The city of Marocco is supplied with water from numerous wells and springs amongst the different olive plantations, and the rich procure it from the river Tensift, which flows at a short distance from the city: this water is very salubrious, and anti-bilious, and is drank in cases of indigestion. There is also a subterraneous aqueduct built of brick, which surrounds the town, twenty feet below the surface, and from which, at about every hundred yards, pipes of brick-work branch off, and convey the water into the different houses; over each of these branches are excavations from the surface, through which persons descend to repair any injuries below; but this aqueduct is now much neglected, and out of repair. This city being now on the decline, little can be said of its cleanliness; the streets are mostly filled with ruins of houses which have gone to decay; and in the Millah, or Jews’ quarter, heaps of dung and other filth are seen, as high as the houses. The Moors, however, from a natural desire of cleanliness, in which the Jews are scandalously deficient, pay more attention to the streets in which they reside. The houses of the Alkaids, Shereefs, or nobles, and other military officers, are lofty, spacious, and strongly built, with a turret in the middle, or on one side, where the women take the air, and pass the evening _in fresco_. The rest of the houses being almost all old, they swarm with vermin, particularly bugs, which, in the summer season, are literally a plague, the walls being covered with them; at this period also, the inhabitants are much annoyed with scorpions, which are frequently found in the beds, and other places;[62] to these may be added the domestic serpent, but this is rather considered as an object of veneration, than a nuisance.[63] The air about Marocco is generally calm; the neighbouring mountains of Atlas defend the plain in which it stands from the scorching Shume, or hot wind (which blows from Tafilelt and Sahara), by arresting its progress, and the snow with which they are always covered, imparts a coolness to the surrounding atmosphere; in summer, however, the heat is intense, though the nights during that period are cool; in winter the cold is very sensibly felt: but the climate is altogether extremely healthy. The inhabitants, particularly the Jews, are, however, affected with ophthalmia.