NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 1920 Copyright, 1919, 1920, by CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS Published October, 1920 THE SCRIBNER PRESS TO GENERAL LYAUTEY RESIDENT GENERAL OF FRANCE IN MOROCCO AND TO MADAME LYAUTEY, THANKS TO WHOSE KINDNESS THE JOURNEY I HAD SO LONG DREAMED OF SURPASSED WHAT I HAD DREAMED...

Having begun my book with the statement that Morocco still lacks a guide-book, I should have wished to take a first step toward remedying that deficiency. But the conditions in which I travelled, though full of unexpected and picturesque opportunities, were not suited to leisurely study of the places visited. The time was limited by the approach of the rainy season, which puts an end to motoring over the treacherous trails of the Spanish zone. In 1918, owing to the watchfulness of German submari

In the writing of proper names and of other Arab words the French spelling has been followed. In the case of proper names, and names of cities and districts, this seems justified by the fact that they occur in a French colony, where French usage naturally prevails; and to spell Oudjda in the French way, and koubba , for instance, in the English form of kubba , would cause needless confusion as to their respective pronunciation. It seems therefore simpler, in a book written for the ordinary trave

To step on board a steamer in a Spanish port, and three hours later to land in a country without a guide-book , is a sensation to rouse the hunger of the repletest sight-seer. The sensation is attainable by any one who will take the trouble to row out into the harbour of Algeciras and scramble onto a little black boat headed across the straits. Hardly has the rock of Gibraltar turned to cloud when one's foot is on the soil of an almost unknown Africa. Tangier, indeed, is in the guide-books; but,

One day before sunrise we set out from Rabat for the ruins of Roman Volubilis. From the ferry of the Bou-Regreg we looked backward on a last vision of orange ramparts under a night-blue sky sprinkled with stars; ahead, over gardens still deep in shadow, the walls of Salé were passing from drab to peach-colour in the eastern glow. Dawn is the romantic hour in Africa. Dirt and dilapidation disappear under a pearly haze, and a breeze from the sea blows away the memory of fetid markets and sordid he

Many-walled Fez rose up before us out of the plain toward the end of the day. The walls and towers we saw were those of the upper town, Fez Eldjid (the New), which lies on the edge of the plateau and hides from view Old Fez tumbling down below it into the ravine of the Oued Fez. Thus approached, the city presents to view only a long line of ramparts and fortresses, merging into the wide, tawny plain and framed in barren mountains. Not a house is visible outside the walls, except, at a respectful

There are countless Arab tales of evil Djinns who take the form of sandstorms and hot winds to overwhelm exhausted travellers. In spite of the new French road between Rabat and Marrakech the memory of such tales rises up insistently from every mile of the level red earth and the desolate stony stretches of the bled . As long as the road runs in sight of the Atlantic breakers they give the scene freshness and life; but when it bends inland and stretches away across the wilderness the sense of the

To occidental travellers the most vivid impression produced by a first contact with the Near East is the surprise of being in a country where the human element increases instead of diminishing the delight of the eye. After all, then, the intimate harmony between nature and architecture and the human body that is revealed in Greek art was not an artist's counsel of perfection but an honest rendering of reality: there were, there still are, privileged scenes where the fall of a green-grocer's drap

It is not too much to say that General Lyautey has twice saved Morocco from destruction: once in 1912, when the inertia and double-dealing of Abd-el-Hafid abandoned the country to the rebellious tribes who had attacked him in Fez, and the second time in August, 1914, when Germany declared war on France. In 1912, in consequence of the threatening attitude of the dissident tribes and the generally disturbed condition of the country, the Sultan Abd-el-Hafid had asked France to establish a protector

Note. —In the chapters on Moroccan history and art I have tried to set down a slight and superficial outline of a large and confused subject. In extenuation of this summary attempt I hasten to explain that its chief merit is its lack of originality. Its facts are chiefly drawn from the books mentioned in the short bibliography at the end of the volume; in addition to which I am deeply indebted for information given on the spot to the group of remarkable specialists attached to the French adminis

M. H. Saladin, whose "Manual of Moslem Architecture" was published in 1907, ends his chapter on Morocco with the words: "It is especially urgent that we should know, and penetrate into, Morocco as soon as possible, in order to study its monuments. It is the only country but Persia where Moslem art actually survives; and the tradition handed down to the present day will doubtless clear up many things." M. Saladin's wish has been partly realized. Much has been done since 1912, when General Lyautey

Afrique Française (L'), Bulletin Mensuel du Comité de l'Afrique Française. Paris, 21, rue Cassette. Bernard, Augustin. Le Maroc. Paris, F. Alcan, 1916. Budgett-Meakin. The Land of the Moors. London, 1902. Châtelain, L. Recherches archéologiques au Maroc. Volubilis. (Published by the Military Command in Morocco.) Les Fouilles de Volubilis. (Extrait du Bulletin Archéologique, 1916.) Chevrillon, A. Crépuscule d'Islam. Cochelet, Charles. Le Naufrage du Brick Sophie. Conférences Marocaines. Paris, Pl