104 MOOEISH STEONGHOLDS. ch. v. 



with unfailing zeal and punctuality. On such an occasion 

 as the present we had no fear of pressing too hardly on the 

 donors of the mona ; but in poor places, and especially in 

 the valleys of the Great Atlas, we had an unpleasant feel- 

 ing that the exorbitant demands of our rapacious escort im- 

 posed a heavy tax on the limited means of the population. 



Struggling against sleep, we diligently worked at our 

 plants till long past midnight, and then, at length, sought 

 rest after our first day's journey in South Marocco. On 

 the morning of April 30, we were up betimes, and had an 

 opportunity of viewing the kasbah. It is a large pile of 

 building, enclosed by a high wall, within which there is 

 space for great numbers of horses, camels, and domestic 

 animals of all kinds, with dwellings for the numerous 

 retainers and rooms for guests, all separate from the cen- 

 tral block which forms the residence of the great man, 

 his family, and personal attendants. Except that it is 

 mainly built of tapia, or blocks of mud, rammed into 

 square moulds and hardened in the sun, this and other 

 similar buildings in Marocco differ little from the castles 

 which the semibarbarous feudal chiefs inhabited throughout 

 a great part of Europe in the so-called ages of chivalry, 

 and down to the beginning of the last century. A more 

 extended acquaintance with the country afterwards showed 

 further points of comparison. There is not one of these 

 kasbahs that has not been the scene of atrocious deeds of 

 cruelty and treachery, such as we find in the records of 

 most of our mediseval strongholds. When we shudder at 

 tales of Moorish atrocities we are apt to forget that they 

 merely disclose an anachronism, no way surprising in a 

 country that has stood altogether aloof from the influences 

 that have brought Europe to a condition of relative civil- 

 isation. 



The kasbah of Shedma is well placed, on nearly flat 

 ground, at the summit of one of the highest of the undu- 

 latiag hills that intervene between the coast and the great 

 plain of Marocco, standing, by our measurements, 1,430 



