The weather during the last two days had been gradually changing from the condition of ‘set fair’ to which we had been used since our arrival in Marocco. The barometer had fallen progressively fully five millimetres, and the clouds had changed from their ordinary condition of light, separate fleecy masses gathered round the higher ridges during the day to a dense canopy stretching continuously over the visible portion of the sky. If choice had been left to us we should not have selected this morning for our excursion; but, after overcoming so many difficulties, there was no thought of letting weather stand in our way, and we could only resolve to make the best of it whatever it might be. On this occasion we had rather more time to spare than two days before, and we added a good deal to our previous collections in the valley, though less than we could have done if the precious morning hours had not been wasted in controversy.
We had many an occasion for admiring the sureness of foot of the mules and horses in this country; but we also noticed that, like their fellows elsewhere, they have some peculiarities of disposition that a traveller should take note of. Maw’s mule, hitherto remarkably steady, had a trick of keeping to the outer verge of the path in steep places, and when his head was turned inward his hind foot would go over the edge. After recovering himself once or twice, he at last slipped completely. Maw saved himself in good time, while the animal rolled down the steep slope towards the torrent. In many places this is so precipitous that the beast must have been killed; as it was, he was stopped by some thorny bushes, and was with some trouble got back to the track, a sadder and a wiser mule for the rest of that day at least. It is well known that several fatal accidents in the Alps have occurred in places of the same character from interference with a mule, who should be left to take his own course. The now almost familiar road to Arround, with the ascent of the watercourse, seeming more objectionable each time that we passed it, was accomplished without further incident, and no other delays than those involved in plant-collecting. In six hours from Hasni we reached the village, whose inhabitants had all turned out of doors to gaze on the Christian strangers who, from some inscrutable motive, had come a second time to their secluded valley, and now seemed resolved to fix their abode there.
A house, the best in the village we were told, had been prepared for us by the simple process of turning out its inmates, and to this we were at once conducted. On the ground floor were two quite dark and low cellars or
HOUSES AT ARROUND.
dens, seemingly filthy, but which we were not inclined to explore. Ascending by some rickety steps, we reached the upper floor, the larger part of which was occupied by a rude open verandah, at each end of which was a little closet about seven feet square, one of which was occupied by Maw, while the other was used as a kitchen, the open verandah serving as our sitting-room, and as night quarters for Hooker and Ball. As usual in the Shelluh houses, the doors were only about four feet, and the rooms and verandah not over five feet high, making it inconvenient for us to move about. In most of the houses there are underground cellars to which the inhabitants retire in winter, as is the custom in Armenia and in some of the higher valleys of the French Alps.
We scarcely had been settled in the house when several applicants for medical advice presented themselves; but these were disposed of soon enough to leave some remaining daylight, which was devoted to a stroll up the left, or SE. branch of the upper valley. The flat ground was parcelled into small fields divided by stone dykes, and intersected by slender irrigation channels. The fields seemed to be carefully tilled, rye, barley, and beans being the only crop now above ground. Maize is sown in the latter part of May and ripens in the course of six weeks. We saw with surprise a few vines in this inclement spot, and also Madder (Rubia tinctorum) seemingly wild, but doubtless originally introduced for native use.
The mountains, as far as we could see them, looked forbidding, and the scene this evening was even more sombre than it had been two days before. Leaden clouds roofed the valley across, and completely hid the higher ridges; slight gusts of chilling wind blew at intervals, and all the tokens of impending bad weather warned us not to indulge in cheerful anticipations for the morrow. On this occasion we had limited our escort to two soldiers, whose presence showed that we were under the shadow of imperial protection, but who would doubtless have been utterly useless if the natives had harboured hostile designs. Of such, however, there was not the slightest indication. The demeanour of the people was respectful and friendly, rather than the reverse. Our every movement was watched, but from a distance, and there was none of the intrusive curiosity so often complained of by travellers among semi-barbarous people. The men all habitually wear the hooded cloak, of dark-coloured goat’s hair, somewhat looser than the Moorish jellabia, which appears to be peculiar to the tribes of the Great Atlas. Whether the slight variations in the triangular patch of coloured stuff with rude embroidery that is inserted at the back, serves to distinguish the men of one tribe from another, we failed to ascertain. The women, who make but a faint show of concealing half the face when approaching strangers, seemed to be rather better favoured than those we had seen in the lower valley. They partly shave the head, and twine the remaining hair into two broad plaits, bringing these forward crosswise over the forehead.
With a view to possible difficulties arising with the sheik, we had taken Abraham with us, leaving the camp at Hasni for twenty-four hours in charge of Crump, Hooker’s English attendant; but it was arranged that the former was to return on the following morning, much to his own satisfaction, as the cold and discomfort of this Alpine village seemed to make both him and the Marocco soldiers perfectly miserable.
Our evening meal was enlivened by one of some precious bottles of generous wine that Maw had added to our stores, reserved for special occasions, such as the present. After this we should gladly have gone to sleep, if stern duty had not forbidden any such luxury. The minimum of evening work for the travelling botanist is to lay out between dry paper the contents of his boxes and portfolios filled during the day. On this occasion the operation was more troublesome than usual, as we struggled to screen our single flickering candle from the night wind in the least exposed corner of the verandah, and midnight had come and gone before we stretched our mattresses on the earthen floor, first duly dusted with insect powder, and sought rest. In our exposed position the cold was very sensible through the night, though the thermometer did not fall below 45° Fahr.