MRS. MURRAY'S MOROCCO, SPAIN, AND THE CANARIES..
A MIST venture in literature is doubly hazardous for one who has already achieved a considerable reputation in another art. The new performance will be measured by the standard of its predecessors—a standard unfairly applied to it, for success in one art by no means implies an equal command over another, nor does it pledge the artist to attempt in this as much as he accom- plished in that. Est quodam prodere terms si non datur ultra. Granted that Cicero's poetry was greatly inferior to his oratory, we are far from believing that the unhappy line preserved by the satirist is a fair specimen of his versification. But the world has always been loth to believe in versatility of talent, and prompt to punish those who lay claim to it, or if that may not be, then to wrong them as much by fulsome adulation. Mrs. Murray has braved this hazard with characteristic boldness and may congra- tulate herself on the result. We cannot say that she writes as well as she paints, but her book is full of animation brightly co- loured and picturesque, and more interesting than many of higher pretensions. "People who would look into it for what pe nts call "useful information," statistics, " ologies," and so forth, would be disappointed, as they deserve to be ; but not so those who desire to see the aspect of men and things in sunny climes and among primitive and semi-barbarous races, reflected from the mind of an accomplished artist. The first three sen- tences in her book axe worth more than all the contents of many a three-volume novel : "A vagabond from a baby, I left England at eighteen. I was perfectly independent, having neither master nor money. My pencil was both to me, being at the same time my strength, my comfort, and my intense delight." Among the passengers on board the Royal Tar, in which she sailed for Gib- raltar, there was a stately Moor, who sat to her for his portrait in the Bay of Biscay. He was a very animated sitter, and the wonderful tales he related of his race and country so excited the curiosity of the artist, that before the sketch was finished she had resolved to make the shores of Western Barbary the termination of her voyage. Her first impressions of that romantic land were unpleasantly prosaic. Tangier, as she beheld it from the sea, "looked like a city of the dead, a vast cemetery., a Kensal Green, laid bare on the slope of a hill." Her mode of landing was more curious than pleasant. Two vagabond Jews fought for the privi- lege of carrying her ashore, cursing each other's greatgrandfathers the while with exceeding fervour and force, and the victorious cora- petitor for the job finished it by suddenly plumping her down on her hands and face on the sand. The incident was ominous. It was in the same involuntary posture that Ctesar first saluted the land of Egypt, making his fall a happy prognostic. In the young artist's ease the omen was succeeded by a prophecy. The Jews in Tangier, she says possess a remarkable insight into the future, and often giye utterance to prophecies which seldom fail to be realized. When she occasionally expressed to some of them who
had travelled in Europe her surprise that they should choose to settle in such a little dirty town as Tangier, their answer was : " Ah you dislike Tangier ; well, we can tell you that it will be your own future home for years to come." The prophecy was fulfilled, for in less than a year the subject of it was married to the British Consul.
Mrs. Murray may say what she pleases in depreciation of Moor- ish beauty, but the painful conviction will force itself upon us, that the ladies of Morocco greatly surpass those of England in perfection of form according to the present standard of taste in Europe. The latter must have recourse to art for the means of imitating the graces which the former owe to nature and culti- vation ; the fine proportions of the one are real and substantial, those of the other are hollow and delusive ; in fact the Moorish
lady wears her crinoline inside her skin ; the English lady wears hers a long way outside it. It is hardly matter for wonder if what may be the natural structure of a Frankish woman is still a moot point in the female colleges of Morocco. "I remember one monstrous creature—a Moorish beauty—the wife of an official, who, on receiving me, felt my clothes, and counted my fingers to • Sixteen Years of an Artist's Life is Morocco, Spain, and the Canary Islands.
