Journal of a tour in Marocco and the Great Atlas

by Joseph Dalton Hooker; John Ball

The evening was fine, but flashes of lightning were seen to the SE. after dark, and during the night fresh snow fell on the higher ridges, which looked brilliant on the early morning of April 11, but rapidly melted under the mid-day sun. We started rather late, about 8 A.M., and by 10.30 had returned to the site of our former camp in the broad bed of the stream below Achliz. Here our ill-humour was increased by a long and quite unnecessary delay. As a rule, a light luncheon was all that was consumed at our mid-day halt, the men being content with some fragments of the mona of the previous night. But our greedy soldiers had requisitioned a further mona, nominally on our behalf, from the adjoining village, and were determined not to move forward until it was supplied. When Hooker happened to surprise our Mogador Kaïd in the act of secreting a quantity of tea and sugar, the old fellow in self-defence began to narrate the misdeeds of his colleague, and so gave us a clearer notion than we before had of the sort of abuses that pervade the whole fabric of Moorish administration. It is true that one is told that the value of goods requisitioned in this way by Government officers is allowed to the villages as payment on account of taxes; but the poor country people tell a different tale, and it is probable that any allowance made on this head is quite inadequate.

It was 2.30 P.M. when we were at last able to start, and, as we knew that there was still some distance to travel, we had but very little time for botanising during the afternoon ride. Our way lay for more than two hours along the base of the hills, whose forms were much of the pattern usually seen where a high mountain rises from a plain country. The ridges dividing the main valleys gradually diminish in height as they recede from the axis, and ultimately are weather-worn into eminences of a more or less conical form, which project to an unequal distance towards the plain.

Towards five o’clock we began to ascend to a low pass connecting a long projecting spur to the right with the main mass of the hills on our left. Up to this we had seen a good many scattered blocks of sandstone, but nowhere forming mounds. We now came on limestone— showing traces of fossils. The hills hereabouts were bare of trees, with a thick growth of palmetto, bushy Labiatæ, Helianthemum, and perennial grasses, except where, under tillage, they produce good crops of red-bearded wheat. From the first pass we descended rather steeply to cross a narrow torrent bed, and reascend to a second somewhat higher pass, reached at 6 P.M., which we found to be 3,590 feet (1,094·3 m.) above the sea, or just 700 feet above the river at the mouth of the Ourika valley. The country here appears to be fully peopled. We saw several villages, and one or two quadrangular buildings of larger size, probably the dwellings of local sheiks. We had during most of the way wide views over the plain of Marocco, and were able to distinguish the city itself, with the great tower of the Koutoubia and the extensive palm groves on its western side. Slight undulations of the ground are not perceptible when seen from above; but it was quite clear to us that nothing deserving to be called a hill breaks the uniformity of the gentle slope with which the plain subsides from the base of the Atlas to the region traversed by us on our road from Mogador.

The monotony of the march was diversified by another furious quarrel between the officers of our escort. Whatever may have been the pretext, the cause was doubtless the mutual ill blood arising from the disputes over their respective shares of the spoil obtained from the villagers. Not content with volleys of guttural abuse, and seemingly ferocious threats, they appeared intent on serious mischief, and proceeded to unpack their long guns. Luckily these were securely wrapped up in complicated covers of red cloth, and, before the combatants were ready for action, prudence once more restrained valour, and the storm passed away in sullen growlings and mutterings of future vengeance. It sometimes struck us that if there were such things as professional brigands in Marocco, we might have been robbed or murdered with perfect safety before one of the guns of our escort had been extracted from its case, and made ready for use.

Indignant, as we were, at the rapacity of our escort, we assured ourselves, when we came to know more of the country, that there is a great deal of human nature among the Moors, as there is amongst most of the people that travellers make acquaintance with, and that the conduct of the soldiers and their officers was pretty much what might be expected from any other men put in the same position. The pay of a captain in the regular army is equivalent to 4s. 2d. per month, and that of the men not nearly enough to support life, even allowing for the frugal habits of the people. It is only natural that when the opportunity is offered, along with the certainty of impunity, they should make the most of it, as they certainly do. In some places, as we afterwards learned, they were not satisfied with the large supplies that they requisitioned, but demanded and obtained money from the village authorities.

From the summit of the second pass, the track descends about 400 feet into a broad valley, well wooded with olive, carob, and other cultivated trees.

Soon after seven o’clock we reached a convenient spot on flat ground, beside a rapid stream, near a village called Tassilunt. The scenery here was very picturesque, although we had no view of the higher part of the chain. The nearer mountains were of a deep red colour—probably sandstone—contrasting finely with the rich green of trees and shrubs that covered most of the slopes. The floor of the valley here, as in most parts of the range that we visited, is chiefly devoted to olive cultivation, poor crops of grain being raised beneath the trees.

The sheik of the village soon presented himself, and before long an abundant mona was brought to the tent door, and laid, according to custom, at Hooker’s feet. Five large dishes of cooked meat and keskossou, and piles of wheaten cakes, were designed to stay or to whet the appetites of the party; while a sheep, twelve fowls, fifty eggs, and five pounds of butter formed a provision for their future wants. When it is remembered that nearly as much more cooked food was supplied in the morning, it may be imagined that the tax on the resources of a poor mountain village was not trifling.

We had now entered the district of Reraya, which is under the rule of El Graoui, represented by one or more deputies. The whole population, excepting some miserable-looking Jews, is Shelluh; but here, as everywhere among the Berebers, these are divided into tribes or clans, who are often at feud, and always jealous and suspicious of each other. There is generally a superior chief or sheik, having a wide, but ill-defined authority over the whole clan; but among those that recognise the Sultan’s paramount temporal as well as spiritual supremacy, this is subordinate to that of the Governor. In this part of the Great Atlas, the clans, as well as the districts named after them, preserve the Shelluh patronymic of Aït; but the Bereber tribes of the high ranges E. and SE. of Fez have generally adopted the Arabic Beni, as with the powerful tribes, Beni Mtir and Mghill. One of the many difficulties of the geographer in this country arises from the practice of naming each district from the tribe that inhabits it, and the fact that, either from compulsion, or a taste for migration, it is not uncommon for a tribe to remove from one valley to another. The next valley to that where we now were was called at this time Aït Mesan; but if the Aït Mesan should take possession of some neighbouring valley, or be driven out by a stronger tribe, the traveller who visits the country some years hence may find the Aït Mesan valley in quite another place from that which we have described.

Our chief anxiety now, was to ascertain that the promise held out, of penetrating to the inner recesses of the Great Atlas in the district of Reraya, was to be realised. We were told that in the next adjoining valley we should reach a place only two hours’ journey from the snow, and that the sheik of that valley had been summoned, and would arrive on the next morning. At the same time, whether from ignorance or a design to mislead us, El Hasbi’s language was decidedly vague and confused, and, after the experience of the last few days, there was no reason to feel the slightest confidence in his assurances. Hooker therefore decided on bringing matters to a point by informing El Hasbi that if any further difficulty was made, he should despatch a courier with letters for El Graoui and the Viceroy at Marocco, saying that the commander of our escort has failed to carry out the Sultan’s orders, and requesting that another should be sent in his place. As this was the last thing to suit El Hasbi’s book, he became profuse in assurances of devotion to our wishes, and for some days, at least, we had no reason to suspect him of further machinations to defeat our plans.