CH. VIII. NATIVES SEEK MEDICAL ADVICE. 187 



common medicines. Even an ordinary traveller, with no 

 more knowledge of medicine than the elementary notions 

 possessed by most educated persons, may safely apply simple 

 remedies in many of the cases of sickness that commonly 

 occur among uncivilised people ; but in our case there was 

 no occasion for rash experiments, as Hooker's medical 

 knowledge and skill were more than sufficient for the 

 needs of the patients who flocked in considerable numbers 

 to ask for advice. From this time forward, except in one 

 or two places where the people were withheld by the bigotry 

 of the authorities, this became one of the daily demands 

 upon his time and patience. 



To judge from our own observation of the Shelluh 

 people, and the experience of French travellers among the 

 Kabyles, it seems probable that a traveller having some 

 knowledge of the Bereber language, and a little medical 

 skill, who could once make his way among the indepen- 

 dent tribes of East Marocco, miglit safely explore the un- 

 known portions of the Great Atlas. The tirst condition 

 would be, that he should be able to overcome or evade 

 the obstacles that would be put in his way by the Moorish 

 authorities ; and the second, that he should avoid treating 

 any case that was likely to have a fatal termination. The 

 position of an infidel stranger who might be supposed to be 

 accessory to the death of a native of one of these wild tribes 

 would doubtless be very perilous. The only branch of 

 natural history that could be followed by a traveller under 

 such conditions would be botany. In collecting plants he 

 would be supposed to be following his proper avocation ; 

 whereas the slightest attention given to stones or minerals 

 would be set down to a search for treasure. 



The Shelluh population of the Great Atlas is strikingly 

 different from the Arab stock, but scarcely to be distin- 

 guished in appearance from the cognate Bereber races, 

 the Riff mountaineers of North Marocco, and the Kabyles 

 of Algeria. Long faces, of a deep sallow complexion, high 

 cheek-bones, eyes closely set and not so dark as those of 



