standing; and not even the ground plans of other parts of these
remains could be obtained without excavation. We learnt, however,
from Captain Smyth that, in the neighbourhood of Wady’m’Seyd,
there is a small boat-cove resembling an ancient cothon ; and near it
the ruins of several baths with tesselated pavements ; which must
have been situated on that part of the coast which we were not able
to visit, for the reasons mentioned above. To the eastward of these,
another small port was also discovered by Captain Smyth (formed by
a point of land between the Wadies of Ben-z-barra and Abdellata), at
which the produce of the country is shipped off in the summer. The
mouth of the Abdellata is described by this officer as forming a picturesque
cove, and he observed on its left bank (a little way inland) a
village consisting of troglodytic caverns, excavated in the sand-stone
rock; many of which being furnished with doors, are used by the
natives instead of the usual matamores, or subterranean storehouses,
as granaries.
The former of the ports here described may possibly have been
that of Graphara required; but as there are more extensive remains
in the neighbourhood of that at Abdellata (or Abdellati), which we
shall presently have occasion to mention, we will not venture to fix
it as such decidedly.
Qn the day after our arrival at Guadigmata, the weather proving
still very bad, we did not proceed on our route s but spent the day
in examining and securing our baskets of provisions many of which
we found to have been wet through, and in making those other
little arrangements which, notwithstanding all precautions, are
usually found to be necessary a day or two after the commencement
of a long journey.
We continued our route on the following morning, and found the
country beyond become gradually hilly, and the road to be again
intersected by Wadys, or ravines, extending themselves from the
mountains to the sea*. By four we had arrived at Sidy Abdellati:
so called from a celebrated. M-arkbut, whose tomb, surrounded by
gardens and date-trees, stands conspicuous on the banks of one of
the Wadys. The country about it is everywhere well cultivated, the
wells are numerous, and the hills were covered with sheep and goats ;
but notwithstanding the numerous flocks in our neighbourhood, we
found considerable difficulty in procuring a single lamb for our
party.
While we were here a disturbance took place which had, at one
time, assumed rather an alarming appearance. Our camel-drivers
had allowed their beasts to stray over the cultivated grounds of the
neighbouring Arabs, who came to demand remuneration, or to
revenge themselves, in the event of not obtaining it, upon the
owners of the camels f : the latter, together with our Arab escort,
formed a tolerably strong party, arid thinking themselves in a condition
to do so, did not hesitate to resist the demand; a scuffle
accordingly took place, in which many blows were exchanged, bara-
* From Guadigmata, two ruins (Selma and Ipsil&ta) appear conspicuous on high and
pointed hills a t the distance of about seven miles; they seem to have been watch-towers
commanding the plain ; b u t our guides could only tell us they were Gussers, a name
which they applied indiscriminately to ruins of every description,
i* These were the camel-drivers themselves.