It is seldom in the oasis of Tafilet that one’s view extends to more than 100 yards or so in any direction. This is owing to the extraordinary thick growth of the date-palms, which rise on all sides a bewildering forest of straight stems. In Ifli, too, [Illustration: _In Tafilet._] the high walls of the gardens obstruct one’s vision in every direction. These walls are built of the native concrete, _tabia_, and are often so high that only the tops of the fruit-trees within appear above them. The water from the irrigating channels finds ingress into these gardens by subterranean conduits, while small bridges cross the roads, generally formed by palm-trunks laid from side to side and covered with sand. One comes quite suddenly upon the high-walled _ksor_, which, until one has approached them nearly, are entirely hidden by the gardens and palms. The outer portions of the oasis are less thickly grown over with palms, but the line between the desert sand and the alluvial soil and irrigated oasis is clearly defined. One walks out of a green field of palm-trees ankle-deep into soft yellow sand, and one’s vision stretches away over undulating white hills the very glare of which is painful to the sight. Here and there throughout the oasis are large open spaces, usually for the purpose of drying the dates in, and now and again for local markets, or _sôks_. The walled villages, too, often have a clear space surrounding them of 20 yards or so of open ground, to allow the sight of the attacking force in their continual intertribal wars. Nothing more bewildering can be imagined than the roads, or tracks, that thread the oasis. Owing to the great value of land they are as narrow as is practicable, and turn and twist in every direction amongst the gardens. In going from El Meharza in Sifa to Dar el baida on the east side of the oasis on the borders of the desert, although the general direction is south-east, one is often travelling due north or due south, owing to the extraordinary turns the path takes amongst the walled gardens of the district of Wad Ifli. The _ksor_ of Tafilet all follow much the same design of building, and though I entered several and saw many, they were so alike one to the other that a general description will be sufficient, and answer equally well for all.