Identifier: inmorocco00wharuoft (find matches)
Title: In Morocco
Year: 1920 (1920s)
Authors: Wharton, Edith, 1862-1937
Subjects: Morocco -- Description and travel
Publisher: New York Scribner
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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rtedveils, the illusion, from a little distance, is as com-plete as though they were the ladies in waiting ofthe Queen of Sheba; and that radiant afternoon atMoulay Idriss, above the vine-garlanded square,and against the background of piled-up terraces,their vivid groups were in such contrast to the usualgray assemblages of the East that the scene seemedlike a setting for some extravagantly staged ballet.For the same reason the spectacle unrolling itselfbelow us took on a blessed air of unreality. Anynormal person who has seen a dance of the Aissaouasand watched them swallow thorns and hot coals,slash themselves with knives, and roll on the floorin epilepsy must have privately longed, after thefirst excitement was over, to fly from the repulsivescene. The Hamadchas are much more savagethan Aissaouas, and carry much farther their dis-play of cataleptic anaesthesia; and, knowing this, Ihad wondered how long I should be able to standthe sight of what was going on below our terrace. (52 )
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2 ^ VOLUBILIS, MOULAY IDRISS AND MEKNEZ But the beauty of the setting redeemed the bestialhorror. In that unreal golden light the scene be-came merely symbolical: it was like one of thosestrange animal masks which the Middle Agesbrought down from antiquity by way of the satyr-plays of Greece, and of which the half-human pro-tagonists still grin and contort themselves amongthe Christian symbols of Gothic cathedrals. At one end of the square the musicians stood ona stone platform above the dancers. Like themusicians in a bas-relief they were flattened sideby side against a wall, the fife-players with liftedarms and inflated cheeks, the drummers poundingfrantically on long earthenware drums shaped likeenormous hour-glasses and painted in barbaricpatterns; and below, down the length of the mar-ket-place, the dance unrolled itself in a frenziedorder that would have filled with envy a Paris orLondon impresario. In its centre an inspired-looking creature whirledabout on his axis, the black r

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