[119]An “Arribeño” is a man from the upper provinces, some of which have long hard names, as Catamarca Jujuy Rioja, etc.; so, to save adjectives, they are lumped as “Arribeños.”
[123a]Bismillah is the Arab “grace before meat.” In rendering thanks to the “Great Giver” they say, “El Ham du lillah,” “Praise be to God.” Poor heathens, what can be the use of their troubling our Creator.
[123b]Hooker’s “Morocco,” page 389.
[123c]“Travels in Barbary.”
[123d]“Trees and Shrubs of the Ancients.”
[124]Miedo guarda viñas y no vallados.
[127a]Sahara is a dactyl in Arabic.
[127b]The “moufflon” of the Atlas is called “Oudad” by the Berbers. No doubt when duly stuffed and labelled in a museum he has his proper Latin name, without which no self-respecting beast can die. People then gaze at him through dusty glass, and the less educated, seeing the Latin ticket, go away wondering at the depth of wisdom men of science seem to descend to.
[128]Casa de Almenas (a house with battlements) is in rural Spain a euphuism for a gentleman’s house. I fancy, like the torch extinguishers in the regions about Berkeley Square, that these almenas occasionally rise in a single night in houses where owners in the past have neglected to be legally constituted and known as gentlemen.
[132]I fear though they would have to be descended from St. Peter, who carried a wife about with him, as his great rival somewhat tartly remarks. At any rate, even the Ebioim have never ventured to cast any doubt on St. Paul’s private character. This is consolatory when one recalls the case of Burns and other poets, including King David.
[133]Tisi = hill, in Schluoch. Nemiri means “stones.”
[134]N’Zala is a sort of post-house established by the Government. At the N’Zala we contemplated passing there was a sort of custom-house put up to swindle travellers, as is usual in all well-governed countries.
[141]A “maidan” is an open space on which to practise horsemanship, and one is generally to be found before the gate or near to the walls of every castle or Sheikh’s house throughout Morocco.
[146]Couscousou, or cuscus as it is often called in Morocco, is something like the American hominy. It is made of wheat pounded and grated, and then steamed, so that the result is a very dry porridge. You eat it with your hands, and the result is rather messy to the novice. Sometimes mutton and pieces of pumpkin are served up on the top of the cuscus, and on grand occasions it is made with sugar and milk, and flavoured with cinnamon.
[148]The Arabic name of the tribe is Kintafah. This in Shillah becomes Takinteft, following the Shillah etymology (see Appendix).
[149a]No hay hombre cuerdo á caballo(“There is no sane man on horseback”), says the proverb.
[149b]A cousin of the celebrated Abd-el-Kader, one Haj Ali Bu Taleb, was employed by them to conciliate the natives. But though a man of ability and held a saint amongst the Arabs, he was unsuccessful.
[152]Azib is a country house or farm.
[153]Tisi Nemiri, in Shillah, the Hill of the Stones.
[154]Kasbah = a castle, and from it is derived the Spanish word Alcazaba, so frequent in Spanish place names.
[155]In a Bible in Pentonville Prison, at the end of the Book of Jeremiah, a prisoner had written, “Cheer up, Jeremiah, old man.” I used to be sorry for both prisoners when I read that Bible in my cell.
[157]Cosas de palacio van despacio.
[158]“Ashik” literally means “lover” in Persian, and has by degrees come to mean a minstrel, because in the climate of Persia lovers are assumed to sing to lutes and other instruments, which the climate renders unseemly in England.
[161a]Gerhard Rohlfs’s “Adventures in Morocco.” London, 1874.
[161b]Oskar Lenz, “Timbouctou.” Paris, 1886.
[162]Luis de Marmol y Carbajal was a prisoner in Fez, and wrote a curious book, called, “Descripcion General de Africa.” He was born in Granada in 1520, accompanied Charles V. in his expedition to Oran, served in Africa twenty years, was made prisoner, and remained eight years in Fez. On his return he wrote his book.
[163a]Diego de Torres (a Valencian), “Relacion del Origen, y Suceso de los Xaribes, y del Estado de los Reinos de Marruecos, Fez,” etc. Seville, 1584.
