With the fatalistic spirit of the East, and a tendency to see
life only from the personal standpoint, it followed that, when a holy war
no longer fired the wandering and independent shepherds to fight and
forced them to obey, they became "slack," remained stationary, or
retrograded.

The Arab would not advance civilization in Morocco, nor would the wild
and lawless Berber; the Moorish refugees from Spain had sadly
degenerated; to crown all, civil war led to the destruction of the
libraries and universities in Fez and Morocco City, and education was no
more.

Ignorance begat worse government; decline and poverty followed one after
the other. Corruption among the rulers spread downwards and ran through
the country, until the whole body politic was unsound, and is so to-day.

Though the name of the Sultan, as Head of the Church, is held in
reverence, yet many of the tribes would resist to the uttermost any
attempt on his part to subdue them by force of arms, so unsettled is his
empire.

He holds himself to be far superior to the Sultan of Turkey, who is not
descended from the Prophet, but who, on the other hand, is the guardian
of the sacred city of Mecca, and who possesses superior forces.

Second in rank to the Sultan of Morocco follow his ministers--the Chief
Minister, the Foreign Minister, the Chief Adviser, the Minister of the
Interior, and the Minister of Finance. Their duties are to carry out the
Sultan's wishes, and, receiving no pay, they look to enriching themselves
at the expense of their respective billets.

A body of secretaries come after the ministers, who write and dispatch
the Sultan's decrees to distant cities, where their letters are read
aloud in the mosques to the people by the governors. A special body of
messengers is employed under the secretaries.

Each district and city has its _kaid_ or _basha_ (its governor), whose
duty is to read the Sultan's letter aloud and carry out his instructions,
who oversees the city market, prices food, detects false weight, deals
with robbers and murderers, and sees that the peace is kept.

As well as basha every city has its _kadi_, or judge of civil law, who
settles all questions of land, of grants, divorces, etc.

We visited the Court of Civil Justice at Tetuan, a tiny room, carpeted
with yellow matting, where the white-haired kadi, attired in white, sat
like a magnificent white rabbit on a large red cushion on the floor,
beside him a table six inches hig