FEVER. See MEDICINE.
FEZ, or Fits, the capital of the ancient kingdom of that name in Western Barbary, was founded about the 185th year of the Hegira (A. D. 786,) by Idris, a descendent of Maho met, who had fled from Medina to avoid the persecution of the Caliph Abd-Allah. It is situated on gently rising grounds at the bottom of a valley, watered by the river Rasalema; but the centre of the town lies very low, and in the winter season is wet and dirty, and at all times rather unhealthy. It consists of two divisions, the new town, called Fez Jedide, and the Old Fez el &lee. The former was founded about the end of the 13th century, when the kingdom of Fez was united with Morocco under the sovereigns of the Marin dynasty. It is a well built town, in an elevated and healthy situation, surrounded by a double wall, and contains the citidel where the governor has his residence, a large palace, a magnificent mosque, and the greater part of the machinery employed by the differ ent trades. Its gardens are particularly delightful, abound ing in all sorts of delicious fruits and odoriferous flowers. Old Fez has been highly celebrated for its ancient splen dour; and is said to have contained 62 market places. 86 public fountains, 200 streets, 600 mosques, and 200 bridges over canals and branches of the river. Though now great ly reduced, it is still the most celebrated city in West Bar bary; and though less extensive than the metropolis of Alorocco,it is full of finer houses, and contains a greater num ber of inhabitants. The houses hould xcious and lofty; and have flat roofs, ingeniously workt... in wood, and covered with terrace. There the inhabitants recline upon their car pets in summer, to enjoy the cool breeze of the evening ; And a small turret containing one or two rooms, is erected fur the females of the family. The portals are supported by pillars of brick, covered with plaster; and in the centre of each house, is an open square surrounded by a gal lery, which communicates with the stair-case, and into which the doors of the different apartments open. These doors are wide and lofty, made of curiously carved wood, painted with vations colours; and the beams of the tool's are also whimsically and gaily painted in the Ara besque style. Every house is supplied with water from the river, which enters the town by covered channels; and the principal dwellings have private baths and cisterns. A bath is attached to every mosque, fur religious ablu tions, and there arc public baths in various parts of the town to which the people resort, the men at one hour, and the women at another. There is a great number of mosques, sanctuaries, and other public buildings; and about fifty of these arc very sumptuous edifices, ornamented with a kind of marble procured in the Atlas mountains, and unknown in the countries of Europe. A few professors and students
are maintained in the mosques, and the rich Moors send their children thither for their education; but their stu dies are chiefly confined to the explanation of the Koran, and the principal advantage is the purity of the Arabic spoken in the city. The mosque, called Carubin, is one of the most ancient and magnificent edifices in the empire of Morocco, and perhaps in all Africa; but has not been found to correspond with the glowing description by Leo Africanus. There are a very few of those hospitals men tioned by early writers, where there is indeed no physi cians in attendance, but where the poor are supplied with food, and the sick are attended by women. Among these is a mad-house, where the lunatics are chained down in apartments, which are disgustingly filthy, and treated in a very harsh manner. The caravanseras or inns, are very numerous, amounting nearly to 200. They are three sto ries high, and contain from 50 to 100 apartments, each of Ivhich is provided with a mat and a water cock. The tra veller pays so much a day for his room, but brings his own bedding, and purchases and dresses his own provisions. Each trade and article of merchandize has its separate de partment; and there is a large square place divided into twelve wards, which are filled chiefly with silk, cloth and linen shops, provided with sixty criers or itinerant auc tioneers, who go about with the different pieces in their hands, crying, " who bids more i" and sell the lot to the highest bidder. The inhabitants of Fez rear a great deal of poultry, which they keep in cages to prevent them run ning about the house. No animals are permitted to be slaughtered in the city, but are killed at a distance near to the river ; and, after the price has been fixed by the offi cer, who superintends the price of provisions, is sent to The shops in the town. There are many corn mills in the city, where the poorer sort buy the flour in small quanti ties, and where the richer inhabitants send their own Corn to be ground. The population of the old and new towns is estimated at 330,000; and the people, though more po lished than the other Moors, are remarkable for their bi gotted spirit. " If a Christian," says Jackson, " were there to exclaim, Allah k'beer, 'God is great,' he would be in vited immediately to add to it, and Mohammed is his phet,' Which, if he were inadvertently to utter before wit nesses, he would be irretrievably made a Mohammedan, and circumcised accordingly." They were in former times still more infamous, on account of their licentious manners; and Mill elegy was even encouraged by the government as a sour of revenue : but at present the state of morals is not worse than in the other cities of the empire.