Armed Moroccan women

[Liam]

As testament to how forward thinking Morocco is, please see photo below of the only all-women Fantasia team. Fantasia is a large gathering where tents are erected, carpets laid about, mint tea is served, and men (and now women!) on horseback ride in a line towards the tents and at a predetermined point all fire their long Snaphaunce muskets into the air. The applause and cheers that follows the firing can be raukus, or subdued, depending on how fast they rode, how they stayed in line, and finally how they all fired together. I lived there as a kid and never felt a sense of danger except the time a coup d'etat was attempted against the king. The current king of Morocco is Mohammed VI and he played American baseball on my brother's team from the American school. The guards at various tourist sites around Morocco tend to carry FN Mausers and some extremely ornate muskets.

http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u23/Liam_068/Kheohamephoto_women.jpg

[Bill]

Looks ok to me. Let's see more.

[Liam]

Here's an ornate Mauser and a mounted guard. They were usually posted outside the King;s residences and mosques.

http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u23/Liam_068/Morocco.jpg

http://i164.photobucket.com/albums/u23/Liam_068/Morocco56.jpg

[Dave Waits]

Very attractive young riders. Always found such traditions fascinating.

[jon_norstog]

Liam,

very cool. My grandmother was curator of the Norwegian-American Historical Museum in Decorah IA. When we were kids our parents would drop us off at her spooky old museum. It was a real grab bag of stuff that was only remotely connected to the history of Norwegians in America. On the 3rd floor she had a whole wall of guns that were collected by some Norwegian cat. She had about 20 N. African muskets with silver-mounted stocks, 20 or more barrel bands and engraved miguelet or snaphaunce locks.

She had a half dozen mint volcanic rifles and a matched pair of volcanic pistols, too. After she died, the museum board hired a professional curator who got rid of all the kicky stuff. And in the confusion, someone walked in and made off with most of the guns.

jn

[Johnny P]

The two muskets on the left side of the picture look like standard percussion hammer muskets converted to the style of the early guns.

[DAVEB47]

Liam,

very cool. My grandmother was curator of the Norwegian-American Historical Museum in Decorah IA. When we were kids our parents would drop us off at her spooky old museum. It was a real grab bag of stuff that was only remotely connected to the history of Norwegians in America. On the 3rd floor she had a whole wall of guns that were collected by some Norwegian cat. She had about 20 N. African muskets with silver-mounted stocks, 20 or more barrel bands and engraved miguelet or snaphaunce locks.

She had a half dozen mint volcanic rifles and a matched pair of volcanic pistols, too. After she died, the museum board hired a professional curator who got rid of all the kicky stuff. And in the confusion, someone walked in and made off with most of the guns.

jn

I was in Decorah on Monday, as it is about 90 miles from my house, and a place I love to visit. I didn't go to the museum, but I have in years past and it is a neat place.

[jon_norstog]

Dave,

Decorah is a sweet town. They have a park with a trail running a couple miles along the bluff, all built by CCC boys in the '30s. There's some pretty good trout fishing in the spring-fed creeks around there.

I haven't been back in years .. i imagine it hasn't changed much, though. I think a bunch of my grandfather's stuff, including his priniting press, is still in the museum collection.

later!

jn