[163b]Joachim Gatell, “Description du Sous,” “Bulletin de la Société Geographique Paris,” sixième serie, 1871, pp. 86–89, puts it at 8,300 or thereabouts, and the houses at 1,300.
[164a]The Spaniards call Cadiz “Una taza de plata,” a silver cup.
[164b]It is, however, a reproach to our travellers that this town, accessible to travellers of all nations in the sixteenth century, is less known than Mecca to-day, and has never been visited by an Englishman this century. Mr. Walter Harris, the well-known traveller in Morocco, made a much more difficult and dangerous journey to Tafilet, and if he essays Tarudant, I wish him the success which in my case was withheld by Allah. The inhabitants are, without doubt, the most fanatical in Morocco; but I am certain that, had I had more time for preparation and an adequate knowledge of Arabic, I could have both reached the place and come safely away. As it was, I had no one to consult with, little time at my disposal, and I knew little Arabic, and that little badly.
[166a]El Faredi, born in Cairo, 1181–1235 (Christian era). His only work which has survived is a collection of poems in praise of Allah, known as, “El Divan-el-Faredi.” Little is known of him but that he was a fakir.
[166b]“Literal” as opposed to the spoken or “vulgar” Arabic.
[166c]“Eastern” carries with it something of holiness, as born near the holy places.
[168a]The Spaniards also say a jet-black horse (zaino) is bad tempered.
[168b]“Remarks on Horsemanship,” by the Emir Abd-el-Kader.
[173]Sorgum is the Sesame of the Arabian Nights. In Spanish it is known as Ajonjoli, a corruption of a word of similar sound in Arabic.
[174a]Taifa means a Band or Company. The word is more used in the East than in Morocco, in the Arabic of to-day.
[174b]Almeria was one of the few cities in Spain founded by the Moors. Its name in Arabic is El Merayeh, the Looking Glass.
[174c]Someone, I think, has called journalists “gentlemen of the third sex,” but these guardians were connected with no newspaper.
[175]The Gimbri is a diminutive mandoline, the front of which is of parchment. It has only three strings, and yet its sound is less unpleasant than that of more pretentious instruments I have heard.
[177]These two are to be found in the notes, in extenso.
[178]I render the Arabic word “Hajib” by Chamberlain, though I am not quite sure whether Chamberlain does not better correspond to the Moorish dignity of Kaid-el-Mesouar.
[179a]U.P. in N.B. stands for United Presbyterian. Stevenson refers to this sect, in one of his ballads in the Scottish dialect. This sect is little known amongst well-informed people, and its tenets have been greatly misunderstood.
[179b]In Morocco the people belong to the sect of Malekiayahs, one of the four sects into which orthodox Mohammedans are divided, the other then being the Hannafiyahs, Shafiyahs and Hambaliyahs. Thus, had I declared myself a member of the U.P. church, I fear I should still have been less orthodox than the Chamberlain.
[183]Paris is always pronounced “Baris” by Arabs. Vapor, a steamer, “Babor” and so on.
[184]Read perhaps “two dollars,” for it is politic to exaggerate the munificence of the great. The politic man shall stand before kings, and they shall honour him.
[185]Tertuliais the Spanish word for a gathering of people sitting talking about nothing, or important matters, for amusement. Thus after an hotel dinner at a watering place, there is always the “Rato de tertulia,”i.e.the half hour of conversation in which the affairs of the world and one’s acquaintances are discussed and settled. The word is also used for an evening party.
[186]Much offence has often been given in Morocco by “sportsmen” firing at storks. The Arabs, who are not civilized people, do not understand killing anything you cannot eat. Besides, the stork, amongst birds, is the friend of man, as the porpoise is amongst fish.
[189]Literally a Djin. The belief in the Djintin seems to be a relic of Pantheism, or some older faith than that of Mohammed.
[190]After he had gone a doubt occurred to me whether he had left the place at all, and had not merely hidden himself, and came back to amuse us with a comedy. But I consoled myself by thinking that even if this were so, I had paid more money to see worse acting in a theatre.
