The Moors of this miserable country are incessantly harassed by the Berbers, from whose habits of rapine they have every thing to fear, although they pay them a heavy tribute; and not one of them, whatever rank he may hold at home, dares travel without being thus accompanied. These roving people, not being themselves cultivators of the soil, are obliged frequently to go to el-Drah to purchase barley and dates for food, and not daring to attempt this without the convoy of the Berbers, they pay them an additional tribute by way of remuneration. These latter, well armed, are continually prowling about in the country of el-Harib, to obtain food from the Moors and even to carry off their cattle.
The inhabitants of this district are so poor that they can purchase only the cheapest provisions, principally such dates as, having fallen from the trees before they have become perfectly ripe, are carefully picked up by the owners, exposed to the sun to dry, and then put into leathern bags, where they become so extremely hard that very good teeth are requisite to eat them without pain. Upon these dates, which they pound in a wooden mortar, and a little cheni, the Moors of el-Harib subsist during the day; eating sangleh before evening only in very particular cases.
About eight or nine at night, they usually sup upon a couscous of barley generally steeped in warm water, in which they have boiled a handful of herbs gathered in the environ of their camp. They also breed some sheep, but when they kill one, which is very rarely done, they dry the meat and preserve it in leathern sacks, sometimes for six months. They have recourse to this reserve when they treat strangers, particularly the Berbers, to whom they are very attentive. As a mark of consideration, they spread before the tent for their repose a carpet as good as those which we use in Europe. The master, in honour of his guests, frequently eats with them from the same bowl, and, instead of offering them pure water, he adds to it camel’s milk, which in the rainy season is very abundant. On the arrival of the strangers, the dates and cheni are immediately set before them as a refreshment till the supper hour. Though the Moors of el-Harib receive the Berbers thus hospitably, yet in travelling through their country they are never treated even with a supper; in their journeys therefore, they are careful to carry their provision of dates and a little barley-meal, which they boil in water. The costume of the Berbers differs from that of the Moors only in a band of coloured stuff, which the former wrap round their heads in the form of a turban; they also wear ear-rings. They are all armed and mounted on fine horses, handsomely caparisoned, and they wear spurs, which are attached to a leather strap firmly fastened round the instep.
The Moors of el-Harib dress like those on the banks of the Senegal, except that over their coussabe they wear a linen wrapper manufactured in the country of el-Drah or Tafilet. They have only one wife, but like the Braknas change her frequently. They are all Musulmans, yet they do not addict themselves, like the marabouts, to the study of the Koran, being satisfied with knowing the first verse of it without learning to write; a marabout is, consequently, held in great consideration among them.
The Moors of el-Harib are generally detested by their neighbours; in el-Drah and Tafilet they are seldom called any thing but cafirs or infidels. In my life I never saw women so evil disposed and so dirty as those of this country: they do not veil themselves, like the women of Morocco, but expose a face disgustingly filthy; the smell that proceeds from them is most offensive. The inhabitants eat the camels which have died from fatigue, but not till they have drained off the blood; they keep some sheep and a few horses. El-Harib contains eleven tribes, the names of which, as I received them from an old inhabitant of the camp to which I belonged, are as follows: Oulad-Rossik, Oulad-Wébal, Oulad-Gouessim, Oulad-Foulh, Oulad-Ouraff, Oulad-Rouzinn, Oulad-Rahan, Oulad-Nasso, Oulad-Body, Oulad-Bonlaboi, Oulad-Sidi-Ayesha. One day’s journey west from our camp are situated the first tents of the Trajacants; at the distance of four in the same direction are the tribes of Oulad-Noun, who dwell near the village of Adrar, which must not be confounded with the country of el-Drah, a small district extending from east to West, and from north to south, between Morocco and el-Harib; five days’ journey west from the encampment of Sidi-Aly is the village of Sous; at fourteen days in the same direction that of Soueyrah; and at ten or eleven days from el-Harib, to the N. N. W. is Morocco, the capital of the empire of that name, which these rovers sometimes visit.
While the men of el-Harib are travelling in the Soudan, the women employ themselves in making ropes of grass, to fasten the baggage and to draw water from the wells in the deserts; they spin camel’s hair with which they make tent-covers; they prepare and tan leather, and make sandals for their husbands, and the remainder of their time is devoted to their domestic concerns. As in all other Mahometan countries, they eat apart from the men.
Sidi-Aly had frequently teased me to part with my two pieces of blue cotton cloth from the Soudan, that I might have, he said, the means of purchasing provisions for my journey to Tafilet, those which had been given me at Timbuctoo and el-Arawan, having been wholly consumed by himself and his family. Wishing to retain my cloths, which might probably prove serviceable to me in future, I resisted his importunities, and thus cheating his cupidity ran the risk of exposing myself to his resentment. My resolution, however, produced no ill consequences.
CHAPTER XXV.
Country of el-Drah — Zawât — el-Hamid — Bounou — Town of Mimcina — Camp of Berbers — Tabelbât — The Tawâts — Wells of Yeneguedel, of Faratissa, of Bohayara — Customs of the Berbers — Wells of Goud-Zenaga, of Zenatyia — Town of el-Yabo — Wells of Chanerou, of Nyela.— Arrival at Tafilet — Town of Ghourland — Market — Ressaut, the residence of a Governor under the emperor of Morocco.
On the 12th of July, we set out at five in the morning, after having taken a little camel’s milk, which I bought with a glass bead from my chaplet. We proceeded slowly towards the east, over a hard soil, composed of grey sand, covered with vegetation, and intersected with deep ravines. Aly would not permit me to mount my camel all the morning; it was not till towards noon when he mounted himself that I could obtain this favour. About two P. M. we halted on a very hard sand upon which grew some zizyphus lotus; throughout the day a strong easterly wind incommoded us much: at four in the evening it veered to the west. At nightfall we were visited by a Moorish priest whose camp was in the vicinity of our halting place. As he was proprietor of several flocks of sheep, we wished to purchase some mutton of him but he refused; and we gave him some barley-meal which he undertook that his wife should dress for our suppers. He sent it to us at ten o’clock, and had the civility to add some milk from his ewes. Out of reserve he declined supping with us, but seated himself apart and waited till the dish containing our mess was brought to him.