Wit and wisdom in Morocco

A work dealing with Morocco by Professor Westermarck dedicated to Sir James Frazer should be sure of a favourable reception, though it may be fancied that its subject evokes far less interest in this country than in France, which devotes more than one journal to the institutions of her Protectorate, and can show a whole library of monographs, many of them highly expert, dealing with the country. The Arabs have a saying likulli maqamin magalun "every occasion has its formula," and the Professor, who has taken the trouble to collect 2013 of such formula, has divided them into subjects, and in each case explained the occasion to which it is suitable. He has printed them in Arabic script and in elaborate transliteration, and pre-fixed a valuable introduction, in which the characteristics of the proverbial style are acutely analysed. His work is there-fore without question an important addition to the literature of proverbs, to that of the Arabic vernaculars, and to that of "folklore " in the literal sense of the word. -- from (June 16, 2014).