North Africa Is Wonderfully Homogeneous In The Matter Of Religion.
The
people, indeed, have but one religion.
Even the extraneous Judaism is
the same in its Deism - depression of the female - circumcision and many
of the religious customs, festivals and traditions. And this has a
surprising effect in assimilating the opposite character and sharpest
peculiarities of various races of otherwise distinct and independant
origin.
The population of Morocco presents five distant races and classes of
people; Berbers, Arabs, Moors, Jews and Negroes. Turks are not found in
Morocco, and do not come so far west; but sons of Turks by Moorish women
in Kouroglies are included among the Moors, that have emigrated from
Algeria. Maroquine Berbers, include the varieties of the Amayeegh [14]
and the Shelouh, who mostly are located in the mountains, while the
Arabs are settled on the plains.
The Moors are the inhabitants of towns and cities, consisting of a
mixture of nearly all races, a great proportion of them being of the
descendants of the Moors expelled from Spain. All these races have been,
and will still be, farther noticed in the progress of the work. The
proximate amount of this population is six millions. The greater number
of the towns and cities are situate on the coast, excepting the three or
four capitals, or imperial cities. The other towns of the interior
should be considered rather as forts to awe neighbouring tribes, or as
market villages (_souks_), where the people collect together for the
disposal and exchange of their produce.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 51 of 196
Words from 13439 to 13693
of 53114
