CH. vm. DIETARY OF THE MOUNTAINEERS. 203 



not clearly know how we were to return to our camp after 

 dark, but remembered distinctly one awkward place — the 

 fording of the torrent — whei'e some daylight seemed in- 

 dispensable. We hurried back, our portfolios and tin 

 boxes fully charged with spoil, and found the horses and 

 mules awaiting us on the flat ground below Arround. A 

 man can usually travel over rough mountain tracks as fast 

 as a mule ; but if the man be a botanist, and the track 

 lies among new and rare plants, it is quite certain that he 

 will not do so ; and when haste is a matter of real import- 

 ance, it is necessary to submit to the restraint of riding. 

 Hurried as we were, it was necessary to dismount and 

 make a short halt on our return to Arround. The laws 

 of Bereber hospitality required that the villagers should 

 present a mona, and that we should at least make a show 

 of partaking of it. There was a large dish of barley 

 porridge, with a lake of oil in a crater-like hollow in the 

 centre, and another of buttermilk, in which were some of 

 last year's walnuts, as well as other unexpected delicacies. 

 This entertainment was briefly despatched by our followers, 

 and we proceeded down the steep track beside the moraine, 

 and again reached Adjersiman. Here, to our vexation, 

 another halt was called, and another slight refection was 

 presented. Our impatience was so far successful, that the 

 delay was limited to a very few minutes. We should, per- 

 haps, have displayed more interest in these specimens of 

 native cookery, if we had been acquainted with the curious 

 passages in which Leo Africanus ' minutely describes the 

 dietary of the Atlas mountaineers, and the mode of pre- 

 paring the identical dishes that were here presented to us. 

 Once more we were in the saddle, and the whole party 

 felt that no more delay was permitted. To ride down the 

 steep, slippery bed of the watercourse below the village 

 seemed even a more trying alfair than the ascent ; but our 

 companions seemed to take it as a matter of course, and our 



' See Uamusio, Sellc Niu'igationi et Viaggi. Venetia: 1563. Vol. 

 i. 12. 



