The pillars of Hercules

“Nullus amor populi nec fœdera sunto: Exoriare aliquis nostris ex ossibus ultor, Qui face Dardanios ferroque sequare colonos; Nunc, olim, quocunque dabunt se tempore vires. Litt...

The Mediterranean is like a bag with two necks filling at both ends. The current through the Dardanelles presents exciting varieties, but no perplexing mysteries. It is the disc...

There is no place of which it is more difficult to form an idea without seeing it, than Gibraltar. One naturally expects to find a fortress closing the Mediterranean with its ce...

I have been a week in Barbary. I landed at Tangier, and crossed the country to this place, but I have been too busy taking in and digesting, to put pen to paper. If I could abst...

Towards the end of August I determined to profit by the last of the fine weather, and to take a cruise in and about the Straits, shaping my course by the will of the winds. Poli...

I considered it quite a feat to get at this Spanish key to the Straits, having been foiled in two attempts, the one by land, the other by sea: once the Spaniards stopped me, onc...

Turning the corner of a street, I saw a Moor walking familiarly along, as if he were quite at home. I was just as much surprised as if I had seen a wolf sauntering in the midst...

A Moorish house is a square, with blind walls outside, and a court within. A corridor, sustained by pillars, runs round, and affords an opening and light to the rooms: the court...

In the land of the Hindoos, far away from the ocean, there is a building called the _Pearl_ Mosque. The Spaniards call their Cadiz, the City of Silver. But Cadiz is the daughter...

were speaking of a ship carrying her colours. The port of a Spanish lady is, indeed, like the bearing of a ship. The mantillas, reversing the effect of our costume--which is to...

The demeanour of men towards women could not fail to engage attention in the birthplace of chivalry, as among the orientals men and women salute in the same manner. It was some...

Every time I left the “Rock,” or returned to it, I had to pass round or through the ruins of Carteia, always deferring an examination of them to a special day. At last that day...

The magnetic needle has become so essential in the economy of the world, that we can hardly imagine the consequences which would ensue, were it suddenly to lose its power. It is...

A Heaven of pale blue is reflected in the Atlantic; there is not a speck above nor a breath below; there is nothing that tells of Atlas or of Africa--no cloud-capped and snow-cl...

I went to-day up the river in a barge belonging to one of the schooners in the harbour. We landed at the bottom of the harbour to visit the great tower. It is about seventy feet...

The Cazaba, the fortress with the beautiful gate, has a separate government, and is inhabited by a distinct people; a remnant of a tribe, the Oudaïah, which, on the failure of t...

This morning Mustafa Ducaly sent me, by his man Selam, a “Dollond,” and a ladder, telling me to run to Hassan to see the Baïram, which was to be held on the downs to the south o...

I find it was not the Sultan who went to the mosque last Friday, but his son. To-day I saw the real potentate overshadowed by the Sheriffean umbrella. He wore a green sulam, wit...

The civil government of Rabat is vested in the Caïd, whose functions I have already described. The financial officers are the _Emirs_ of the custom-house, the chief of whom is c...

The thermometer, in a room where the sun never shines, stands nearly at temperate. During twenty days, we have only had two days of bad weather: it is hot in the sun, and cold a...

The domestic arrangements differ here from other Mussulman countries. The house is not divided into _Harem_ and _Salambu_. In fact, there is no harem, for there are neither its...

I have already stated my object in visiting Barbary, and its frustration. I thought it best, therefore, to abstain from any intercourse with the Moorish government on political...

Two women sat in front grinding, and as they proceeded filled the flour into a basket. My hostess, seated on the ground, had in her lap a round wooden tray three feet in diamete...

However extensive the culinary operations in the chieftain’s tent, they did not absorb the whole care of his household. Simultaneously were going on the plaiting of baskets, the...

Why kneading-troughs? The Jews did not carry ovens with them. Cakes are kneaded, one by one, on a board or stone, and then laid upon the hot stones or embers, or griddle.[280] S...

We thought we might now dispense with the precautions to secure our property before going to rest, to which we had been hitherto constrained; but were surprised, while making ou...

Few sounds awaken more pleasing associations than the tent of the Arab. Palace, castle, tower call up visions of events; but “tent” drives the imagination back upon itself to di...