Page:Ossendowski - The Fire of Desert Folk.djvu/96

80 of Ain el-Hout, belonging to the Uled Ali tribe. It is a well-known place of pilgrimage for the inhabitants of Tlemsen, as the tombs of famous Marabouts from the family of Idris I, a powerful sultan related through his mother to the Prophet, are located there.

Our guide first took us to the spring of Aïn el-Hout, which is a large basin surrounded by an adobe wall and containing limpidly clear water that is fed up into the reservoir through the green clay at the bottom. Waterplants of the family Cladophorae were growing in the middle of the basin and afforded shelter for schools of small trout, the sight of which drew from Mahomet the following story:

"You see how many fish there are in the basin. From where could they have come, in view of the fact that the water bubbles up from the earth and does not run in from any surface supply? There is a legend which gives us the explanation. One of the young sons of a Tlemsen sultan of the thirteenth century was passing this spring on his way to a hunt, when he discovered a beautiful maiden with a pitcher of water in each hand just turning away in embarrassment, because she was unveiled and did not know what to do. The prince jumped from his horse, seized the girl in his arms and kissed her, whereupon she blushed violently, dropped her pitchers and strove to cover her face with her haik, but all to no avail, as the young prince was the stronger and persisted in his amorous demonstrations. Fearing she would be carried off, the girl broke from him and threw herself into the water, where she was transformed into fish. From that day the spring has been called, Aïn el-Hout, the Fountain of the