Now came the time for diplomacy. While eating our
meal near the shrine we were surrounded by a steadily
increasing group of natives, armed with flint-
Diplomacy iocks and daggers, who surlily watched and
Invoked. .. . .
commented on every movement, disappointed
pf their expected plunder. Seeing what must come, I
engaged in friendly conversation with the few who spoke
Arabic, one of whom kept the others informed by
interpretation.
■ “ Y es,” I said, “ they do malign you mountaineers on
the plain: they describe you as cut-throats and thieves,
inhospitable savages, but we were so convinced that this
was only , jealousy, * that, as you see, we came among
you unarmed,* and without even guards, relying on
your good nature and unrivalled hospitality, and you
will not, I am sure, allow any evil-disposed among you to
prove the plainsmen right. All we have a fancy to do
is >to taste of yonder snows, and revel in the colder air
which recalls our own northern homes, but of course
-the country is yours: we are but your guests, and if
you refuse to admit us we cannot complain, though
when you come to our land you shall go where you
please.”
Thus, with soft words, they were appeased, such exclamations
as “ Indeed, he is right 1” “ Certainly, certainly
1” greeted any compliments paid. After things
had smoothed down, we prepared to start. But while
remounting, some of the by-standers, exasperated, came
to blows with our men, and we were compelled to divide
amongst them all apparently available cash, to the sum
of two dollars, which, though paid into the hands of an
* It is never my practice to carry arms on my travels, relying rather
on encountering good nature when prepared to show it, and I have not
been disappointed. Of course I always carried little of value with me,
and took care to make this known.
authorized guide, was speedily shared by all. Then we
rode back disgusted. Only the appearance that evening
of Hasan idd Mansur, the leading pro-government man—
who had also been Hooker’s guide— prevented our being
further fleeced, and with his escort we were glad enough
to retreat down the valley next day.
COUNCIL OF WAR BELOW ARROMD.
Photograph by Dr. Rudduck.
That night, however, our head man got lost on the
hill-side, and although we put up for the night as soon
as we missed him, we got no trace of him
till the following morning, when we heard E^ ectf ” a
1 1 1 1 Moor.
that he had passed down from Asni to Mulai
Ibrahim, a favourite shrine. Thence we subsequently
learned that he had walked to Marrakesh, having been
fairly scared by the mountains and mountaineers, thus
earning the name by which we now know him, “ the
Jewess.” Meanwhile, we made Tamgist, the village
before Tashdirt in the Iminan valley, opposite Tizi-n