190 WOMEN OF TAFILET. 
small, lively, and pretty : they have blue eyes, animated and 
expressive, aquiline nose, and a mouth of middling size ; 
they are inquisitive, and very fond of talking. Drawing 
water, washing linen, fetching wood for cooking, in short all 
the household labours, fall to their share. 
I shall not undertake to portray the Musulman women 
of Tafilet ; 1 found it impossible to obtain a view of their 
faces : when out of doors they have the appearance of an 
uncouth moving mass, from an enormous woollen cloak, in 
which they are enveloped from head to foot, and which 
scarcely allows them to see the way they are going : it is 
only in the bosom of their families, and sometimes in the 
inner court, that they shew themselves unveiled. Care is 
taken to give the women notice to retire to their private 
apartments, when strangers are about to enter the dwelling 
upon any business. 
A custom prevalent in the east obtains also here and is 
rigorously observed : when a common Moor passes a sherif 
he unties his sandals, takes them in his hand, and makes a 
low and respectful obeisance. 
On the 2nd of August, about half past four p. m. the 
caravan proceeded in a N. N. E. direction. We met on the 
road a vast number of Moors from the country, driving 
asses loaded with all sorts of productions, as melons, grapes, 
figs, and other fruit, and vegetables, going to a neighbouring 
market. 
We crossed some fields, and passed near a walled village 
the name of which I have forgotten : continuing our route 
for the space of a mile to the N. N. E., we arrived at the 
village of Afile, without which we halted at sun-set. It is 
situated near a considerable rivulet, called by the natives 
Sidi-Aiche, the water of which although brackish, is their 
only beverage ; this rivulet runs slowly to the N. W. 
Plenty of barley for our beasts was brought, soon after our 
arrival, and some water-melons for the refreshment of the 
