230 MAROCCO PRISONS. ch. ix. 



were confined in dungeons. Criminals who have com- 

 mitted murders and robberies frequently escape by taking 

 refuge at some of the numerous sanctuaries scattered over 

 the whole territory, while lesser offenders and mere de- 

 faulters are caught wholesale. No food is provided for 

 prisoners by the authorities ; but the means of keeping 

 body and soul together are generally forthcoming, through 

 the kindness of relatives, or the charitable feeling which 

 is common here, as in other Mohammedan countries. 



The survival among the Bereber tribes of the practice 

 of sacrificing an animal to propitiate the favour of a man 

 in authority, is a fact deserving the attention of ethnolo- 

 gists. Another instance of a similar kind came to our 

 knowledge a few weeks later, and we had recently seen 

 that the same rite is observed to avert the displeasure of 

 evil spirits. 



Our increased acquaintance with the flora of the Great 

 Atlas did not much modify our first impressions. Making 

 due allowance for the earliness of 'the season, and for the 

 adverse conditions that may have concealed from us some 

 species inhabiting the higher zone, it was clear that the 

 vegetation here differs very much from that of all the lofty 

 mountain masses of Southern Europe and Western Asia, 

 and especially in the absence of those families that else- 

 where form the chief ornaments of the higher mountain 

 zone, and which we are accustomed to associate with the 

 glories of the Alpine flora. There was here to be seen no 

 gentian, no primrose or Androsace, no rhododendron, no 

 anemone, no potentilla, and none but lowland forms of 

 saxifrage and ranunculus. 



Our first impression had been that the flora is abso- 

 lutely very poor ; but this was due mainly to the fact that 

 so large a proportion of the plants have inconspicuous 

 flowers. Comparing the produce of our day's work with 

 that of high mountain excursions made elsewhere, the 

 species are not deficient in variety, but show a singularly 

 small proportion of showy flowers. As regards novelty, we 



