258 HEAD OF AMSMIZ VALLEY. oh. x 



remark as to this sorry substitute for the promised escort 

 of fifty armed men, the sheik announced that more men 

 would join the party farther on. As we firmly disbelieved 

 the stories of danger from the terrible men of Sous, who 

 are the bugbears of the population on the northern side of 

 the mountains, we never cared to call attention to the fact 

 that the promised reinforcements did not make their ap- 

 pearance. 



In the upper part of the valley, the trench which the 

 torrent has cut for itself is less deeply excavated than 

 through its lower course, and leaves space for a path, and 

 a few straggling olive and walnut trees ; and in some spots 

 for small patches of cultivation. For about six miles we 

 kept to the torrent bank, our horses sometimes preferring 

 its stony bed, till we reached the junction of the two 

 streams that feed the Amsmiz torrent. Between them 

 rises the peak of Djebel Tezah, and here the ascent of the 

 mountain begins. As the slope was still very gentle, we 

 rode on a short distance farther, after hurriedly collecting 

 some interesting plants, but soon came to a halt at a clump 

 of fine walnut trees, standing by our observations at 5,604 

 feet (1,708 m.) above the sea. We had seen no village by 

 the way, but only a few men engaged in fashioning gun- 

 stocks from walnut wood. It appeared, nevertheless, that 

 there was a small village near at hand, and this place 

 would be the proper starting point for travellers intending 

 to make the ascent. There would be no diflSculty in con- 

 veying small tents hither from Amsmiz. 



Much to our satisfaction, the sheik now withdrew, 

 committing us to the charge of an active, but unarmed 

 young Shelluh, with strict injunctions to lead as far as the 

 snow, but not to allow us to proceed farther. It is hard to 

 say whether the sheik and his people felt any real un- 

 easiness as to the possibility of a casual encounter with 

 natives of the Sous valley ; but it was pretty clear that 

 they had succeeded in frightening our attendants, as our 

 Mogador men, usually so active and attentive, soon 



