175 
The aqueduct which carries the water to Semelalia is so 
large, that when 1 ordered it to be cleaned, the men 
walked in it to a great distance. This water is excel- 
lent. 
The most common plant in the vicinity of Morocco 
is the palmdate-tree. It grows to a prodigious height, 
but its fruit is not of so good a quality as that of Tafilet, 
they do not even keep dry for a year. They are called 
Billoh. 
I have seen at Semelalia, as well within as without its 
enclosure, a number of these date trees, and often eat 
the pith of the tree, which has an excellent taste. 
In a wood of palm trees between Semelalia and Mo- 
rocco, there is a kind of republic of crows, whose man- 
ners are very curious. Every morning at break of day 
they separate on all sides in order to fetch provisions 
from a great distance, and not one of them remains on 
the trees orin the neighbourhood. Towards evening they 
all return and assemble in thousands in the wood, where 
they sit together on the boughs of the palm trees, making 
such a noise as if they were relating to each other the 
expeditions of the day. This I have observed during 
winter and summer; but notwithstanding every attention 
I have not been able to observe any crows with red legs, 
which some travellers and naturalists pretend to have 
seen. 
At a little distance from this wood is a lonely town, 
which is only inhabited by families who have the mis- 
fortune of being attacked with an eruption of a leprous 
nature, and which descends in the families from father 
to son. These unfortunate people are excluded from 
