MOORS OF EL-HARIB. 155 
and afterwards return into their own country vand to their 
family, bringing with them gold only and some slaves, whom 
they sell in Morocco. 
On returning to their own country, they are obliged to 
pay a small tribute to a chief called the sheikh. The goods 
brought by the Moors from the Soudan to el-Harib are 
transported to Tafilet or other places by the Berbers alone, 
or under escorts which they furnish at a price agreed upon ; 
without which precaution the merchants would certainly be 
robbed or murdered on the road. 
The Moors of this miserable country are incessantly 
harassed by the Berbers, from whose habits of rapine they 
have every thing to fear, although they pay them a heavy 
tribute ; and not one of them, whatever rank he may hold at 
home, dares travel without being thus accompanied. These 
roving people, not being themselves cultivators of the soil, 
are obliged frequently to go to el-Drah to purchase barley and 
dates for food, and not daring to attempt this without the 
convoy of the Berbers, they pay them an additional tribute by 
way of remuneration. These latter, well armed, are conti- 
tinually prowling about in the country of el-Harib, to obtain 
food from the Moors and even to carry off their cattle. 
The inhabitants of this district are so poor that they 
can purchase only the cheapest provisions, principally such 
dates as, having fallen from the trees before they have become 
perfectly ripe, are carefully picked up by the owners, ex- 
posed to the sun to dry, and then put into leathern bags, 
where they become so extremely hard that very good teeth 
are requisite to eat them without pain. Upon these dates, 
which they pound in a wooden mortar, and a little cheni, 
the Moors of el-Harib subsist during the day ; eating san- 
gleh before evening only in very particular cases. 
About eight or nine at night, they usually sup upon 
a couscous of barley generally steeped in warm water, in 
which they have boiled a handful of herbs gathered in the 
