George Orwell Diaries

On his return from Wigan, Orwell rented The Stores, Wallington, Hertfordshire, for 7s 6d a week (equivalent to about £15 today). The house was primitive, especially by current standards, but it had enough land for him to engage in two of his passions: growing food and keeping goats and chickens. His first goat (with which he was photographed: see Crick, plate 19), was called Muriel – the name of the goat in Animal Farm. He ran this small shop until the outbreak of war and it seems to have brought him enough to pay his modest rent. On June 9, 1936, he married Eileen O’Shaugnessy. He set about writing The Road to Wigan Pier and delivered the manuscript to Victor Gollancz on Monday, December 21, 1936. It so happened that the founder of Portmeirion, Clough Williams Ellis, visited Gollancz about the time that the manuscript was delivered and suggested that it should be illustrated. A scrap of paper survives torn from Gollancz’s blotter giving some of the names suggested (illustrated in CW, I, p. xxxiii and X, p. 530). The book was not commissioned by The Left Book Club (as is sometimes assumed) but early in 1937 it was decided that the book should be issued by the Club. This ensured that it had a wide sale and Orwell received royalties, after commission, up until November 28, 1939, of £604.57 – far exceeding the highest amount he had received for any of his earlier books, for example, £127.50 for Down and Out in Paris and London.

At Christmas Orwell left for Spain, calling on Henry Miller whilst passing through Paris where he picked up his travel documents. Initially he intended to report on the Spanish Civil War but quickly joined the POUM Militia (the Workers’ Party of Marxist Unification) to fight for the Republicans on the Aragón front. Jennie Lee, the wife of Aneurin Bevan and who served in Labour governments from 1964–70, who later became the first Minister for the Arts, wrote in a letter that Orwell arrived in Barcelona without credentials, had paid his own way out, and won her over by pointing to his boots, slung over one shoulder: ‘He knew he could not get boots big enough for he was over six feet. This was George Orwell and his boots arriving to fight in Spain’ (CW, XI, p. 5). After serving in the front line, whilst on leave in Barcelona, he became involved with the POUM in the attempt by the Communists to suppress all revolutionary parties, including the POUM. He returned to the front, was wounded in the throat, narrowly escaping death, and whilst convalescent had to hide in Barcelona until he and his wife, with John McNair, leader of the Independent Labour Party, and the youngest member of Orwell’s unit, Stafford Cottman, could escape from Spain on June 23, 1937. A document was later discovered, forming part of an official judiciary record of the trial against the POUM, asserting they were ‘confirmed Trotskyists’ and thus anathema to the Communist regime. Orwell never knew of the existence of this document. Sir Richard Rees met Eileen in Barcelona when she was working in the ILP Office and wrote ‘In Eileen Blair I had seen for the first time the symptoms of a human being living under a political Terror’. On March 8, 1937, whilst Orwell was serving at the front, The Road to Wigan Pier was published and the following weekend Eileen spent two days at the front. As explained in the Editor’s Introduction, Orwell’s diary or diaries written when he was in Spain are probably still locked away in the NKVD Archive in Moscow.

When the Orwells returned to The Stores early in July, Orwell wrote articles and reviews trying to give a true account of what was happening in Spain and he set about writing Homage to Catalonia, despite receiving a letter from Victor Gollancz dated July 5, 1937, that he would be unlikely to publish it because it might ‘harm the fight against fascism’. On the very next day a letter came from Roger Senhouse of Martin Secker & Warburg informing him that they would be interested in Orwell’s account for it ‘would not only be of great interest but of considerable political importance’. So began the break with Gollancz and, in due time, Secker & Warburg becoming Orwell’s publishers.

On March 15, 1938, Orwell was admitted to Preston Hall Sanatorium, Aylesford (near Maidstone), Kent, following a heavy discharge of blood from the lungs. He was suspected to be suffering from tuberculosis but it was decided that in all probability it was bronchiectasis of the left lung (see Shelden, pp. 316–19). He remained in hospital throughout the summer and on April 25 Homage to Catalonia was published in a small edition of 1,500 copies. Despite now being regarded as one of Orwell’s finest books (and a very important personal account of the Spanish Civil War) it would not sell even this small number of copies by the time a second edition was published in 1951 after Orwell’s death. Whilst at Preston Hall, Orwell joined the Independent Labour Party on June 13, 1938, and on the 24th his article ‘Why I Join the I.L.P.’ was published (CW, XI, pp. 167–9). He would leave the party at the start of the war because of its pacifist stance and because he ‘considered they were talking nonsense’ which would ‘make things easier for Hitler’. He described himself as definitely ‘left’ but as a writer he was better ‘free of party labels’ (CW, XII, p. 148). He did not leave hospital until the very end of August. He was recommended to spend the winter in a warm climate and he and Eileen chose to go to Morocco (not, as it happens, the best choice), on the basis of a gift or loan of £300 from an anonymous donor. Orwell never knew that this was provided by the novelist, L.H. Myers, because it was arranged through an intermediary, Dorothy Plowman (see CW, XI, p. 452). He was later able to repay this generous gesture from the proceeds of Animal Farm but after Myers’s death. After a short visit to see his father, who was gravely ill, in Southwold, they left on September 2 from Tilbury on the S.S. Stratheden.

Orwell kept two diaries in 1938: a domestic diary and a diary devoted to his and Eileen’s time in Morocco, including the journeys there and back. His Domestic Diary begins on August 9, 1938; his Morocco Diary, on September 7. The Domestic Diary is handwritten, the Morocco Diary mainly typed (see headnote to 3.12.39). Slight errors have been silently corrected. Orwell stuck newspaper cuttings into the Domestic Diary. These are not reproduced, but a heading or brief descriptive note is given within square brackets indicating what had attracted his attention. The texts of these cuttings can be consulted at the Orwell Archive, University College London. Orwell also drew illustrations for certain entries, usually on otherwise blank verso pages. These have been incorporated into the entries they illustrate. Notes are placed after the relevant dates. Dates of entries and paragraphing (in the manuscript, variably indented) have been regularized.

The Diaries are intercalated in datal order. Quite often Orwell wrote in both diaries on the same day. When entries to both diaries are given for the same day, those for the Domestic Diary are given first and indicated by D ; Morocco Diary entries are indicated by M. Footnotes are numbered in a single series for both diaries.

DOMESTIC DIARY VOLUME I

August 9, 1938:_[D] Caught a large snake in the herbaceous border beside the drive. About 2´ 6" long, grey colour, black markings on belly but none on back except, on back of neck, a mark resembling an arrow-head () Not certain whether an adder, as these I think usually have a sort of broad arrow mark () all down the back. Did not care to handle it too recklessly, so only picked it up by extreme tip of tail. Held thus it could nearly turn far enough to bite my hand, but not quite. Marx1 interested at first, but after smelling it was frightened & ran away. The people here normally kill all snakes. As usual, the tongue referred to as the “fangs.”2

August 10:_[D] Drizzly. Dense mist in evening. Yellow moon.

August 11:_[D] This morning all surfaces, even indoors, damp as result of mist. A curious deposit all over my snuff-box, evidently result of moisture acting on lacquer.

Very hot, but rain in afternoon.

Am told the men caught another snake this morning – definitely a grass snake this time. The man who saw them said they had tied a string round its neck & were trying to cut out its tongue with a knife, the idea being that after this it could not “sting.”

The first Beauty of Bath apples today.

August 12:_[D] Very hot in the morning. In the afternoon sudden thunderstorm & very heavy rain. About 50 yards from the gate the road & pavement flooded a foot deep after only 1½ hours rain.

Blackberries beginning to redden.

August 16:_[D] Several days past uncertain weather, rainy & sometimes hot. Most of the wheat & barley now cut & stacked. Children picking more or less ripe blackberries two days ago. Saw a white owl two nights ago – the first in about two years. Also in the distance another bird probably a little owl. Horse-chestnuts full-size but not ripe yet. Hops about the size of hazel-nuts. Yesterday went to the Zoo* again. Another litter of lion-cubs, which are a bit bigger than a domestic cat & spotted all over. Those born just a year ago are about the size of a St Bernard dog. The ration of meat for a lion – I suppose its only meal in the day – seems to be about 6 or 7 lbs.

The Sardinian mouflon sheep3 has a large udder like a goat & would probably yield a pint or more. I notice that the zebra’s hooves, at least the front ones, are quite perpendicular, but those of the ass-zebra hybrid are like those of a horse. The hybrid has very slightly larger ears, otherwise so far as shape goes almost exactly like the zebra.

August 17:_[D] Warm & fine, rather windy.

The barley from the 22-acre field is not stacked yet, but the wheat is stacked & makes two stacks measuring so far as I can judge it 30´ by 18´ x 24´ (high) & 18´ x 15´ x 20´ (high). If these estimates are correct, this works out at 14,040 cubic feet of stack for about 14 acres of ground. Allowing 1 ton per acre, it seems 1000 cubic feet of stack represent a ton of grain. NB. to check when the whole field is stacked.

Catmint, peppermint & tansies full out. Ragwort & willow-herb going to seed. A few ripe blackberries. Elderberries beginning to turn purple.

Oak planks etc. made from the boughs instead of the trunk is known as bastard oak & is somewhat cheaper.

Disused railway sleepers here sold off at £1=1=0 10cwt. This probably works out at about 1/- each, ie. 2d a foot.

[Newspaper cutting: short article on greenheart timber]

August 19:_[D] Ref. the stacks in the cornfield. Actually the area under wheat & barley was about the same, & the crop makes 4 stacks, 2 of 30´ x 18´x 24´ (high) & 2 of 18´ x 15´ x 20´ (high.) This works out at about 28,000 cubic feet of stack for 22 acres. Yesterday fine & rather windy. A fair number of ripe blackberries. Elderberries changing colour rapidly. Hazel nuts almost fully formed. Valerian & mulleins over. For improving finish of cement:

[Newspaper cutting: describing method to be adopted]

Weather today cold, blowy & rather wet. Haws getting quite red. Some rain in the afternoon.

August 21:_[D] Yesterday fine & fairly warm. Went in afternoon & saw Kit’s Coty,4 a druidical altar or something of the kind. It consists of four stones arranged more or less thus:

The whole about 8´ high & the stone on top approximately 8´ square by something over a foot thick. This makes about 70 cubic feet of stone. A cubic yard (27 cubic feet) of coal is supposed to weigh 27 cwt., so the top stone if of coal would weigh about 3½ tons. Probably more if I have estimated the dimensions rightly. The stones are on top of a high hill & it appears they belong to quite another part of the country.

[Newspaper cutting: ‘Fruit Bottling Without Sugar, Old-Time Country Method’; see 8.29.38]

August 22:_[D] Warmish day, with showers. Nights are getting colder & more like autumn. A few oaks beginning to yellow very slightly. After the rain enormous slugs crawling about, one measuring about 3" long. Large holes, presumably ear-holes, some distance behind head. They were of two distinct colours, some light fawn & others white, but both have a band of bright orange round the edge of the belly, which makes one think they are of the same species & vary individually in colour. On the tip of their tails they had blobs of gelatinous stuff like the casing of water-snails’ eggs. A large beetle, about the size of a female stag-beetle but not the same, extruding from her hindquarters a yellow tube about the length of herself. Possibly some sort of tube through which eggs are laid?

[Newspaper cutting: on how to make sloe gin]

August 22:5_[D] Southwold : Cool this morning & raining most of the day.

Most of the crops in & stacked. Blackberries in Suffolk much less forward than Kent, otherwise little difference in the vegetation.

When clipping fowls’ wings, clip only one wing, preferably the right (left wing keeps the ovaries warm.)

Cold tea is good fertiliser for geraniums.

August 25:_[D] Preston Hall : Everything in Suffolk is much more dried-up than in Kent. Until the day we arrived there had been no rain for many weeks & various crops had failed. Near S’wold saw several fields of oats & barley being harvested which had grown only 1´ or 18" high. Ears nevertheless seemed normal. Wheat crop all over the world said to be heavy.

A bedstraw hawk-moth found in our back garden & mounted by Dr Collings.6 Evidently a straggler from the continent. Said to be the first seen in that locality for 50 years.

Little owl very common round here. Brown owl does not seem to exist.

Dr C. says the snake I caught was the “smooth snake”, non-poisonous & not very common.

Today hot again.

Gipsies beginning to arrive for the hop-picking. As soon as they have pitched their caravans the chickens are let loose & apparently can be depended on not to stray. The strips of tin for clothes-pegs are cut out of biscuit boxes. Three people were on the job, one shaping the sticks, one cutting out the tin & another nailing it on. I should say one person doing all these jobs (also splitting the pegs after nailing) could make 10–15 pegs an hour.

Another white owl this evening.

August 26:_[D] Hot. Dense ground-mist early this morning. Many blackberries now ripe, very large & fairly sweet. Also fair number of dew-berries. Walnuts now nearly full-sized. Plenty of English apples in the shops.

August 28:_[D] Night before last an hour’s rain. Yesterday hot & overcast. Today ditto, with a few drops of rain in the afternoon. The hop-picking due to start in about a week.

August 29:_[D] Overcast & very chilly. Heavy rain last night. Dahlias now in full bloom.

[Newspaper cutting: response to cutting on fruit bottling (see 8.21.38), which was ‘bound to give unsatisfactory results in many cases’].

August 30:_[D] Warmer.

Leaves of the tulip tree beginning to yellow. Sunflowers & gladioli in full bloom. Godetias getting past their best. Montbretias coming into bloom. Elderberries now ripe & bird-shit everywhere deep purple. Purple stains on logs etc. where they have been. Seems difficult to believe that birds digest much of what they eat. The man who keeps the guinea pigs here seems uncertain whether or not they sleep. Says they close their eyes sometimes, but it is uncertain whether they are asleep. First English eating pears today.

August 31:_[D] Morning very cold, warm & fine later.

September 1:_[D] Fine & fairly warm.

September 2:_[D] Fine & fairly warm.

September 3:_[D] Writing on P.& O. ss. Stratheden, 22,500 tons. No of passenger berths 1063.7 Left Tilbury dock 6 pm yesterday. Position marked this morning (not certain whether 8 am or noon) as 49.25 N, 3.34 W, run being 288 miles. Distance to go 1007 miles. Passed Ushant, about 5–10 miles on port side, about 5 pm. Now entering Bay of Biscay & travelling about due South. Should sight land again tomorrow night. Sea at present calm. Once or twice small shoal of fish, pilchards or sardines, leaping out of the water as though something was after them. Small land-bird, bunting or some such thing, came on board this morning when out of sight of land. Also pigeons perching on rigging.

September 4:_[D] Today crossing mouth of Bay of Biscay. Sea a little rougher, ship rolling somewhat. Not sick (seasickness remedy “Vasano” evidently efficacious.) Passing C. Finisterre about 5 pm but invisible owing to mist. Run of the ship (12–12) 403 miles. Gibraltar is about 5° west of Greenwich. Clocks will be retarded ½ hour on Monday & Tuesday, then put forward again at Marseilles. We are due in at Tangier 7 am on Tuesday (6th) & Gibraltar at 1.30 pm. Run of 1007 miles to Tangier takes about 89 hours. Today a few porpoises passing the ship. Yesterday saw a gull I did not know, dark brown with white bands on wings. Otherwise no life.

Length of ship is about 250 yards, width at widest about 25 yards. There are 7 decks above water-level. Do not yet know number of crew, who including stewards are mainly lascars.

September 5:_[D] Last night much fog, syren° sounding continually. This morning the sea much smoother, grey & oily, about the colour of lead. Later in the day very hot, & the sea bright blue. Passed Cape Roca about 10 am, but invisible in mist. Passed Cape St. Vincent quite close in, about 2–3 miles, at 6 pm. Run of the ship (noon to noon) 342 miles. Due at Tangier early tomorrow.

Gulls here of a breed I do not know, dark brown or black on top, white below, hawking over the water only a few inches above the surface, just like an owl over grass. Clumps of seaweed as we got nearer land. Some swallows or martins (different from the English) following the ship when still far from land. Two whales said to have been seen yesterday, but I missed them.

This is not, as I had thought, a steam turbine ship, but an oil turbine. Crew thought to be about 600. The tourist class (really midway between 2nd & 3rd class) has three lounges apart from the dining saloon, two decks where games are played, a small swimming bath & a rather primitive cinematograph. R. C. mass & Anglican H. C. held every day. Tourist fare London–Gibralter £6–10.8

Later. Number of crew 543. Ship carries 8 or 9 thousand tons cargo.

The Domestic Diary is now intercalated with the Morocco Diary

MOROCCO DIARY

GIBRALTAR 9.7.38:_[M]

English newspapers reach Gibraltar by P & O four days late. Local English daily Gibraltar Chronicle & Official Gazette, 8 pages of which about 2½ advertisements, 1d. Current number 31,251. More or less pro-Fascist. Local Spanish papers El Annunciador and El Campanse, each four pages largely adverts, 1d. daily. No very definite standpoint politically, perhaps slightly pro-Franco. Ten or eleven Franco papers sold here, also three Government papers including Solidaridad Obrera. The latter at least six days old when obtainable here, and much less in evidence. Also two pro-Government Spanish papers published in Tangier, El Porvenir and Democracia. Prices of these stated in Franco exchange.

Impossible to discover sentiments of local Spanish population. Only signs on walls are Viva Franco and Phalangist symbol, but very few of these.

Population of town about 20,000, largely Italian origin but nearly all bilingual English-Spanish. Many Spaniards work here and return into Spain every night. At least 3000 refugees from Franco territory. Authorities now trying to get rid of these on pretext of overcrowding. Impossible to discover wages and food prices. Standard of living apparently not very low, no barefooted adults and few children. Fruit and vegetables cheap, wine and tobacco evidently untaxed or taxed very little (English cigarettes 3/– a hundred, Spanish 10d. a hundred), silk very cheap. No English sugar or matches, all Belgian. Cows’ milk 6d. a pint. Some of the shopkeepers are Indians and Parsees.

