about three yards above the surface at low water.
From this a channel runs to the town and out to the
Ir ri ation river again lower down, through the gardens.
This channel is used as a toad in dry weather,
but when the river rises, the water runs along it and
cleanses the town, which is one of the most filthy in
Morocco. Houses, mosques and all are flooded. A
place so low and damp may well have a name for fever.
, Windus was informed that it had been cursed C lunate.
by a saint who foretold that it should be burned
in summer and drowned in winter, which it very nearly
is, but in his day the people were wont to set fire to
some one building each summer, as a “ scape-house,”
that other heat might be averted.1
Whatever walls El Kasar once boasted were razed by
Mulai Isma’i'l in 1673, since which time it has been alto-
Decay gether unprotected, except by the doors which
close the entrance to the kai'sariyah at night.
Soon after taking Tangier, the Portuguese had seized it,
but had ere long dismantled and abandoned it. A t that
time it possessed a fine hospital.2 As recently as 1800
“ Ali B e y ” considered it larger than Tangier,3 and Dr.
Addison, father of the essayist, who was chaplain at
Tangier under the British, states that once the town
boasted more than fifteen mosques, whereas at the present
time the number is reduced to only two or three
of importance. These are “ the Great,” the Jama' Sidi
el Hazmiri and the Jama' Sa’i'dah.
The chief patron saints are Mulai Ali bu Ghalib, Sidi
Kasem ben Z ’bair, and Lalla Fatmah el Andalusiyah
_ . (Lady Fatmah o f Andalucia). The zawiah of ratron bamts. . . .
Mulai bu Ghalib is a fine one, having a beautiful
tiled court-yard open to the sky, with a marble fountain
in the centre. Opposite the entrance is a smaller
f t g | 79. 2 M e n e z e s , p p . 52 a n d 70. 3 p . 58.
door finely carved and painted in colours, with an inscription
over the archway which leads into the kübbáh. Irt
the centre of this is the tomb, a large, oblong, wooden ,
structure, covered with scarlet felt cloth with a pattern
in green cloth. Above hangs a large candelabra surrounded
by numerous oil lamps, and there are of course
several clocks. Petroleum and “ Nazarene” candles being
tabooed as unholy, native bees’ wax and olive oil only
are used. The ceiling is exquisitely decorated in “ Alhambra”
style, and round the wall run intricate quotations
from the Kor'án.
The town is divided into two wards, Es-Shri’ah and
Báb el Wád, divided by the main street. It is reckoned
that the one can supply three hundred and
' Administration.
fifty armed men, and the other five hundred.
The government of the town is unique,— though typical
of most of the minor towns of Morocco, — owing to the
multitude of jurisdictions, all native. The Báshá of La-
raiche appoints a vice-governor for the town, and the
sultan another for the country round,— the Khlót. Similarly
there are two kádís or judges, and two administrators
of mosque property, but only one market clerk.
So far all would go well, were it not that those who
frequent the place, especially on market days, instead
of becoming subject to the jurisdiction of the
representatives of Government in the town, ~ onflictmg
1 , Jurisdictions.
remain amenable only to their own respective
kaids, who are usually in attendance on these occasions
to the number of a dozen or more. Even this delightful
state of confusion is increased when one of the parties
to a suit claims foreign protection. France and England
are represented in El Kasar by agents, and there is a
French Post Office. The only other Europeans are the
members of the Gospel Union Mission o f America,
established here in 1896.