There is not, perhaps, a finer climate in the world than that of Suse, generally, if we except the disagreable season of the hot winds. It is said, however, and it is a phenomenon, that at Akka rain never falls; it is extremely hot there in the months of June, July, and August; about the beginning of September the (Shume) hot wind from Sahara blows with violence during three, seven, fourteen, or twenty-one days.[30] One year, however, whilst I resided at (Agadeer) Santa Cruz, it blew twenty-eight days; but this was an extraordinary instance.[31] The heat is so extreme during the prevalence of the Shume, that it is not possible to walk out; the ground burns the feet; and the terraced roofs of the houses are frequently peeled off by the parching heat of the wind, which resembles that which proceeds from the mouth of an oven: at this time clothes are oppressive. These violent winds introduce the rainy season.
The (Lukseb) sugar-cane grows spontaneously about Terodant. Cotton, indigo, gum, and various kinds of medicinal herbs are produced here. The stick liquorice is so abundant that it is called (Ark Suse) the root of Suse. The olive plantations in different parts of Suse are extensive, and extremely productive; about Ras-el-Wed and Terodant a traveller may proceed two days through these plantations, which form an uninterrupted shade impenetrable to the rays of the sun; the same may be said of the plantations of the almond, which also abound in this province. Of corn they sow sufficient only for their own annual consumption; and although the whole country might be made one continued vineyard, yet they plant but few vines; for wine being prohibited, they require no more grapes than they can consume themselves, or dispose of in the natural state. The Jews, however, make a little wine and brandy from the grape, as well as from the raisin. The date, which here begins to produce a luxurious fruit, is found in perfection on the confines of the Desert in Lower Suse. At Akka and Tatta the palm or date-tree is very small, but extremely productive; and although the fruit be not made an article of trade, as at Tafilelt, it is exquisitely flavoured, and possesses various qualities. The most esteemed kind of date is the Butube, the next is the Buskrie.
Suse produces more almonds and oil of olives than all the other provinces collectively. (Gum Amarad) a red gum partaking of the intermediate quality between the (tolh gum) gum arabic and the Aurwar, or Alk Soudan Senegal gum, is first found in this province. Wax is produced in great abundance; also gum euphorbium, gum sandrac, wild thyme, worm-seed, orriss root, orchillo weed, and coloquinth. Antimony, salt-petre of a superior quality, copper, and silver, are found here; the two latter in abundance about Elala, and in Shtuka.
DRAHA AND TAFILELT.
Draha and Tafilelt produce a superior breed of goats, and a great abundance of dates: the countries situated near the banks of the rivers of Draha and Tafilelt have several plantations of Indian corn, rice, and indigo. There are upwards of thirty sorts of dates in this part of Bled-el-jerrêde;[32] the best and most esteemed is that called Butube, which is seldom brought to Europe, as it will not keep so long as the Admoh date, the kind imported into England, but considered by the natives of Tafilelt so inferior, that it is given only to the cattle; it is of a very indigestive quality: when a Filelly[33] Arab has eaten too many dates, and finds them oppressive, he has recourse to dried fish, which, it is said, counteracts their ill effects. This fruit forms the principal food of the inhabitants of Bled-el-jerrêde, of which Tafilelt is a part; the produce of one plantation near the imperial palace[34] at Tafilelt sold some few years past for five thousand dollars, although they are so abundant there that a camel load, or three quintals, is sold for two dollars. The face of the country from the Ruins of Pharoah to the palace of Tafilelt is as follows:
Tafilelt is eight (erhellat[35] de lowd) days journey on horseback from the Ruins of Pharoah; proceeding eastward from these ruins, the traveller immediately ascends the lofty Atlas, and on the third day, about sun-set, reaches the plains on the other side; the remaining five days journey is through a wide extended plain totally destitute of vegetation, and on which rain never falls; the soil is a whitish clay, impregnated with salt, which when moistened resembles soap. A river, which rises in the Atlas, passes through this vast plain from the south-west to the north-east; at Tafilelt it is described to be as wide as the Morbeya at Azamor in West Barbary, that is, about the width of the Thames at Putney; the water of this river receives a brackish taste, by passing through the saline plains: after running a course of fifteen erhellat,[36] or four hundred and fifty miles, it is absorbed in the desert of Angad. It has several (l’uksebbat) castles of terrace wall on its banks, inhabited by the (Sherreefs) princes of the reigning family of Marocco. Latterly wheat and barley have been cultivated near the river and the castles. The food of the inhabitants, who are Arabs, consists, for the most part (as already observed), in dates; their principal meal is after sun-set, the heat being so intolerable as not to suffer them to eat any thing substantial while the sun is above the horizon.
There is another river, inferior to the one before mentioned, which rises in the plains north of Tafilelt, and flowing in a southerly direction, is absorbed in the great desert, of Sahara: the water of this river is so very brackish, as to be unfit for culinary purposes; it is of a colour similar to chalk and water, but if left to stand in a vessel during the night it becomes clear by the morning, though it is still too salt to drink. These extensive plains abound every where in water, which is found at the depth of two cubits,[37] but so brackish as to be palatable only to those who have been long accustomed to the use of it.
The people have among themselves a strict sense of honour; a robbery has scarcely been known in the memory of the oldest man, though they use no locks or bars. Commercial transactions being for the most part in the way of barter or exchange, they need but little specie: gold dust is the circulating medium in all transactions of magnitude. They live in the simple patriarchal manner of the Arabs, differing from them only in having walled habitations, which are invariably near the river.
It is intensely hot here, during a great part of the year, the (Shume) wind from Sahara blowing tempestuously in July, August, and September, carrying with it particles of earth and sand, which are very pernicious to the eyes, and produce ophthalmia.
A considerable trade is carried on from this place to Timbuctoo, Houssa, and Jinnie, south of Sahara, and to Marocco, Fas, Suse, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli. Indigo abounds here, but from the indolence of the cultivators it is of an inferior quality. There are mines of antimony and lead ore: the Elkahol Filelly,[38] so much used by the Arabs and African women to give a softness to the eyes, and to blacken the eye-brows, is the produce of this country. The common dress of the inhabitants consists of a loose shirt of blue cotton, with a shawl or belt round the waist.