track, a miserable village or Harah of tumble-down hovels,
the inmates of which may be known afar by their bowllike
wooden hats or wide-awakes of palmetto. A t the
various feasts they receive a certain allowance in food
and clothes from the Government, but this appears only
to have induced non-lepers to settle among them, for
theirs is not the contagious Eastern leprosy, such as 1
have met with in Burma, India, Kashmir and Siberia.
In the opinion of some it is but an aggravated form of
syphilis, the national disease, * and there is certainly an
absence of the revolting sights seen elsewhere. The
people themselves have no great fear of the complaint, and
occasionally marriages take place between the victims and
healthy outsiders, the offspring of which are not all lepers,
so that instead of spreading, it is fortunately dying out.
From the Dukalla Gate it is a pleasant ride or walk
among the palms to Jebel Giliz, the only eminence in
the immediate vicinity, an isolated rock which
^GUh r'ses amid palm groves to a height of some
200 ft. from the plain, here about 1650 ft.
above sea-level. It is like a miniature Trichinopoly, and
the view from its summit takes one back to another
Indian scene, much further north: the general effect of
the roof-view of the city spread out below is not unlike
that of Delhi, though the sky-line lacks the chaste relief
of the peculiar architecture of Hindustan. In many
respects, too, the mud-built walls and bazaars recall
those of Central Asia, of Bokhara in particular, while
parts resemble Baghdad or even tumble-down Bushire.
But Marrakesh is surrounded by a girdle of date-
palms and gardens which add to its picturesqueness,
though in summer looking sadly withered and
Palm Groves dfy at close quarters, but enlivened by innumerand
Gardens. ^ }c biue;roners, bee-eaters, doves, and, beside
the river, king-fishers. These palms, which have become
a great source of wealth, are not altogether indigenous,
the finest having been introduced from Tafilalt long
BAB D U K A L LA MOSQUE, MARRAKESH.
(See p. 308.) Photograph by Herbert White, Esq.
ago.* Beyond this setting of green, away in
. I , . • 1 1 a 1 The Ati the distance, rises the hoary Atlas, its crevasses
indicated by eternal snows, which light up and make
* It is said that when the Fîlâlîs besieged Marrâkesh, the stones of the
dates which were their staple provision being thrown away, took root.
The . original Marrakesh dates are known as balûh, those of Taf Halt as
thamr.