ARAB RITES

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 207, 21 November 1927, Page 1

ARAB RITES

Funeral of Sultan STRANGE SCENES A PROSTRATE HOST By Cable.—Press Association. — Copyright. FEZ, Saturday. Reed. 9.5 a.m. RABAT, Sunday. The new Sultan of Morocco, whose age is 18, takes the name of Moulay Mohammed ben Yussef, and will resign under a Council of Regency. At the funeral of the late Sultan, Mulay Yussuf, the crowds kneeling in the tortuous streets of the city, chanting religious hymns, rendered the scene most picturesque. The people surrounded the palace, which was guarded by troops all night, while inside the late ruler’s three brothers squatted in Eastern fashion around the body, now and again prostrating themselves with arms outstretched and chins touching the marble floor. When the French Resident-General, M. Jules Steeg, arrived, the Moroccan National Anthem was played. Viziers, Sheiks, Kaids and Arabs of all stations in life prostrated themselves in a touching gesture of grief, as the body, wrapped in fine wool and covered with a richly-embroidered shroud, was carried on a yellow stretcher, o’-er which was a cover draped like a Moorish mausoleum. When the cortege reached the centre of the courtyard the body was removed from the stretcher to the ground, and the troops marched past the body. While the palace servants chanted prayers, the body was carried to the Mosque of Mulay Abdulla, into which only Moslems are admitted. Moulay Mohammed, the late Sultan’s son, who is 14, has been proclaimed as his successor.—A. and N.Z.