[86b] I offered him quinine, but he looked coldly at it as a man in the time of Molière might have disdained the futile drugs of the licensed practitioner knowing that he had orvietan at his command.
[88] The word Sherif is often rendered by Europeans, in Morocco, as Saint, they having most likely taken the word from the Spanish word Santon.
[90a] Ait corresponds to the Arab “Ibn” or “Ben,” and the Scotch “Mac.”
[90b] It was the Tuaregs who killed the French explorer, the Marquis de Mores, and they have killed many explorers of almost every European nation. From their habit of going veiled to protect themselves against the sun and dust in the desert, some have supposed that the mysterious “veiled men” referred to in the Spanish Chroniclers as having accompanied the Almohades in their invasion of Spain in 1146, were Tuaregs. The leader of the Almohades was Mohammed-ibn-Abdullah, King of Fez, or Morocco as some say, for the kingdoms were not joined in those days. In either case, he might have brought the Tuaregs. The word Almohade is said to mean Unitarian, a title of honour in lands where miscreants either reject or do not fear the doctrine of the Trinity.
[90c] Grüberg ’di Hemsõ. “Speechio Geographico e Statistico di Marocco,” page 72.
[91a] For list of Amzirght words collected at Gundaffi, see notes.
[91b] Mr. Walter Harris, in his Tafilet, says the word Shillah = noble, but he has probably been informed by a Berber. He also, after the fashion of most European travellers, “finds out immediately how infinitely superior they are (the Berbers) in morals and character to Arabs. Their every word and look speak of greater honesty and truth than one finds in a month amongst the Arabs” (“Tafilet,” p. 62). Certainly Mr. Harris has every right to speak, as few men know the mountaineers better than he does, and dressed in their clothes, his head shaved, and a string of camel’s hair bound round his forehead, bare feet and legs, and wrapped in a brown djellaba, he could pass anywhere for one of those moral and honest folk. I wish, though, that he had stated plainly what he understands by Shillah honesty and morality, for, as in theological discussions, the greatest difficulty is to define terms.
[92] He was born in Granada, and fled to Fez after the capture of Granada by the Catholic Kings. Being taken prisoner by Christian pirates, he was brought to Rome, received into favour by the Pope, was baptised, and died at Rome after translating his work on Africa into Italian.
[93] “Noble Shillah race” of modern travellers. “Moral and honest” folk of Mr. Harris, etc., etc.
[97] Estancia is the Argentine term used to denote a cattle farm. In Spain it is rarely or never used in such a sense, and the word Cortijo is the usual term for a farm.