Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 2.djvu/476

 390 NORTH-WEST AFRICA. Gobttsta, "Our Lafly of the Olive," a gigantic tree with enormous branches, unrivalled in the whole of Western Mauritania. ^ Marocco. Marocco, or rather MarraJctsh, the Tcmrakcsh of the Berbers, second capital of the empire, is the only city in the valley of the Tensift, which reaches the coast J between Saffi and Mogador. Seen from without, it presents a superb aspect, reminding pilgrims of the Syrian Damascus. Approaching it from the north or north-east by the banks of the Tensift, which flows within a few miles of the city, the traveller passes through a vast plantation of several hundred thousand palms, inter- spersed here and there with the olive and other fruit-trees. Seen from the Mogador direction, where the route traverses a bare and stony plain, a still more imposing effect is produced by its massive walls flanked with towers, the lofty minaret of its great mosque, and the long indented line of the Atlas, hazy below, blue and streaked with snow towards the summit, bounding the eastern horizon. Standing at an elevation of 1,660 feet some 30 miles from the spurs of the Atlas, Marrakesh is abundantly supplied with water, every house possessing a separate well, every garden irrigated with a purling stream. Its equable climate also, tempered by the neighbouring mountains, is one of the most delightful in the world, reflected, so to say, in the vegetation, where plants of the temperate are intermingled with those of the tropical regions. Marrakesh-el-IIamra, or " the Red," was founded in the second half of the eleventh century, some 24 miles north of the ancient city of Aghmat (Ar/nai), whose inhabitants migrated to the new settlement. The capital grew rapidly, and in the following century it was already one of the " queens " of Mauritania. Although now dethroned and outstripped in population, trade, and industries by its northern rival, Fez, it is still regarded as an imperial capital, visited yearly by the Sultan. The approach of his Majesty is grimly heralded by the despatch of a number of human heads, destined to decorate the front of the palace, as a warning to unruly spirits meditating revolt. About the year 1860 the Rahmennas, one of the powerful Berber tribes in the outskirts, having broken into open rebellion, had to be forcibly dislodged before an entrance could be effected. The Berber element is numerously represented even within the walls, and on market days Tamazight is more generally spoken in the bazaars than Arabic. The Negroes are also numerous, relatively far more so than in the northern capital. As in most other towns of Marocco, the Jews, though now protected by the Israelitish Alliance, are still confined to a mellah, or separate quarter, enclosed by ramparts, which they cannot cross except barefooted and with downcast eyes. Notwithstanding its imposing external aspect, Marrakesh presents inside the appearance of a decayed city. The ramparts, about 7 miles in circuit, not including the walls of the imperial park south of the city, are interrupted by wide breaches ; the thoroughfares leading to the seven gates are in many places lined move with ruins than with houses; more than half of the area comprised within the enclosures