they had no way of answering me Metaphysics are their delight; and the but by presenting me with the book, and doctors consume all their moral powers making me read the sentence which was in the study of this science. Chemistry in favour of their opinion. I asked them is unknown to them; but they have some who wrote that? "Such and such a one." notions of alchymy, and now and then And what was he? "A man like other some miserable adepts appear. Anatomy men." After this acknowledgment, I is entirely banished by their religion, on shall not estimate him more than another, account of their legal purity, their ideas when he ceases to be reasonable; I shall on the dead, on the separation of the leave him as soon as he abandons good sexes, &c. &c. In medicine they study sense to hunt after sophistry. but a few miserable empirics, and know

This manner of speaking was so new nothing about the old masters of this art. to them, that in the beginning they were Their therapeutic is always mixed with struck dumb with astonishment, and al- superstitious or cruel treatment. Natu ternately looked at each other and at ral history offers the same difficulties a s

anatomy. Their law prohibits paint- which the astronomers could not do. All ings, drawings, and statues; and the this was a stroke of thunder to them, and Mahometan gravity leaves entirely the drew on them the public contempt. practice of music to the female sex, and Hence many of them apostatise; some to the lowest class of the people; hence of them, however, retain their former they have no liberal arts, and no pleasures opinions, but hide them in silence, most or agreeable occupation. likely hoping that the opposing feeling will pass away, and that the people who love to be deceived will soon resume them.

The study of astronomy is confounded with astrology; every one who looks into the skies to know the time of day, or of the new moon, is considered by the peo- This empire has some historians or ple as an astrologer or prophet, who can authors, who have written on this country foretell the fate of the king, of the empire, and its inhabitants; but their works are and of individuals. They have some as very little read; they are quite ignorant trological books, and this talent is very of the history of other nations. much respected with them. It opens the Their language is in a state of extreme road to high places at court, on account degradation; they have no printing-offiof the influence which the astrologers ces, and the great imperfection of their exert in public and private affairs. As I writing arises from the circumstance, that declared deadly war against astrology and they frequently confound the letters with alchymy, I was happy enough, by force the dots and accents. These circumof reasoning, to convince some of them stances united destroy the little scientific of the ridiculous pretensions of astrolo- knowledge that remains; so that it hapgers and alchymists. pens very often that the inhabitants do not understand each other. It is a formidable task to them to read a written paper, which very often the writer himself is unable to decipher. This may ac

I had a very striking opportunity of proving that they confounded astronomy with astrology when the chief of these astronomers of Fez intreated me to give him the longitude and the latitude of count for the circumstance, that when every planet, on the first day of the year, the famous Orientalist Golius came into in order to form a calculation and to fore- this country, he could not understand a tell whether the year would prove a good word of their Arabic, but was obliged to one or a bad one, &c. I answered him make use of an interpreter. with firmness, that the science of astron- This imperfection in the language and omy being almost a divine one, ought in writing, forces the inhabitants to read never to be prostituted to the reveries it as if singing; it makes them confound and quackeries of astrology; and treating the meaning of the phrases, which, bedivination with contempt, I convinced sides, are not distinguished by any orhim that the arbitrary beginning of the thographical punctuation, but only by year, in the various almanacks, has no quiverings and cadences, which give the connection with nature. I finished my reader the time necessary for him to comphilippicks by shewing him by the Ko- prehend the meaning of the writing, ran, that the practice of astrology is a which he would not be able to do if it sin. This sentence was confirmed by were read to him rapidly. If any one is several doctors or Fakihs, and I was proclaimed as one of their fellows.

J

found to read the Koran with facility, or any other book, it is because they have As this scene had passed in the pre- learnt them by heart. I speak from resence of a great assembly; as the annual peated experience, I have often stopped prediction of the astronomers of Fez did the reader in the midst of his reading; not appear, and as to replace it I gave but though he has the book before him, my own calculation of the days on which as if reading it, he could never, if interthe new moon would be seen, which was rupted, continue his reading, nor find of importance to fix the beginning of the again in the page of the book the place. Arabian months, of Easter, and the hour at which he had been stopt. Hence of the five daily prayers, which I noted, they read like parrots, and the book for every five days in the year, as well which is before them serves for nothing as the eclipses and other phenomena, but to make them appear learned. Such

is the state of knowledge at Fez, a town The veneration for the sepulchres of which may be considered, if the compa- the saints has some useful result; berison could be allowed, as the Athens of cause these chapels serve as asylums for Africa, from the great number of doctors innocence against the attempts of despoand pretended men of learning, and from tism, but they unfortunately also yield a the schools, which are generally frequen- shelter to criminals, who ought to be ted by two thousand scholars at a time. driven from society. The veneration Islamism, or the religion of Mouham- for the insane is also very charitable, as med, is an austere one. The word Isla- it serves to protect their miserable exismism, signifies abandoning one's self to tence; but it gives rise to numberless God; and it is on this great basis that actions which are contrary to public motheir worship is founded. The belief in rality. The saffis or talismans, relics, the existence of one God, their purifica chaplets, repeaters of prayers for the tions, prayers, charity, and mortification sick, or of things lost, &c. are all pious by fast and pilgrimage, are the most dis- cheats, which tarnish the pure deism of tinguishing characteristics of this religion. Mouhhammed. But every worship on The belief in the missions of Noah, earth has been affected by the cupidity Abraham, Moses, Christ, and other an- of charlatans, or by the timid imbecility cient prophets, is an indispensable intro- of the people. Fortunately, in this counduction to Islamism; therefore a Jew try, such troops of monks, that is, of cannot be admitted into the body of the derwishes, are not to be met with as are faithful, if he have not previously proved seen all over Turkey. his belief in the mission of Christ, who is acknowledged to be the spirit of God, Rouh Oullah, and son of a Virgin, which the Koran confirms,

THE WAVES OF THE DESERT.