Spanish destroyer Jose Luis Diez lying in Harbour. A huge shell-hole, probably four or five feet across, in her side, just above water-level, on port side about fifteen to twenty feet behind bow. Flying Spanish Republican flag. The men were at first apparently prevented from going ashore, now allowed at certain hours to naval recreation grounds (i.e. not to mix with local population). No attempt being made to mend the ship.

Overheard local English resident: “It’s coming right enough. Hitler’s going to have Czechoslovakia all right. If he doesn’t get it now he’ll go on and on till he does. Better let him have it at once. We shall be ready by 1941.”

September 8:_[D] Gibraltar: Weather mostly hot & nights sometimes uncomfortably so. Sea variable mostly rather choppy. When no wind fish visible at least 10 feet below surface.

The Barbary Ape is said to be now very rare at Gibraltar & the authorities are trying to exterminate them as they are a nuisance. At a certain season of the year (owing to shortage of food I suppose) they come down from the rock & invade people’s houses & gardens. They are described as large doglike ape with only a short stump of tail. The same species found on the African coast just opposite.

The breed of goat here is the Maltese, or at any rate is chiefly Maltese. The goat is rather small, & has the top half of its body covered with long & rather shaggy hair which overhangs it to about the knees, giving the impression that it has very short legs. Ears are set low & drooping. Most of the goats are hornless, those having horns have ones that curve back so sharply that they lie against the head, & usually continue round in a semi-circle, the point of the horn being beside the eye. Udders are very pendulous & in many cases simply a bag with practically no teats, or teats barely ½ inch long. Colours black, white & (especially) reddish brown. Yield said to be about a litre a day. Goats apparently will graze on almost anything, eg. the flock I watched had grazed the wild fennel plants right to the ground.

Breed of donkeys here small, like the English. The conveyance peculiar to the place a little partly closed in carriage rather like the Indian gharry with the sides taken out.

Hills steep & animals on the whole badly treated. No cows. Cows’ milk 6d a pint. Fruits now in season, apples, oranges, figs, grapes, melon, prickly pear, brinjals & various English vegetables. Prickly pear grows very plentifully on poor soil. Few hens here & eggs small. “Moorish eggs” advertised as though a superior kind.

Cats of Maltese type. Dogs all muzzled.

September 10:_[D] Tangier: Temperature here said never to rise above about 85°. Sea is fairly warm, water extremely clear, objects 20 & 30 feet below being visible when there is no wind. There is a tide rise of about a foot. Sea & harbour full of fish, but for some reason only the smaller kinds seem to be caught. There is a largish fish, generally about 6" to a foot long, brown-coloured & somewhat resembling a pollock, which haunts the stones of the jetties in great numbers, swimming in shoals of 5–20, but all the fishermen say that these cannot be taken on a hook. The method of fishing with rod & line for the smaller fish seems to be foul-hooking. A contrivance made of about half a dozen small hooks set back to back, with a bait of bread or meat just above it, is lowered into the shoal & drawn rapidly up as the fish gather round it. Long-shore fishing with a net is done as follows. A net about 150 feet long & 6’ deep, finely meshed in the middle but coarse towards the end, is carried out to sea by boats & placed in position, being held up by floats. Attached to each end of the net is an immensely long rope, probably half a mile or more. This is gradually hauled in, the men on each rope converging gradually then bring the net into a curve. There is a team of 6 or 8 men & boys on each rope. They do not pull with their hands but have a string round the waist & on the end of it a knot that can be attached immediately to the rope. They then pull with the body, leaning backwards & doing most of the work with the right leg. As the rope comes in it is coiled, & as each man reaches the coils he detaches his string, runs forward & hooks on to the seaward end of the rope. Hauling in takes at least an hour. Of the one I saw hauled in, the bag was about 30 lbs of sardines (or some similar small fish) & about 5 lb. of sundries, including squids, red mullet, long-nosed eels etc., etc. Probable value (to the fishermen) about 5/–, & representing about 2 hours work-time to 15 men & boys, say 20 adult work-hours, or 3d an hour.

Donkeys here overworked to a terrible degree. They stand about 9–10 hands & carry loads which must often be well over 200 lbs. After putting a considerable load on the donkey’s back the driver then perches himself in the middle. Hills here extremely steep, 1 in 5 or 6 in many places, but donkeys go up carrying loads so immense that they are sometimes almost invisible underneath. They are nevertheless extremely patient & willing, usually wear no bridle or halter & do not have to be driven or even led. They follow or walk just in front of their master like a dog, stopping when he stops & waiting outside any house while he is inside. The majority seem to be uncastrated, ditto with many of the horses (all small & in poor condition.)

Smells here not bad, in spite of the heat & labyrinthine bazaars.

Fruits in season, prickly pear, melons of many kinds, grapes, brinjals, otherwise all European. Water carried in goatskins & sold. Large fig-tree here has both green & purple figs on it, a thing I did not know happened. A sort of convolvulus creeper very common here has blue flowers & pinkish flowers on same plant & sometimes on same stem. Flowers now out, cannas, bourgainvillea, geraniums; peculiar coarse grass for lawns.

Two kinds of swallow or martin here. No gulls in harbour.

Gets dark here well before 7 pm (ie. really 7, summer time not being in operation.)

Butter here all right, but fresh milk apparently almost unobtainable.

TANGIER 9.10.38:_[M]

Papers on sale in Tangier: La Presse Marocaine (morning daily Casablanca), strongly pro-Franco; Le Petit Marocain (ditto), impartial; La Dépêche Marocaine (daily Tangier), somewhat pro-Franco; Le Journal de Tanger ° (apparently weekly), seemingly non-political, business announcements etc.; Tangier Gazette & Morocco Mail (English weekly Tangier, Fridays), corresponds to above, seems slightly anti-Fascist and strongly anti-Japanese;* also various others, French and Spanish, but seemingly no local Spanish pro-Franco paper.

Two buildings here flying Spanish Republican flag, including one called La Casa de Espana, some sort of club, displaying the usual Government posters. Some shops display Franco posters (the Arriba Espana poster almost exactly like a Government one). Writings on wall not common and pro-Franco and pro-Government ones about equally common, the latter perhaps slightly more so. Generally simply Viva or Muera Franco, or U.H.P., or C.N.T., F.A.I., or very rarely U.G.T. No initials of political parties except the F.A.I., the Phalange and once the J.S.U. All these inscriptions invariably Spanish. No clue to attitude of Moors. (See newspaper cutting Petit Marocain of 9.15.36.)*9

Poverty here not extreme for an oriental city. Nevertheless an immense development of mendicancy, the whole town living on the tourist trade. Not many actual beggars but countless touts for curio-shops, brothels etc. Most people speak Spanish, many French and all those connected with the tourist racket speak some English. Local physique very good, especially the young men both Moors and Spaniards etc. In spite of Europeanisation almost all Moors wear the burnous and fez and most of the younger women are veiled. Estimated earnings of longshore fishermen about 3d. an hour.

There are four post offices, one French, one British, and two Spanish, Franco and Government. Stamps are British surcharged Tangier. Coinage as in French Morocco.10

Until they could take up residence in M. Simont’s villa, the Orwells stayed at Madame Vellat’s house, rue Edmond Doutte, Marrakech.

MARRAKECH 9.13.38:_[M]

Summer Time observed in Spanish Morocco, not in French. Franco soldiers at the stations dressed almost exactly like those of the Spanish Government. Luggage searched on the train, but very carelessly, by typical Spanish official. Another official entered and impounded all French newspapers, even those favourable to Franco. French travellers much amused by this and ditto the official, who evidently realised the absurdity of it.

Spanish Morocco evidently less developed than French, possibly owing to the barrenness of that particular area. Further South, in French Morocco, great contrast between the areas cultivated by Moors and Europeans. The latter have enormous areas given over to wheat (1,000,000 acres said to be cultivated by 3000 French with coloured labour), fields so vast that they reach the horizon on each side of the railway track. Great contrast in fertility. Soil in places is rich and very black, in others almost like broken-up brick. South of Casablanca the land generally poorer, most of it uncultivated and giving barely any pasture for animals. For about 50–100 km. North of Marrakech actual desert, ground and hills of sand and chipped rock, utterly bare of vegetation. Animals: about the end of Spanish Morocco camels begin to appear, getting commoner until near Marrakech they are almost as common as donkeys. Sheep and goats about equally numerous. Horses not many, mules hardly any. Cows in the better parts. Oxen ploughing near Marrakech but none further north. All animals almost without exception in wretched condition. (This said to be one to two successive famine years.) Casablanca is in appearance a completely French town (of about 150,000–200,000 inhabitants, a third of these Europeans). Evidently considerable tendency for both races to keep themselves to themselves. Europeans doing manual and menial work of all kinds, but evidently better paid than the Moors. (In the cinematograph only Moors in the cheapest seats, in buses many white people unwilling to sit next to a Moor.) Standard of living seems not exceptionally low. Mendicancy noticeably less than at Tangier or Marrakech.

Marrakech has large European quarters but is more typically a Moorish town. Europeans not doing actual menial work except in restaurants etc.* Cab-drivers Europeans in Casablanca, Moors in Marrakech. Mendicancy so bad as to make it intolerable to walk through the streets. Poverty without any doubt very severe. Children beg for bread and when given it eat it greedily. In the bazaar quarter great numbers of people sleeping in the street, literally a family in every doorway. Blindness extremely common, some ringworm and a certain number of deformities. Large number of refugees camping outside the town. Said to be some of the people who fled north from the famine districts further south. It is said here to be punishable by law to grow tobacco plants in the garden.*

September 14:_[D] Marrakesh: Birds seen on railway journey Tangier–Casablanca–Marrakech.11 Ibis extremely numerous, Kestrels fairly common & also two larger kinds of hawk or kite, a few solitary crows very similar to the English bird. No storks, tho’ said to exist here. A very few partridges.

Goldfinches, apparently identical with English bird, common in Marrakech. Saw a man carrying a hare, otherwise no wild quadrupeds at all. There are said to be literally none, except a few hares & jackals, in Fr. Morrocco.° A few camels in Sp. Morocco, but not common till south of Casablanca. In general a camel seems to stand about 18 hands high. All are extremely lean & have calloused patches on all joints. Most are muzzled. Donkies° in Marrakech slightly less overloaded & slightly less docile than in Tangier .

Dates are now almost ripe. The partially ripe dates are bright yellow & hang in thick clusters on stems of their own just where the crown of the palm joins the trunk. There are generally about 6 clusters per tree & the whole would weigh about ½ hundredweight. The fallen date looks just like an acorn without its cup. Apparently there are several varieties of date palm including a dwarf one.

The peppercorns on the pepper trees just about ripe. Apparently these are known as “false pepper”, although it can be used in the ordinary way. Walnuts, evidently local, just ripe. Pears & peaches rather under-ripe. Lemons here are round & green, more like the Indian lime, only larger & thicker-skinned. Wine grapes in great profusion & very cheap.

The marine life at Casablanca seemed almost exactly the same as in England. Winkles, limpets, barnacles, land-crabs & one kind of anenome apparently identical. Saw no gulls, however. Forgot to mention that at Tangier there were catches of very large mackerel.

Rosemary grows well in Marrakech. Roses do well, petunias grow into huge bushes, as in India. Zinnias also thrive. Apparently good grass can be grown if there is sufficient water.

September 15:_[D] Caught a water-tortoise, about 8" long, outside the small zoological gardens here (evidently it had not escaped from within, though of the same kind as those kept inside.) It was in an irrigation ditch, swimming against the current & only succeeding in remaining about stationary. When turned onto its back it was unable to turn over. It smelt abominably, though active & apparently in good condition.

No ordinary sparrows here, but a small bird of the finch family, with brown body, bluish head & long tail, very common.

A few Michaelmas daisies in flower in the Z[oological] gardens, which surprised me. Olives almost ripe. Some turning bluish-red, which is perhaps their ripe colour. Oranges still green. These trees evidently need a lot of manure. Runner beans in pod, much as at home. Grapes here are poor, rather dry & tasteless.

Large ants here, half red & half black, enlarging their hole in the ground. One carrying out a bean-shaped stone about ¼" long by ½" thick. Flies here very trying, mosquitoes fairly numerous, but as yet no plagues of flying insects.

Tonight dark by 7 pm.

MARRAKECH 9.16.38:_[M]

The two papers normally read here are the Casablanca dailies, Le Petit Marocain, obtainable about midday, and La Vigie Marocaine, not obtainable till evening. Both are patriotic, more or less anti-Fascist, but neutral as to Spanish Civil War and anti-Communist. The local paper, L’Atlas, weekly, seems utterly insignificant. Yesterday (15th) in spite of sensational news of Chamberlain flying to Berlin, with which the papers made great play, there was utter lack of interest here and evidently no belief in war being imminent. Nevertheless there have been large transfers of troops to Morocco. Two of the French liners which run Marseilles–Tangier–Casablanca were more or less completely filled with troops. There has been a large increase recently in the local Air Force and 125 new officers are said to have arrived.

September 19:_[D] For sale along with the bright orange half-ripe dates are others equally bright purple, about the colour of brinjals. Pomegranates for sale in large piles everywhere. Some oranges beginning to yellow. Immense vegetable marrows for sale, probably weighing 20–30 lbs. each. Also a kind of smooth pale green extremely elongated marrow – possibly a species of cucumber. Black bread made & sold here in the bazaar; presumably barley but looks like rye.

Goldfinches extremely common here. Storks it appears are migratory & do not appear here till mid-winter. Great variations in temperature. Today & yesterday fairly cool, the day before unbearable, temperature even at 6 pm being 25°C. (ie. 77°F.) & probably about 40°C at midday. Is said to reach 45°C. (ie. 113°F.) as hottest indoor temperature here. After cooling off about 4 pm it generally seems to get hotter again about 6, perhaps owing to the prevailing warm wind. At night a sheet over one is sufficient, but in the early morning one generally pulls up the blanket.

A donkey is said to cost about Fr. 100 (about 12/6d.) Lettuces said to be very difficult to grow here.

September 20:_[D] Lathes used by Jewish carpenters who make the string-seated chairs etc. are of extremely primitive type. There are two clamps, the left hand one fixed, the right sliding upon a metal rod, with a metal point in each. The bar of wood to be turned is fixed upon the two points & turns itself, the points being stationary. Before it is put on the string of a bow is looped once round it. The carpenter holds the movable clamp in place with his right foot & works the bow with his right hand, holding the chisel in his left hand & steadying it with his left foot. In this way he can turn a piece of wood apparently as accurately as on a proper lathe, judging by eye to about 1/100 inch. Working the bow makes the wood revolve at an astounding speed.

The earth walls here are made out of earth which is dug out at a depth of 4–6 feet, either because this is different earth or because at this depth it is easier to find it damp enough to be workable. It is a peculiar chocolate colour & it dries into the light pink distinctive of this town. Having been dug out it is mixed with rubble & a little water, then cast in sections in a wooden frame, just like cement, but when in the frame it has to be packed together very hard with heavy rammers. When one section is hard enough to stand unsupported the next is made, & the joins do not show, the mud setting almost like cement. These mud walls are said to stand many years in spite of torrential rains.

The orange trees which grow in the street here are of an inedible bitter kind. This kind is used as a stock for grafting the sweet orange on.

Some of the olive trees here have, among the ordinary green olives, a certain number which are bluish red, though apparently ordinary in every other respect.

The superstition that it is lucky to touch a hunchback apparently obtains among the Arabs as well.

Today stifling hot about midday, otherwise somewhat cooler, though we did not want a coat till about 6–30 pm. We have not yet had a day when it was clear enough to see whether the Atlas mountains have snow on them or not.

September 25:_[D] Yesterday morning blowy & overcast, then some fairly heavy showers of rain. Today no rain, but cooler & still windy.

The reason for the galls always present on camels joints is that these are what they kneel down on, usually on stones etc. Nearly all camels here also have galled backs. It is said that a camel can often only be managed by one man whom it knows, & that one must at all costs avoid beating them. Relative to size they carry a much smaller load than a donkey. Some of them have flies & maggots burrowing into the galls on their backs, without appearing to notice it. Children also pay very little attention to flies, which are sometimes crusted in sores all round their eyes.

Hollyhocks just over & sunflowers coming to an end. The former grow 10 or 12 feet high.

Chrysanthemums in the public gardens budding. Cannas are very fine, in 4 colours.

There is no snow at present on the Atlas mountains. At sunset when it is clear they take on a remarkable purplish-red colour.

The bow which is used for a lathe is also used for a drill. A drill with a cylindrical wooden handle in the base of which there is a hole is fitted against a steel point & rotated with the bow. It is kept firm by the other end being in contact with the wood that is drilled. It seems to work as exactly as an ordinary drill & very rapidly.

Bought two turtle doves this morning. Two doves 10 Fr. (an overcharge), bamboo cage about 20" by 15" by 20", 15 Fr. Total cost about 3/–. These birds seem to domesticate very easily.

Ordinary blackbird, or some bird extremely similar, is common here. Also the little owl or some very similar owl. Bats here are large, about twice the size of English bat.

It gets dark now at about 6.45 pm.

September 27:_[D] Yesterday cooler. Some thunder in afternoon, then an hour’s steady rain in the evening. Have not worn dark glasses for several days past.

MARRAKECH 9.27.38:_[M]

The other local daily paper read here is La Presse Marocaine, which is somewhat more right-wing (at any rate more anti-Russian and more pro-Franco) than the Petit Marocain.

