4i4 REMINIS CENCES' OR TEA VEL
supper, after which, as well as minute bed-fellows will
permit him, he sleeps the traveller’s sleep. *
The freedom and fresh air of such a life is delightful:
with a regular, healthy fatigue, the rule becomes “ early
to bed and early to rise,” and sleep soon grows sound
in spite o f the barking and shouting and neighing that
make things lively, or the. wedding in the adjoining village.
The inconveniences come in wet weather, or when an
unexpected storm brings the tent down about the sleeper’s
ears. Sometimes the ground is almost too bad to pitch
the tent, or the only safe place is a filthy farm-yardlike
n’zalah or government camping-ground, but a waterproof
sheet sets things right; if the pegs only hold. If
the dry ropes are not slackened before rain falls, the
sudden shrinkage will be so severe as to up-root the
pegs, which accounts for many unexpected mishaps; besides
which, a trough is required round the tent as a
precaution against floods. In really bad weather a tent
with waterproof bottom and sides in one piece is to be
recommended.
No one who has not actually proved what travelling
in Morocco in winter means can fully appreciate all that it
involves. So a few personal experiences of one
„ ... who has gone through it 1 ravelling. & ** may in some measure
serve to enlighten the fortunate uninitiated.
In the first place it must be remembered that this is
an absolutely roadless country, and that the traveller
rides on and on,— not across a pathless waste, by any
means, for the multitudinous and oft-diverging tracks are
most perplexing,— but with no other indication of his
being on a permanent highway, even between two important
towns, than an occasional bridge or ferry-boat
across an otherwise impassable river. The approaches
to these are often almost impassable, and one frequently
* For an account of Moorish hospitality, see The Moors, ch. xvii.
APPROACHES TO TOWNS 4*5
sees a bad ford preferred to a good bridge close by,
on account of the quagmires at either end. The bridges
are few, and far between,' being placed only where absolutely
necessary almost all the year round, for if a river
is fordable during the greater part of the year, the Moor
is content not to pass that way during the remainder,
resignedly exclaiming “ Ma sha A llah !’ “ What God
wills!”
TR A V E L L IN G COMPANIONS.
Photograph by Dr. Rudduck.
The same course is adopted with the entrances to
towns, and with the , specially bad places on the mam
roads. The more important the town, the Approaches
more awful its approaches are in wet weather, ¡0 Towns.
in consequence of the continual traffic, till
the time arrives when they become absolutely impassable,
and fresh provisions rise inside to almost famine price.
During the rains, Fez itself is often for days almost
without fresh meat,— or when none is to be found in
the market. The well-to-do are then obliged to go
shares in purchasing cows kept in town for their milk,
to kill for themselves, and the poor have to go without.
The daily visit to the country pasturage of the cattle
and animals in the towns works the roads up into a
fearful state, and none can come out or in but such as