Looking down from the tops of the cliffs upon the valley of Dads, the district presents an appearance the like of which I have seen nowhere else in the world. It is not that it is beautiful scenery, or that its fertility calls for admiration; rather it is the fact that in its curious position and architecture it is unique. The valley, with the river flowing through its midst, is entirely shut in on both sides by high cliffs of yellow soil. From amongst the gardens crop up everywhere the _ksor_ with their battlements and towers, each one of which would be considered a large building in Europe. As a frame to this strange scene there is the barren desert, bounded on the north by the rocky snow-clad peaks of the great chain of the Atlas, and on the south by the irregular line of Jibel Saghru. The district of Dads is divided into six portions, each of which contains many _ksor_. These subdivisions of the tribe are respectively, commencing from the south— (i.) Arbaa miya. “the four hundred”; (ii.) Iutagin; (iii.) Aït u Allel; (iv.) Aït Hammu; (v.) Aït Iunir; (vi.) Aït Tamuted. Of these the first-named, Arbaa miya, is decidedly the largest, strongest, and altogether most powerful. It contains some forty _ksor_. It is at the north end of Aït Tamuted that the Wad Dads leaves the valleys of the Atlas to enter the plain. I spent five days at Dads, and very pleasant ones they were, while the rest after the weary tramp refreshed men and beasts wonderfully. During the heat of the day we would wander down to the banks of the river, and saunter through the gardens, or sit and talk under the shade of the fig-trees. So accustomed had I become to playing the part of a native that my life with the Berbers caused me no anxiety lest my identity should be discovered, and I even became lax in my attentions at prayers, attending merely the noon and sunset “services.” The mosque of Zauia Aït bu Haddu was a small enough place, with a roof supported on heavy beams of rough walnut-wood, and a minaret in bad repair. Water for the purpose of ablutions had to be brought from the nearest canal, for the _zauia_ stands above the level of the gardens, almost immediately below the cliffs. Being a sanctuary of Shereefs, it was not built on the same plan of defence as the generality of the _ksor_, though its entrances were mostly guarded with gates. No doubt the fact that most of its inhabitants are descendants of the Prophet renders it less liable to attack, and less likely to be embroiled in the intertribal feuds which are of everyday occurrence.