A prosperous city, one would have thought, the emporium
for the desert trade with Europe, and indeed it was all this for many
years. Now it has fallen from its high commercial estate; French
enterprise has cut into and diverted the caravan routes, seeking to turn
all the desert traffic to Dakkar, the new Bizerta in Senegal, or to the
Algerian coast.
Salam and M'Barak praised Sidi M'godol, whose zowia lay plainly to be seen
below the Marrakesh gate; the Susi muleteers, the boy, and the slave
renewed their Shilha songs, thinking doubtless of the store of dollars
awaiting them; but I could not conquer my regrets, though I was properly
obliged to Sidi M'godol for bringing me in safety to his long home. Just
before us a caravan from the South was pushing its way to the gates. The
ungainly camels, seeing a resting-place before them, had plucked up their
spirits and were shuffling along at a pace their drivers could hardly have
enforced on the previous day. We caught them up, and the leaders explained
that they were coming in from Tindouf in the Draa country, a place
unexplored as yet by Europeans. They had suffered badly from lack of water
on the way, and confirmed the news that the Bedouins had brought, of a
drought unparalleled in the memory of living man.
Pages:
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266