The country presented no change from that which we passed yesterday. The sandy plain into which we had come, The Mahometans fancy that the Gos- may with truth be called a little Sahara; pel, which is in the hands of the Chris- the wind is there of a surprising rapidity, tians, has been vitiated and tainted by and the sand so extremely fine, that it interpolations. They deny the death of forms on the ground some waves, which Christ, who, according to the Koran, look like those of the sea. These waves ascended alive to heaven, without having rise up so fast, that in a very few hours a suffered on the cross; they do not admit hill of about twenty to thirty feet high is the dogma of the Trinity, and, therefore, transported from one place to another. not the hypostatical union of the second I never thought it possible, and did not person in Christ, nor that of the Eucha- believe it till I was convinced of it by rist; they look upon all these dogmas as my own eyes. This transportation of pure idolatry. The worship of images these hills, however, does not take place is shocking to them, and confession and all of a sudden, as is generally believed, indulgences are considered by them as and it is by no means capable of surprimatters of mere speculation. sing and burying a caravan which is on Unhappily superstitions have been in the march. It is easy to describe the troduced into islamism, a circumstance manner in which this transposition of the which is deplored by every Mahometan hills takes place; the wind sweeping conphilosopher. The exterior ceremonies tinually from the surface the sand with have got the better of the spirit of the an astonishing rapidity, the surface of religion; so that the Mussulman who the ground lowers every moment; but daily performs the number of prostra- the quantity of sand in the air increasing tions and rikats prescribed by the law, as quickly by successive waves, cannot is looked upon as a good Mussulman, support itself there, but falls in heaps. whatever be his morality; he will even and forms a new hill, and the place be raised to the dignity of a saint if he which it occupied before is level, and goes so far as to exceed the number of looks as if it had been swept. It is neprayers and fasts commanded by their cessary to guard the eyes and mouth religion, though his behaviour should be against the quantity of sand which is even that of a reprobate, as I have known always flying about in the air. many of them.

This second suhara may be, at the

place where it must be passed, about a not a tree is to be seen in it, not a rock mile and a half wide; the traveller must which can offer a shelter or a shade. take care to keep always to the east, in A transparent atmosphere, an intense sun, order to avoid being lost in the windings, darting its beams upon our heads, a which must be made in the middle of ground almost white, and commonly of a the hills of sand which bound the sight, concave form, like a burning glass; slight and which shift from one spot to ano- breezes, scorching like a flame. Such is ther so often, as to leave nothing to be a faithful picture of this district, through seen but the sky and sand, without any which we were passing. mark by which our position can be known; even the deepest footstep in the sand of either man or horse disappears the moment the foot is raised.

Every man that we meet in this desert is looked upon as an enemy. Having discovered about noon a man in arms, on horseback, who kept at a certain disThe immensity, the swiftness, and the tance, my thirteen beduins united the everlasting motion of these waves, disturb moment they perceived him, darted like the sight both of men and beasts, so that an arrow to overtake him, uttering loud they are almost continually marching as cries, which they interrupted by expresif in the dark. The camel gives here a sions of contempt and derision; as, proof of his great superiority; his long "What are you seeking, my brother?" neck, perpendicularly erected, removes "Where are you going, my son?" As his head from the ground, and from the they made these exclamations they kept thick part of the waves; his eyes are playing with their guns over their heads. well defended by thick eye-lids, largely The discovered beduin profited of his provided with hair, and which he keeps advantage, and fled into the mountains, half shut; the construction of his feet, where it was impossible to follow him.. broad and cushion-like, prevents his We met no one else. treading deep into the sand; his long We had now neither eaten nor drank legs enable him to pass the same space since the preceding day; our horses and with only half the number of steps of other beasts were as destitute; though any other animal, and therefore with less ever since nine in the evening we had fatigue. These advantages give him a been travelling rapidly. Shortly after solid and easy gait on a ground where noon we had not a drop of water remainall other animals walk with slow, short, ing, and the men as well as the poor and uncertain steps, and in a tottering animals were worn out with fatigue. manner. Hence the camel, intended by The mules, stumbling every moment with nature for these journeys, affords a new their burden, required assistance to lift motive of praise to the Creator, who in them up again, and to support their burhis wisdom has given the camel to the then till they rose. This terrible exerAfrican, as the rein-deer to the Laplander. tion exhausted the little strength we had left.

DESPOTISM.

A nation that has no property, beAt two o'clock in the afternoon a man cause the Sultan is absolute master of dropped down stiff as if he were dead every thing; no liberty to exchange or from his great fatigue and thirst. I stopt sell the result of its own labours, and not with three or four of my people to assist even the permission to enjoy and display him. The little wet which was left in to their fellow-citizens their affluence or one of the leathern budgets, was squeezed their comfort, need not look far for the out of it, and some drops of water pourcause of its apathy, brutality, and misery. ed into the poor man's mouth, but withPILGRIMAGE ACROSS THE DESERT. out any effect. I began to feel that my We continued marching on in great own strength was beginning to forsake haste, for fear of being overtaken by the me; and becoming very weak, I deterfour hundred Arabs, whom we wished mined to mount on horseback, leaving to avoid. For this reason we never the poor fellow behind. kept the common road, but passed From this moment others of my carathrough the middle of the desert, march- van began to drop successively, and there ing through stony places, over easy hills. was no possibility of giving them any This country is entirely without water; assistance; they were abandoned to their