192 
MARCA. 
numbers of date-trees. Here our caravan was retarded by a 
troop of Arabs, to whom we were obliged, whether we would 
or not, to pay the passage-dues. This prank occasioned a 
great deal of confusion ; the two parties had nearly come to 
blows ; but fortunately no bad consequences ensued : the 
merchants gave a few dragmes, and the Arabs left us to con- 
tinue our route, which lay over a dry and gravelly soil. The 
gently swelling hills which rose on either hand were appa- 
rently composed of red sand, and bore no vegetation : the 
heat was extreme, and we had no water to moisten our 
parched lips. At one in the afternoon we reached Marca, a 
large village enclosed by a wall twelve or fourteen feet high, 
and there halted. 
We ran in haste to the wells, situated beyond the 
village, but could not draw water enough, having unfortu- 
nately no better bucket than an old leathern bag full of 
holes. My thirst being at length satisfied, I seated myself 
in the shade near the gate of the village ; where many idle 
Moors were lying on their backs, waiting the call to supper : 
immediately upon perceiving me they rose with astonishment 
and asked each other, " Who is this man ?" easily detecting 
me for a stranger by the costume 1 always wore, which was 
of Soudan stuff, and strikingly different from their own. 
They assembled round me and overwhelmed me with 
questions. I was never taken at first sight by the Moors 
of Tafilet for an Arab ; they always treated me at once as 
a stranger ; redoubled artifice was necessary to deceive 
them : but when 1 declared myself to have been taken pri- 
soner while very young by the army of Bonaparte, they 
appeared satisfied, and congratulated me upon the good reso^r 
lution I had formed of returning to my country. 
At the gate of Marca, I met, by a singular accident, 
a Berber whom I had known at el-Harib : he received me 
with kindness, and immediately acquainted the assembly 
with my history. This Berber politely invited me to visit 
