The Moors of el-Harib dress like those on the banks of the Senegal, except that over their coussabe they wear a linen wrapper manufactured in the country of el-Drah or Tafilet. They have only one wife, but like the Braknas change her frequently. They are all Musulmans, yet they do not addict themselves, like the marabouts, to the study of the Koran, being satisfied with knowing the first verse of it without learning to write; a marabout is, consequently, held in great consideration among them. The Moors of el-Harib are generally detested by their neighbours; in el-Drah and Tafilet they are seldom called any thing but cafirs or infidels. In my life I never saw women so evil disposed and so dirty as those of this country: they do not veil themselves, like the women of Morocco, but expose a face disgustingly filthy; the smell that proceeds from them is most offensive. The inhabitants eat the camels which have died from fatigue, but not till they have drained off the blood; they keep some sheep and a few horses. El-Harib contains eleven tribes, the names of which, as I received them from an old inhabitant of the camp to which I belonged, are as follows: Oulad-Rossik, Oulad-Wébal, Oulad-Gouessim, Oulad-Foulh, Oulad-Ouraff, Oulad-Rouzinn, Oulad-Rahan, Oulad-Nasso, Oulad-Body, Oulad-Bonlaboi, Oulad-Sidi-Ayesha. One day’s journey west from our camp are situated the first tents of the Trajacants; at the distance of four in the same direction are the tribes of Oulad-Noun, who dwell near the village of Adrar, which must not be confounded with the country of el-Drah, a small district extending from east to West, and from north to south, between Morocco and el-Harib; five days’ journey west from the encampment of Sidi-Aly is the village of Sous; at fourteen days in the same direction that of Soueyrah; and at ten or eleven days from el-Harib, to the N. N. W. is Morocco, the capital of the empire of that name, which these rovers sometimes visit. While the men of el-Harib are travelling in the Soudan, the women employ themselves in making ropes of grass, to fasten the baggage and to draw water from the wells in the deserts; they spin camel’s hair with which they make tent-covers; they prepare and tan leather, and make sandals for their husbands, and the remainder of their time is devoted to their domestic concerns. As in all other Mahometan countries, they eat apart from the men. Sidi-Aly had frequently teased me to part with my two pieces of blue cotton cloth from the Soudan, that I might have, he said, the means of purchasing provisions for my journey to Tafilet, those which had been given me at Timbuctoo and el-Arawan, having been wholly consumed by himself and his family. Wishing to retain my cloths, which might probably prove serviceable to me in future, I resisted his importunities, and thus cheating his cupidity ran the risk of exposing myself to his resentment. My resolution, however, produced no ill consequences. CHAPTER XXV.