There are said to be about 15,000 troops in Marrakech. Apart from officers and N.C.Os, these will all be Arab or negro troops, except for a detachment of the foreign legion.* The latter are evidently looked on as dangerous ruffians, though good troops, and are debarred from visiting certain parts of the town except with a special permit. The Arab cavalry (from their badges apparently the 2nd Spahis) look pretty good, the Arab infantry less good, probably about equal to a second-rate Indian regiment. There is a large number of Senegalese infantry (called tirailleurs – presumably rifles – the badge is an anchor†) here. They are of admirable physique and said to be good marchers. They are used for picket duty at certain parts of the town. In addition the local detachment of artillery (do not know how much, but recently saw a battery of largish field guns, probably larger than 75 mm., on the march) is manned by negroes. They only act as drivers etc. under white N.C.Os and are not taught to aim the guns. Arabs are not used for this purpose, obviously because they could not be prevented from learning too much. All the troops here are said to be standing by and ready to move at a moment’s notice. On the fortified hill immediately west of the town there are guns which command the Arab quarter “in case of trouble”. Nevertheless the local French show an utter lack of interest in the European crisis, so much so as to make it impossible to think that they believe war will break out. There is no scramble for papers, no one broaches the subject of war unless prompted and one overhears no conversations on the subjects in the cafés. A Frenchman, questioned on the subject, says that people here are well aware that in case of war “it will be more comfortable here than in France.” Everyone will be mobilised, but only the younger classes will be sent to Europe. The re-opening of schools has not, as in France, been postponed. It is not easy to be absolutely certain about the volume of poverty here. The province has undoubtedly passed through a very bad period owing to two years drought, and on all sides fields which have obviously been under cultivation recently have reverted to almost desert condition, utterly dried up and bare even of weeds. As a result many products, eg. potatoes, are very scarce. There has been a great to and fro of refugees from the dried up areas, for whom the French have made at any rate some provision. The great French wheat estates are said to be worked largely with female labour, and in bad times the unemployed women flock into the towns, which is said to lead to a great increase in prostitution. There is no doubt that poverty in the town itself is very severe by European standards. People sleep in the streets by hundreds and thousands, and beggars, especially children, swarm everywhere. It is noticeable that this is so not only in quarters normally frequented by tourists, but also in the purely native quarters, where any European is promptly followed by a retinue of children. Most beggars are quite satisfied with a sou (twenty sous equal a penny halfpenny). Two illustrative incidents: I asked a boy of about 10 to call a cab for me, and when he returned with the cab gave him 50 centimes (three farthings, but by local standards an overpayment.) Meanwhile about a dozen other boys had collected, and when they saw me take a handful of small change out of my pocket they flung themselves on it with such violence as to draw blood from my hand. When I had managed to extricate myself and give the boy his 50 centimes a number of others flung themselves on him, forced his hand open and robbed him of the money. Another day I was feeding the gazelles in the public gardens with bread when an Arab employee of the local authorities who was doing navvy work nearby came up to me and asked for a piece of the bread. I gave it him and he pocketed it gratefully. The only doubt raised in one’s mind about all this is that in certain quarters the population, at any rate the younger ones, have been hopelessly debauched by tourism and led to think of Europeans as immensely rich and easily swindled. Numbers of young men make a living ostensibly as guides and interpreters, actually by a species of blackmail.

When one works out the earnings of the various kinds of petty craftsmen and pieceworkers here, carpenters, metal-workers, porters etc., it generally comes to about 1d or 2d an hour. As a result many products are very cheap, but certain staple ones are not, eg. bread, which is eaten by all Arabs when they can get it, is very expensive. ¾lb of inferior white bread (the European bread is dearer) costs 1 franc or 1½d. It is habitually sold in half cakes. The lowest sum on which an Arab, living in the streets with no home, can exist is said to be 2 francs a day. The poorer French residents regard 10 francs or even 8 francs a day as a suitable wage for an Arab servant (out of this wage he has to provide his own food).*

The poverty in the Jewish quarter is worse, or at any rate more obtrusive than in the Arab quarters. Apart from the main streets, which are themselves very narrow, the alleys where the people live are 6 feet or less across and most of the houses have no windows at all. Overcrowding evidently goes on to an unbelievable extent and the stench is utterly insupportable, people in the narrowest alleys habitually urinating in the street and against the wall. Nevertheless it is evident that there are often quite rich people living among this general filth. There are about 10,000† Jews in the town. They do most of the metal work and much of the woodwork. Among them are a few who are extremely wealthy. The Arabs are said to feel much more hostility towards the Jews than towards the Europeans. The Jews are noticeably more dirty in their clothes and bodies than the Arabs. Impossible to say to what extent they are orthodox, but all evidently observe the Jewish festivals and almost all, at any rate of those over 30, wear the Jewish costume (black robe and skull-cap.) In spite of poverty, begging in the Jewish quarters not worse than in the Arab quarters.

Here in Marrakech the attitude of the French towards the Arabs is noticeably more like the Anglo-Indian attitude than, eg., in Casablanca. “Indigene” exactly corresponds to “native” and is freely used in the newspapers. The French here do not, as in Casablanca, do menial jobs such as cab-driving, though there are French waiters in the cafés. In the Jewish quarter there is a very poor French population some of whom appear to have “gone native”, but these are not altogether distinguishable from the Jews, most of whom are quite white. There is an immensely higher proportion of French-speaking Arabs than of English-speaking Indians, indeed every Arab who is much in contact with Europeans speaks a certain amount of French. The French almost always tu-toi the Arabs in speaking to them, and the Arabs do so in return whether or not understanding the implication (2nd person in Arabic has not this implication). Most French people of long standing here speak some Arabic, but probably not a great deal. A French officer speaking to his N.C.O. speaks in French, at any rate some of the time.

September 28:_[D] Distinctly cooler at night. Last night used a blanket all night. Red hibiscus in flower.

October 1:_[D] Snow on the Atlas today. Evidently it fell last night.

Camels vary greatly in size, also in colour, some being almost black. Ditto donkeys, which range from reddish fawn to almost black, the latter the commonest colour. Saw yesterday a donkey, evidently full grown, less than 3´ high. The man riding it had one foot on the ground.

The Atlas said to go up to 3200 metres (about 10,000 feet.) (Actually about 13,500.)

October 2:_[D] Nightjars here, much as in England. Female donkey today, very heavily in foal, carrying respectable load of wood, & its master. Load something over 200 lb., plus the foal.

The Spahis ride stallions. Arab saddles, but not blinkers. Horses of different colours. Donkeys here, when male, are always uncastrated.

October 4:_[D] Still very hot in the middle of the day. Huge lumps of camel-fat (presumably from the hump), very white, like pork-fat, on sale in the bazaar. Said to be only eaten by “people from the mountains.”

Wooden spoons here are cut out with a small adze, which is used with great skill until the spoon is almost entirely hollowed out, after which a gouge-like tool (but with the edge at the side) is used, & then sandpaper. Some of these spoons are 2´ or 3´ feet long & the head as large as a breakfast cup. This work done mainly by children, ditto the work of making wooden ploughs (very primitive, & sold in such numbers as to suggest they have to be renewed every year.)

October 6:_[D] Yesterday insufferably hot, & this continued till about 6 am this morning, when I felt the need of a blanket on the bed. Flies & mosquitoes still very bad.

Unbearably hot all day. Apparently this is very unusual for the time of year. Camel cub supposed to be about 6 months old is already about 5´ high. They are still sucking when quite a considerable size. Contrary to what I had been told, camels appear to be fairly tractable, as after changing owners they behave quite normally, only the young ones having a tendency to take fright. They vary not only in size & colour (white to almost black, the latter being usually small), but also in the nature of their coats, which are sometimes curly, sometimes smooth, a few camels having a sort of beard all down the neck. They have very little smell.

Horses are sometimes excellent in appearance, always uncastrated. Arab saddle like Mexican, but the Arabs ride with rather short stirrups. The stirrup is a long flat piece of steel with sharp corners which serve as spurs. The Arabs do not sit very gracefully in the saddle, but have

complete mastery of the horse, which goes forward, changes pace & stops all with a loose rein & apparently mostly from the man’s voice. The mule is always ridden on the hindquarters. It is evident that the tractability of animals here is due to their being constantly handled from childhood.

October 9:_[D] Day before yesterday still unbearably hot, yesterday cooler but night very stuffy. Very hot today at midday, in the afternoon a violent dust-storm, much thunder & then fairly heavy rain for about an hour. Fearful mud in the bazaar in consequence. Air much fresher after the rain.

Primitive drill used by the Arabs – not certain whether merely drill for wood or used for stone & earthenware – constructed as follows. The drill is attached to an upright which passes through a heavy round stone of 5–10 lb. Above this is a cross-piece which fits round the upright but is movable. From the ends of the cross-piece strings go to the top of the upright. These are twisted round the upright & the cross-piece worked up & down, causing the upright & therefore the drill to rotate. The stone serves merely as a weight.

Arab drug kiff,12 said to have some kind of intoxicating effect, smoked in long bamboo pipe with earthenware head about the size of a cigarette holder. The drug resembles chopped grass. Unpleasant taste & – so far as I am concerned – no effect. Sale said to be illegal, though it can be acquired everywhere for 1 Fr. for about a tablespoonful.

The one smell one rarely encounters here is garlic, which apparently the Arabs do not use much. Almost a majority of the ripe olives now on sale are purple. Possibly these are the ones black olives are made from. Dates getting very ripe. They seem to be a rather dry & inferior kind.

MARRAKECH 10.9.38:_[M]

The other daily paper sometimes obtainable is Maroc Matin, illustrated, Casablanca. Much more left wing than the others. Poor paper and print, evidently not prosperous and not much in evidence, in fact seldom obtainable.

After the crisis was over everyone here showed great relief and was much less stolid about it than they had been during the trouble itself. Educated Frenchwoman in official position, known to us personally, writes letter of congratulation to Daladier.13 It is perfectly evident from the tone of the press that even in the big towns where there is a white proletariat there was not the smallest enthusiasm for the idea of going to war for the sake of Czechoslovakia.

I was wrong in thinking the brass-work etc. was done exclusively by Jews. Actually Jews and Arabs seem to do much the same class of work. Much of the work of making wooden ploughs, wooden spoons, brass and copper utensils, and even some classes of blacksmithing, is done by very young children. Children certainly not older than 6 work at some of the simpler parts of these jobs. Children of about 8–10 work with adze and chisel, very diligently and with great skill. Children almost too young to stand are set to such jobs as keeping flies off piles of fruit. Arab woodwork, though rather rough and done with extremely primitive tools, is quite good, but they seem almost always to use unseasoned wood, which of course is liable to warp. Shafts for ploughs are cut straight out of green boughs. This is presumably due to lack of capital and storage space. It is also evident that peasants have to buy a new plough every year.

Women servants receive less than men. Madame V[ellat] pays her cook-general Aicha Frs. 6.50 a day, but it appears that Frs. 5 is more usual, and in some cases Frs. 3.50 or even 3. In no case would the servant getting these wages receive any food or lodging. A[icha] is an extremely good plain cook who in England would be considered worth £50 a year and her keep.14

Most riding and baggage animals here are exceedingly cheap. The following prices quoted at the Bab el Khemis animal fair (some of these subject to reduction if one bargained). Full-grown but smallish camel Frs. 300. Riding horse, 15–16 hands, apparently good, Frs. 275. Donkeys Frs. 75–150. Cow in milk Frs. 650. Mules Frs. 250–1000.* High price of mules is due to their being ridden by rich men, the mule being in fact the badge of wealth. Goats (very poor) 30–50 Frs.

Immense prevalence of blindness here. In some of the poorest quarters it is possible to pass three or four blind people in 50 yards. A few of the blind beggars are probably impostors, but the main cause is no doubt the flies with which every child’s eyes are constantly crusted. Curiously enough children below a certain age, say 5, appear not to notice the flies.

The Arab women, though almost invariably veiled, are anything but shy, do not object to going about alone and in quarrels, bargaining etc. do not seem at all inhibited by their veils. Arabs seem to attach less importance than most orientals to touching and being touched. Arab men often go about hand in hand, and sometimes hand in hand with a woman (unthinkable in some oriental races.) In the buses mild flirtations between Arab women and European men. The Mahometan rules about not drinking seem to be strictly kept and drunkenness unheard of. On the other hand there is much smoking of a sort of drug called kiff, which is at any rate supposed to have narcotic effects. It is said to [be] illegal but is obtainable everywhere. No Europeans are admitted to the mosques here.

The French authorities enrol a sort of special constables, a force known as the sûreté, who are armed with truncheons and called out when criminals are to be rounded up. I have not yet got reliable particulars but it appears that either these or the regular police can summarily order flogging of thieves etc. and that savage floggings are administered without trial.

Have seen a good many of the Foreign Legion. Do not look very dangerous ruffians. Almost universally poor physique. Uniforms even worse than those of the conscripts.

Official advertisement of post for girl teacher of native girls in state school, teacher evidently expected to be daughter of army officer or something of the kind, wage to be Frs. 900 a month (about 25/– a week.)

French film Légion d’Honneur, propaganda film corresponding to Bengal Lancer, dealing with the French Sahara. Certain social differences interesting. French officer speaks to Touareg tribesmen largely through interpreter. Calling for two men for special duty he refers to them by their numbers instead of their names. Officers (represented as more or less aristocratic) smoke cigars with bands on and wear uniform off duty, eg. on ship going home.

On getting the English newspapers of the period of the crisis, it was evident that the local French press had systematically minimised the whole thing, for obvious reasons.

In the bazaar a tiny screw of tea (green China tea, of which the Arabs drink a great deal), perhaps ¼ to ½ oz., and about 1oz. of sugar, can be bought for 25 centimes. Utterly impossible to buy things in such quantities in most European countries. Price of a cup of water 1 sou. This may be taken as meaning that the sou has no other purchasing power.

Have not yet seen a single sign of any hostility towards Europeans as such, of the kind one is constantly seeing in an Indian city.

10.10.38:_[D] Midday temperature (indoors) today 26°, ie. about 78°F. This is much cooler than the last few days. This evening cool enough to wear a coat.

10.12.38:_[D] A lot cooler. No snow now visible on the Atlas, but perhaps obscured by clouds.

Have installed the hens & goats. Hens about the size of the Indian fowl, but of all colours, some with a species of topknot, white ones very pretty. These are supposed to be laying pullets but have not laid yet. Twelve brought crammed together in two small baskets, then sent on donkey back about 5 miles, at the end of which one fowl was dead, apparently pecked to death by others. They appear not to like maize, probably not used to it, or possibly when unbroken it is too big for them. Arabs always keep them in completely grassless runs. Tried giving them some green stuff at which they pecked not very enthusiastically. Hope they may take to it later.

Goats are tiny. Searching all over the market could not find any of decent size or with large bags, though one does see some not actually bad goats in the flocks that graze on the hillsides. The breed here is very shaggy & tends to get its coat dirty. Of ours one, a tiny red goat, is evidently about to kid soon. The other, somewhat larger, supposed to be in milk, but doubt whether she will give more than ½ pint a day at first. After feeding up for 10 days probably a pint. Arabs all scandalised at the idea of giving grain of any kind to goats. Said we should only give them grass. If given grain they drink enormously & swell up. Quite good chopped fodder (lucerne I think) sold in the bazaar for 10c. a bunch. One franc’s worth should be enough for 2 goats for a day so far as green food goes. Gave them for their first meal mixture of barley & bran. They had perhaps not seen such a thing before & took no notice of it. Then later smelt it & got to work on it. Goats here do not object to eating off the ground. They are very shy but being so small are easy to handle & do not try to use their horns. They are gentle with each other & do not quarrel over food. Were taken to the house in paniers° one on each side of a donkey, the donkey’s owner sitting in the middle.

The only form of mash given to fowls here is bran. Grocers here, & apparently everyone else, have never heard of suet – ie. for use in puddings etc.

M. Simont’s15 oranges just beginning to ripen. Dates now ripe, but rather dry & poor. Walnuts very good. Pomegranates exquisite colour inside. The reason why so many dates are gathered when bright yellow is said to be that they are a kind which are used for cooking.

Curiously enough, among the general misery of the animals here, the sheep are very good. They are a long-tailed kind, fairly large, apparently fat (the mutton is quite good & tender) & with very thick, firm coats. They are very docile & tend to huddle all together in a bunch, which makes them easy to manage. When buying a sheep a man carries it across his shoulders, where it lies completely docile like a large slug. A man will ride a bicycle carrying a sheep like this.

10.13.38:_[D] Today fairly cool, & up to about 10 am almost chilly in the shade. This evening another violent dust-storm followed by rain.

10.14.38:_[D] Stuffy, but not very hot. Today milked the small goat (which is probably not in kid) for the first time. For a long time could get no milk at all, though the udder was large & obviously contained milk. Finally discovered that if instead of running my hand down the teat in the ordinary way, I took hold of the whole quarter & squeezed as if squeezing out a sponge, the milk came quite easily. Apparently a different configuration of udder. Wretched yield, about ½ pint from two goats combined. But they are eating well & should improve soon.

Ripe pepper falling from the trees. No eggs.

10.16.38:_[D] Villa Simont, route de Casablanca: Yesterday intolerably hot. In the evening thunderstorm & torrential rain, flooding the ground some inches deep.

This morning a disaster. One hen dead, another evidently dying. Forget the name of the disease, which has something to do with the throat. The hen is unable to stand & head droops forward. The dead one had evidently perched for the night & then fallen off the perch. May have something to do with perching in the rain, as they all did so, though I put up another perch for them under cover.

Goats a little tamer. The wife of the Arab who works in the orange plantation & looks after the sheep says that the brown goat is in kid.

