It formerly possessed a very considerable trade, and was famous for the manufacture of carpets and woollen fabrics; now its industry is almost entirely confined to the manufacture of copper vessels, saddlery and Arab boots and shoes.
As a rule, the physique of the people is poor, and the children are unusually rude and ill-bred towards strangers. There is very little intermarriage between the inhabitants of Kerouan and the people of other towns; the result in so small a community is an inevitable tendency to degenerate. Cancer, sore eyes, and maladies depending on dirt and poverty of blood are very common.
A short distance south of the city is Sabra, the site of Vicus Augusti, mentioned in the Itinerary of Antonine, from which has been derived a great part of the ancient materials employed in the construction of Kerouan, and of the royal residences in the neighbourhood, which in their turn have disappeared.
FOOTNOTES:
[139]Davis, Ruined Cities, p. 284.
[140]Ibn-Khaldoun, trad. de Slane, i. 327.
[141]Marmol, ii. p. 532.
[142]El-Bekri, Afr. Sep., trad. de Slane, p. 57. Peliss., Exp. Sc. p. 314.
[143]Marmol, ii. p. 532.
[144]Reports of H.M.’s Consuls, 1876, p. 147.