240
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. ix. MARCH 22, 1902.
ferule of Dr. Busby. This is interesting as showing
that Prior had no objection, apparently, to the
doctor's severity. A list of alumni might make
another appendix with advantage. There are
already sections at the end on the Latin Play, the
Deans of Westminster, numbers of the school at
different periods, head masters and present house
masters. The illustrations give an excellent idea
of the various school buildings. There are also
engravings of Dr. Rutherford and the present head
master, Dr. Gow, for whom we wish a repetition
of the success he had at Nottingham. The volume
is appropriately clad in the pink associated with
Westminster sports.
The Moors. By Budgett Meakin. (Sonnenschein
&Co.)
THIS is the concluding volume of Mr. Budgett Meakin's Moorish trilogy, the first and second volumes in which were respectively ' The Moorish Empire' and 'The Land of the Moors.' Broadly speaking, we may say that the first volume was political, the second physical, whilst the third is mainly ethnological. The three represent an im- portant addition to the literature dealing with little-known Morocco : probably the most important addition of modern times in the English language. They represent a vast amount of painstaking labour and research, backed by a knowledge of the main highways of Morocco superior to that of most writers on the subject, and only to be obtained by prolonged residence in the country. Indeed, there are features in Mr. Meakin's work which suggest that he must be possessed of that intimacy with the Moors and with Morocco which comes only to him who is familiar with both in childhood or, at all events, in very early youth. Regarded from the purely literary standpoint, the trilogy calls for little comment. If Mr. Meakin's writing lacks dis- tinctionand one is bound to admit that it does it is at least free from glaring blemishes. It also lacks altogether the distinction and light which are due to imaginative force and artistic insight. It is, by the same token, devoid of the superficiality which so often mars impressionistic work ; and, upon the whole, the three volumes may be said to disarm criticism to some extent by reason of the evidence they offer upon every page of perseverance, patience, and rigid fidelity to mathematical truth. These are qualities which demand and deserve cordial recognition and respect.
Considered separately, these three volumes may be said to have been presented to the public in the order of their merit, the weightiest and best coming first. The present volume is considerably less comprehensive and exhaustive than either 'of its predecessors, and that is probably due to the fact that the study of the human animal makes greater demands upon the imagination, and upon intuitive and sympathetic understanding, than does the study either of empires or the physical features of a country. Research, the only sound basis of exact knowledge, will not carry its most devoted disciple all the way into the soul of a people. Statistics and the study of every available authority made really exhaustive compilations of the first two volumes m this trilogy, and have given us as much as they could in this concluding volume They have not brought us any nearer to the heart of the people of El Maghrib, however. They have not V 8 * Se int | te glimpses which Mr. Harris succeeded m conveying once (see
his ' Tafilet '), and which, curiously enough, another
traveller, whose knowledge of the country cannot
approach that of either Mr. Meakin or Mr. Harris,
managed to give in his ' Mogreb-el-acksa ' Mr.
R. B. Cunninghame Graham. None the less, for the
reader who would learn something of the manners
and customs of a people whose history is one long
romance, and whose country is at once the nearest
and the remotest point of the East, Mr. Meakin's
works, this last volume among them, may be un-
reservedly commended. To the student, also, who
requires exact and tabulated information conveyed
as tersely and lucidly as possible, 'The Moors' and
its two companion volumes should come as a real
treasure. One word as to Mr. Meakin's system of
transliteration, which he hopes may be accepted as
a standard of spelling. The care and labour that
have been expended upon it are obvious, but we
venture to think it a little cumbersome, and lacking
in some of the merits of the Royal Asiatic Society's
system, as simplified by Hunter, and used generally
in India. ; The Moors,' like the two volumes which
preceded it, is handsomely printed and gener-
ously illustrated. Such types as ' Moorish Snake
Charmers,' slave girls (who, "with any promise of
beauty, are carefully fattened," in accordance
with the Oriental love for adiposity), jugglers,
water-carriers, and other conventional specimens
drawn from the e very-day crowd of Morocco
market-places, are well exhibited ; while numerous
characteristic scenes are included which will
surprise the ordinary reader by reminding him of
the fact that within a day's journey from British
Gibraltar men and women, down to the veriest
details of their dress and manners, are living to-day
precisely the life which is so beautifully described
in the books of the Old Testament.
gxrtirrs to C0msp0n touts.
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