Morocco, Its People and Places

Transcriber’s Note:
Footnotes have been collected at the end of the text, and are linked for ease of reference.
Morocco, Its People And Places
By
Edmondo De Amicis
Translated by C. Rollin-Tilton
New York
G. P. Butnam's Sons
27 & 29 West 23d Street
1882
General View Of Tangiers.
There are no two countries in the world more entirely different from each other than the two which are separated by the Straits of Gibraltar; and this diversity is peculiarly apparent to the traveller who approaches Tangiers from Gibraltar, where he has left the hurried, noisy, splendid life of a European city. At only three hours’ journey from thence the very name of our continent seems unknown; the word “Christian” signifies enemy; our civilization is ignored, or feared, or derided; all things, from the very foundations of social life to its most insignificant particulars, are changed, and every indication of the neighborhood of Europe has disappeared. You are in an unknown country, having no bonds of interest in it, and every thing to learn. From its shore the European coast can still be seen, but the heart feels itself at an immeasurable distance, as if that narrow tract of sea were an ocean, and those blue mountains an illusion. Within three hours a wonderful transformation has taken place around you.