Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 2.djvu/486

 40 NORTH-WEST AFRICA. members of the Prophet's family, while some of the Beni-Mohammed (Beni-Mahmid) nation are scattered over the district. The Negroes also form small colonies in every oasis, and tljeir blood is^ mixed with that of the other inhabitants. The Jews are represented in all the villages as artisans, although Jewish traders are comparatively less numerous on the southern than on the opposite slope of the Atlas. All the oases in the Draa basin are independent, or at most yield a nominal submission to the authority of the Sultan. In many respects the natives of this region appear to be more civilised than those of the western provinces. Their dwellings especially are more elegant, adorned with terraces and turrets, provided with balustrades and decorated with mouldinffs. All the Upper Draa Valley, from the Tagherut pass to and beyond the confluence of the Dades river, is occupied by the Glawa people. Their chief place is Tikirt, on the northern verge of an arid stony plain stretching southwards in the direction of the Anti- Atlas. Before entering the gorge piercing this range, the Draa is joined by the Dades, whose banks are cultivated and lined with houses wherever sufficient space is afforded between the torrent and its rocky walls. Here every hamlet is guarded by a square tower 30 or 40 feet high, from which the inhabitants keep up a constant fire whenever war breaks out between two conterminous clans. These feuds are generally due to disputes about the irrigation canals; otherwise the people are peaceful enough, the various villages appointing their delegates to a common jemaa or assembly, which takes measures against the hostile Ait-Attas. The natives of Dades claim to have long possessed a special remedy against ophthal- mia, and their eye-doctors yearly visit every part of Mauritania in the exercise of their art. Beyond the Anti- Atlas gorges both banks of the Draa are lined by an almost continuous village, to the point where the river enters the desert and trends to the south-west. The population, chiefly Haratins, or black Berbers, have converted the whole region for 120 miles, from the Mezquita to the Ktawa district, into a vast garden. Their palms yield the best dates in Western Mauritania, and in such quantities that at the time of Rohlf 's visit a load of 375 lbs. was sold for two francs. Besides dates, the country yields some cereals, cabbages, onions, turnips, carrots, tomatos, melons, and in the south liquorice-root. In the Wed Draa the chief town is Tamagrat, on the right bank of the stream over against the extremity of the Bani range. It is regarded as a sort of capital, thanks to its important market, and to the religious influence of its zawya, dedicated to Sidi Hamed- ben-Nasser. But a more populous place is Betti-Sbih, chief town of the rich Ktawa district and of the Beni-Mohammed nation. The village of Zait in the Harib territory, is the starting-point of caravans for the Sudan. TissENT — Tatta West of the Upper Draa the quadrilateral space bounded north by the Anti-Atlas, south by the dry bed of the Lower Draa, is occupied by a few oases, such as J