■342 PERIODICAL FAMINES. cH. xiii. 



to this we may reasonably attribute their subsequent de- 

 cline. 



When Leo Africanus travelled in Sous, early in the 

 sixteenth century, Tarudant was only one of many large 

 and flourishing towns, and was much surpassed in im- 

 portance by Tagavost, a place whose very name has dis- 

 appeared from memory, and whose exact site is unknown 

 to modern geographers. 



Mr. Hunot, who is well acquainted with the city of 

 Marocco, estimated the population at about 40,000, but 

 admitted that there were no materials for an accurate guess 

 on the subject. Fully one-fourth of the inhabitants had 

 been carried off by the last visitation of cholera, from 

 which the coast towns, with the sole exception of Mogador, 

 had also suffered severely. 



The main check to population in the greater part of 

 the empire arises, however, from the recurrence of famines. 

 These sometimes are caused by locusts, but are then of a 

 partial and local character ; but those consequent on the 

 occasional failure of the winter and spring rains are not very 

 unfrequent, and are of terrible severity. Among the means 

 resorted to at such times for supporting life, we learned 

 that the roots of a small plant of the Arum tribe are much 

 used. This, known to botanists as Arisarum vulgare, is 

 very common throughout North Africa, as well as in many 

 parts of the south of Europe. It flowers in this country 

 in winter, and the leaves wither and disappear in the 

 spring. The root, which is not so large as an ordinary 

 walnut, contains, as is usual in the Aroid tribe, an acrid 

 juice, which makes it quite uneatable in the natural state. 

 This, however, is easily removed by frequent washing 

 of the pounded roots, and the residue is innoxious and 

 nutritive. The same process has been applied with success 

 to the common European plant. Arum maculatum, as 

 well as to many exotic species of the same tribe. 



Among the many difficulties that beset commercial 

 intercourse with Marocco, the frequent interruption of 



