When
turned out to grass, they soon become wild. Crossing a field one day,
mounted, I was set upon by a troop of these wild, grazing horses, and
was instantly knocked to the ground, where I lay stunned. A cavalry
officer, who was riding with me, had only just time to escape, and saved
himself by dismounting, and letting his horse go.
It was some hours before we could rescue the horses of our party from
their wild mates, sporting and bounding furiously over the plains. The
barb horses being all stallions (for the Moors consider it a crime to
geld so noble an animal), the fiercest and most terrific battles ensue
on a stud breaking loose from their pickets. These battles are always
between strangers, for the barb is the most affectionate of horses, and
if he is known to another, and become his mate, he will, as the Arabs
say, "die to be with him."
[18] These trained bands of negroes call themselves _Abeed-Sidi-Bokhari_,
from the patron saint whom they adopted on settling in Morocco, the
celebrated Sidi-Bokhari, commentator on the Koran, and a native of
Bokhara, as his name implies. His commentary is almost as much venerated
as the Koran itself.
[19] The _lex talion_ is frequently enforced in North Africa.
[20] Maroquine Moors drench you with tea! they guzzle sweet tea all day
long, as the Affghans gulp down their tea, with butter in it, from
morning to night.
[21] Native Jews manage most of the business of the interior, and farm
the greater part of the monopolies. But the Emperor must have some
European merchants connected with these Jews to maintain the commercial
relations of his country with Europe. The Jewish High Priest of Mogador
is a merchant, it being considered no interference with his sacred
functions.
[22] See Appendix at end of Vol. II.
[23] Muley Abd Errahman is averse to treating his governors with extreme
rigour. Mr. Hay gives an appalling account of private individuals
arrested on suspicion of possessing great wealth - "The most horrible
tortures are freely resorted to for forcing confessions of hidden
wealth. The victim is put in a slow oven, or kept standing for weeks in
a wooden dress; splinters are forced between the flesh and the nail of
the fingers; two fierce cats are put alive into his wide trousers, and
the breasts of his women are twisted with pincers. Young children have
sometimes been squeezed to death under the arms of a powerful man,
before the eyes of their parents."
A wealthy merchant at Tangier, whose _auri sacra fames_ had led him to
resist for a long time the cruel tortures that had been, employed
against him, yielded at length to the following trial. "He was placed in
a corner of the room, wherein a hungry lion was chained in such a manner
as to be able to reach him with his claws, unless he held himself in a
most unnatural position." This reads very much like a description of the
torments of the Inquisition. The Moors may have imported this system of
torture from Spain. Similar barbarities were said to have been inflicted
by King Otho on prisoners in Greece, even on British Ionian subjects! I
recollect particularly the sewing up of fierce cats in the petticoats of
women. My experience in Morocco does not permit me to authenticate Mr.
Hay's horrible picture.
[24] "To his Imperial Majesty the Emperor of Morocco, Sidi Muley Abd
Errahman.
"May it please your Majesty,
"A Society in England, having for its object the Abolition of Slavery
and the Slave Trade throughout the world, and denominated the British
and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, being informed of the pacific
intentions and friendly disposition of your Majesty towards our
Sovereign Queen and Government, and being informed likewise, that your
Majesty, in diplomatic relations with other Foreign Princes and States,
has universally manifested the greatest desire to preserve peace amongst
nations, and, of necessary consequence, the happiness of the human race,
are encouraged to approach your Majesty, and to plead on behalf of a
numerous and important class of your subjects, the negro and other black
slaves.
"These are a people always faithful to their friends and protectors (a
most conspicuous and immediate proof of which is seen in your Majesty's
Imperial Guard, formed principally of this class of your faithful
subjects,) and exhibiting under suffering and oppression the greatest
patience and fortitude, yet, during the long course of bygone centuries,
they have been subjected to horrid cruelties and barbarities, in order
to pander to the vices and to satiate the avarice of their oppressors.
"Now we, the Society in England aforesaid, address your Majesty for the
succour and protection of this cruelly oppressed portion of the human
race, and in order that you may be graciously pleased to remove the
chain of bondage from off these unfortunate victims of the violence and
cupidity of wicked men, who, in defiance of all justice and mercy, claim
them as their property, and buy and sell them as cattle.
"We further entreat that your Majesty would be graciously pleased to
place the slaves in your Imperial dominions upon a footing of equality
with the rest of your faithful subjects, and to make them free men,
having the rightful possession of their own persons, and being at
liberty to travel whithersoever they will.
"For your Majesty rightly understands and knows as well as we do, that
God the Almighty Maker of us and you, has made all men equal, and has
not permitted man to have property in his fellow man, which reduces them
to the level of brutes; therefore, to make slaves of our fellows, our
brothers and sisters, is to sin against the will and mind of God, and to
provoke his wrath and indignation against us, and against our children
after us.