By Mrs. Elizabeth Murray. In two volumes. Published by Hurst and Blackett.
see if a Nazarene woman was in all points made like herself. My gloves next attracted her attention, and she proceeded to examine themal- though, from some cause, she shrank from them at first with fear. 'She was, as is usual here, very beautiful down to the chin, and her complexion was as fair as that of an English matron. Her black languishing eyes like those of the Jewesses were stained with alcohol; and besides the extreme whiteness of her skin, she possessed that peculiarly marble-like quality which is only obtained by the frequent use of the bath. Her hair was flow- ing flown in rich luxuriance over her shoulders, and the head and face al- to ther presented an appearance of remarkable beauty. But the extra- ordinary size of her body, which was quite overwhelming, I found rather difficult to recognize as any recommendation in the we; of beauty, ac- cording to my European standard, which I do not find myself quite pre- pared to dispense with. " In Morocco, the Moorish maiden, on her betrothal, undergoes a regu- lar course of fattening, which is continuously carried on till her marriage, and which is conducted on the same principle FIB that on which our farmers fatten fowls. While undergoing the process, she sits all day in a dimly- lighted room,and is stuffed incessantly with enseupoo, a preparation of
i flour, which s the national dish of Morocco, in addition to which she drinks copiously of water. While undergoing this regimen she is dressed lightly, and in order to prevent any exertion or exercise on her part, she wears a gigantic pair of silver anklets, of great weight, the presence of which renders rest more desirable than the slightest locomotion. This process continues for some time, and the indolence of the mind being added to that of the body, she is sure, ere long, to arrive at the orthodox amplitude."
The least interesting part of Mrs. Murray's volumes is that re- lating to Spain ; fortunately, it is also the shortest. The most notable thing we find in it is the remark which one Spanish lady made of another that she was " una muger mas mala quo hay en el mundo ; en fin una Ana Bolena "—the worst woman in the world.; in fact an Anna Boleyn. The Catholic compatriots of Queen Catherine to this day regard her heretic rival as the high- est type of human depravity ; and to this day the British Admiral Drake is the Old Bogy, whose name the matrons of the Canary Islands invoke to quiet naughty children. " Aqui vien Draque " they cry : Here comes Drake I The author's descrip- tions of? the Canary Islands, their magnificent scenery, and the manners and customs of their light-hearted people, are very en- gaging. We extract two passages descriptive of popular out-door amusements. The first is a favourite dance of Teneriffe.
"Before one of the principal houses I observed a cuadrillo, a party of eight or ten young men, all habited in the showy old costume of the island, with a number of gay parti-coloured ribbons flaunting from their hats- One of them sustained a long pole, about twelve feet high, to the summit of which several silk ribbons were attached, their number being exactly equal to that of the dancers who were to join in that exhilarating and ever-wel- come exercise around it. Each ribbon also was about twelve or eighteen feet long, the lower half, next the dancer, being rolled up into a ball, one of which was appropriated to each of the votaries of the gay and sprightly art. All the dancers first forming a circle at a short distance round the pole and its bearer, the musicians who accompany them having commenced to play rather slowly, each one facing two parties alternately, they then all began to move in opposite directions, keeping time to the cadence of the musk, and, when they met, turning round each other, thereby entwining the up- per part of the ribbon they carry in their hands. They do the same with each succeeding partner they face in their progress, repeating these move- ments in six successive rounds, constantly widening the circles as they in- creasing the ribbon to slip off the ball in their hands, the music gradually in- creasing in vivacity until they get to the end of their tether, by which time the ribbons have been wrought up into a regular open net-work of various colours. A momentary pause ensues at this point. On again commencing, each dancer reverses his position, and, with the same precision as before, moves in the direction exactly opposite to his former one undoing, at each encounter with his partners, the confused mesh he had previously woven, and gathering, as he proceeds, the slack ribbon in his hand, until, arriving at the place from which the start was first made, each dancer again occupies his original place. The pole, with its pendent streamers, is then lowered, the dance concludes, and the party proceed to repeat it before the inmates of some other favoured dwelling. When this dance is well-performed, and. correct time is kept, as it generally is, it has a very lively effect. Sometimes women mingle in the dance ; and, when this is the case, the figure is more complicated, and the steps more difficult and elaborate. Long and careful drilling is required before it can be performed with the degree of excellence expected and required. It is generally, however, well and skilfully exe- cuted, as none but those who are familiar with its movements ever think of attempting it."
