154 COUNTRY OF EL-HARIB. 
spent in lamentations on the part of the owners of the 
camels, their relations, and friends. They had recourse to 
fortune-tellers to know if they should recover them, and 
came to consult me on the subject, requesting a charm to 
bring them back ; this I refused, under pretence that my 
writings did not possess that virtue. 
On the 11th of July, the Berbers who were to escort us 
to Tafilet arrived, and great was my joy to think that on the 
morrow I should quit a place where I had experienced so 
many mortifications. Aly had a sheep killed for the Ber- 
bers* supper and gave me a little bit, with an apology on 
account of the many persons who were to partake of it. 
On the 12th, at five o'clock in the morning, our pre- 
parations were made for departure ; but before quitting this 
country I shall give a description of it. 
The territory of el-Harib, two days* journey west of that 
of el-Drah, and one to the east of the tribe of the Traja- 
cants, is situated between two chains of mountains, which 
extend from east to west, and separate it towards the north 
from the empire of Morocco, to which it is tributary. The 
inhabitants are divided into several roving tribes. Their 
principal wealth consists in the great quantity of camels 
which they breed, and which in the wet season produce 
abundance of milk for their sustenance. All the Moors of 
el-Harib travel in the Soudan ; they go to Timbuctoo, el- 
Arawan, and Sansanding; the merchants of Tafilet, el- 
Drah, and Soueyrah, give them loads for their camels ; on 
their own account they carry only wheat and dates, and 
these in small ventures. When in the Soudan they remain 
there several months, for the purpose of traffic ; making 
little journeys to Toudeyni, where they purchase mineral 
salt, which they sell again to the principal merchants in the 
two chief entrepots, receiving in exchange grain, the stuffs of 
the Soudan, and gold. Having spent nine or ten months in 
this traffic, they take a load for Tafilet or some other city, 
