We returned to our quarters in the town before the sun had set, and closed a very enjoyable day by reviewing our botanical prizes as we laid them into paper to undergo the first step in the process of their preservation. As usual the evening cigar accompanied our discussion as to future proceedings, and to its soothing influence we doubtless owe the fact that these debates always led to a satisfactory conclusion. On this occasion we agreed to divide our small party into two sections and separate for a few days. Maw was anxious to return at once to Tangier, with a view to visit some swamps that lie about ten miles south-west of the town, while Hooker and Ball were desirous of examining the coast between Tetuan and Ceuta. As it appeared that a small stock of Spanish would serve all necessary purposes in the excursion to Ceuta, Maw volunteered to take our disagreeable interpreter and one unnecessary soldier back to Tangier, while Bulbo was willing to risk a visit to the infidels at Ceuta.
On the morning of the 12th Maw departed, but Hooker was unwell. It was decided that a quiet day and the judicious exhibition of moderate doses of cognac, which we owed to the kindness of the Spanish consul, would be the most appropriate treatment; and the result was quite satisfactory.
Ball spent the day in botanising over the hills near the town, and was well satisfied with the result. The rarest plant found was, perhaps, a curious and very distinct fumitory (Fumaria africana of Lamarck), which he had gathered nearly at the same spot twenty years before. The red-flowered Polygala of Beni Hosmar (P. Webbiana of Cosson) was seen in a few spots near the town along with Arabis pubescens; and that singular plant, the Drosophyllum, hitherto seen in Marocco only on the hills west of Tangier, was here found within sight of the Mediterranean, growing along with Helianthemum umbellatum and several other less rare species of the Cistus tribe.
During our stay here we had a good opportunity of seeing something of the life of the Marocco Jews, who form a distinct and important element in the population of the empire. Tetuan has long been one of the head-quarters of the Hebrew race. When most of the chief Moorish families took refuge here after their expulsion from Spain—and some are said still to preserve the keys of their own houses in Granada—many Jews, flying from the faggots of the Inquisition, preferred the comparative toleration of Moslem rule, to the oppression and social disabilities that awaited them in Christian Europe. It was more tolerable to submit to occasional injustice and cruelty which was shared by all classes of society around them than to be daily reminded that they formed a class apart—the proper objects of general contempt and aversion. It is true that until late years the Marocco Jew was exposed to some vexatious regulations. He was required to put off his sandals on passing the outside of a mosque, to wear a peculiar dress, and is still confined to a separate quarter in each town. But in ordinary intercourse between man and man the Jews of the coast towns seemed to us to have attained a footing of almost complete equality, due as well to their superior intelligence and commercial instinct, as to the tolerance which affinity of race and creed has developed among the people of Arab stock. In truth, the Moor feels that the Jew is indispensable to him. In despite of his aversion to intercourse with the Christian, trade, in which the Jew serves as intermediary, has become a practical necessity, and it has procured for him foreign luxuries which he is now little inclined to forego.
In point of fact, Tetuan boasts of being the cradle of more wealthy Jewish families than any other town in the world; and among the practical concessions enjoyed by them, there now appears to be no difficulty in the way of Jews leaving the empire and returning to it, and frequent intercourse is carried on between the city and Europe by the way of Ceuta. The ceremonial observances of the Mosaic law are strictly adhered to. The first question put to us on our arrival was to know whether we had with us leavened bread, as such could not be admitted to the house during the feast of the Passover; and during our stay we were given cakes, some of plain flour, others prepared with orange juice.
The houses are quite on the same plan as those of the Moors, or in other words they merely differ in architectural detail from the ancient type that is preserved for us in the smaller houses of Pompeii. A single court (atrium) has several small rooms or closets used for kitchen, offices, and sleeping place for servants, and one large apartment, the chief living room of the family, filling one side. This remains open to the court by day, but is closed at night by a curtain. On the upper floor a gallery surrounds the court, and into this open upper rooms of moderate size. In Nahum’s house a second floor above the first had been added, but this appeared to be an unusual arrangement. On our arrival we had been struck by the superior neatness and cleanliness of the Jewish, as compared to the Moorish, quarter, and the same remark applied to their persons.
No European traders appear to have settled at Tetuan, and such trade as it possesses is in the hands of the Jews. Oranges, and a sort of brandy, called Mahaya, distilled from the grape, are the chief exports. The coarse pottery made here is much the same as that produced in Algeria and throughout Western Marocco. Rude geometrical patterns in ill-defined blue and green tints are usually enriched by round spots of bright red, laid on with something like sealing-wax over the glazing, and easily removed with spirit. The only thing deserving notice as representing art-manufacture is the gold embroidery, usually worked on silk or velvet. This is used for curtains or hangings by some wealthy Moors, and for personal wear by the Jewish women and children. At this festival season the younger children frequently appeared with caps or diadems richly embroidered; but the women more often wear a light silk handkerchief, with the fringe hanging freely, but kept in its place by a fillet of black or red velvet worked in gold, and forming a very ornamental head-dress.
Travellers have indulged in enthusiastic descriptions of the beauty of the Marocco Jewesses. Those who have visited Tetuan will have seen a fair specimen in the person of our host’s sister, a tall comely girl, free from the tendency to corpulence which is too common, and whose regular features are set off by a pair of fine dark eyes. But those for whom expression is an essential element of beauty in the human countenance will usually find something wanting to complete the attractions of the undeniably handsome women of this country.
It so happened that the occasion was especially favourable for seeing something of the life of the Israelite society of the city. This was the last of the festival days of the Passover, and towards evening there was a large gathering of neighbours in the ground-floor apartments of our house. The women were richly dressed in loose garments of light silk and a profusion of gold embroidery. It was almost impossible to recognise our host’s mother, a corpulent woman, who had hitherto appeared in a shabby costume of the scantiest proportions in which the developments of her ample person were unpleasantly apparent. Arrayed in festival splendour, she now assumed a regal attitude, and her figure appeared to be modelled on that of the nearest Christian potentate, the unregretted Queen Isabella. The men wore long blue coats of the dressing-gown pattern, with white cotton stockings and slippers, and, if not picturesque in appearance, showed to advantage beside our host who, mindful of his dignity as interpreter to the Consulate, appeared in European black frock coat and trousers. The children were especially gorgeous in head-dresses of crimson or purple velvet richly embroidered in gold. During the evening there was an attempt at dancing to the music of an accordion; but the space was too limited, and this was speedily given up. The party continued, however, till a late hour, and midnight passed before the sound of lively talk and laughter ceased in the lower chambers of our house.
On the morning of April 13 we started for Ceuta, about thirty miles distant from Tetuan. The track for several miles lies at some distance from the coast, which on the north side of the mouth of the river forms a projecting headland, called by the Spaniards Cabo Negro. After riding through green lanes, we mounted gradually by a broad path that winds amidst bushy hills for a couple of hours, and then descended towards the sandy shore; and for the remainder of the way kept close to the beach. After fording one or two smaller streams issuing from the marshy pools that lay between us and the hills on our left, we had a little trouble in crossing a more considerable torrent that seems to bring down most of the drainage of the Angera Mountains lying behind Ape’s Hill. The horses’ feet sank deeply in the yielding sand of the bed, though we were able to wade across without difficulty. It was an anxious moment for us as we watched the baggage mules struggling and floundering, until the water rose very nearly to the precious packages of paper that contained the fruits of our work since we left Tangier. Several villages were seen on the slopes of the hills to our left, but during the entire day we passed only three or four small houses.