Cloudy night. Halo around ye moon. At daylight fine weather. Thermometer 50o. Wind west.
I was given to expect a long sleep & a tranquil breakfast at 9, but before 6 was roused by note of a courier going off in about ¼ of an hour to Rabat, by whom I took occasion to write to my dear wife.
I had hardly closed my letter when I heard horsemen enter the camp & was told they announced preparations making near the city for our reception & before I could dress myself I heard the cavalry assembling as it were in . . . . . .[??] & every now and then the explosions of Bahrant warned us to prepare for the Entree. A message accordingly from Seedy Mohamed caused us to take a hasty breakfast at 8 & our tents were soon struck.
On mounting my horse about ½ past 8 I found a falconer flying his hawk near my tent but not at any bird, being only a playmaking or example of his act to amuse the strangers. I noticed the lure & his mode of using it, and the call he gave to his hawk when on the wing & other circumstances as strongly resembling the sport I witnessed the year before the late Lord Morton's death at Dalmahoy. There soon assembled eight falconers, some on horseback and each with a hawk on his gloved fist. One or two had two hawks, the 2d was carried on the falconer's head. The birds appeared to me of two species, & the generality I think smaller than our sporting falcons. See Jackson 2nd edition, p 118.
The warplay now began on the parts {267} jointly of our escort with their gallant leader & the cavalry of Duquella, several of whom as yesterday stood erect in their saddles in the charge & one man distinguished himself by picking up his turban while galloping at full speed from the ground where he had purposely thrown it several times.
At 8.45 set forward through the beautiful groves of palms, some of which were of great size & others had 16 & 17 stems in a cluster on one stool or root. We were preceded by the cavalry of the Rhamna with its Kaid & accompanied by an immense crowd of the curious which at every step seemed to increase until the suddenly hurried of to the left to pass the river before we reached Al Kantara
8.50 met by Kaid of Ezemran and more cavalry.
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| {265} The crowd exclaiming
Esalat oo salaam ala rasool Ellah (or ala Nabee -
to the Prophet) - Prayers and peace upon the Messenger of God - viz Muhammed
- meaning thereby an invocation in reference to the superiority of their
Prophet above all others & those who are of all other religions.
La Ilah ila Elah - (There are) no Gods but God Essalatoo ala rasool Ellah - let us pray to the messenger of God (or) ala nabee - to the Prophet. |
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| {268} House and garden of Sultan's
father Mulai Heesham & to it the Sultan comes every day.
Name of Garden Sahb El Mamoonea.
Windows English from Mogador Woodwork cypress & araar,(1) the latter being used for the large beams, which comes out of forests either in Rif, or in Shloffs mountains country or near Tedla where there are lions. The mount[ain]s of Atlas are called in Marocco Gibel Mesfewa(2) |
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| There are said to be some very
antient ruins supposed by my Jew informant to be Roman but certainly not
Moorish.
Passing around the walls before entering the town we passed over the sad ruins of [illegible] conduit I which presume to be the remains of those dilapidated aqueducts of which Ali Bey writes so feelingly (T 1 p. 277) |
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| {270} Notwithstanding what Jackson writes p 123, the sparrow is common I think in the Empire & we find it in numbers at this city. Also the little bird called tibib comes fearlessly into my room, chirping & flying about me. | |
| I could not, until I reverted to Jackson, p.125, understand what the substance termed amber was which the Moors occasionally served us in their tea. It is as I suspected what is called in England ambergris, but the mode or source for collection of it is curious if credible. |