10.18.38:_[D] We have now lost 3 fowls in addition to the one which was presumably pecked to death. Symptoms all the same – loss of power of legs & head drooping. Evidently paralysis, tho’ attributed by the Arabs to a black parasite infesting the birds. Cause & effect uncertain here. The Arabs’ treatment is rubbing with a mixture of charcoal ash, salt & water. Seems effective, at any rate two which were slightly affected seem better today & able to run about. The remaining 8 fowls seem now in good condition, but their appetite is very small even allowing for small size. They will never eat maize unless boiled, & do not care greatly for mash.

Goats tamer. Am milking the small one only once a day, & getting about ½ pint a day from the two. Even this is more than a few days back. The small one had slight diarrhea yesterday, probably caused by too much wet green fodder, so am now drying the lucerne into a kind of hay. About the same time one of M. Simont’s sheep mysteriously died – attributed to eating too much of the herbage which sprang up after the rain. Goats will eat almost anything, eg. orange peel, & a certain amount of maize can be given them if boiled & mixed with mash. Flaked maize not obtainable here. The goats already follow & know the way to their shed.

Saw a lizard this morning, walking up the window pane. About 4" long, rather stumpy, resembling an alligator, prickly tail. The first lizard seen in Morocco.

A little cooler, & today very still.

Large ant can drag two peppercorns & the twig connecting them. Ants of various sizes drag a grain of wheat each.

The fowls perched on the new perch for the first time last night.

10.20.38:_[D] The turtle doves after about 2 days plucked up courage to leave their house, flew off & presently disappeared. The Arabs said that they would not return. However, they come every day for corn, & sleep in the pepper tree behind the house.

M. Simont’s sheep are allowed to browse among the orange trees. Apparently the idea is that they will not eat the leaves of the trees (presumably bitter) but will keep the weeds down. Actually they do nibble at a leaf occasionally.

Cooler. Nice autumnal feeling in the early mornings. Goats giving distinctly more milk. More than ½ pint, though am only milking the brown one once daily.

Hens all well, but no eggs. These hens, even allowing for size, have extraordinarily small appetites.

Arabs round here growing practically all English vegetables (carrots, radishes, lettuces, cabbages, tomatoes, runner beans, crown artichokes, marrows) besides large green chillis which are extremely hot. Most of the vegetables rather poor quality. Dates very dry & poor. Sheep here eat half-ripe dates.

The charcoal braziers generally used here are quite satisfactory for cooking. They are generally about 1´ across by 8" deep & either have very many holes in sides or a double bottom with holes in the top one. The charcoal can be started with very little paper & wood & smoulders for hours. A few strokes with the bellows gets it into a fierce heat. A small tin oven is placed on top & bakes fairly satisfactorily.

10.21.38:_[D] Yesterday went to the Oued Tensift, about 2 Km. from here, the principal river of these parts. About 5 yards wide & 1–3´ deep, but lies in a considerable valley & probably rises at some times of the year. Poor water, but said to have small fish in it. Muddy banks & bottom. Fresh water mussels, very similar to those in the Thames, moving to & fro in the mud leaving deep track behind them. Red shank & ringed plover, or extremely similar birds, live on the mud. Feathery shrub which in England is used for making hedges in gardens, arbutus16 I think, growing everywhere. Patches of grass almost like English grass.

Still very hot. Last night unbearably so till quite late at night.

The water here is almost undrinkable, not only tasting of mud but also distinctly salty.

The bitter oranges grown here as grafting stocks said to be good for marmalade, so presumably the same as Seville oranges.

Some of the goats round here a bright silvery-grey colour. First-class Spanish goat said to cost Frs. 500.

10.23.38:_[D] The water here evidently has some mineral in it which is the cause of the almost continuous belly-ache we have had since coming here.

Near the Oued Tensift noticed that where the water had receded it had left some white deposit behind. Possibly something akin to Epsom salts – at any rate not an organism as it is not affected by boiling. Arranging to get Marrakech tap water (which is all right & said to come from the Atlas.)

Various bottled table-waters impossibly expensive, actually dearer than the cheapest wine.

Soil here is extremely deep, at least 4´ without any change of substance. Rather light & reddish, though it dries into a kind of brick, & said to need a lot of manure.

Some of the small oranges (“mandarins”) are yellowing. Some lemons almost ripe, others only in blossom – different kinds,17 perhaps.

Today the first day we have had when it was cool all the time. Overcast, windy & some rain rather like a damp day in September in England. The day before yesterday a little rain with much thunder.

The doves come to the house from time to time & are very tame, eating from one’s hand with a little persuasion. Saw a partridge in the grounds yesterday.

Today sowed seeds of nasturtiums, phlox D.18 & pansies.

Flytox very good & kills flies by the thousand. Otherwise they are utterly intolerable.

Red chillis spread out to dry in the fields, like huge red carpets.

10.25.38:_[D] Much cooler. Yesterday overcast & cool all day, with occasional sharp showers. Violent wind & storms of rain in the night. Fire last night & this morning, not absolutely necessary but acceptable.

The brown goat, besides being very difficult to milk, gives little or nothing. Perhaps she is really going off preparatory to kidding, in which case she would probably kid in some weeks’ time.

The pigeons this morning of their own accord went into the pigeon-house in which we put them for our first day here. They are now very tame.

Goats eat boiled wheat & maize readily.

10.27.38:_[D] On Tuesday afternoon (25th) tremendous rain, much as in the tropics except that it was very cold rain. Everything flooded feet deep, the earth not dry yet. The Oued Tensift is now quite a considerable stream & low ground all round it has turned into marsh. Today near the Oued Tensift came upon a sort of large pool where there were a flight of wild duck swimming about. Managed to scare them onto the wing, & after much circling round they came straight overhead. Sixteen in number, & evidently mallards, same as in England, or very similar. Saw another larger flight in the distance afterwards. Almost the first game birds seen here.

Ordinary sparrows fairly common in the garden here. In Marrakech itself one used not to see them.

Large numbers of black beetles, about 1" long, crawling everywhere, evidently brought out by the rain. Have sowed sunflowers, sweet peas & marigolds. The other seeds not up yet, as it has been much cooler (we are having fires every evening.) The ground here is lumpy & unpleasant to work, but at present not many weeds – more when this rain has taken effect, perhaps. Some weeds as in England, eg. bindweed & twitch grass, but not growing very strongly. Silver poplar or some very similar tree grows here. Tomatoes here are grown in large patches without sticks. Very poor floppy plants & smallish tomatoes, but plenty of them.

Yesterday on milking the brown goat found her milk had gone sour & came out quite thick. This is because she is only being milked once a day & had not been fully milked for two days owing to her restiveness. Squeezed the bad milk onto the ground & tonight her milk was all right again. Another hen bad in the legs this evening. Examined & found enormous black lice. Hope treatment will be effective as before. The stripey goat’s milk increases, but very slightly, still not much over ½ pint a day. She is very thin, though she eats well. The present ration of hard food is 2 handfuls of barley & 2 of bran morning & evening, with a mash of boiled maize & bran about once a week. The doves readily eat maize if it is broken.

Today saw some doves in an aviary which had eggs.

The fountain in front of the house filled up after the rain & mosquito larvae are multiplying rapidly.

One egg (the first) yesterday, none today.

10.28.38:_[D] One egg. Many black beetles squashed in the road. Inside they are brilliant vermilion. Men ploughing with teams of oxen after the rain. Wretched ploughs, with no wheel, which only stir the soil.

10.30.38:_[D] Fine, not very hot. One egg.

10.31.38:_[D] Ditto. One egg. Inside bad again.

Fruit on sale here much resembling a strawberry, but full of pips & has an unpleasant sour taste.

Put paraffin on the water in the fountain yesterday. About 30 square feet, & about a cupful of paraffin covered it. Mosquito larvae all dead by this morning.

The plough used here has a crossbar which passes under the bellies of the two draft animals, & to this are attached the yokes – wooden for oxen & sackcloth for horses etc. Oxen, mules, horses & even donkeys used for ploughing. Two different animals sometimes yoked together.

The ploughman walks on the already ploughed side & holds the handle with one hand, changing at each furrow. The share is only a sort of hollow iron point fitted over a wooden rod. The whole structure can be easily carried over the shoulder. Absence of wheel makes it far harder to guide.

11.1.38:_[D] Fine, not at all hot. People ploughing everywhere. The plough stirs the soil about 4" to 6" deep. The soil varies greatly & some of it looks rather good. Large patches which were perhaps cultivated a few years ago have been eroded till the rock is sticking through. After the rain some kind of weed (dicotyledon) is springing up everywhere very rapidly & will no doubt give a lot of pasture soon. The fallen olives are quite black. Pomegranates now about over. The pomegranate tree is small & very unimpressive, much like a hawthorn bush. Some wheat (or some other grain) just coming up, evidently winter wheat sown about the same time as in England.

Passing a flock of sheep & goats today, a goat had just given birth to a kid. The shepherd picked the kid up & carried it & the mother hobbled after them, crying to the kid, with the placenta still hanging out of her. Goats will eat leaves of prickly pear. Others grazing at thorn bushes go down on all fours & creep under the thorns almost like a cat, to get at a few green leaves.

The nasturtium & marigold seeds germinating, the others not yet. Inside still very bad.

Another kind of orange coming into season, but still not completely ripe. A largish sour kind, rather thick skin & lots of pith, but good flavour.

VILLA SIMONT, ROUTE DE CASABLANCA 11.1.38:_[M]

Cannot yet get any definite idea as to the land system here. All the land round here is either cultivated or what passes as cultivable, except for a few spurs of hills. We are just within the edge of the huge palm plantation which runs round the northern side of Marrakech and must be thousands of acres. The land between the palm trees is mostly cultivated the same as the fields. But there are no or very few boundaries and I cannot find out whether the peasants own their own plots or rent it, whether everyone owns a plot, and whether any land is owned communally. I suspect that some must be, as the fields lying fallow count as pasture for the sake of the few patches of weeds growing on them, and the flocks of sheep and goats are grazed everywhere. Possibly there are private plots for cultivation but common grazing rights. The palms grow in a completely haphazard way and it is difficult to believe that they can be privately owned. Immediately round our house it is an area mainly of vegetable and fruit gardens. There appear to be some peasants who cultivate fairly considerable plots and keep them in fairly good order. There are also large and well-ordered market gardens, generally walled off and owned by Europeans or rich Arabs – generally the latter, I think. Contrasting their ground with that of the ordinary peasants, one sees the enormous difference made here by having the capital to run water conduits.

Ploughing is now going on everywhere after the recent heavy rain. From the size of the plots evidently for some cereal crop. Here and there a little wheat or some other grain coming up, presumably winter wheat sown at much the same time as in England. The local plough is a wretched thing made entirely of wood except for the share, which is merely a kind of iron point fitted over a wooden bar. The whole apparatus can easily be carried on one’s shoulder. The share stirs the ground about 4" to 6" deep, and presumably most of the soil is never cultivated deeper than this. Nevertheless some of it does not look bad, and in places, eg. the orange grove round our house, it is extremely deep, about 4 feet (ie. the top-soil.) The lack of a wheel on the plough makes it much harder for the men and beasts and almost impossible to plough straight furrows. Oxen are mostly used, but also all the other beasts except camels, and an ox and a donkey sometimes yoked together. Should say a yoke of oxen could plough about half an acre in a day.

Chief crops round here: palms, olives, pomegranates, maize, chillis, lucerne, most of the European vegetables (beans, cabbages, tomatoes, marrows, pumpkins, peas, radishes19), brinjals, oranges, and some cereals, I do not yet know which. Oranges seem chiefly grown by Europeans, also lemons. Pomegranates are about over, dates coming to an end. I fancy that lucerne, which grows quickly and is cropped when about a foot high, is grown all the year round. It is the principal fodder here and is sold at 10 c. for a bundle about 3" thick. Maize, used for fodder, probably also grown all the year round, and most of the vegetables. Quality of most of the plants very poor, owing no doubt to poor soil and still more to lack of capital for equipment. Eg. tomatoes are grown without sticks and are wretched plants. Of the animals, the sheep seem to do best on the miserable pasture, and besides making quite good mutton have excellent fleeces. Most of the other animals wretched, and no milk-yielding animals have udders of any size on them. A good class Spanish goat costs almost the same as a cow, which gives one a hint of the latter’s milking qualities. Fowls are like the Indian fowl. All animals abominably treated but astonishingly docile. Tools are extremely primitive. No spades or European forks, only hoes of the Indian style. Cultivation is made much more laborious by the lack of water, because every field has to be partitioned off into tiny plots with earth banks between, to conserve water. Not only small children but very old women work in the fields, women who must be at least 60, probably 70, clearing roots etc. with pick-axes. The typical Arab village is a large enclosure with high mud walls, which looks like one huge house. Inside are the usual miserable huts, mostly of straw or palm thatch, shaped like beehives, about eight feet wide and seven high. All the people round here seem to fear robbers and like to feel themselves shut in at night. Except in the temporary field huts used for watching ripe crops, no one sleeps outside the enclosure of the village. Have not yet got to the bottom of the reason for the very high price of cereals. Eg. in the market a decalitre of wheat, weighing about 40 lb. costs Frs. 30 or over 1d a pound even in English money. Bread is correspondingly expensive. (Last month price of wheat officially fixed at Frs. 158 the quintal. See cutting V.M.20 10.9.38.)

Ramadan has begun. The Arabs here seem fairly strict about their observances, but I gather they sometimes eat forbidden things, eg. I suspect they will sometimes eat an animal that has died a natural death. Our servant and M. S[imont]’s caretaker thought it all right to eat a fowl pecked to death by the others. They appear to be strict about not drinking.21

Troops often passing on their way to the rifle range nearby. They look pretty good, spirits very good and marching style better than I had expected, better than ordinary French conscripts. Harold Maral, who did his military service in the Zouaves, says the latter are largely Algerian Jews and greatly looked down on by other regiments. I gather that in Morocco proper Jews are not recruited. One meets everywhere here with signs of hostility to Jews, not only among Arabs but also Europeans. Jews are said to undercut, cheat, take other people’s jobs etc., etc. (See cutting P.M.22 10.18.38).

11.3.38:_[D] Yesterday one egg. Fine sunset, with green sky.

The nasturtiums & marigolds well up.

Inside terribly bad in the night.

Fairly warm. On silver poplar tree found puss-moth caterpillar about 1" long. Found shell of dead tortoise. Some time in life it had had some kind of injury which had crushed in a portion of the shell, forming a dent, & had set & grown in that position.

The half-starved donkey which I think was bought recently by M. Simont has discovered that the goats are given barley & comes across to rob them of it.

The pool where I saw the wild duck has already largely dried up.

One egg today.

The barley about at an end. There was about 20–25 lbs, & it has lasted 3 weeks, ie. each goat gets about ½lb. a day.

11.4.38:_[D] One egg.

11.5.38:_[D] One egg.

11.6.38:_[D] Two eggs.

Fairly considerable rain recently at nights. In the daytime fine & rather warm. This afternoon some raindrops out of a completely clear sky, then a thunderstorm & fairly heavy rain.

After the recent rain the streams in the fields are much swollen, & water tortoises are everywhere. Today saw 10–20 of them, & often 3 or 4 at a time. They are generally sitting on the mud & leap into the water when one approaches. After a while they come to the surface & remain with eyes & nose just out of the water, like the frogs in Spain, diving at once at any alarm. They seem able to move very rapidly.

The goats almost out of milk, possibly because they have had no barley for a couple of days, though pending the arrival of the barley I have given them other things, eg. boiled maize.

The nasturtiums now quite large. 1 sweet pea showing. No phlox or pansies (about a fortnight), so evidently dud seed.

Some of the local dates quite good, very shiny & sticky, & roundish shape, about size & shape of large walnuts.

Inside better.

11.7.38:_[D] No rain today. A little cooler. Very yellow moon.

Today in among the orange trees they were ploughing with 1 donkey. They have a small light plough, no wheel but share as in Europe & quite sharp, made in Czechoslovakia & probably costing £1–£2. It is hard work but evidently not too much for a strong donkey, & he can plough up a fair-sized patch (this was about 25 yards by 5 yards of ground that had more or less gone back to grass) at one go.

The oranges practically ripe now. We had a few of them (tangerine type) the other day.

Fresh barley today, about 30lb. for Frs. 17.50 or a little less than 1d a lb. This is less than I paid before.

In an old stone tank near the house found the decayed head of what may be a dog but I think is a jackal. There are said to be some in this country. In either case a very complete skull, so have put it up on a stick for the insects to get it clean.

11.8.38:_[D] Fine, rather warm. Some rain last night. A few sweet peas up.

One egg.

Footmarks of tortoises in the mud could easily be mistaken for those of a rabbit.

11.9.38:_[D] Sowed sweet peas (only about ½ dozen of the others have come up) carnations & violas.

11.10.38:_[D] Sowed pinks, godetias & clarkia.

Rainy & overcast all day, but fairly warm. Fine sunset. Green sky. Large flocks of starlings flying everywhere.

11.12.38:_[D] One egg.

Method of irrigation used here. The soil in any field growing crops that require irrigation is divided into small beds about 4 yds–3 yds. The irrigation ditch which can be connected up with the stream, runs round the edge. If it is desired to water bed A, the ditch is damned then & a chunk cut out of A’s surrounding bank. The water runs into A, & when enough has run in the bank is closed again, the dam across the ditch removed, & the water can be run to any other place required.

11.13.38:_[D] One egg.

The striped goat now completely out of milk.

On the whole very hot in the daytime lately. Fire at nights but not really necessary. Immense flocks of starlings, probably as many as 3000 in a flock, all the while attacking the olives, which are now ripe on the trees. Arabs out all day in the olive groves, shouting to scare the starlings away. E[ileen] compares the sound of the starlings’ twittering to the rustle of a silk dress.

