Studio: international art (45.1909)

Morocco as a Winter Sketching Ground

children may be seen busily helping their elders to
weave. Some of these infant labourers are no
more than two or three years old. There is a cloth
market, where all articles of wearing apparel are
made and sold ; a women’s market, where women
wrapped in voluminous haiks are seen selling flour
and other useful commodities ; a corn market ; a
salt market ; a fruit and vegetable market ; a meat
market : a second-hand market, where a pictur-
esque crowd assembles to bid for articles offered
for sale by a crowd of energetic auctioneers ; and
a market where all kinds of native pottery are sold.
All these places yield subjects of wonderful colour
and interest to the artist.

One of the spectacular events of the week is the
going to mosque of the Governor of Mogador,
which takes place every Friday morning. In the
square, where stands the chief mosque, all the
kaids and other officials of the city assemble to do
honour to the man in power. Here are to be seen
all the rich and influential Moors, attired in their
very best. We were assured, by one who knew,

3°

that many of them on these occasions wear gar-
ments to the value of from forty to fifty pounds.
Their dress is of beautiful, soft, creamy whites,
delicate dove greys, salmon, orange, and delicate
greens, and various other harmonious and pleasing
colours. A crowd of townspeople and others sur-
round the square, where a bodyguard of the
Sultan’s troops awaits the coming of his representa-
tive. At a given signal all stand at attention, the
band of drums and oboes strikes up, and the
Governor and his suite enter the square. At a
certain point the whole assemblage makes a pro-
found obeisance, and he then enters the mosque,
thus finishing an impressive ceremony.

Another fine sight is the powder-play in the
Running Square, sometimes performed on foot, but
most exciting when the performers are mounted.
On these occasions, bands consisting of women
playing on cylindrical earthenware drums, and men
with the oboe or ghaitah, perform weird and
barbaric tunes, while other women show their
pleasure and appreciation by giving vent to a
strange, shrill ululation peculiar to the country.

There are some very fine Moorish doorways in
Mogador, notably that of-the prison ; a Saint-house
in the blacksmiths’street; and some of the mosques
are worth seeing, although architecture is not the
great feature of the city. Outside the city is held
a big market, where interesting groups of country-
people congregate to dispose of produce brought
in from the surrounding districts. Here are
camels, mules and donkeys in hundreds.

The coast is very fine, with magnificent stretches
of sand, and giant breakers eternally rolling in. It
is most unusual to see a calm here, the trade winds
keeping the sea in continual motion. The country
round Mogador is sandy for some distance, and
wonderful effects of light and colour are the result
of the almost continuously cloudless sky. The
temperature of Mogador is subject to unusually
little variation, seldom rising above 75° Fahr, in
the summer, and never falling below 40° in the
winter. The climate is most invigorating, with the
constant and refreshing breezes off the Atlantic.

The cost of living is absurdly small—4s. per day,
including wine. Of course, one must not expect
an Hotel Cecil here, but the food is good and
plentiful.

I can strongly recommend artists to give Morocco
a trial. It is easily reached by the splendid ships
“Arzila” and “Agadir” of the Royal Mail Steam
Packet Company ; these are literally floating
palaces, and the fares are wTell within the reach
of most people. Robert E. Groves.