This Province Is Sometimes
Called Tesset, Or Tissert.
A portion of it is also denominated
Blad-Sidi-Hasham, and forms a free and quasi-independant state, founded
in 1810 by the Emir Hasham, son of the Shereef Ahmed Ben Mousa.
This
prince was the bug-bear of Captain Riley. The district contains upwards
of twenty-five thousand Shelouhs and industrious Arabs. Talent is the
residence of the prince, and is situate on the declivity of a hill, not
far from the river Wad-el-Mesah, or Messa, and a mile from Ilekh, or
Ilirgh, a populous village, where there is a famous sanctuary, resorted
to by the Mahometans of the surrounding regions, of the name of Sidi
Hamed-ou-Mousa, (probably Ben Mousa). The singularity of this sacred
village is, that Jews constitute the majority of the population. But
they seem absolutely necessary to the very existence of the Mussulmen of
North Africa, who cannot live without them, or make profitable exchange
of the products of the soil, or of native industry, for European
articles of use and luxury.
Shtouka, or Stuka, is, according to some, a large town or village; or,
as stated by Davidson, a _district_. The fact is, many African districts
are called by the name of a principal town or village in them, and _vice
versa_. This place stands on the banks of the Wad-el-Mesah, and is
inhabited by some fifteen hundred Shelouhs, who are governed by a
Sheikh, nearly independent of Morocco.
On Talent and Shtouka, Mr. Davidson remarks.
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