Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 2.djvu/469

 WEZZAN. $m Ismail, the " Saint-Denis " of Marocco, is also in a half-ruined itate. Within the park, over a mile in circumference, arc compriiied piUces and fpuceful lttft«|ff « stud of over a thousand high-bred mule>«, beaidea a labyrinth of undergroand galleries till recently used as granaries. The Emperor was comiM>llcd to throw open these stores during the terrible famine of IH7H, when the greater part of the com was found to be mouldy. According to popular rumour, the palace of Meknes also contains the imperial treasure, guarded in secret crj-pts by three hundrvd Negro slaves destined never to see the light of day. The Meknes district is the agricultural centre of the empire, and on the state c»f its crops depends the whole annual trade of the country. Towards the north, between the Rdem and Sebu Valleys, rise the Zarhun hills, where is situated the town of like name, formerly one of the chief intellectual centres of Mauritania. The inhabitants of Ziirhun, all of Arab stock, are extremely fanatical, and frequently entertain the emissaries of the Sen(isiya brotherhood. Here is the original home of the Aissawa, who yearly resort in large numbers to their zawya in Meknes, to w^hich they are bound to make a solemn pilgrim^ige everj' seventh year. The kubba of Mulni-Edris, north of Meknes, is the most venerated spot in the empire. Hitherto no European traveller has ventured to enter the holy place, which occupies a savage gorge in the Zarhun hills near the zawya. During great feasts men and women, seized with fits of frenz}% hack themselves with knives and hatchets, while others fall with their teeth on any passing animal, such as dogn, sheep, or goats. £v«q human beings are said on such occasions to have been devoured alive. On a slight e.ninence over a mile north-west of Mulai-Edris stand the ruins of Kntr Fa rail n, first visited and described by Windus in 1721. The name of Wahli, borne by the neighbouring village, and the inscriptions found on the spot, identify this place with the VoliibiHt of the Romans. Long used as a quarry by the builders of Meknes, Volubilis has preserved of its past greatness two monuments only, a triumphal arch and the gates of a basilica. The marbles of this city are even said to have found their way across the Atlas to the distant oasis of Tafilelu TocoUmdtiy another Roman station, stood in the neighbourhood of Volubilis. "Wezzax. Wczzan, the holy city on the northern slope of the Sebu basin, about midway between this river and Ksar-el-Kebir, was founded towards the close of the ninth centurj' by Mulai Tayeb, a direct descendani of ihe Prophet It is .^till exclusively peopled by Shorfa, who are held in great veneration throughout the Mussulman world, but who in the city itself are the very humble servants of the great lord, the Sherif in a superlative sense, more holy than the Sultan himself. By origin a " saint," his vast wealth has made him almost a god, who, through the members of the Taibiya order, levies contributions in money and kind in almost every vilUge m Marocco. In return he distributes these alms ^ith a free hand, keeping open stores for all comers, and often entertaining hundreds and even thousands of