Its once high-minded orthodox mulahs
are now succeeded by a fanatic and ignorant race of marabouts.
Nevertheless, the few _hommes de lettres_ found in Morocco are
congregated here, and the literature of the empire is concentrated in
this city. Seven large public schools are in full activity, besides
numbers of private seminaries of instruction. The low humour of the
talebs, and the fanaticism of the people, are unitedly preserved and
developed in this notorious doggerel couplet, universally diffused
throughout Morocco: -
_Ensara fee Senara
Elhoud fee Sefoud_
"Christians on the hook
Jews on the spit," or
"Let Christians be hooked,
And let Jews be cooked."
The great division of the Arabic into eastern and western dialects makes
little real difference in a practical point of view. The Mogrebbin, or
western, is well understood by all travellers, and, of course, by all
scholars from the East.
The palace of the Sultan is not large, but is handsome. There are
numerous baths, and an hospital for the mad or incurable. The population
was estimated, not long ago, at 88,000 souls, of which there were 60,000
Moors and Arabs (the Moors being chiefly immigrants from Spain), 10,000
Berbers, 8,000 Jews, and 10,000 Negroes. But this amount has been
reduced to 40,000, or even 30,000; and the probability is, the present
population of Fez does not by any means, exceed 50,000, if it reaches
that number.
