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Show OLD G1TY0FTANGSER Second Only to Damascus in Its Antiquity. Cosmopolitan in the Extreme Are the Crowded Thoroughfares of the Moroccan Capital Market Place Especially Is Worth a Visit. Tangier, Morocco. Damascus is said to be the oldest inhabited city In the world, and Tangier is generally acknowledged to be the second oldest. old-est. Tangier lies on the north coast of Morocco, facing the straits of Gibraltar, and is about thirty miles from the great fortress. A steamer plies between Gibraltar and Tangier. When the steamer arrives at the Moorish capital, there is a great hubbub. hub-bub. Native boatmen fight and squabble squab-ble among themselves as to who shall get the most passengers. Being a stranger you would perhaps rather stay on board the steamer than trust yourself to the dusky, howling mob. But there is no other way of getting ashore, and as the view .of the town is limited from the deck of the steamer, steam-er, you find yourself ,bundled into a corner of the boat a.jd the Moorish boatmen pull for the shore. As soon as you set foot on the landing stage, you are besieged by a crowd of guides. It is in vain you tell them their services serv-ices are not required, and so in order to get peace you hire the services of a big lanky Arab. You need not follow fol-low him where he wants you to go, but as you have provided yourself with a guide book, you make your own plans. Tangier is a cosmopolitan city. Here, jostling together in the crowded thoroughfares, may be seen the stately state-ly Berber, with long white robes, Arabs from the desert, Soudanese with thick lips, and complexions black as Egypt's night; wild-looking Riffs from the hills; Jews, Spaniards, Germans, Ger-mans, Britishers and Europeans, bent on business or pleasure. The streets are very narrow, and the shops are very small, so small that the merchant can easily reach all round his store without rising from his seat on the floor. The Moors have a proverb which says "It is no use running if you can walk, and it is no use walking if you can stand, and it is no use standing if you can sit; it is no use sitting if you can lie down, no use lying if you can sleep," i I ' ?rr a. is? s fe i I h i f r! i Finest Mosque in Tangier. and they live up to the proverb. One merchant we saw in a sandy store was lying sound asleep, covered with flies, his dirty feet stuck in a box of dates. No visitor to Tangier should miss Beeing the "Soho" or market place, especially on a Thursday, as that is the busiest day of the week. Long caravans of camels bring in the articles arti-cles of trade from the interior, while donkeys and mules bring the products of the gardens and orchards. Passing Pass-ing through the main gate your ear is greeted with a loud "Balak! Ba-lak!" Ba-lak!" which is Arabic for "look out," and a dusky Moor rushes past you with a shoulder of beef on his back. Roosters Roost-ers crowing, ducks quacking, chickens cackling, announce the poultry market at hand, where with much gibberish and noise they conduct their business. N'ext you pass into a large open space where all around oi the ground are heaps of all kinds of fruit watermelons water-melons and pomegranates, oranges and grapes, prickly pears and peaches ind many other kinds, for Morocco Is a fruitful country. Moorish women, with great broad sun-bonnets, attend lo the fruit and keep the flies off. Nearby is the charcoal burner who has brought his load in from far out in the country. Here is an old woman sitting beside a bundle of sticks which she has probably carried on her back for five or six miles. Many of the Moorish women have a hard time of it, I have seen a mother, with a baby slung across her breast, trudging along the road with a great load of sticks on her back, which she was taking to the market to sell, to keep his lordship, her husband, in plenty. |