[128] Casa de Almenas (a house with battlements) is in rural Spain a euphuism for a gentleman’s house. I fancy, like the torch extinguishers in the regions about Berkeley Square, that these almenas occasionally rise in a single night in houses where owners in the past have neglected to be legally constituted and known as gentlemen.
[132] I fear though they would have to be descended from St. Peter, who carried a wife about with him, as his great rival somewhat tartly remarks. At any rate, even the Ebioim have never ventured to cast any doubt on St. Paul’s private character. This is consolatory when one recalls the case of Burns and other poets, including King David.
[133] Tisi = hill, in Schluoch. Nemiri means “stones.”
[134] N’Zala is a sort of post-house established by the Government. At the N’Zala we contemplated passing there was a sort of custom-house put up to swindle travellers, as is usual in all well-governed countries.
[141] A “maidan” is an open space on which to practise horsemanship, and one is generally to be found before the gate or near to the walls of every castle or Sheikh’s house throughout Morocco.
[146] Couscousou, or cuscus as it is often called in Morocco, is something like the American hominy. It is made of wheat pounded and grated, and then steamed, so that the result is a very dry porridge. You eat it with your hands, and the result is rather messy to the novice. Sometimes mutton and pieces of pumpkin are served up on the top of the cuscus, and on grand occasions it is made with sugar and milk, and flavoured with cinnamon.
[148] The Arabic name of the tribe is Kintafah. This in Shillah becomes Takinteft, following the Shillah etymology (see Appendix).
[149a] No hay hombre cuerdo á caballo (“There is no sane man on horseback”), says the proverb.
[149b] A cousin of the celebrated Abd-el-Kader, one Haj Ali Bu Taleb, was employed by them to conciliate the natives. But though a man of ability and held a saint amongst the Arabs, he was unsuccessful.
[152] Azib is a country house or farm.