In an irrigation tank the other day saw quantities of tortoises, ranging from 3" long to nearly a foot. Caught a small one. These cannot swim fast enough to get away if you wade after them. Compared with land tortoises they are not very retractile, keep their heads & limbs out even when you are holding them, & have no power to withdraw the tail. They draw their head into a kind of cylinder of skin like a muffler. They do not seem able to stay under water long without coming up for air.23 In the same tank, underneath a stone, found some tiny leeches about ¼" long. The first I have seen in this country.

Last night found a huge toad in the flower bed. The first I have seen here. Nearly twice the size of an English toad, very warty & able to leap a considerable way.

Shallots in the fields almost ripe. Peasant brought us some young leeks.

Today saw a dead dog by the roadside. I am afraid the same one as came asking for food a few days back, & I am afraid probably dead of starvation.

The peasants here evidently use no harrows or cultivators, merely plough the soil & then sow on the rough ridges. Curiously enough the result is to give the impression that the grain is sown in rows, though of course actually broadcast. A good deal of wheat coming up now. Broad beans about 6´ high.

11.14.38:_[D] Planted out nasturtiums.

11.16.38:_[D] One egg.

11.17.38:_[D] One egg.

11.19.38:_[D] Two eggs.

11.21.38:_[D] Two eggs.

11.22.38:_[D] One egg.

VILLA SIMONT 11.22.38:_[M]

Some days back visiting the British consul. The latter (name Robert Parr) is man of about 40, cultivated, very hospitable, married, appears to be in easy circumstances. Speaks French, very careful and grammatically very correct, but very strong English accent and manner while speaking of mentally going over grammar rules. The Assistant Consul or Vice Consul is young Englishman son of missionary, who has apparently been brought up in Morocco. Nevertheless has more characteristically English manner and accent than, eg. an Englishman brought up in India.

Parr considers I was wrong about the local French attitude to the crisis. Thinks they really believed war was coming and were prepared to go through with it though thoroughly fed up. Their apparent indifference was mere surface stolidity. He believes that there will be no general election for sometime to come. Says the scandals about the Air Ministry were very bad and known to everybody,24 and the Government would prefer to make this good before risking an election. Says he has been struck by the number of more or less ordinary Conservatives he has met who are becoming perturbed by the Government’s foreign policy. Thinks a likely development in the near future would be an attempt to revive the old Liberal Party. His own opinions seem to be moderately conservative. Could not be sure, whether, as a Government servant, he has any inside knowledge of what is going on, but gather not.

Ref. note on wheat prices above, a quintal equals about 2 cwt. Recently paid Frs. 31.50 for a measure, a decalitre I think, which appears to weigh about 40 lbs. This works out at nearly the same price, ie. about 10 centimes a pound. Seventy centimes equals about a penny in English money, so that the price of wheat here is at about the English price-level. Have not yet been able to secure full price lists, but it would appear that the things cheaper here (ie. when the franc is taken as being equal to its exchange value) are meat, certain fruits and vegetables, most of the products of the local hand-workers (leather, earthenware, certain kinds of metal work and heavy-quality woollen cloth) and, of course, rent. Imported goods, especially manufactures, are all expensive. Oil of all descriptions notably expensive.

It appears that the negroes in Senegal are French citizens, the Arabs in Morocco not, this province being still called by a fiction the Cherifien Empire. All negroes are liable for military service just the same as Frenchmen. In Morocco only French subjects, ie. mostly Europeans, do compulsory service. The Arab troops are voluntarily engaged men and enlist for long periods. They appear to get a (by local standards) respectable pension for long service. Eg. our servant Mahdjoub Mahommed, who served about 15 years in an Arab line regiment, gets a pension of about Frs. 5 a day. Forgot to mention earlier that at the entrance to Marrakech there is a toll-station where all incoming lorries etc. have to unload and pay a tax on any goods being brought in for sale. This applies to all the vegetables taken in to market by the peasants. Do not know amount of tax, but it makes an appreciable difference to the price if one buys vegetables etc. outside the town.

11.23.38:_[D] One egg.

Weather fine & warm, not particularly hot. Fires some evenings. When it is reasonably clear the snow peaks of the Atlas now seem so close that one would think them only a few miles away (actually 50–100 miles I suppose.) Nearly all the seeds, except marigolds, sweet peas & nasturtiums have done very badly & most have failed to germinate, no doubt owing to having been kept for years in stock. It seems very difficult here to grow any small flowers, which are easily killed by the heat & drought. Gardens mostly specialise in shrubs.

Paid Frs. 31.50 for a measure of wheat (roundabout 40 lb. = about 1d a lb.)

Have been ill (chest) since 16th. Got up yesterday & somewhat better today.

11.24.38:_[D] One egg.

Cylinder of Butagaz gave out yesterday. That makes 5 weeks. It has supplied pretty regularly 3 gas-jets (one of them higher candle-power – I think 60 – than the others) & a fourth occasionally.

11.25.38:_[D] Two eggs.

11.27.38:_[D] One egg.

11.28.38:_[D] Two eggs.

11.29.38:_[D] One egg.

11.30.38:_[D] Two eggs.

12.1.38:_[D] Two eggs. (This makes 30 since 10.26.38.)

12.2.38:_[D] The weather has been much cooler, some days clear & fine, much like English spring, sometimes heavy mist. The day before yesterday fairly heavy rain. On clear days the Atlas mountains look extremely close, so that you can distinguish every contour, on other days completely invisible.

Very poor success with the flower seeds. Only nasturtiums, sweet peas, marigolds, carnations & a very few pinks & clarkia germinated. Phlox, pansies, violas, godetias, poppies & sunflowers failed entirely to come up, though soil conditions etc. were all right. Presumably due to seed having been in stock for years.

Find that the weaker of the two catapults will throw a stone (less satisfactory than buckshot) 90 yards at most. So a powerful catapult25 ought to throw a buckshot about 150 yards.

Three eggs.

12.3.38:_[D] Two eggs.

The tallest palms are about 25 yards high (to the base of the leaves.)

12.4.38:_[D] Two eggs.

12.5.38:_[D] Three eggs.

On a patch which I saw being ploughed October 30th or a day or two earlier, the grain is now 4–6" high.

Oranges now ripe & on sale everywhere. Pomegranates now on sale are over-ripe & quite a different colour, brown instead of red.

Form of donkey shoe used here.

12.6.38:_[D] Two eggs. Nights now are distinctly chilly.

12.7.38:_[D] Two eggs.

Yesterday afternoon much hotter.

Looking at the beds of streams here, it is evident that the streams have shrunk very greatly, though whether recently or not I do not know. The stream along which we walked yesterday had in effect three beds. The bed in which it was actually running; perhaps 6´ wide & 1´ deep, a bed about 10´ wide into which it evidently swells at the wettest season of the year, & outside this a wide bed channelled out of the chalk which showed that at some time in the past what is now a tiny stream was a considerable river.

Many more small birds about now. I suppose some of them migrants.

Leaves of the pomegranate trees yellowing.

12.8.38:_[D] Two eggs.

In the morning dust-storms, then fairly heavy rain. The afternoon cold & misty, just like England.

12.9.38:_[D] Two eggs.

Notice that ibises always collect round a man digging & are very tame then. Presumably after worms etc. They did not do this in Burma. Probably there is next to no food in the streams here.

12.10.38:_[D] One egg.

VILLA SIMONT 12.10.38:_[M]

Cannot get any definite idea of the system of land tenure here, whether the peasants own their plots, whether they rent them etc. Land appears to be held in plots of two or three acres upwards. Evidently there are common grazing grounds, and there must obviously be some communal arrangement for the distribution of water. The small streams are diverted in different directions according as they are wanted, and by means of the channels and small dykes which exist in the fields water can be run to almost any spot. Nevertheless there is an obvious great difference in the water supply between peasants’ plots and the plantations of Europeans and wealthy Arabs. The difficulty about water makes an immense amount of work. The soil in parts here is a sort of soft chalk which has streams running through it about twenty feet down. In order to get at this – often a stream of a few inches deep – wells are sunk at intervals. One sometimes finds such wells all along the edge of a field a few yards apart – why so many I do not know, but I have seen this in a number of fields, eg. one field had 12 wells along its edge. There is evidence of great shrinkage in the water supply in recent years. Some streams have three beds, ie. one they run in now, a wider one they presumably run in after the rainiest season, and a much larger one they ran in at some time in the past. Some recently cultivated fields seem to have gone out of cultivation. It seems very difficult to get small seeds to germinate without constantly watering the soil.

The peasants here evidently do not use harrows, but they appear to plough it over several times in different directions. At the end of course it is still in furrows. This has the advantage that it gives the seed (broadcast) a certain tendency to lie in straight lines. Also perhaps conserves water better.

The winter grain (I suppose barley) is now about 4–6" high. Trees seem to do better here than small crops, eg. the olives (black and known for their bitterness) are good. Nevertheless there are practically no trees except cultivated ones, palms, olives etc. Firewood,* ready chopped and good quality, costs about 70–80 frs. (about 8/–) for 1000 kilos (about 1 ton). The only fuel here wood and charcoal. Near here a large new plantation of olives etc. run by Frenchmen. A sort of cooly barracks for the Arab workers. Quite good, very much better than the corresponding kind of thing would be in India. Except for a few wealthy ones the Arabs in their villages almost all live in tiny straw or palm-thatch huts, like beehives, about 8–10 feet wide. A few wild-looking people living in tiny tents which are simply a piece of cloth stretched over a pole, no walls or flaps. Evidently more or less permanent, as they had built little enclosures round. Normally a village is surrounded by a mud wall about 10 feet high with thorns on top. As in Burma, only men plough but women do all other jobs in the fields, especially tiresome jobs like weeding. Children working, usually at herding animals, when they are almost too young to speak. They are extraordinarily good, never stray away from work and seem to understand exactly what they have to do. Many of the peasants one sees come out and beg as one passes. With some of them this seems to be a reflex action on sight of a European. Generally quite satisfied with 20c. None of the peasant women, at least those one sees working, are veiled.

Examining the Petit Marocain, find its make-up is as follows. 10 pages (some days 12) ie. 60 columns. Of this just over one third is filled with advertisements. Back page and last page but one entirely advertisements. Principal adverts are Persil and other Lever products (note it is always stated on the packet that Lever’s stuff is French product), Nestlé’s milk, various shipping companies, several eye-tonics and other patent medicines. Special pages are set aside for Moroccan news, which does not as a rule figure on the front page. No book reviews, and though get-up etc. is good the general tone of writing is dull compared with ordinary French papers.

All the papers here heavily patriotic. Eg. when Marshal Lyautey’s26 statue was being brought to Casablanca, both Petit and Presse for over three weeks gave never less than a column and often most of a page to the subject, ie. to adulations of Lyautey. On the actual day of the installation the Presse gave its entire front page to this. La Presse frequently demands the suppression of the Communist Party, the Petit not, tho’ Daladier [see above, n . 13] is its hero and it reports de la Rocque27 sympathetically. The most widely-read French paper in Marrakech seems to be the weekly Candide, which is sold on the streets everywhere. On buying it find it is virtually Fascist. Left-wing French papers seem unobtainable here.

M. Simont has sacked Hussein, evidently on the ground that he was lazy. The job here (for one man) is to look after about 2 acres planted with orange and lemon trees, and part of the ground between the trees, perhaps 20–30 rods, down under marrows etc. Also to look after a few sheep. By European standards it would be said that Hussein worked hard. M. Simont complaining that Hussein (who evidently also had some negro blood) is a Cleuh.28 They are said to be stupid, shiftless etc. Arabs also accuse them of avarice. Apparently Europeans share the prejudice. Do not know what the pay for this job would be, but probably not more than 10 frs. a day and quarters.

12.11.38:_[D] Two eggs.

Chilly & overcast, rain in afternoon.

12.12.38:_[D] Heavy rain all night. Cold & overcast, much like November weather in England. E[ileen] has neuralgia, probably owing to going out in the rain yesterday.

Raining most of the day.

Two eggs. (3 since 10.26.38, 23 since 12.1.38. One hen is now broody.)

12.13.38:_[D] Two eggs.

12.14.38:_[D] Three eggs.

Chilly & fine. Very heavy dew these days.

12.15.38:_[D] Two eggs.

Clear, fine & not hot.

12.16.38:_[D] Two eggs.

Fine & cool. Domestic animals here eat almost anything. Donkey eating old dried-up vegetable marrow leaves off a rubbish heap. Cows, goats & sheep being fed on waste leaves from crown artichokes. Notice that when goats & sheep are herded together, the goats fight among themselves but do not go for the sheep.

Picked up pellet of some fairly large hawk. Only wing-cases etc. of insects, mostly woodlice. Have not yet seen a snake in Morocco, though recently we picked up a fresh slough of one.

Oranges when ripe enough to pick can apparently be left on the trees for some time without falling. Wholesale price of oranges (at any rate locally) Frs. 2.30 or 3 a dozen.

Saw a dead donkey the other day – the first I have seen. The wretched brute had simply dropped & died beside one of the tracks leading from Marrakech to the Oued, & was left lying there by the owner. A few dogs hanging round waiting to start on it, but with a guilty air.

12.17.38:_[D] One egg.

Very heavy rain in the night. Cold during morning, about ½ hour’s sun in the afternoon, then more rain. Everything flooded, the Oued Tensift swollen to considerable size – bed is 50 yards wide in places.

The donkey (actually seen dead on 12.11.38.) now an almost completely clean skeleton. Notice that they leave the head till last.

12.18.38:_[D] Two eggs.

12.19.38:_[D] Three eggs.

Heavy rain in the night. Today cold & cloudy, with heavy showers & violent wind.

12.20.38:_[D] Two eggs.

Heavy rain at night, raining on & off all day. The little stream we followed up some time back, then a tiny trickle of water, is now a rushing torrent about 10 yards wide. Today saw two rainbows parallel in the sky, a thing I have not seen before.

12.21.38:_[D] Two eggs.

Finer, cool, a few spots of rain.

One of the pigeons is dead – cause unknown.

12.22.38:_[D] Three eggs.

Finer in the morning, rain in the afternoon.

The surviving pigeon (presumably the hen) is sitting on a nest. Do not know whether it can survive, but possibly we may be able to get another cock for it.

The Oued Tensift has now filled up the whole of the valley it runs in, so that at the bridge it is about 300 yards wide (previously about 10 yards). Judging from the vegetation in the valley I should say this is unusual.

VILLA SIMONT 12.22.38:_[M]

After heavy rain such as that of the last few days the rivers swell enormously. The Oued Tensift, normally about 10 yards wide, has filled the whole valley it runs in, about 300 yards wide. But judging from the vegetation in the valley this does not happen most years.

The Arab funerals here are the wretchedest I have seen. The dead man is carried by friends and relatives on a rough wooden bier, wrapped in a cloth. Don’t know whether this is due to poverty, or whether Mahomedans are supposed not to have coffins. A hole not more than two feet deep is hacked in the ground and the body dumped in it with nothing over it except a mound of earth and usually either a brick or a broken pot at one end, presumably the head. The burial places as a rule are not walled in in any way and except when there happens to be the tomb of some rich person there one would never know them for burial-places – they merely look like a rather hummocky piece of ground. No sort of identifying mark over the graves. On one, presumably of a scribe, I found a pen and inkhorn, otherwise only the broken pots etc. On one an enamel tin mug. A few vacant graves always waiting, including little ones for children. Women apparently never attend funerals.

The other widely-read French weekly paper is Gringoire.* Used to be a sort of gossipy literary paper, but now much as Candide. I notice that these papers, though evidently prosperous and having a lot of advertisements, are not above inserting pornographic advertisements. Also that in spite of their politics they publish serial stories etc. by writers who are more or less “left”. On a wall in a café lavatory, “A mort Blum”29 in very small letters. The first political inscription I have seen in French Morocco.

12.23.38:_[D] The pigeon has laid two eggs & is sitting on them.

Cold & fine. The Oued Tensift has shrunk to about twice its original size.

Three eggs.

12.24.38:_[D] Four eggs.

Both the pigeons eggs broken – do not know how, possibly a cat tried to get up to the nest & scared the bird off. Evidently fertile eggs, as they were streaked with blood.

Clear & fine.

12.25.38:_[D] Quite a heavy frost in the night, everything white this morning, & a little cat-ice on the pools. Curious sight of oranges & lemons on the trees frosted over, & lemon blossom frozen stiff. Do not yet know whether it has done much damage. Bourgainvillea° blossoms look all right. Should not think frosts can be common here, but at the moment there is a wave of cold all over the world. The mountains have for sometime past been covered with snow even on the lower slopes.

Four eggs.

12.26.38:[D]		Have been ill. Not certain number of eggs, but about 9.
27:	Weather clear & fine.
28:

Second cylinder of Butagaz ended 12.27.38. Exactly 3 weeks (same as last time.)30

12.29.38:_[D] Two eggs.

Clear & fine. We have got a cock-pigeon (Frs. 4.50) & put him in the cage with the hen to get acquainted. She started pecking his head gently, I think picking out lice.

12.30.38:_[D] Large flight (about 200) of storks or cranes passing over. Large white birds, apparently with black edges to their wings. Flying northward, but probably merely circling round to find a place to settle, as they must be migrants from Europe.

Very fine, clear & chilly. No wind.

Two eggs.

12.31.38:_[D] Three eggs. (102 eggs since 10.26.38 or nearly 12 a week).

1.1.39:_[D] Three eggs.

The cock pigeon, which at first was rather sorry for himself, no doubt owing to having been confined in a cage & having had his wings bound, is better & trying to fly a little. The female at first courting him, walking round him & bowing.

Another dead donkey, with two dogs tearing its entrails out. The third I have seen. They never seem to bury them when they die.

The pepper trees, whose peppercorns were ripening about September, have now got a fresh crop on them. The nasturtiums which were nipped by the frost are mostly dead. Ditto the vegetable marrows, & the foliage of the brinjals is all withered off.

