[49b] “Viva la gallina con su pepita.”
[50] “Outpost of Progress,” Cosmopolis, June, 1897. Story of an outpost of Progress told without heroics and without spread-eagleism, and true to life; therefore unpopular, if indeed, like most other artistic things it has not passed like a “ship in the night.”
[52] The Argan Tree, the Elcedendron Argan of some and the Argania Sideroxylon of other commentators, for botanists like doctors often disagree, seems to belong to the family of the Sapotaceæ. Its habitat is very limited, being apparently confined to the sandy district between Mogador and Saffi, in which it forms a dense wood stretching for forty miles. In habit it resembles an Acacia, being thorny, twisted in trunk and limbs, and able to survive the longest droughts without apparent suffering. It produces a nut about the size of an olive, from which an oil is extracted and used in cooking by the Moors. It is unpalatable to those Europeans who have never eaten a Turkey Buzzard.
[53] Gualichu is the god (or devil) of the Pampa Indians. At any rate, he is the spirit they propitiate by tying rags, cigars, pieces of hide, tin cups—or anything they may have useless enough to be offered to a deity—to its branches. The tree which I take to be a Chañar (Gurliaca Decorticans), though others, perhaps wiser than myself, say it is a Tala, stands on a little eminence, and is the only tree for leagues. Darwin remarked it and camped close by it, and it is known all over the South Pampa from Tandil to Patagones.
[55] Agadhir Ighir (Ighir means a fort in Shillah) was once held by the Spaniards, and called Santa Cruz. It is situated on a slight eminence near Cape Gher, has a tolerable port and is the natural outlet for the trade of the Sus, but it is closed to trade by order of the Sultan, and the merchants in Mogador do all they can to keep it closed, as they themselves depend much on trade with the same province. In the last century Agadhir had a flourishing trade with Europe, but the closing of the port killed the place, and there are now not above a thousand inhabitants. Amongst these there are a good many Jews, and it is reported that amongst these Jewish families there are to be found the handsomest women in Morocco. One regrets that there is no trade with Europe, on account of these daughters of Israel.
[56a] Rumi, Roman, is the polite word for a Christian. N’zrani or Nazarene is half-contemptuous.
[56b] Oulad el Haram.
[57] Ha-ha is the name of the province in which Mogador is situated; it is also the name of the tribe.
[61a] Suddra is the Zizyphus Lotus of botanists. It is extremely thorny, and is much used by the Arabs to make the enclosures known as “Zerebas” round their houses; when dry it takes a curious grey-blue tinge, very effective in certain lights. It is of this plant, I think, that the Soudanese make the temporary “Zerebas” round their camps, which on occasions have given so much trouble to our troops.
[61b] Selham is the hooded cloak worn as an outer garment; it is made of blue cloth or white wool. It is the “burnouse” of Algeria.