[193]Sidi originally meant Lord in Arabic. To-day, in Morocco at any rate, it has, like Esquire, fallen from its proud estate, and now about answers to “Mr.” It is used in addressing anyone who has good clothes, the chief class distinction in Morocco, where all are socially equal to an extent unknown in Europe, except in Spain. Sidi was the word from which the Cid took his title.
[195a]Christian is official in Morocco. If you are not a Mohammedan or a Jew, you are a Christian.
[195b]Ighir means a castle or fortified place, in Shillah.
[196]Kief is hemp mixed with some other herbs and cut up fine and smoked in little pipes about the size of those used for smoking opium. It does not produce torpor as the Turkish Hashish does, but if too much indulged in destroys the health and gives a curious livid look and glaziness of the eyes to the habitual smoker. Taken in moderation it has the sustaining qualities of the Coca of the Andes and the Betel Root of Java and the Far East. A slight headache is all that I have ever experienced on smoking it.
[197]Ajemi is the Arab term applied to any foreigner as distinct from themselves. As at the inception of Islam the Persians were almost the first foreign nation they met, the term has become used exclusively to designate them.
[201]Mr. Fitzmaurice Kelly is confident that Rojas threw off the Celestina in a fortnight’s holiday, but if so, I cannot help wondering why he threw off no more, as writers, ancient or modern, seldom know the force of the American adage, “When you strike ile, stop boring.”
[202]A district a little north-east of Morocco city in which the tribes are in constant rebellion.
[205]For the yachtTourmalinesee Appendix.
[207]Swani, so that theodium theologiummight not be wanting, hoped that the Persian would be killed on the road, for, said he, these Persian heretics are worse than Christians. The Persians are, as is well known, unorthodox, and who does not prefer an infidel to an unorthodox believer?
[209]Oudad, the moufflon.
[212]Ain Sefra is, or was a few months ago, the terminus of the French railway system in the Western Sahara. I should not be surprised that it was pushed on close to Figig by now, for the French in matters of this kind are not hampered with conscience, Nonconformist or otherwise.
[213a]“Uaheda Sultana Madame Casba.”
[213b]Magia is a spirit made by the Jews in Morocco; it is sometimes made of grapes, sometimes of figs, and again of dates. The magia made of dates is less lethal than that from figs or grapes. It is of a milky colour and very strong.
[214]Es Shark, the East. It is possible that the word Asia was derived from it when it is remembered that the Greeks and Romans must have had great difficulty in pronouncing both the Arabic gutturals and semi-gutturals.
[218]Ceilings divided into an infinity of little squares, and with pendant knobs here and there, and much inlaid work and gilding, are called “artesonado” in Spain, and I know no word in English by which to render it.
[219a]“Shillah race,” see books on Morocco, written sometimes by those whom Disraeli described as “flat-nosed Franks,” and who, no doubt humiliated by having met in the Arabs a finer type than their own, turned to the Berbers with the relief that the earthen tea-pot must find when taken away from the drawing-room companionship of “powder blue” china, and put back again on the kitchen dresser.
[219b]These saddle-cloths, called in Morocco “libdah,” are carried by respectable Moors when going to the Mosques to pray; Talebs and men of letters (who ride mules) generally have one loose upon their saddles, to sit upon when they dismount. Men of the sword disdain them and use them only underneath their saddles, where they place seven of them, of several colours, blue, red and yellow, and add an eighth, when on a journey, of white wool and separate from the others (which are all sewed together), so that it may be removed and washed.
[221]An ajimez is one of the little long-shaped horse-shoe windows, so frequently seen in Moorish buildings; often in the sides of towers, as in those of the Giralda at Seville.
[226]At that time, October, 1897, several Spanish, Greek, and Italian sailors were detained by the Riff tribes, having been captured when their vessels were becalmed near the shores of that province. European diplomacy having, as usual, failed, a Jew from Tangier with the aid of the French Consul in Tangier arranged for their liberation, and they arrived in Tangier on the same day that I arrived from the Atlas. The populace, chiefly Spaniards from Malaga, who had “had trouble” (knife thrusts given and received), welcomed us with acclamation, that is, they stared at us and shouted.