Clear & fine, not particularly cold, nice sun & no wind. E[ileen] saw four more storks.

The oranges etc., & even apparently the lemon blossom, not in the least damaged by the frost.

1.2.39:_[D] Two eggs.

1.3.39:_[D] Three eggs.

1.4.39:_[D] Three eggs.

Clear, fine & generally rather cold (wearing light undervest, cotton shirt, pullover, coat, light pants & grey flannel bags), & do not find this too much. Night before last the cock pigeon, which was only just regaining its power of flight, disappeared, evidently destroyed by one of the Arabs’ dogs. Bought another yesterday (Frs. 6.). This one’s wings are all right. Put him for the night in the cage, in the morning found the hen outside. Opened the door & they flew off together.

1.5.39:_[D] Two eggs.

1.6.39:_[D] Three eggs.

1.7.39:_[D] Three eggs. There are now 3 hens broody. The pigeons are all right.

Yesterday saw some men fishing in the Oued Tensift. Miserable little fish about the size of sardines. The bait is a kind of small earthworm which is found in the mud beside the river.

Day before yesterday came on some men waiting with a she-camel which had fallen in the middle of the bridge over the Oued. It was apparently about to have a calf. Belly greatly swollen up, sexual organs bleeding slightly. The creature lay on its side, its head in the air, sniffing, with a kind of air of astonishment, but evidently not in pain. An hour or so later just the same. Today passed that way. Big pool of blood on the ground, & the marks of something bloody being dragged away. Calf probably born dead.

Clear, very fine, cold in the shade, warm in the sun. We now have a hot water bottle every night, & 3 blankets & a rug on the bed.

1.8.39:_[D] Three eggs.

VILLA SIMONT 1.8.39:_[M]

Cost of sending four rather heavy parcels to England, about Frs. 400.31 Two others not quite so heavy about Frs. 100 the two. The red tape in post offices here even worse than in France. The two which E[ileen] and I despatched personally took us over two hours. First about half an hour’s wait to get a place at the counter. This not due to Xmas, as it is always much the same. Then endless filling up of forms and the usual search by the officials through large books to find out which forms should be used. Then the usual complaint that the parcels were insufficiently secure. One had not thick enough string, the other which was enveloped in cloth had to be sewn up. Went out and bought string, needles and thread and did the sewing up. Then a complaint because the parcels were not sealed. Fresh journey to buy sealing wax. This kind of thing seems inseparable from French post offices. Notice that most of the minor officials here, of the type who in India would be Indians, are French. Eg. all the post-office clerks and clerks in the other offices, and even most of the traffic policemen. Supply of native clerks evidently does not exist. Most Arabs who are in contact with Europeans speak a little French, but have not yet met an Arab whose French seemed to be perfect.

On Xmas Eve there was a very heavy frost here, which did a good deal of damage. From the type of vegetation and what the Arabs say I do not think this can be usual. Notice, however, that oranges and lemons were quite unaffected by it.

The French here seem to take even less notice of Xmas than in France. They celebrate New Year. Arabs all acquainted with New Year and use it as a pretext for begging. There are said to be less tourists than usual this year.

People gathering lucerne draw it up with their hands instead of cutting with the sickle, thus saving an inch or two on each plant. The people in the little walled village near the house give the impression of owning their land communally, as they all turn out and do the same jobs, weeding, ploughing etc., together.

Examined recently the grave of what was evidently a fairly rich man, in a little mud enclosure. A concrete grave of the usual pattern, with a sort of little oven evidently for burnt offerings at the head. No name on the grave. On a tree over the grave various little charms, bunches of wool etc., hanging. Stole one of the charms, a sort of little leather purse. Inside it a bunch of wool and a paper with writing.

1.9.39:_[D] Two eggs. Saw large flock of green plover, apparently the same as in England. Clear & fine, afternoons fairly warm.

1.10.39:_[D] Three eggs.

1.11.39:_[D] One egg.

1.12.39:_[D] Three eggs.

1.13.39:_[D] Two eggs. (135 since 10.26.38.)

In the cleft of the rock on the N. side of one of the little hills near hear° are growing a plant like angelica, a fleshy plant with round leaves & quantities of moss. Evidently these can only grow in places where the sun does not reach them at any time.

1.14.39:[D]		Four eggs (about 4 of the hens now broody.)
to
1.17.39:

Saw a stork standing among the ibises the other day. It is enormous – English heron would look small beside it.

Greenfinch evidently exists here as well as the goldfinch, both as in Europe. Broad beans grown round here are very good, no black fly at all. It seems tangerines are damaged by frost though ordinary oranges are not.

VILLA SIMONT 1.27.39:_[M]

Have just returned after spending a week at Taddert in the Atlas, about 95 km. from Marrakech. T. is at 1650 metres elevation, ie. about 5000 ft. When one gets about 2000 feet above the plain (itself about 1000 feet above sea level) one gets to a different type of vegetation, oaks and firs, more or less stunted, fairly good grass, of the downland type, and above about 4000 feet walnut trees, which grow profusely and very well, but evidently don’t grow wild. The fig tree does grow at about 5000, but evidently doesn’t do well. Almonds seem to do well. On the whole the mountain slopes are exceedingly bare and only begin to be well forested when one gets about 1000 feet above the valleys through which the main road runs. The lower slopes for about 500 feet above a village are often completely bare, mere chipped-up limestone like a slag-heap. Probably this is partly due to goats. The French Gov.t is now apparently beginning to do something about reafforestation, and is going to prohibit grazing on some of the hills. Evidently this area, even round the motor-road, is only in process of being accurately surveyed, as the landmarks for the survey people have only been newly set up. Road is good though not too wide. The bus does the journey from Marrakech to Taddert in 3 hours and the return in about 2½. There is a great deal of what appears to be iron ore in the mountains, but evidently quite unexploited. In the inhabited valleys there does not seem to be so much shortage of water as down here.

If one looks round from a high peak one sees that only about one valley in twenty, even round the motor road, is inhabited. Most of the valleys are mere clefts, and evidently the soil is only cultivable in those into which the sun gets for a good deal of the day. At this time of year there is frost every night, which hangs on in shady places for most of the day. Snow drifts everywhere, but nowhere below about 6000 ft. where the hills are impassable because of snow. Cultivation is of the terrace type, much as in the hills in Burma. The terraces are very skilfully done, walled up with limestone, as in Spain, and the soil appears to be deep, 4 feet or so, though of course it is artificially made up.

In moderately shady valleys and along banks of streams there are small but quite good pastures for the cows, the goats being grazed right on the tops of the hills. Goats are as down here, the sheep mostly of a quite different breed, with exceedingly silky wool. From what people say locally and from general appearances it appears that all the villagers own a small piece of land, and of course grazing is free, though evidently each village has its recognized beat. Could not make an accurate judgement, but I should not say that more than one acre is cultivated per head of population. It appears that barley is grown in winter-spring (the barley is coming up now, though not so advanced as down here), this is cut in June and then maize is sown. The local French consider that the Chleuh are good cultivators, and they evidently use plenty of manure. Ploughing is done with a cow and donkey, as here. The people have plenty of animals, and no doubt their staple food is barley and goats’ milk.

The villages are quite different from those in the plains, as they are not walled in. The houses are of mud, very occasionally limestone, and square, with flat roofs. These are thatched over with wild broom and then covered with earth, which is possible owing to the dryness. When one looks down at a village from above one sees that as a rule all the houses on the same level have a common roof, though inside they are separate. This points to a certain amount of communal life. Practically none have glass windows. What woodwork there is is mostly crude.

The Chleuh seem to be rather remarkable people. The men are not greatly different in appearance from Arabs, but the women are exceedingly striking. In general they are rather fair, sometimes fair enough to have red in their cheeks, with black hair and remarkable eyes. None are veiled, and all wear a cloth round their heads tied with blue or black cords, the dominant colours of their dress being red and blue. All the women have tattooing on their chins and sometimes down each cheek. Their manner is much less timid than that of most Arab women. Virtually the whole population is ragged and there is no evidence of any being much richer than the others. The children for the most part have nothing on but a ragged blanket. Begging is almost universal, and the women have discovered that their jewellery (amber and rough silver, some of it exceedingly well worked) is liked by Europeans and will sell it for prices that cannot be much above the value of the silver. The children beg as soon as they can walk and will follow for miles over mountain tracks in hopes of a sou. Tobacco is greatly appreciated by those who do smoke, but I notice that a great many do not, and none of the women. Children beg for bread and are glad to get it. Nevertheless it is difficult to be certain about the real amount of poverty. Probably there is no actual destitution, at any rate no one is homeless or quite propertyless. I notice under the walnut trees quantities of nuts which have been left to rot, which does not suggest serious hunger. But evidently everyone’s life is at a low level. In some parts of the mountains carpets, leatherwork etc. are made. Near Taddert the chief trade apart from agriculture seems to be charcoal-burning. The people can of course get good wood (mostly oak) free, though possibly the Gov.t will interfere with this later, and they cook it in exceedingly primitive earth ovens and sell it at Frs. 12 for a large sack (about Frs. 35 in Marrakech.) Local physique is pretty good, though the people are not particularly large or very athletic in appearance. All walk well, and the women easily walk up steep hillsides carrying a huge bundle of wood or a three-gallon stone jar of water. Apart from their own Berber dialect all speak Arabic, but few or none French. A few have reddish hair. There seems to be a Jew or two in most of the villages, not easily distinguishable from the rest of the population.

Graveyards not quite the same as the Arab ones, though the people are Mahomedans. The graveyard is generally a patch of good grass and the cattle browse among the graves. Owing to plentiful stone the graves are generally covered with a cairn, not a mere mound of earth, as here, but they have no names or other indications of individuals. Judging from a few that had fallen in, it seems usual to make the grave as a kind of cave with flat slabs of rock, and then cover this over, originally perhaps as a protection against wild animals. Some of the graves are immensely long, 8 or 10 feet. I saw one funeral. It was done in the usual way by a party of friends, one of whom kept up a sort of mumbling recitative noise. The women as usual were not present, but a group sat on a rock within sight 100 yards away and kept up a rather perfunctory kind of wailing.

Talked a number of times in Taddert with a German in the Foreign Legion, who is there on some job I could not understand, something to do with some electric installation. A friendly intelligent man, who speaks French well. Has been eight years in the Legion and does not seem particularly discontented. Intends to stay his full time to get his small pension. Says they do not give you free tobacco in the French army and that you have to serve some time before your pay reaches even a franc a day, so that newcomers generally cannot smoke. No particular political opinions. Says there were 5 million unemployed when he left Germany and that he cannot go back as he is wanted for desertion. Did not express any opinion about Hitler. Seemed mildly pro-Government in the Spanish war.

Today the news of the fall of Barcelona has come. Nobody in Marrakech seems much interested, though the papers are splashing it. I note that there are at least 2 Socialist weeklies in Morocco, the Dépêche de Fez and another whose name I forget. Not extreme and evidently (this is really why French Socialist papers are allowed to run and Arab ones not) not anti-imperialist. But both they and the P.S.F.32 Presse keep up the abusive and scurrilous tradition of French newspapers, which the more moderate papers do not. Eg. the Dépêche de Fez makes accusations of German corruption of the French press, naming names. This could not be done in newspapers either in England or in India without a prosecution, though the papers would probably only be fined. On the other hand, evidently no paper in Morocco can suggest that Morocco should be independent, without being suppressed. If the papers are reporting truthfully, there were demonstrations among the Spaniards in Tangier to celebrate the fall of Barcelona, without any kind of counter-demonstrations. Yet I had had the impression that the pro-Government Spaniards in Tangier slightly outnumbered the others. The hotel at Taddert exactly like a cheap Paris hotel, and ditto with the one or two cafés on the route. The people one met, also, completely [like] the ordinary lower-middle-class French, living exactly the same life as in France except that they are obliged to speak a little Arabic.

2.18.39:_[D] Spent a week at Taddert, 1650 m. up in the Atlas, about 95 km. from Marrakech, & since then have been ill for nearly 3 weeks (about 10 days in bed.)

Most essential points about Taddert are noted in the other diary.33 Birds seen there are as follow: raven (I rather suspect that the so-called crows down here are ravens too), partridge (fairly common), hawk, some other much larger predatory bird, possibly eagle (only seen in the distance), rock dove & wood-pigeon, blue tit, other birds much as down here, but no storks or ibises. No animals. Found in the snow on a peak tracks conceivably of mouflon, but probably goat. There was some reference to some animal called blet or bilet (presumably Arab word) which was liable to come & kill chickens etc. Tame peacocks kept at the hotel seemed to do well. Breeds of domestic animals much as here, except the sheep, which are quite different with very silky wool. Camels are used, but not taken off the main roads. Donkeys seem able to ascend almost all hills.

Trees etc.: oak (smallish), very tiny dwarf oak, wild broom, kind of heather stuff, as in Spain, blackberry, wild daffodil (or some kind of wild tulip – not in flower now), species of ash, small fir tree, various plants of sedum & saxifrage type at tops of peaks, a few with very beautiful flowers, daisy. Walnuts grow profusely, but not wild. Almonds are grown & appear to do well. Fig tree will just grow at about 5000 feet, but does not do well. The spring crop is barley, which is cut in June & followed by maize. Grass in places very good, almost like England. This is only in vicinity of streams, & evidently it has to be cultivated. In the grass a kind of edible sorrel, used in salads.

The river again much swollen after the rain of two days ago. The other day the water very clear & could see the fish, small ones about 4" long, of barbel type (grubbing along the bottom). Shall try for them when the water subsides again. Weeds have grown tremendously & the fields are fairly green. One or two of our nasturtiums in bloom, & sweet peas etc. have grown fairly well, but I have quite neglected the garden.

Owing to illness lost count of the eggs. The hens laid 19 in the week we were away. At present only about 1 is laying.

For about 10 consecutive days the cream has tasted of garlic, some days enough to make it uneatable. Evidently the cows have got hold of some wild garlic. Williams34 says he saw the killing of the last lion in Morocco, in 1924. Panthers & gazelles said to be still fairly common south of the Atlas.

2.20.39:_[D] Wallflowers (good specimens) are blooming at the café near here. Pomegranate trees just putting forth their buds, which are brilliant red. Weeds pretty thick everywhere. This is probably as green as the country ever gets, but there are still considerable dried-up patches. Yesterday saw some wheat green but in fairly good ear.

Local method of hobbling cow with grass rope (base of horn to below knee).

Saw two storks nesting today. The nest is enormous, about twice as wide as a heron’s nest & also several feet deep, a huge mass of twigs filling a whole fork of a large tree. The hen was evidently in the act of laying an egg, the cock standing beside her; presently she got up & they stood side by side. Our hen pigeon laid two more eggs & sat there for some days, then both she & the cock were mysteriously destroyed & disappeared – only a few feathers left. Said to be cats but suspect humans. That makes 4 we have lost &, of course, we shall not have any more. They evidently breed readily here. Three or four of those at the café now have eggs.

It is getting noticeably hotter & flies beginning to be a nuisance again.

Forgot to mention that at Taddert the people had camel’s hair ropes, very pliable & seemed strong.

2.22.39:_[D] Heavy mist yesterday morning. In general distinctly hotter. A lot of wild flowers now, two of marigold type, a sort of daisy, & various others.

2.24.39:_[D] Pretty heavy rain last night & this morning.

Found sprays of fennel, which evidently grows here. Saw very large slow-moving black & white birds, evidently of hawk tribe. Forgot to mention curious property of human shadows, noticed at Taddert. Sometimes one stands on a crag whose shadow is cast hundreds of feet below. If one stands right on the edge of it, naturally one’s shadow is cast beyond that of the crag. But I notice that whereas the shadow of the rock is black & solid, that of the human body, at anything over about 50 feet, is faint & indistinct, like the shadow of a bush. At short distances this is not noticeable & the shadow seems solid, but at long distances, say 200 feet & over, one seems to have almost no shadow at all. At certain distances the body as a whole has a sort of shadow, but, eg., the arm by itself none. I do not know whether this is because, relative to rock, the human body is not opaque, or whether it is merely a question of size.

3.4.39:_[D] A good deal hotter. Flies not so bad again, however, perhaps owing to rain.

A boy offered me a quail which he had just caught the other day. Much the same as those in Spain.

Many wild flowers now, including some the same or almost the same as in England. Poppies, bacon & eggs,35 a sort of small marguerite not unlike the English daisy, a very tiny flower of primula or polyanthus type, some small flowers resembling dandelions, & a purple flower with petals not unlike those of a foxglove, but smaller. Also anchusa, bird’s eye.36 Wild marigolds are much the commonest, growing in thick clumps everywhere.

Barley is now in good ear, though still green, in many fields. Where identifiable, nearly all the crops I have seen are barley. They vary, but on the whole seem good. Cherry trees everywhere in blossom. Apples coming into leaf. Pomegranate buds getting large – these evidently put forth leaves before flowers. Lemon trees have fruit at all stages from blossom to ripe fruit on them simultaneously. These apparently continue the year round. Fig buds just appearing. Broad beans about ready to pick (green), lettuces now very good, also peas, carrots & rather small turnips. Evidently some vegetables can be grown more or less continuously here. It is noticeable that there are extremely few insect pests on the vegetables. Men cutting some tall grass resembling wheat or barley, but presumably not that, used for fodder. People also everywhere cutting & carrying home donkey-loads of the weeds which have sprung up everywhere.

The other day caught a young water-tortoise about this size or perhaps a little smaller. Perfectly formed, but at this age the tail is relatively larger. Presumably it had not been long out of the egg, so this must be the breeding season. Have not seen any adult tortoises for some time past. Yesterday saw a centipede about 3–4" long – the first seen here.

