Tafilet

by Walter Harris

KASBAH OF SEKOURA.

First of all, in order that some idea of the size of the expedition which Mulai el Hassen led to Tafilet may be obtained, let me begin by stating that there were nearly 40,000 persons in his camp at the time of my visit, including the members of the surrounding tribes who were attending the sovereign on his march through their country, and this entire crowd was living under canvas. But in order that the manner in which the huge camp is arranged may be realised, it will be easier to commence with its pitching, which, as far as the ground allows, is regularly repeated upon every occasion—and at Tafilet the absolute level of the edge of the desert showed off the system to perfection. Allowed that all the baggage-animals carrying the immense number of tents and quantities of baggage have arrived at the spot chosen for the night’s encampment, the site where the Sultan’s enclosure is to be placed is chosen, and until his tent is erected none other can be. At length the golden ball that crowns the great kubba is raised into the air, and a moment later from all sides rise up a multitude of tents great and small, each one of which has its regular spot,—for from the time of choosing the situation of the Sultan’s encampment men have been employed in marking out the sites. This is done by a soldier pacing the diameter of a circle, with the Sultan as its centre, and from this diameter a complete circuit is made of the camp. This outer line of tents is divided into various lengths, a certain part of the circumference being allotted to the soldiers of each tribe—that is to say, the conscripts of each district of Morocco—for the regular army with the commander-in-chief form a separate camp.

A large open square space is left to the east of the Sultan’s tents, which is surrounded by the field-guns and other artillery, and leading from this square to the outer line of tents is left an open roadway. Between the circumference of the circle and the Sultan’s tents spaces are allotted to the governors of districts, the officials of the army and the Court, the Viziers, and the Shereefs and relations of the Sultan.

His Majesty’s encampment is in itself a large camp. Surrounded entirely by high walls of white canvas decorated in patterns of dark blue, it is divided into two portions, in one of which the women are kept, while the other contains his Majesty’s private tents, which are many, and some of huge dimensions. At Tafilet I counted from the hill above the camp no less than between fifty and sixty tents within the canvas walls. None but the most trusted servants and slaves enter the enclosure at all, and then not the women’s portion while they are present. The entrance into the Sultan’s quarters is formed by the two ends of the walls overlapping for a considerable extent and running parallel to one another, and curved as they proceed, so that there is no possible chance of any one seeing within, while the height of the canvas prevents anything but the tops of the tents being apparent from without.

Immediately outside, and within the square formed by the cannon, is pitched the office-tent in which his Majesty transacts his business. It is a small square tent of red and green cloth, supported on four poles with gold tops. One side is left completely open. Within it boasts no furniture but carpets and matting and the divan on which the Sultan sits to transact business. Close by is another large tent, of dark canvas, and of the form of a ghima, the common dwelling of the Arab. This serves the purpose of a mosque, and there the Sultan, surrounded by the Shereefs, Viziers, and tolba, leads the prayers at the regular hours.

It was Mulai el Hassen’s custom to leave his private camp at sunrise, and, walking to his office-tent, give audiences to the Viziers, &c., and transact business until nine or ten, when he would retire to the privacy of his own quarters, to reappear again during the cool of the afternoon, generally from four to sunset; and often of a night I could see him sitting there, with members of his Court standing before him taking down his commands. Tiring, indeed, must be the work of a Vizier, for he must always stand in his master’s presence.

Mulai el Hassen may be said to have transacted the entire business of his country himself; for although the different Viziers are known by such titles as Ministers of War, and Foreign Affairs, &c., &c., they were in reality little more than private secretaries, and the actual organisation and welfare of his country, as well as its relations with the foreign Powers, rested with the Sultan alone.

The course usually pursued is as follows. Long strips of paper are prepared with a précis of all the matters of importance written upon them, in as few words as possible. On having an audience the various Viziers hand these to the Sultan, who scans them through, asks questions on any point on which he may wish to learn further particulars, and pencils the answers on the margin. I have on several occasions seen these slips after they had left the Sultan’s hands, and they are masterpieces of précis writing, often a few inches of narrow paper containing a list of pending affairs that would necessitate many meetings of a Cabinet Council in London. Even more precise were the Sultan’s answers—the pencilled “Yes” or “No,” or the short questions affixed.

