LIFE IN MOROCCO

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2045, 24 January 1889, Page 2

LIFE IN MOROCCO

Mnl*y Hassan whose stile ofj health is now caustag co much anxiety throughout 1 th» couotty (on acoonnc of there being no direct successor who could bold the power), is the fourteenth Sultan of the Allween Fidel! dynasty, and thlrty-fiftb lineal deeoendact of Alt, tbe Uaole and aen in-law of the Prophet. Hfa father, Sldi Mohammed Abdurrahman, died m 1873 from the results of an acoldent. and the closing »ot of his Ufe may be taken at typical of the benevolence of Shereeflan rale. Her Majesty the Queen had sent the Sultan as a gift a small steam Uudgq, which be had placed m a large marble tank, whioh is one of the chief orntmonts of the beautiful gardens of his Mawkish palace. One day when Sidi Mohammed, with two or three of bis favorite wlvob, was on board this boat, it suddenly caps' zad, A. soldier on daty In the gardens heard the screams of the women, and, rushing np, leapt into the water and aavtd the life of the Sultan's favorite, the Sultan himself having meanwhile scrambled ashore. An hour or two later the gallant soldier was summoned to the august presence. "You rescued my wife?' said the Sultan. Tho soldier beamed with suppressed loyalty, and bowed. "Did yon see h«r ?" The soldier, off his guard, replied, "Of course." The Sultan beckoned to an officer, marmured the simple words, " His bead," and fell back among his cushions. This was the reward given for a gallant act, not m the days when the Elfhellet-wabeyl was written, but In 1873, and within a distance of lEO miles of Qibraltar. Sldl Mohammed, it is satisfactory to relate, did not long survive this boating accident, from the cffeots of whioh he never recovered. He died on September 17, 1874. His son, Mnley Hassan, was proclaimed Sultan In his stead, and from that time to this has been engaged la establishing by the sword bis supremacy m the dominions of whioh he is nominally ruler,