The companion picture is an extraordinary feast of lanterns. "The people of the island have no national music, nor have they any pre- dilection for a particular instrument of any kind. A tambourine, rude pipes made of cane, and a guitar, form their principlal resource on the occasion of festivals, or other joyous occasions. There are, however, many amusements peculiar to the island, of which the Pandorga is one of the most novel. It consists of an illuminated procession, by night, through the principal streetsof the town in which it takes place. When it is well done, as it, sometimes is, by two hundred or more persons' and the occasion is favoured by a bright and moonless sky, it forms a very brilliant and animated sight. The pro- cession is composed of as many individuals as are inclined to take part in it, all uniformly dressed in white trowsers and shirts, the latter, contrary to their usual position, hanging outside the other habiliments. The greater number carry white paper lanterns' with lighted candles, on their heads, and attaching themselves at equal distances to long ropes, form two lines, which marching, one on each side of the street, preserve the space in the centre free from the intrusion of the spectators. The middle space in the meantime, is occupied by those who, in similar white dresses, bear immense figures, made of white paper over a framework of cane, representing grim
giants as high as the housetops. Besides i these, there are figures, equall ts y
large, of all other imaginable kinds of objects nature,—sun, moon and stars, camels, donkeys, geese, and ducks, in short, a whole Noah's ark turned out, all lighted from the interior, and all marching at a wonderful quick rate down the street, each one carried by the number of persons proportioned to the magnitude and weight of the burden. A hole in the back of the figure admits the entrance of the bearer, and in the case of the figures re- presenting animals, a white stuffed leg, hanging down on each side from the waist, allows him to use his own in performing the sundry caprioles and curvettings he may think most suitable to the nature of his charger, when it is once lighted up, so that the crowd may be witnesses of his agility. He also carries a lantern helmet, or cap, on his head, and in his hand a long wand, that serves him for a lance, whenever a grand joust between the equestrian or asinine party takes place, at some spot where the procession halt for the purpose, or for the peformance of a cottifion, for a band of music always accompanies it in its progress through the several streets. Accidents sometimes will happen on these occasions, notwithstanding all the care that is taken to guard against them, the articles which are used being so liable to take fire. If the illuminating materials within should not be securely fixed, or steadily carried, or if they should be accidentally displaced in some rude shock of arms, an unexpected flare-up will in all probability be the conse- quence. One of the bodies of the solar system, slowly pursuing its mea- sured path, may thus be transformed into a blazing comet, either to be at- tracted into another sphere or to be extinguished altogether. But the illu- minated materials are of so slight a nature that when such an unfortunate contretemps does happen, the rising conflagration is in general very speedily extinguished, the only inconvenience arising from it being the exhibition of the extraordinary anatomical configuration of what is meant tepees for a horse, or the revelation of the internal constitution of the sun and moon, or the chemistry of the stars.
"On some occasions this peculiar procession presents a very remarkable and romantic appearance. As the general surface of the country is preci- pitous, the streets of many of the towns have rapid declivities and ascents, in pegging along which the ever-moving lights of the Pandorga have a very striking appearance, much more so than they would have if constantly seen only from the same level. It is one great advantage of this spectacle that the quiet and orderly demeanour of the crowd allows the sight to be enjoyed without alarm for the security of one's person or pockets."
If English tourists, shut out from Italy, are tempted by Mrs. Mnrray's alluring sketches to fly off' in a body to the Canaries, she does not leave them without warning of the sanguinary tor- mentors they will have to encounter. If, as the Syrians allege, the king of the fleas keeps his court in Tabaryeh, the most blood- thirsty republic of that race is established in Laguna. "The fleas there are said to be so famous for their size, strength, and activity, that they are regarded with universal interest, and incidents re- lating to them are introduced even into the love-songs of the country, ac- eompanied, in lieu of castanets, with expressive snappings of the fingers. Such a verse, for instance, as the following, is popular among the lower claims, and is intended to give a zest to the monotony of love-making.
'Last night I passed your window, And I saw you catching. fleas. Surely you might have said to me, "Come and catch some, if you please.""
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