is known about them. The Tawareks are, without
doubt, one of the most interesting races m Africa;
but, though they inhabit a territory of about the
same size as Eussia, and but very little further
removed from our shores, it is probably well within
the mark to state that not one Englishman m a
thousand has ever even heard their name. Occasionally
a brief notice appears in the papers to the
effect that a party of these brigands have come up
out of the desert and have captured a French military
convoy, crippled an exploring party, or made a
successful foray upon some Arab camp or caravan,
and then have disappeared again m the same sudden
and mysterious manner as they came away into the
Great Unknown, and left no trace of their visi
behind them beyond a few mangled corpses—and
that is ah we, in England at all events, hear about
All over the Sahara they have stamped their
footprints into the ground in the shape of little
isolated graves or cemeteries marking the scenes of
their terrible raids.
The Tawareks are a Berber race, whose real
domain is in the heart of the great desert, far
removed from civilisation. A visit to this country
Would require a small army as escort and a journey
of considerably over a thousand miles of desert
travelling. But occasionally, driven northward by
scarcity of water, lack of forage for their herds or
the desire to purchase something m one o
desert towns, they encamp nearer to the northern
edge of the Sahara, and these camps, though ditd