Mogreb-El-Acksa; a Journey in Morocco

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1898 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER III. Leaving the International Sanatorium of thePalmera at the hour that Allah willed it, which happened to be about eight in the morning of the 12th October, dressed in Moorish clothes, our faces far too white, and our ample robes like driven snow, the low thick scrub of Argan, dwarf rhododendrons, and thorny sandarac, and " suddra "* bushes after five minutes' riding swallowed us up, quite as effectually as might have done a forest of tall trees. Mohammed el Hosein, fully aware of the importance of getting accustomed to the Moorish clothes before at once emerging on the beaten track which leads from Mogador to Morocco City, engaged us in a labyrinth of cattle tracks, winding in and out for full two hours through stones and bushes, following the beds of water courses, dry with the twelve months' drought, which had caused almost a state of famine, and calling to us to hold ourselves more seemly, not to let our "selhams "t hang too low, not to talk English, and when dismounted to walk as befits Arab gentlemen, to whom time is a drug. * Suddra is the Zizyphus Lotus of botanists. It is extremely thorny, and is much used by the Arabs to make the enclosures known as " Zerebas" round tueir houses; when dry it takes a curious grey-blue tinge, very effective in certain lights. It is of this plant, I think, that the Soudanese make the temporary "Zerebas" round their camps, which on occasions have given so much trouble to our troops. t Selham is the hooded cloak worn as an outer garment; it is made of blue cloth or white wool. It is the ' burnouse " of Algeria. After much threading through the tortuous paths, getting well torn and sunburned by the fierce sun, we emerged at the crossing of the river El Ghoreb, which runs into the sea...