The camp once pitched, a matter of but a short time for so many men, the regular routine of camp-life begins. Fires are lighted, and the cooking, &c., commences. A large number of traders accompany the camp, who set up their tents, where tea and sugar—such necessaries to the travelling Moor—can be procured by the rich, while kiff, the chopped hemp-leaf, appeals to the soldiery, if they happen to have anything to buy it with. Bread, too, is sold, the ovens being built upon the spot of stones and clay, or mud-bricks, as the soil suits. Sheep are slaughtered, and shua—boiled mutton—can be procured, each bringing his own dish or basket to take the meat away in. Usually it is principally the mounted tribesmen, serving only for a few months, and bringing some money of their own, who indulge in these luxuries. The richer classes, the Shereefs and Viziers, procure all their provisions from the Government, which in turn procures them from the district if in a rich portion of the country; but at Tafilet nearly all the grain, &c., was brought from Marakesh and stored beforehand. These provisions, supplied by the tribes through which the army is passing, are called mona, and often amount to such a quantity as to cripple that portion of the country for a year or more, so large a drain is made upon their wheat and barley, their sheep, oxen, and fowls, to say nothing of their pockets,—for the governor of the district, as well as provisioning the Sultan and his troops for as long a period as they stay in the country under his jurisdiction, has also to make handsome presents. The mona, too, includes quantities of tea and sugar, no light tax in far-away parts, where long transport has added very considerably to the price. The soldiery receive pay—irregularly—and with this have to purchase their own rations, for which it is usually quite insufficient. At Tafilet the pay a private was receiving would procure about a quarter of a small loaf of bread per day; but with a few hundred square miles of palm-groves, each tree richly laden with fruit, they did not fare so badly, though on the journey back, where nature did not offer them such assistance to the pittance the Sultan paid them, their sufferings from cold and hunger were extreme. Only the riding and baggage animals of the Sultan and his immediate officials receive fodder from the Government, the various Kaids and the auxiliary troops—a kind of yeomanry—that they bring with them being dependent upon their own means; and as on a part of the Sultan’s route from Fez to Tafilet barley cost no less than 5s. a feed for a horse per night, the poor brutes fared ill. The camp at Tafilet, after three weeks’ stay in one spot, though grain here was tolerably cheap, was literally surrounded with dead mules and horses. The quantity of baggage-animals was enormous. I was told by one who ought to be well informed that no less than 9600 horses and mules were fed by the Government each night, and there must have been 3000 or 4000 more belonging to the Kaids of districts and their retinues. A rough calculation gave the result that the Sultan must be paying some 3000 dollars—£500—per night for fodder, or rather the cost of bringing it to Tafilet would have been as much as that; for the merchants, who looked after their affairs far more keenly than his Majesty could afford time to do, were able to sell it, and make a small profit, at a price that gives this result, and no doubt the Sultan was charged far more. Even if the transactions necessary for purchasing it and bringing it this great distance were absolutely honest, it could not have cost him less than the sum mentioned. When one calculates the total amount spent on barley, averaging rather less over the whole time, on an expedition of nine months’ duration, and when one adds to this the pay of the soldiery—for though often they do not get it the Government invariably pays it out—and the food for the regular troops and the Sultan’s immense retinue, not forgetting the presents that have to be given on the road, and then to the total the vast amount of swindling that takes place on every side, one will gather some idea of the cost of such an expedition. As a rule in the more adjacent portions of Morocco, so large are the levies of provisions, and so much of the mona is supplied by the governors of the districts, that the summer march of the Sultan affords a profit to the treasury, besides offering many opportunities for private pilfering. So poor are these districts of the Sahara, however, that few of the spots at which the army rested, with the exception of Tafilet and Askura, could have afforded to keep them supplied for more than one or two nights—and at Tafilet alone the Sultan remained three weeks.