Tafilet

by Walter Harris

(i.)	Arbaa miya. “the four hundred”;
(ii.)	Iutagin;
(iii.)	Aït u Allel;
(iv.)	Aït Hammu;
(v.)	Aït Iunir;
(vi.)	Aït Tamuted.

Of these the first-named, Arbaa miya, is decidedly the largest, strongest, and altogether most powerful. It contains some forty ksor. It is at the north end of Aït Tamuted that the Wad Dads leaves the valleys of the Atlas to enter the plain.

I spent five days at Dads, and very pleasant ones they were, while the rest after the weary tramp refreshed men and beasts wonderfully. During the heat of the day we would wander down to the banks of the river, and saunter through the gardens, or sit and talk under the shade of the fig-trees. So accustomed had I become to playing the part of a native that my life with the Berbers caused me no anxiety lest my identity should be discovered, and I even became lax in my attentions at prayers, attending merely the noon and sunset “services.” The mosque of Zauia Aït bu Haddu was a small enough place, with a roof supported on heavy beams of rough walnut-wood, and a minaret in bad repair. Water for the purpose of ablutions had to be brought from the nearest canal, for the zauia stands above the level of the gardens, almost immediately below the cliffs. Being a sanctuary of Shereefs, it was not built on the same plan of defence as the generality of the ksor, though its entrances were mostly guarded with gates. No doubt the fact that most of its inhabitants are descendants of the Prophet renders it less liable to attack, and less likely to be embroiled in the intertribal feuds which are of everyday occurrence.

Close to the village was a “Mellah,” or “Ghetto,” of Jews, living by themselves in a separate quarter, which also was undefended, from the fact that they do not in any way participate in the wars. The Jews exist at Dads, as elsewhere among the Berbers, under the system of debeha, or sacrifice, so called from the fact that a sheep or ox is supposed originally to have been offered to the Berbers in order to obtain protection. The families of Jews here too live in a feudal state, each being dependent upon some Shleh family for immunity from ill-treatment and robbery: in return for this they pay a small yearly tribute to their protectors. As a rule they are the skilled workmen of the place, being particularly renowned at Dads for their guns, which are often gorgeously decorated in silver. The shops, too, are almost entirely in the mellahs, though little can be purchased except indigo-blue cotton—khent—candles, and sometimes tea and sugar. Money is so scarce, however, that the trade is very small, though large quantities of merchandise pass through Dads en route to Tafilet, and dates on their way to Marakesh.

Young Jew of Dads.

The cliffs that bound the river east and west are in many places fretted with caves, but all tradition as to their former use is lost. I was told that some copper implements of agriculture were found in one or two only a short time before my visit, but the manner in which I was travelling prevented my making many inquiries upon the subject. However, I was enabled to enter many of these caves, and they appear to have been used as dwellings by their inhabitants, a supposition much strengthened by the fact that farther up the Wad Dads there are several settlements of cave-dwellers existing to-day, known as Aït Iferi, “the sons of the caves.” I did not enter these inhabited caves, though I passed them, but from all outward appearance they seemed to resemble those near the Zauia Aït bu Haddu, several of which I explored. These varied somewhat in size and shape, but three chambers seemed to be the average number. These rooms were all small, the largest I measured being some 13 feet by 7 feet, while the smaller averaged some 7 feet by 6. The walls are very rough, pieces of rock often projecting a foot or so, and in all respects they did not show nearly so much skill in their excavation as those I had previously seen at Imin Tanut, some two days’ journey south-west of Marakesh, near the residence of the Kaid of Mtuga. Nor are the caves of Dads situated in the face of the precipices as are these others; for whereas at Imin Tanut it is impossible to enter any but a very few, those at Dads are easily accessible, being one and all placed at the bottom of the cliff. One larger than the rest lies at the back of the mellah of Jews near the zauia, and is used by them for a place in which to wash their dead, and here their corpses lie for a night before burial.

With the exception of these caves I found but little signs of antiquities, the ruins I had been told of before leaving Marakesh turning out to be merely the remains of “tabia” ksor, the age of which it was impossible to determine. Once allowed to fall out of repair, it takes a very short time for these buildings, constructed with such a soft material, to crumble away, though when properly attended to, and the rain kept off, they seem to last for a great time. One curious ruin exists near Dads, which I was enabled to visit, but I refrain from giving any attempt at a minute description here, as I was unable to take satisfactory measurements. Suffice it to say that it stands on a circular hill of bare rock, and is built of large blocks of stone, without mortar. I attach considerable importance to this ruin, and hope to be able to return on some future occasion and more minutely explore it. The hill is known as Jibel Korah, and is well known to every native of Dads. The ruin has a bad reputation, and is said to be inhabited by devils. A similar building exists near Todghrá, on a rocky slope to the south-west of that oasis.

As the roads ahead of us were reported to be infested with robbers, especially deserters from the Sultan’s army which was now at Tafilet, we thought it best to leave behind at the zauia my two mules, and proceeded on our way with only a couple of donkeys, one belonging to the Shereef’s nephew, the other mine. Our party, too, diminished in numbers. The old Shereef had reached his destination, and was to go no farther; his son was a useless creature, and I decided not to take him; while our pilgrim, the devotee of the sect of the Derkauiya, turned aside to seek his home. A good fellow he had been, and heartily sorry I was to lose his company, though he seldom said much or intruded his presence upon us. Yet he was by far and away the most interesting of our little band, and exhibited the strange case of the fanatical devotee, all whose ideas had been overthrown by his pilgrimage to Mecca. His loathing for Christians had received a blow in the kindness of the captain of the steamer he had travelled on, and, in spite of his religious detestation of the “Nazarene,” he confessed to a secret partiality for their character. Before leaving the Sahara, in fact, he had formed his judgment of the whole world on his surroundings and the traditions of his people; but now his eyes were opened, and he was sorely bewildered. Had I dared, I would like to have made a more careful study of this man’s mind and opinions, but it must be remembered that I was passing as a Moslem, and therefore had to be guarded in my conversation.

Our party from Dads to Tafilet consisted of five—the Shereef’s nephew, to whom no words of praise could do justice; my Riffi servant, Mohammed; the miserable cur of a negro whose conduct caused us so much anxiety, but who paid for it on our return to Marakesh; a Dads tribesman, who went as our zitat, or guarantee against robbery and murder; and myself, still in my torn chamira and jelab, barefooted, browned by the cold and sun, and as hard as nails: and a merry little band we were, as—our two donkeys packed with our scanty baggage, only a few pounds in weight—we shook hands with all the friends who had been so kind to us at Dads, and, receiving their blessing, set out. The last to leave us was Hammu, my friendly caravan-man, and he accompanied us some way up the valley, until, reaching a district with which his ksar had a blood-feud, he bade us “adieu” and turned back. For a quarter of an hour or so we could hear his voice rising and falling in the strange cadence of the Berber songs until it died away in silence.