[227a]The Globe Venture Syndicate, I imagine.
[227b]Corrals, or enclosures.
[228]“Garcilasso de la Vega, Comentarios Reales del Peru,” Fifth Book, Part II., Chap. 21.
[234]A philosopher has remarked that liar, damned liar, and skilled witness stand in a progressive ratio, and for all I know, “specialists” may hold much the same position in the world of medicine.
[235a]Shisha is a kind of thin porridge not unlike the skilly of our Christian prisons.
[235b]“Painting a mark from the Spanish expression ‘pintar una marca.’ In the same way in Western Texas ‘Pinto,’ a piebald horse, became ‘paint,’ ‘cabresto,’ a halter, ‘cabress,’ and so on, in all conscience and tender heart.”
[236]Baraka literally means a blessing. It is also used in thanks, as Baraka Lowfik (“The blessing of God be on you”). And not infrequently as a sort of general term for goodness or generosity. Arabs rarely say “Baraka Lowfik” in thanking a Christian, but use the less religious phrase “Kettir heirac.” Neither do they (in Morocco) ever salute a Christian withSalam Aleikoum(“Peace be with you”), as peace is only for Believers.
[238]Andalusia is known to Spaniards as La tierra de Maria Santissima.
[240]The recent war having reminded the public that a country called Spain exists, I feel that I am not obliged to explain how little English money a peseta is worth at the present rate of exchange.
[241]The Powder Play (Lab-el-Barod) is known in Algeria as the Fantasia. Both in that country and in Morocco it is the imitation of an Arab tribal battle. The horsemen rush forward and fire their guns in parties or singly, stand up on the saddle, fire under their horses’necks, and over their tails, throw their guns in the air and catch them, and perform all the evolutions which their ancestors performed with javelin and spear. This exercise prevailed in Spain till the middle of the last century under the name of the “Juego de Callas.” It is still played in the East with reeds.
[243]“Si Moshé murio, Adonai quedó.”
[249]Jaui is the word used in Arabic to designate Malays, Chinese, and the Eastern Mohammedans in general.
[252]“Quien á caballo pasa la puente, tiene la muerte ante la frente.”
[255]This fashion is still kept up amongst old-fashioned and provincial Spaniards, who, on the rare occasions on which they admit a stranger to their houses, never leave him till bedtime. It is called “to accompany the guest” (acompañar el huesped), and to omit it would be the height of ill-breeding.
[259]To pour out a libation of milk on the road is a sign of welcome in Morocco.
[262]Walter B. Harris, author of “Tafilet,” and many works on Morocco, and one of the few Europeans who really know the country and the Moors.
[263]Morocco city was founded by Yusuf-ibn-Tachfin in 1072, on the site of the ancient Martok, and near where some say the Romans had a city with the strange name of Bocanum Homerum, sounding like nothing Roman and perhaps an attempt of the Romans to write some Berber word. Yusuf-ibn-Tachfin was the first prince of the Almoravides who invaded Spain and overthrew the forces of Alfonso VI. of Castille at the great battle of Alarcos, and reigned over Southern Spain and Africa until the Almohades broke their power.
[267]Kaiserieh, the bazaar. Literally silk market. The word is preserved in Spanish under the form of Alcaiceria.
[274]Azofaifa is the jujube tree (Zizyphus jujuba). The Spanish word azofaifa is derived from the Arabic zofaif.
[275a]Riad means a garden. In Andalusia it is still used under the form of Arriate.
[275b]The haik is supposed to be the Roman Toga, and it is certainly very like it.
[282a]“Wind drinkers,” Shrab-er-Reh in Arabic, is the term applied in the Sahara to the best breed of horses.
[282b]Geographers seem to have overlooked Ben Joul, perhaps without due cause.
[283]A palm tree is said by the Arabs to grow with its roots in water and its head in fire.
[285]Called Retam by the Arabs, and Retama by the Spaniards.
[288]The Tuaregs in writing Tamashek use a character of their own, but this is unknown to the Shillah.