re the Christian representatives
countenance and support him, the Jew, subject to certain restrictions, is
in the present day a flourishing member of the community; but in the
interior his fate is still a hard one.

There is a Jewish tradition that when Shalmaneser, King of Assyria,
conquered the Israelites, the tribe of Naphthali took refuge in the
interior of Africa, and spread to Morocco. Jewish tombstones are
certainly to be found dating as far back as twelve hundred years, and one
synagogue possesses fragments of the Old Testament written on parchment,
while there is a population of from four to five thousand Jews in the
Atlas Mountains who have lived there since time immemorial.

Perhaps the wandering Jew merely drifted into Morocco just as he drifts
all over the universe, and he would have taken refuge in North Africa
more particularly when Spanish persecution became intolerable.

Once in Morocco, the Moors permitted the Jews to remain because they were
useful to them; but upon certain conditions. They are confined to a
certain quarter of the city--the Jews' Quarter, the Ghetto in
fact--which is shut and locked by a gate at sunset, barring them from the
outer world. In their own quarter they may do as they like, except ride a
horse; the horse is considered too noble an animal to be ridden by the
Jew: outside they may not ride at all, not even a mule, but are obliged
to trudge barefoot through the slush of the rest of the city, summer and
winter. They are compelled to wear one costume--a long black gabardine
and a black skull-cap. Few Jewesses care to leave their quarters by
themselves, for fear of insult. No synagogues or public places of worship
are allowed them, and they must address Moors as _Sidi_, or "My lord."

But these customs are fast dying out. There is one which universally
obtains: the Jews' Quarter is known as the _Mellah_; Mellah means "salt"
in Arabic,--the Jews are compelled to salt the heads of conquered tribes
killed in battle, and of criminals, which are afterwards nailed on the
city walls as trophies and warnings.

In Tetuan the Jews are influential and well treated: many of them wear
European clothes. On Saturday--the Jewish Sabbath--a young masher (a
Mordejai, or Baruch, or Isaac) would boast a pair of brand-new yellow
shoes and white socks, but wear at the same time a dove-coloured
gabardine down to his heels and a mauve sash round his waist.
Claret-coloured gabardines were fashionable,