3.9.39:_[D] Quite hot, but today cloudy. Most of our nasturtiums in flower & everything else growing rapidly.

Mosquitoes rather bad.

M. Simont uses blood, in considerable quantities (which he can get as he is a butcher) for manuring the orange trees.

3.11.39:_[D] Yesterday found a dead snake, about 2´ long, the first seen in Morocco.

Very hot. It is said that this year there has been more rain than usual, so it should be a good year.

Another wildflower now common is pale yellow with deeper yellow centre, about 2" across, & resembles a small sunflower.

3.12.39 VILLA SIMONT:_[M]

The section of the Morocco Diary from March 12 to ‘Japanese and apart’ in the fourth sentence of March 28 exists in manuscript and typed forms. Both are Orwell’s work. The typed version is given here, except for obvious errors. Variants are listed in The Complete Works, vol XI, after each diary entry.

Troops returning from manoeuvres passed the house a few days back, to the number of about 5000 men, more than half of these Senegalese. The spahis look pretty good, general physique better than the average of the population. Horses about 14 hands, strong but not much breed, all colours, whites and greys predominating, seemingly some castrated and some not, but no mares (never ridden in this country). Notice at the rifle range all horses are well accustomed to fire. Seeing them on the march en masse, I do not now think (as I did before) that the Senegalese infantry are superior to the Arabs. They look much of a muchness. With the cavalry were some kind of small-bore quick-firing guns – could not see the mechanism as they were enveloped in canvas, but evidently the bore of the gun was 1" or less. Rubber tyres to wheels. Transport wagons have huge all-steel disc wheels and are pulled by three mules. In addition there were pack batteries (screw guns). These guns were round about 3", perhaps 75 mm, though, of course, different from the quick-firer 75 mm. field gun. To carry the whole gun, ammunition etc. evidently requires 6–8 mules. The breech-piece of the gun is a load for one mule. A column such as we saw could manoeuvre without difficulty anywhere in country such as this, except in the mountains. The men are sent on manoeuvre with their heavy khaki overcoats etc., but do not seem to be overloaded as they used to be. Most seemed to be carrying 40–50lb.

Five English and Americans from the Foreign Legion have been to visit us from time to time:37

Craig: Glasgow Irish, but Orange. Fairly superior working-class, claims that his father is well-paid office employee and to have been the same himself. Age about 25, healthy and good physique. Distinct signs of paranoia (boasting about past grandeurs etc.) as is usual with these types. Has been about 2½ years in the Legion and spent half of this in prison camps etc., having made two attempts to desert. Speaks little French. Somewhat “anti-red”, showed hostility at mention of Maxton.38 Does not like the French and would try not to fight if war came.

Williams: American, dark hair, possibly touch of dark blood. Health and physique not very good. Has nearly finished his 15 years, then gets small pension (about 500 francs a month) and expects to remain in Morocco. Is now orderly at the officers’ mess. Not well-educated but well-disposed and evidently thoughtful.

Rowlands : Age about 30–35. “Superior” type and curious accent which might belong to an Eurasian. Drinks when possible. Has done 5 years in the Legion, or nearly, and thinks of leaving (they engage for 3 years and can then re-engage if they wish). Evidently has not been much in trouble. Gentle disposition, thoughtful type, but not intelligent.

Smith: American, age about 40, employed as bandsman. Some tendency to drink. Has a good many years of service. Not intelligent but evidently good-hearted.

Also a young Scotsman whom I only met once. Evidently there are only two or three other Englishmen and Americans in this lot (the 4th). It is clear that Englishmen etc. don’t get on, will not put up with the rough conditions etc., and are also handicapped by inability to learn French, which the Germans are better able to do. All the above-mentioned are still privates. The Legion is predominantly German and the NCOs are usually Germans. It is clear that life in the Legion is now thoroughly dull. None of the above has seen any fighting except innocuous skirmishes. Fights occur among the men sometimes, but the duelling once prevalent has been put down. After a year or so of service a legionnaire is still only earning about 2 francs a day (3d), and it never gets much above this unless he becomes an NCO. A sergeant gets 1200 francs a month but has to pay for his food and also something for his clothes. Uniforms are badly-fitting but the men get a fair quantity of clothes. They have to launder them themselves. Each man gets ½ litre of wine a day. There is no free tobacco issue, and recruits are usually unable to smoke for their first six months.

After the collapse of Catalonia the Petit Marocain immediately became much more pro-Franco. Every comparison of French papers with those we receive from England makes it clear that the French and British publics get their news in very different forms, and that one or other press, more probably both, is habitually lying. Eg. the local press did not mention the machine-gunning of refugees in Catalonia, alleged in the English press. To judge from the legionnaires’ rumours there is still some expectation of war. Once the rumour went round that they were to be mobilised tonight. Within the last few days they have received a large consignment of machine guns and other small-arms at the depot here, as though in expectation of fresh drafts of men. Whenever a French warship touches at Casablanca numbers of the sailors are sent on voluntary-compulsory trips to Marrakech, where they fraternise with the soldiers.

Some of the crops of barley are now in ear and look fairly good. It appears that by local standards there has been a large rainfall this year and crops are expected to be good.

3.16.39:_[D] Yesterday not quite so hot, overcast & clouds of dust. Ditto today, probably presaging rain.

Other wild flowers here: a kind of small scabious, several vetches, one of them very pretty, with a flower about the size of that of a garden pea, in two colours, pink & magenta. Several new ones in the last few days which I cannot identify. In many places the ground is now actually covered with them, predominantly the wild marigold, a pale yellow flower which is evidently mustard, & a smallish daisy not unlike the English one. Yesterday three greenfinches, a cock & two hens, sitting on the telephone wires:

1st. greenfinch: “Little bit of bread.”

2nd. ” : “Little bit of bread.”

1st. ” : “Little bit of bread.”

2nd. ” : “Little bit of bread.”

3rd. (the cock): “Che-e-e-e-e-e-se!”

Men still ploughing in places. Yesterday a man sowing, broadcast out of a bag. Flocks of domestic pigeons swooping down to try & steal the seed, & the men chasing them off.

Yesterday saw a very young camel cub, evidently only a few days born as it still had a bit of navel-string. Nevertheless its legs were almost as long as its mother’s.

Cavalry passing yesterday. Note that all the horses seem to be stallions.

3.21.39 HOTEL DES NEGOCIANTS, MARRAKECH:_[M]

Yesterday the Sultan made an official visit and drove through the town, which had been previously decorated with flags etc. and several thousand troops to line the streets. Obviously this was intended partly as a loyalty-parade in connection with the present crisis. It is evident that the people, ie. Arabs, here have a great feeling of loyalty to the Sultan. There was much enthusiasm even in the Gueliz where normally there is not a large Arab population. Great numbers of the petty chiefs and their retainers, forming a sort of irregular cavalry, all armed with muzzle-loader guns. Evidently the French are not afraid to allow these guns (good up to 2 or 3 hundred yards in all probability) to be freely scattered about the countryside. The Arabs’ loyalty to the Sultan, who is completely under the thumb of the French, makes things a lot easier for the French. Madame V[ellat] told me that Arabs will even make signs of obeisance when hearing the Sultan’s voice over the radio.

The Sultan is a small, not very impressive-looking man of 30–40. Senegalese troops when seen in the mass look very good. Saw a detachment of the Foreign Legion march past. Contrary to my earlier impression, physique and carriage very good.

More attention being paid to the war-crisis this time. French people refer to it spontaneously, which they did not last time. Even Arabs talk about it, eg. our servant Madhjub Mahomed, who informed us that there was “going to be war” and that it was the same as last time, ie. against Germany. Madhjub evidently fought in Europe in the Great War. He cannot read any language, but has some ideas of geography, eg. he knows you have to cross the sea to get to Europe.

E[ileen] remarks that Arab children have no toys whatever. This seems to be the case. In the Arab quarters no toys of any sort are on sale, no dolls, kites, tops or what-not, and the very few toys (sometimes a ball) one sees in Arab children’s hands are of European manufacture. In any case they don’t seem to play much. Great numbers are working from the age of about 6 onward, and most seem to know the value of money almost as soon as they can walk. Soldiers in the Foreign Legion are not allowed into chemists’ shops (because of drugs and poisons) without a special permit.

3.28.39:_[D] On board ss. Yasukunimaru (N.Y.K)39 in Bay of Biscay.

The following was written in Marrakech on 3.21.39 to be written into the diary when the latter was unpacked: –

Until this afternoon, the last 3 or 4 days astonishingly cold. Two days ago in the midst of a rainstorm there was a few minutes’ hail. At the public gardens many of the animals mating. Tortoises copulating, the male standing almost upright & the female when she moved dragging him round, so that probably he has a long flexible penis which can go round the edge of the shell. Ostriches showing signs of mating, the male chasing the female into a corner & getting astride her (not treading as with flying birds), the female when frightened hiding her head in the corner as a captured hare will do, so perhaps there is some truth in the tales about ostriches hiding their heads in the sand. Presumably these two are of the same species, but male & female very different in appearance, the male’s plumage being black & the female’s a kind of dirty grey. Male’s neck is red, female’s grey. Both have bare necks & thighs. Height of either bird something over 7´. They would not eat bread. Frogs making a great noise, though there were tadpoles about already. Male peacocks when displaying shiver their quills with a rustling sound, as though the wind were blowing through them. One monkey (tailless ground monkey of more or less baboon type) has a baby. Evidently about two days old, & making some attempts to move about on its own, which its mother does not allow. As she runs on all fours the baby clings to her under-side with its four legs, looking forward with its face upside down. Its hair is black, whereas that of its parents is yellowish-brown. Fingers, unlike those of its parents, are bare & much more manlike than those of adults. The monkey which is evidently the father, & another male, taking great interest in the baby, handling & examining it gently, & also gnashing their teeth at it as they do when angry with one another, but as the baby showed no fear it is presumably not a hostile gesture. The baby screamed with fright when it caught sight of E[ileen] & myself, on two occasions.

The tortoises have an egg. They have laid it inside their stone hutch, so it probably won’t hatch.

The father monkey copulated with the mother, or began to do so, when she was carrying the baby in her arms.

We left Casablanca 4 pm on 3.26.39, passed Cape Finisterre 7 am on 28th & should pass Ushant 7 am on 29th. Run for the last 12 hours 378 miles (notes on this ship are in the other diary.) Weather after leaving Casablanca somewhat choppy, now while crossing the bay very calm, ie. not rough enough to disturb a ship of this tonnage. Of 3 passages across the bay I have made,40 only one was rough. Have seen no life at all, except the gulls which have followed the ship from Casablanca, & some flights of ducks flying northward, some of them at least 50 miles from land. No seasickness, though the first 24 hours the ship rolled sufficiently to have made me sick if I had not taken Vasano.

The last few days in Casablanca beastly cold. Struck by the changed appearance of the country when coming from M[arrakech] to C[asablanca] by train, ie. the temporary greenness everywhere. Crops look pretty good, though great variation in different places. Wildflowers in huge patches, & the little compounds round the Arabs’ huts so smothered in weeds that sometimes even the huts themselves were almost hidden. E[ileen] saw camels ploughing. I hadn’t seen this before & thought it didn’t happen, but evidently it is fairly usual as it was one of the things represented on the base of Lyautey’s statue [see 12. 10.38 and n. 26]. On this ship several kinds of plant, some of palm type, another of the laurel type, & some of the usual Japanese stunted fir trees, are successfully grown & look healthy.

3.28.39 ON BOARD SS. YASUKUNIMARU (NYK) CROSSING BAY OF BISCAY:_[M]

Yasukuni is 11,950 tons. Do not yet know, but from vibrations judge that she is a motor-ship. Apart from the bridge, only 3 decks above water-level. Cabins and other appointments pretty good, but certain difficulties in that entire crew and personnel are Japanese and apart from the officers the majority do not speak much English. Second class fare Casablanca–London £6.10. As the boat normally goes straight to London from Gibraltar & on this occasion went out of her way to deliver a load of tea, fare from Gibraltar would probably be the same. P.&O. tourist class is £6.10 London–Gibraltar. Food on this ship slightly better than on the P. & O. & service distinctly better, but the stewards here have the advantage that the ship is almost empty. Facilities for drinking not so good, or for deck games, owing to comparatively restricted space.

Do not know what the accommodation for passengers would be, but presumably at least 500. At present there are only 15 in the second class, about 12 in the third, & evidently not many in the 1st, though I don’t know how many. One or two of the 2nd & 3rd class are Danes or other Scandinavians, one or two Dutch, the rest English, including some private soldiers who got on at Gibraltar. It appears that for its whole voyage the ship has been as empty as this. Since the Chino–Japanese war English people from the Far East will not travel on the Japanese boats. All the P. & O. boats said to be crowded out in consequence.

Run of the ship during the last 24 hours 378 miles. This was in pretty good weather conditions. Left Casablanca 4 pm on 3.26.39, & allowing for waiting for tides etc. in London river should apparently dock on evening of 30th or morning of 31st.41

Ship gives out a cyclostyled sheet of news every day. Movies occasionally (have not seen them yet.)

In Casablanca went to the pictures, & saw films making it virtually certain that the French Gov.t expects war. The first a film on the life of a soldier, following up all the different branches & with some very good shots of the inner arrangements of the Maginot line. This film had evidently been hurriedly constructed & went into much greater detail than is normal in films of this kind. The other was the Pathé news gazette, in which the announcer gave what was practically a political speech denouncing Germany. Then more shots of British & French troops etc. The significant point was the attitude of the audience – utterly unenthusiastic, hardly a clap, & a few hostile comments.

This time all the French people are convinced it is war. A number began talking to us spontaneously about it, all deploring the prospect (eg. in one or two cases, “It does no good to us, it’s only the rich who profit out of it”, etc., etc.), though sometimes describing Hitler as a “salaud.”

A.R.P. (ie F.A.P.A.C.) notices, calling for volunteer helpers, posted in Marrakech for the first time about March 20th. According to Madame M., whose son is at St Cyr, even the cadets there do not want war, though ready for it, of course.

MARRAKECH NOTEBOOK

This little notebook measures 5¼ x 3⅜ inches. Its leaves are perforated at the top and each has twenty-five faint lines. It was presumably carried by Orwell as he went about Marrakech so that he could note down prices. He numbered each page. Six pages have been filled in. There were about 175 francs to the £; 40 francs to the U.S. dollar.

* Copper tray about 2´ across, weight about 15 lb, F. 175.

* Donkey Fr. 75–150.

* Camel (small) Fr. 300. Prices probably go up to about Fr. 1000

* Mule Fr. 250–1000 (or more.)

* Cow in milk, about Fr. 600

* Horse (riding). Fr. 200 upwards.

* Lantern for candle Fr. 4–5.

* Women’s soft leather slippers 10–15 Fr. (goodish quality.)

* Copper tray about 1´ 6" across, second hand, worn & not heavy, Fr. 35.

* Couverture about 6´ by 4´, all wool, Fr. 40.

* Wheat, Frs. 30 the large measure, about a bushel & weight about 40 lb. Not certain whether overcharge (decalitre).

* Goats, young female, very poor but of about average standard, Frs. 30 & 35. Good goat (if obtainable) said to cost Frs. 60.

* Chopped lucerne 10c. a bunch about 3–4" thick.

* Hire of a donkey about 2–3 Fr. an hour.

* Laying pullets, considered good specimens, Frs. 7.50 each (said to be rather high price.)

Hire of bicycle, Frs. 6 a day (probably overcharge, should be Frs. 4 or 5.)

Bran Frs. 1.35 a kg.

¾" x ¾" wood (presumably imported pine, sawn but not planed) 2 Fr. a metre.

6" x ¾" (ditto) Frs. 5 a m.

Plywood (poor quality) about Fr. 1.75 the square foot.

Firewood (more or less chopped) Frs. 80 for 1000 kg. (a ton.)

Hire of lorry, Frs. 125 for about 2 hours & 10 miles.

Cylinder of Butagaz (somewhat smaller than Calorgas) Frs. 85 (ie. price of gas only.)

Table waters, various, roundabout Frs. 3.50 a litre.

* “Mandarin” oranges, & lemons (October 20) about 50c. each.

* Other type of orange (Oct. 21, just coming in) Frs. 3.50 for 6 Canadian apples about Frs. 7 a kg.

* Oranges (11.10.38) 10 for Frs. 3.50

Candles (cheapest) 10 for 3.50. Better quality 8 for 6.50

Peas (11.13.38) Frs. 5 a kilo.

* All-wool (probably camel) dyed couverture, handspun & woven, about 8´ by 6´, 150 Fr.

* Copper tray, about 2´ 6" across, weight about 25 lb. 300 Fr.

* String bottomed chairs (estimated 7 work-hours) 7 Frs. (Fr. 4 (?))

* Second-hand axe-head, about 6 lb., 7 Fr.

* Basket of type priced 2/– – 3/6 in England. 5 Fr. (overpayment.)

* Spherical unglazed earthenware-bowl with fitted lid, 4 Fr.

* 1 pint unglazed white earthenware cup, 1 Fr.

* 1½ pint red earthenware vase, roughly glazed inside 3 Fr. (probably overpayment.)

Slightly cheaper all-wool couverture, same measurements as above, 100 Fr.

† Cheaper style, part wool part cotton, 6´ by 4´, 30 Fr.

Small kettle (not tin, which apparently are not sold here) Fr. 9.50.

* Bellows (style 2/– to 3/6.) Fr. 7

Nails, 1½", 2Fr. kilo.

Cup of water, 5c.

† Common wine, 3–4 Fr. litre (French price about the same.)

† Common cigarettes, “Favorites”, Fr. 1.50 for 20. (French price about Fr. 2.50–3.)

* Leather sandals, made to measure, (English price about 5/–), Fr. 25 (probably overcharge.)

