CH. T. ENDUfiANGE OF THE NATIVES. 119 



our own people, did not let us close our eyes till the night 

 was far spent. 



On this, as on many another occasion, we were forced 

 to admire the extraordinary endurance of the common 

 people of this country. It was not mainly the amount of 

 work they are able to accomplish, but their high spirits 

 and cheerful demeanour under hardships and difficulties. 

 Four of our men travelled on foot, walking or running at 

 a jog trot under a burning sun, and on arrival in camp 

 the same men were always ready for work in setting up 

 tents, moving heavy luggage, and attending to the various 

 wants of their employers. Having often to wait till mid- 

 night for their food, they would pass the time in lively 

 talk, and after the stimulus of a draught of green tea, 

 tlieir renewed spirits generally broke out in the form of 

 songs or chaunts that seemed interminable. Then, after 

 three or four hours' sleep, they were ready to begin again 

 next morning with the same unflagging energy and spirit. 

 During the day the men on foot resorted to a curious 

 expedient for diminishing the effect of heat, by thrusting 

 a stick down the back between the skin and their scanty 

 woollen garment, and thus securing ventilation. 



We were up soon after daybreak on May 3. Our camp 

 was close to the wretched village of Misra ben Kara, a 

 large collection of mere hovels put together with mud 

 and dried branches, and enclosed, as the douar generally 

 is, within a sort of rampart formed of the dried stems and 

 branches of the Zizyphus Lotus, piled up to a height of 

 eight or ten feet, through which a single opening gives 

 admission to the inhabitants and their domestic animals. 

 It stands at a short distance from the Oued Nyfs,' one of 



' The spelling here adopted is that used by M. Beaumier in his 

 sketch-map of the route from Mogador to Marocco, but it is extremely 

 difficult to fix the sounds expressing many of the native names. Some- 

 times this sounded to our ears as Oued enfisk, sometimes as Oued 

 enfist ; the latler, it will be remarked, is merely a slight anagram of 

 t he name Oued Tensif t, belonging I o the main river flowing westward 

 on the north side of the city of Marocco. 



