Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 2.djvu/500

 beyond the chanting of verses from the Koran, although the standard of public instruction is gradually rising, thanks to the increasing relations with strangers, temporary emigration, the pilgrimage to Mecca, and the example set by the Jewish schools established in some of the large towns since 1862. In 1884 these were attended altogether by eleven hundred and fifty students, receiving their education in French, which has become the cultured language of Jewish and European society. No papers however are yet published anywhere, nor are works any longer composed in Arabic.

Polygamy is as rare as in Algeria, except amongst the grandees, who are obliged by their position to keep a large harem. The Emperor has hundreds of wives, and every Friday a new bride is said to enter his household. The old forms of slavery still exist; and although the traffic in white captives was formally abolished in 1777, the stream of Negro slaves still continues to flow from the Sudan across the Sahara to the very gates of the European consulates in Tangier. Their public sale is officially interdicted, but of late years the trade has more than doubled, and the mutilation of children is still practised by all the dignitaries of the empire.

The sovereign, a member of the Tafilelt Shorfa family, whence the title of "his Sherif Majesty," is absolute master, as far as permitted by the Koranic law. Even of this law he is the interpreter, being at once temporal ruler and spiritual guide of his subjects. His imperial will is thus the only law. He may condescend to take counsel and act through agents; but he has no ministers, in the strict sense of the word. Nevertheless he need but turn his gaze towards Tangier to