Tafilet

by Walter Harris

A Pass on the Road.

revolt, and that they had been obliged to turn back only some six hours from where we met them. It had been my particular desire to proceed viâ this route, as there are rumours of ruins in the valley of the Warzazat; but I at once perceived that we must follow the inevitable and pursue the road viâ Askura, which possessed this attraction to the explorer, that it had never before been traversed or described by any traveller. It was good luck that brought us in contact with the Dads’ caravan, for in these wild lawless regions there is safety in numbers, and I noticed that the old Shereef especially cheered up at the sight of the dozen antiquated flint-lock guns the men bore.

We at once decided to join company and pursue the road together, and for the five following days the Dads tribesmen and their little mules formed part of our caravan. Good sturdy fellows they were, always laughing and running races, in which the brisk cold often tempted me to join them. At this they were much amused, for my slender—not to say thin—form and limbs, as yet but slightly tanned with the sun, led them to suppose that I could ill stand the hardships of the road. That I was a European in disguise never once crossed their simple trusting minds, and amongst this wild band I obtained a reputation of very considerable sanctity, on account of the fact that I said my prayers in orthodox style with the old Shereef, and that I wore suspended round my neck, over my torn and ragged jelaba, a string of wooden beads, the insignia of the sect of the Derkaua, or followers of Sidi Ali el Derkaui, who may be almost said to be the patron saint of the Sahara.

With one of these caravan men, Hammu by name, I made great friends, and one of my pleasantest recollections of Dads was the feast he gave me in his house, to which half the village was invited, and which lasted from somewhere about mid-day to somewhere about midnight. He was a simple gentle fellow this Hammu, but as good as could be; and many a time when we lay huddled together of a night for the sake of warmth he would cover me up with his thick haidus of black goats’-hair as I slept, and swear in the morning that he had not done so—that it was merely owing to the fact that he had kicked it off in my direction that accounted for his having slept in only a light cotton chamira while I was warm and comfortable. Poor Hammu! he never learned, so far as I know, that I was a European in disguise,—not that I believe he would mind much, for the friendship that sprang up between us would break through all such barriers as this. He eventually finished, on the day I departed for Tafilet, by embracing me and asking me to return with him to Dads, and share his home, with his sister as my wife. He even promised her a dowry of a few yards of blue cotton, a pair of bracelets, and a cow. My Riffi man nearly exploded with his attempts to conceal his laughter, but I took the compliment as in the manner meant, and clasped his good strong hand with a grip of real friendship, for I could not but recognise that the wild tribesman, with his handsome face and fine bearing, meant every word he spoke.

But I digress from the narrative of my travel. It being out of the question that we should pursue the route viâ Warzazat, there was no option about the matter, and we turned to the east across the plain of Teluet, fording the Wad Marghen, or Wad el Melha, some two or three miles above the Kaid of Glawa’s kasba. The stream is not a very large one, but clear, fresh, cold water flows from the snows of the western slopes of Jibel Unila throughout the entire year. Although slightly brackish the water is drinkable to cattle, but the inhabitants rely for their supply upon the many streams and springs that form its tributaries. The river flows along the Teluet valley from east to west, and at the south-west corner of the plain passes out through a gorge to flow into the Idermi, which, eventually joining the Wad Dads, forms the Wad Draa, the largest and most important river of trans-Atlas Morocco. The second name of the river, Wad el Melha, or salt river, is the local title of every stream the waters of which are brackish.

Ascending by the dry bed of a torrent on the south side of the river, we skirted the eastern end of Jibel Teluet, which forms the southern boundary of the valley, and descended some four miles farther on to the larger stream of the Wad Unila. The ascent and descent we had crossed forms a small watershed for the tributaries of the two rivers, though apparently these mountain torrents only flow in the wet season. At one spot, rather more than half-way, we passed extensive salt-mines, where quite a number of natives were engaged in working rock-salt. The scene was a wild one, the half-nude men with their rough picks hewing away and singing the while, as others piled the salt in native panniers on to the backs of their sturdy little mules. The power of these mountain-mules in overcoming difficulties in the roads is extraordinary, and at one spot we saw a couple literally descending a precipice, followed by a man who only kept his footing by the aid of a sort of alpenstock. The manner in which both man and beasts succeeded in descending seemed to us, as we stood and watched, incredible, yet we were told that he made the journey every day to this spot in the face of the precipice, to collect rock-salt from a small deposit that existed there. At one place where an unusually large supply of the precious mineral existed, a roughly constructed fort had been built, for the mines had been the cause of war for generations amongst the tribesmen living near, their value being, for the arid bleak district, extraordinary. No doubt to more or less reserving to himself the monopoly, as is the case, is owing to a great extent the wealth to-day in the possession of Sid Madani, the Kaid of Glawa. The soil at this part consists principally of shales, strewn with boulders of limestone, no doubt portions of the peaks above, which time, water, and glacier have carried to their present position.

The Wad Unila, where our path struck its course, flows nearly due north and south, issuing from a gorge 100 or 200 yards above, and descending for half a mile through a narrow valley before reaching the district of Tiurassín, in which we spent the night of November 5.

This settlement of Berbers of the Imerghan tribe is a large place, lying on the banks of the river where the valley is sufficiently wide to form a small triangular plain, which is again bisected by a torrent, at this period waterless, which flows from the east. The ksor are many and large, and present a remarkable appearance, each a castle, or sometimes several castles, with high towers at the corners, the summits of which are roughly decorated in sun-dried bricks and white-wash. The great size and solidity of the buildings struck one as extraordinary, after the hovels the Arabs erect as habitations, and a rough measurement of one of the towers gave an altitude of at least 70 feet, no mean height when it is taken into consideration that they are built without any of the appliances we know in Europe, and altogether without mortar or lime. The plain I alluded to as formed by the valley may be perhaps half a mile across, and consists of gardens of walnut and almond trees, with a few other varieties of fruits.

The Wad Unila, the river of the place, rises to the north-east at the summit of Jibel Unila, from which the stream takes its name. This mountain forms one of the finest of the Atlas peaks, and is said never to lose its cap of snow. The summit, the natives told me, consists of a circular lake of great depth, from which the river takes its rise. So important to the land through which it flows are the waters of the Unila, for the natives are entirely dependent upon its supply for irrigating purposes, that this lake, which is said never to vary its level, has become a place of pilgrimage and veneration, and in the spring of each year sheep are sacrificed to its patron saint. Before uniting with the Wad Marghen (Wad el Melha) at Aït Zaineb, four districts are watered—namely, taking them from the river’s source, (1) Unila, (2) Assaka, (3) Tisgi, and (4) Aït Zaineb; but the valley throughout is a narrow one, shut in by high mountains, and only at its widest parts, such as Tiurassín, is it inhabited. But very little wheat is grown, maize and turnips taking its place as the articles of subsistence amongst the natives. The walnuts and almonds, however, flourish to such an extent that a large quantity are yearly exported to Morocco City, being taken by the road we had followed across the Glawi Pass.