o the Moor Allah is always present, is behind every
decree of the Sultan, and enters into the smallest detail of his own
private life to such a degree that barely a single action is performed
without invoking the sacred name. Religion is, according to the temper of
the individual Moor, "a passion, or a persuasion, or an excuse, but never
a check": for a man may commit any sin under heaven, and "Allah is
merciful; Mohammed is his prophet; all will be forgiven." And this is not
hypocritical: the larger soul includes the smaller--that is all.

It follows as a natural sequence that, because Allah is as much part of a
Moor's life as the air he breathes, he is forgotten. The repetition of
words bulks so largely in Mohammedanism, that, as with the Jews of old,
the letter of the law has killed the spirit. The evil of Mohammed's
religion lies in its essential antagonism towards progress and
civilization: scientific investigation is forbidden; a proverb runs,
"Only fools and the very young speak the truth." Thus Mohammedanism will
never advance or regenerate Morocco; for these tenets are Government
policy.

At the same time there is in Mohammedan society a certain negative virtue
which contrasts strongly with the gross immorality existing in Christian
countries. The conditions of what is lawful for a Mohammedan are wide
enough to content, and extremes offer no temptation. Polygamy, divorce,
and slavery are all allowed, and war upon unbelievers is enjoined as a
duty. And yet "social evils" and the lowest depths to which humanity
falls are almost unknown in Morocco; while what is held to be sin is
rigorously punished--adultery by stoning (a father has no hesitation in
shooting his daughter himself), robbery by mutilation, and so on.

Unlike many Christian churches, a Moorish mosque is never closed: the
sanctuary is always open. It is council-chamber, meeting-place, and for
travellers at night resting-place. There are no priests in the European
sense; but the _basha_ (governor) or the _kadi_ (judge) reads prayers on
Fridays, a sermon follows, and letters or decrees from the Sultan are
given out in the mosque after service.

The treatment of Mohammedan women, against which so much has been
written, is after all Oriental, and nothing more. The Kor[=a]n speaks of
woman as an inferior being, an incomplete creation, needing no education,
to be rigorously and jealously guarded all her life, and who after death
may or may not be admitte