184 MOUNTAIN TRIBES OF THE ATLAS. ch. tiii. 



may be imagined that the tax on the resources of a poor 

 mountain village was not trifling. 



We had now entered the district of Eeraya, which is 

 under the rule of El G-raoui, represented by one or more 

 deputies. The whole popula,tion, excepting some miser- 

 able-looking Jews, is Shelluh; but here, as everywhere 

 among the Berebers, these are divided into tribes or clans, 

 who are often at feud, and always jealous and suspicious of 

 each other. There is generally a superior chief or sheik, 

 having a wide, but ill-defined authority over the whole clan; 

 but among those that recognise the Sultan's paramount 

 temporal as well as spiritual supremacy, this is subor- 

 dinate to that of the Grovernor. In this part of the Great 

 Atlas, the clans, as well as the districts named after them, 

 preserve the Shelluh patronymic of Ait ; but the Bereber 

 tribes of the high ranges E. and SE. of Fez have gener- 

 ally adopted the Arabic Beni, as with the powerful tribes, 

 Beni Mtir and Mghill. One of the many difficulties of 

 the geographer in this country arises from the practice of 

 naming each district from the tribe that inhabits it, and 

 the fact that, either from compulsion, or a taste for mi- 

 gration, it is not uncommon for a tribe to remove from 

 one valley to another. The next valley to that where we 

 now were was called at this time Ait Mesan ; but if the Ait 

 Mesan should take possession of some neighbouring valley, 

 or be driven out by a stronger tribe, the traveller who 

 visits the country some years hence may find the Ait 

 Mesan valley in quite another place from that which we 

 have described. 



Our chief anxiety now, was to ascertain that the pro- 

 mise held out, of penetrating to the inner recesses of the 

 Great Atlas in the district of Eeraya, was to be realised. 

 We were told that in the next adjoining valley we should 

 reach a place only two hours' journey from the snow, and 

 tliat the sheik of that valley had been summoned, and 

 would arrive on the next morning. At the same time, 

 whether from ignorance or a design to mislead us. El 



