[Footnote 45: _El Bishna_. This is the Arabic name for Indian corn.]
[Footnote 46: _Allila_, a species of millet.]
[Footnote 47: A wheel similar to the Persian wheel, as before described in the note, page 13.]
Rice is their principal food, but the rich have wheaten flour from Fas[48], and make very fine bread, which is considered a luxury. Bread is also made from the _allila_. They roast, boil, bake, and stew, but make no _cuscasoe_. Their meals are breakfast, dinner, and supper. They commonly breakfast about eight, dine about three, and sup soon after sunset. They drink only water or milk with their meals, have no palm wine or any fermented liquor; when they wish to 26 be exhilarated after dinner, they provide a plant of an intoxicating quality called _el hashisha_[49], of which they take a handful before a draught of water.
[Footnote 49: _El Hashisha_. This is the African hemp plant: it is esteemed for the extraordinary and pleasing voluptuous vacuity of mind which it produces on those who smoke it: unlike the intoxication from wine, a fascinating stupor pervades the mind, and the dreams are agreeable. The _kief_ is the flower and seeds of the plant: it is a strong narcotic, so that those who use it cannot do without it. For a further description of this plant, see Jackson's Marocco, 2d or 3d edit. p. 131 & 132.]
Goats are very large, as big as the calves in England, and very plentiful; sheep are also very large. Cattle are small; many are oxen. Milk of camels and goats is preferred to that of cows. Horses are small, and are principally fed upon camels' milk; they are of the greyhound[50] shape, and will travel three days without rest. They have dromedaries[51] which travel from Timbuctoo[52] to Tafilelt in the short period of five or six days.
[Footnote 50: These horses are the desert horse, or the _shrubat er'reeh_. See Jackson's Marocco, 2d or 3d edition, p. 94. to 96.]
[Footnote 51: These are _El Heirie_, (or _Erragual_), for a particular description of which see Jackson's Marocco, p. 91. to 93.]
[Footnote 52: A distance of upwards of 1200 British miles.] 27 BIRDS.
They have common fowls, ostriches, and a bird larger than our blackbird[53]; also storks, which latter are birds of passage, and arrive in the spring and disappear at the approach of winter; swallows, &c.