Our impressions on this our first acquaintance with the outer region of the Great Atlas were very agreeable. The country appeared populous and fruitful. There was, indeed, little space for tillage, and that was of the rudest kind; but besides the olive, which attains a great size, the carob (_Ceratonia Siliqua_) and walnut, both growing to perfection, combine beauty with economic value. The common _Opuntia_, or Indian fig, also grows luxuriantly, and supplies an item in the diet of the natives. Before we started, about 3 P.M. a body of miserable-looking Jews presented themselves, and offered a _mona_ of olives, chilis, cakes of repulsive appearance, and some terrible spirituous liquor served in a battered tin teapot. When we excused ourselves on the ground that we had but just finished eating, they insisted that we should, at least, partake of the liquor. Abraham explained that we could not possibly drink out of a vessel so indescribably foul as the earthenware cup presented to us; whereupon one of the women lifted the skirt of her filthy petticoat, and proceeded to polish the cup to her own satisfaction. There was something pathetic in the abject air of these poor people, of whom there are many communities in this part of the Atlas. Born to suffering and oppression, they yet contrive to hold together, and even increase their numbers, thanks to superior intelligence and skill which make them almost indispensable to their neighbours. They are forced by law or custom to wear none but black outer garments, and the older men have high brimless cylindrical hats, tapering somewhat towards the top. They had taken it into their heads that Christian strangers travelling with a large escort must be persons of influence and authority, and had come to implore our favour and protection. The men concluded by kissing the skirts of our _jellabias_; and, as we were riding off, the women, who stood in a group behind, advanced and kissed our knees, in true Oriental fashion. We were assured by our interpreter, who naturally sympathised with the people of his own race, that they often suffer from ill-usage, for which there is absolutely no redress; but it does not appear that their condition is practically as bad as that of the same people in Roumania and some other so-called Christian States. In some respects, indeed, they are better off than their Mohammedan neighbours. Not suspected of wealth, their head-men are not liable to be ‘squeezed,’ and, living apart, they are not engaged in the intestine feuds of adjoining tribes, and not often victims of the cruelties that accompany them.