The country is well cultivated, except on the side of the desert.
They have rice, _el bishna_[45], and a corn which _they_ call
_allila_[46], but in Barbary it is called _drâh_: this requires
very rich ground. They make bread of _el bishna_: they have no
wheat or barley. Property is fenced by a bank and a ditch. Dews are
very heavy. Lands are watered by canals cut from the Nile; high
lands by wells, the water of which is raised by wheels[47] worked
25 by cattle, as in Egypt. They have violent thunder-storms in summer,
but no rains: the mornings and evenings, during winter, are cold;
the coldest wind is from the west, when it is as cold as at Fas.
The winter lasts about two months, though the weather is cool from
September to April. They begin to sow rice in August and September,
but they can sow it at any time, having water at hand: he saw some
sowing rice while others were reaping it. _El bishna_ and other
corn is sown before December. _El bishna_ is ripe in June and July;
as are beans. _Allila_ may be sown at all seasons; it requires
water only every eight or ten days. Their beans are like the small
Mazagan beans, and are sown in March; the stalk is short, but full
of pods. The _allila_ produces a small, white, flattish grain.
[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.]