* (native workmanship.) † (belongs to country.)

DOMESTIC DIARY VOLUME I CONTINUED

Orwell and Eileen had arrived in Marrakech on September 14, 1938, and two weeks later, at the Munich Conference, Germany won the agreement of Britain and France that Czechoslovakia should be sacrificed in a vain hope that peace in Europe might be maintained. It is too easy to condemn Chamberlain for this ‘appeasement’. Remembrance of Mons, Gallipoli, the Somme, Ypres, and Passchendaele, must have weighed heavily on him, perhaps the more strongly because he had not been directly involved in this slaughter. He must have dreaded imposing such suffering on a new generation of young men and women. After all, even Orwell, as a member of the ILP, was a pacifist at this time, and, as Eileen memorably wrote, ‘Chamberlain is our only hope . . . & certainly the man has courage’ (September 27, 1938; CW, XI, p. 206). However great were Chamberlain’s limitations, it was also an uncomfortable fact that the RAF was in no state to take on the Luftwaffe had Chamberlain’s government decided then on war. On October 1, Germany occupied the Czech Sudetenland. Almost six months later, on March 15, 1939, Germany occupied the whole of Czechoslovakia and on March 28 Madrid surrendered to Franco’s forces and the Spanish Civil War came to an end with triumph for the Fascists.

Whilst in Morocco Orwell had written Coming Up for Air. He and Eileen set sail for England from Casablanca on March 26, 1939. On the journey Orwell occupied himself by preparing a typescript of Coming Up for Air. As soon as he arrived in England, he submitted this to Victor Gollancz (to whom he was still contracted for this novel) and then travelled to Southwold to see his father who was seriously ill. The couple arrived back at Wallington on April 11. The novel was published in an edition of 2,000 copies on June 12, 1939; a further 1,000 copies were run off in the same month. At the end of June Orwell’s father died with Orwell by his side. At his death, Orwell’s father’s eyes were closed and, as was customary, weighted down with pennies. After the funeral, Orwell walked along Southwold promenade pondering on what he should do with these two pennies. He could not bring himself to spend them and eventually threw them into the sea.

4.10.39:_[D] Southwold: Have been here since 4.1.39, but spent most of the last week in bed.

A week ago, on arrival, weather mostly coldish, very still & rather misty. Thick sea mist on 4.2.39. Blackthorn flowering in places. Primroses abundant. Wild daffodils also plentiful, but for the most part not completely open. Fruit trees budding fairly strongly. Saw one of I do not know what kind (purplish flower) in blossom in a sheltered place two days ago. Roses, herbaceous plants etc. sprouting strongly. Starlings still in flocks on 4.2.39. Larks singing hard. Some asparagus heads a few inches above ground.

4.12.39:_[D] Wallington: Yesterday exceedingly warm & fine, said to have been the warmest day for that date for 70 years. Today even more so. We have now 26 hens, the youngest about 11 months. Yesterday 7 eggs (the hens have only recently started laying again.) Everything greatly neglected, full of weeds etc., ground very hard & dry, attributed to heavy falls of rain, then no rain at all for some weeks.

Although the hedges etc. are more forward when one gets a way from the sea, the spring on the whole seems backward.

Flowers now in bloom in the garden: polyanthus, aubretia, scilla, grape hyacinth, oxalis, a few narcissi. Many daffodils in the field. These are very° double & evidently not real wild daffodil but bulbs dropped there by accident. Bullaces & plums coming into blossom. Apple trees budding but no blossom yet. Pears in full blossom. Roses sprouting fairly strongly. I note that one of the standards which died is sprouting from the root, so evidently the stock can live when the scion is dead. Peonies sprouting strongly. Crocuses are just over. A few tulips in bud. A few leeks & parsnips in the garden (the latter have survived the winter without covering up & tops are still green), otherwise no vegetables. It appears that owing to severe frosts there are no winter greens locally.

Bats out everywhere. Have not found any birds’ nests yet.

Wildflowers out: violets, primroses, celandine, anemones.

A little rhubarb showing. Blackcurrant bushes etc. for the most part have grown very weedy, probably for lack of hoeing round etc. Strawberries have all run & are covered with weeds but look fairly strong.

Sowed cos lettuce.

Leaf mould (beech) put down at end of 1937 is now well rotted down.

Found two thrushes’ eggs under the hedge – no nest, somewhat mysterious, but perhaps left there by a child.

Today a stack being thrashed – oats, & seemingly no rats & few mice. Tried Marx42 with a live baby mouse. He smelt & licked it but made no move to eat it.

Pigeons making their mating flight fly steeply up into the air then volplane down.

Four eggs.

4.13.39:_[D] Not so warm. A very light shower in the evening. Very dark night.

A few pansies & wallflowers starting to bloom. Pansies spread by self-sowing almost as much as marigolds. Red saxifrage coming into flower.

Ten eggs.

4.14.39:_[D] Cloudy, & a few small showers. Cold after dark.

Saw two swallows (not martins). This is rather early for this locality & a latish year. No one else has seen any.

All day cleaning out strawberries, which have not been touched since last year. It seems one plant will put out anything up to 12 or 15 runners. These seem to develop the best roots when they have rooted in very hard soil. Used some of them to fill up gaps & make another row. Doubtful whether they will take, but Titley43 says it is not too late. Wallflowers in sheltered positions are full out. No apple blossom anywhere yet.

The 12 pullets which the Hollingsworths got from 24 of our eggs (White Leghorn x Buff Orpington – Sussex) have laid 1500 eggs since last autumn, or about 20 eggs per bird per month. They have been fed throughout on pig meal instead of ordinary laying mash. In the same period our own pullets of the same mating have not laid (ie. are only beginning now) owing to underfeeding.

Eight eggs.

For the first time M.44 gave a quart today.

4.15.39:_[D] Chilly, windy in the evening, & light showers. Began clearing out rhubarb patch, otherwise busy moving hen-houses. Evidently it helps a good deal if one can induce them to eat a meal in or very near the houses immediately after moving these, otherwise they always wander back to the original site.

M[uriel] behaving as though on heat. Not certain, but shall note date (next should be May 5–6.)

Saw another swallow. Thrush is sitting on eggs in our hedge. Dead nettle in flower. Sloe blossom quite pretty. The little tree I planted in the hedge 2 years [ago] & imagined to be a crab (because I found it under the apple tree & thought it was a sucker) turns out to be a bullace or wild plum.

Eight eggs.

4.16.39:_[D] Rather chilly with sunny intervals, not much wind. A very light shower in the morning.

Cowslips in flower here & there. This I think is rather early. Bluebells also beginning, a few in almost full bloom. This undoubtedly is unusually early. Wild cherries in full bloom. Sycamore leaves opening. Apple blossom almost about to open. Another thrush sitting [on] eggs in the hedge. Found a blackbird’s nest with eggs. These are the only nests I have found hitherto.

The pond up by the church has become so stagnant that it no longer has duckweed, only the scummy green stuff. Nevertheless there are still a few newts in it.

Summer time began today, M’s morning yield consequently small, but picked up in the evening.

Ten eggs. (Price of eggs sold yesterday 1/9 a score).

4.17.39:_[D] Rather chilly, some wind, occasional showers.

Buds of the walnut beginning to open. Lettuce seeds sown on 4.12.30 are germinating. A few tulips almost open.

Ten eggs. (57 this week.)

4.18.39:_[D] Fine but chilly.

Sowed broad beans. The ones sowed earlier are well up. Planted alyssum & antirrhinums.

Found a hatched thrush’s egg – the first this year.

Five eggs.

Walnut buds opening.

4.19.39:_[D] Clear, sunny & rather warm.

Starlings have been courting for some days past, & flying about with straw in their beaks. One starling, presumably the male, sits on a bough erecting its neck feathers & making a rapid clicking noise with its beak, besides the usual crooning. A fair amount of swallows about. No martins yet.

Sowed peas (Notcutt’s Lincoln, 1½ ft.) Sprayed about half the nettles under the walnut tree with sodium chlorate. Sitting-eggs came today but cannot obtain broody hens yet. M[uriel] restless & off her feed, possibly still on heat.

Very clear weather for the eclipse of the sun (annular), starting at 6.28 pm, which was easily visible. At the time of the greatest eclipse, 7.15 pm when nearly half the sun was covered, it became somewhat dark & cold, but not enough so for any reactions to be noticeable in birds etc. The hens did not go into the houses.

Nine eggs. (Today’s price 1/8d a score.)

4.20.39:_[D] Fine & very warm all day.

Bluebells everywhere. White starlike single flower with many petals (Star of Bethlehem?) now in bloom. In the garden, forget-me-nots, tulips & one or two anemones in bloom.

The thrush near the bullace tree has not deserted her nest, as I had imagined. It is evident therefore that they can be off the nest a considerable time without the eggs getting cold.

Apple blossom just about bursting.

Impossible to get broody hens anywhere. Nobody seems to have any.

Ten eggs (plus another 5 laid out, since about the 14th).

4.21.39:_[D] Fine & warm all day. Very dry.

Believe I saw the first shoot of bindweed today. Scythed down a patch of nettles to see the result. It is said one can eradicate them if they are scythed down 3 or 4 times in the year. Those treated with the sodium chlorate are dying.

Sowed broccoli, savoys, leeks, sprouts, cos lettuce.

Thirteen eggs.

4.22.39:_[D] Cold & windy, with some sunny intervals & a few spots of rain.

Flag irises budding. Some apple blossom full out.

Planted early potatoes (Eclipse, about 10 lb.)

Procured two broody hens, but not putting them on the eggs till tomorrow, to make certain.

Paid for hens 3/6 each.

Water hens on the pond evidently have nest.

Twelve eggs.

[Newspaper cutting: ‘Nettles have their Uses’ – as a vegetable; to make beer]

4.23.39:_[D] Raining, but not hard, almost all day.

Lilacs almost out. Bindweed well up.

Great difficulties with so-called broody hens. One, after much reluctance, began to sit, but only took 8 eggs. The other evidently not broody at all, escaped & got among the other hens. This sitting of eggs probably wasted (2/6 the dozen.) Notice that when this hen went among the others they did not make hostile demonstration, as is usual. Probably owing to there being no cock. Tom Ridly45 says that when keeping eggs awaiting a hen one should turn them daily, as in the incubator.

Put on a new cylinder of calor-gas.

Thirteen eggs. (It appears Titley is getting 2/– a score for his eggs.)

4.24.39:_[D] Mostly fine, with rainy intervals, cold in the evening.

Applied more sodium chlorate. Nettles treated previously have blackened.

One hen refuses to sit. Took her home, as she may go broody again in familiar surroundings. The other sitting well on 11 eggs. She broke one in getting off to feed, so gave her one from the other sitting. Not certain of the effect of this – it will be 12–24 hours behind the others.

Preparing ground for turnips etc. Where the potatoes were last year there are practically no weeds.

A few strawberries beginning to blossom.

Fourteen eggs. (76 in this week – as from Sat. next shall begin ending week on Saturday.)

[From April 25 to May 9 Diary is written in Eileen’s hand.]

4.25.39:_[D] Raining most of the day, & cold. 14 eggs.

4.26.39:_[D] Sharp frost in the night. Raining. Short fall of snow in the morning. The doubtful hen sat the eggs during the night but was finally found not to be broody. Shall still put the eggs under a hen if obtainable, & watch results.

Fifteen eggs (highest). 1/10 score.

4.27.39:_[D] Sharp frost during night & hens’ water frozen. Snow & sleet during most of the day. Short sunny intervals. Blossom seems undamaged.

Perennial alyssum coming into flower. Scyllas & grape hyacinths coming to an end.

Starlings very busy obtaining straw for nests. Mrs. Anderson46 heard cuckoo at 5.45. Caught a thrush in the kitchen, unhurt; a full-grown bird, very yellow inside beak.

Sixteen eggs (highest).

4.28.39:_[D] 9 eggs.

4.29.39:_[D] 12 eggs.

4.30.39:_[D] 14 eggs. Came to Greenwich.

5.3.39:_[D] Outside Miller Hospital,47 starlings & sparrows stripping bark, apparently to make nests. Some small boughs completely stripped.

5.8.39:_[D] Visit to Wallington. Plum blossom over, apple full out (a great quantity). First peas ½"–1" tall. First beans 3". Second beans not showing. Rhubarb growing but not good (? protection necessary here for good crop; Mr. A.48 has all his in tubs). Strawberries in flower. In last three days main crop potatoes, onions, carrots, turnips, second peas & radishes sown.

Four nestlings in thrush’s nest in hedge.

In flower: wallflowers, tulips, pansies, arabis (full out & decorative), yellow alyssum, aubretia, forget-me-nots & a few narcissi. Roses not in bud. Gooseberries mainly taken by frost or birds. Sowed grass seed in bare patches & scattered lawn sand.

Hens have laid 92 eggs in 8 days.

5.9.39:_[D] Young pigeons in nest outside hospital window.

[From May 16 the Diary is again written in Orwell’s hand.]

5.16.39:_[D] London: Weather for the most part showery, with fine intervals. In Greenwich Park, chestnuts, pink chestnuts (but not the Spanish ones) in flower, also lilac, hawthorn. Some of the wild ducks have ducklings. Some roses in bud. Tulips & wallflowers about at their best. Noted the following named tulips, all good kinds: Venus (cerise rose), Allard Pierson (light crimson), Miss Blanche (cream), William Pitt (bright crimson), Louis XIV (brownish mauve), Pride of Harlem (bright pink), Remembrance (pale mauve), Ambrosia (Daily Mail rose), Bartigon (sealing wax red), Nauticus (magenta), Rev. Ewbank (very pale mauve), Sultan (very dark brown, almost black).

[Newspaper cuttings: Recipes using Sour Milk – ‘Like Christmas Cake’; ‘A Danish Recipe’; ‘Yoghourt as in Jugoslavia’; ‘Swedish Filmjolk’; ‘Salad Dressing’; ‘Scaba Putra from Latvia’; these recipes, and other hints Orwell cut out, were contributed by readers to the newspapers.]

5.21.39:_[D] Today & yesterday fine, but it is still not any too warm. Roses here are in full bud & almost out. Greenfly very bad. Lupins almost out. London Pride (kind of large saxifrage) is out. The gardener here49 says that the number of varieties of roses is much exaggerated, as old varieties which have dropped out of fashion & been almost forgotten are from time to time revived under a new name. Saw yesterday a swift & a turtle dove, the first I have seen this year, owing to illness. Hawthorn is well out, especially the pink. Hay looks pretty good.

At the Zoo50 on 5.19.39. much interested in the manatee, which I had only vaguely heard of before. An animal about the size of a large seal, with broad tail behind & two flippers of some kind in front. The head is doglike, with small eyes, the surface of the body seems like that of an elephant, but is slimy from being in the water. Movements very sluggish. The peculiar feature is the mouth, which is fringed with large hairs & acts with a kind of sucking movement to draw food in. The creature is very tame & lets itself be touched. It appears that this is the only vegetarian water-mammal. Could not be sure whether it inhabits fresh or salt water, or both.

The elephant refuses radishes, which both deer & monkeys eat readily. Marmoset refuses spring onions, which most monkeys eat. Note that some S. American monkeys can almost hang by the tail alone, ie. by the tail & one hand or foot. Mouflon, the N. African kind, have bred very freely in the Zoo & look in better condition than those in Marrakech. Two families of lion cubs at present, & evidently attempts are being made to cross a lion & a tiger.51

5.25.39:_[D] Yesterday & the day before very warm. Today overcast, chilly enough to have a fire, & a few drops of rain.

Got back yesterday52 after nearly 3 weeks’ absence. Soil is very dry, weeds terrible except in kitchen garden. The field is now almost completely ruined with nettles & hemlock, but there is a small patch or two, about 200sq. yards, which may yield a little hay. Grass everywhere is lush & very green. Plenty of fruit forming on the apples. Practically no currants or gooseberries in the kitchen garden, but plenty on the odd bushes in the flower garden. First (dwarf) peas about 4" high, the second (taller) about 2", first broad beans 6" or 8" high, a few early potatoes showing. Second potatoes, French beans, carrots, onions etc. not showing (all these planted very late). Radishes showing. A lot of blossom on the strawberries, even on some of the last year’s runners. Tulips & wallflowers coming to an end. Flowers in full bloom: aubretia, yellow alyssum (very good), forget-me-nots, saxifrage, pansies. Budding: cheddar pinks, peonies, sweet williams, bush roses (not ramblers). Plenty of blossom on the loganberries.

From 5.9.39 – 5.23.39 inclusive there were 200 eggs. On 5.24.39 there were 14. Today 17. Shall start account afresh this Sunday, but I think there are none we have not recorded. Six chicks, now 10–12 days old, healthy but seem backward as to size. It appears the losses from this clutch (11 eggs) at the beginning were due to a mole which burrowed under the coop & buried some of the chicks. Eggs now are very good, much larger than a month back. Yesterday a tiny egg, about the size of a water-hen’s (said locally, like a double egg, to be “always the first or the last” of a clutch). Three hens broody.

M[uriel] seems well, rather thin, appetite good. Still giving over 1½ pints (close on a year in milk now.) Yesterday planted a dozen carnations.

5.26.39:_[D] Warm. Ground is very dry. Fly is in the turnips. Many apples forming. Strawberries should be netted about a fortnight from now.

Titly° has potatoes already earthed up. He says Catriona do not keep well for seed but store all right if gently treated. Blue flax in bloom. Some gooseberries almost ready to pick. Of the other batch of eggs 5 chicks have hatched; expected none, as the eggs had been about 3 weeks before a hen was found, & then the hen left them after a week & another had to be put on them.

Planted antirrhinums.

14 eggs.

N.B. 4.12 –5.26 (inc.) 550 eggs (26 hens.)

This concludes Domestic Diary Volume I.