cans tom, and knives and pistols brought into action. The arriva;!
of Shekh Mahommed put an end to-the fray before any serious consequences
had ensued, and he satisfied the assailants by reprimanding
the camel-drivers, and promising to make them keep their animals
within bounds. We were ignorant ourselves of the cause of the
disturbance, and seeing our party suddenly attacked, we naturally ran
to their assistance, which certainly would not have been thè case had
we known they had been the aggressors. This made us more cautious
afterwards, as we found that our drivers took advantage of the
strength of the party to improve the condition of their camels.
The most conspicuous character in this disturbance was a trusty
black slave of our conductor the Dfibbah, who appeared to have
inherited from his master the art of raising his voice above that of
every other person. Having had his pistols wrested from him, he
was so hurried away by the violence of his passion as to seem quite
unable to give it sufficient vent; and had just raised his knife to
plunge it into an Arab, when he was prevented by one of our party,
who presented a musket at him and deprived him of his weapon ;
for although he was fighting on our side, we were not of course desirous
that he should proceed to such unjustifiable extremes.
The remains of some strongly-built forts, of quadrangular forms,
occupying the heights which command the road, sufficiently point Out
Sidy Abdellàti as an ancient military station ; and indeed, had we
fopnd there no vestiges of antiquity, we should have been induced
from the nature of the ground to look for some indications of
fortification ; since the advantages of position, of soil, and of water,
f _
which it possesses, are too great to have, been overlooked by the
ancients.
About the tomb of the Maribut which we have mentioned above,
there are frequent traces of building; and the tomb itself is constructed
with the fragments of more ancient structures ; while the
beach and its neighbourhood are strewed with a quantity of pottery
and glass. These ruins, although they now, with the exception
of the Marhbut and the forts, consist only of loose stones and imperfect
ground-plans, appear to be more indicative of the site of an
ancient town than those which we have mentioned, at («uadi gin a te ;
and, if Graphara could he placed so near as twenty miles to Leptis
Magna, they might probably be considered as its remains. The
quadrangular forts which we have just mentioned as occupying
the heights of Sidy AbdelHti, might in that case have belonged
to a station attached to the town; and the port discovered by Captain
Smyth; at Abdellata (mentioned above) may then be taken as
the one intended by Scylax.
Without carrying the subject further, we may say, .in conclusion,
that Sidy Abdellati has undoubtedly been a strong military station,
whatever pretensions it may have to be considered as the site of
Graphara.
After leaving this place, the road led us, through the valley of
Selin, to a tolerably wide stream called Negg4zi, which, winding
between the hills, gave an unusual interest to the view. We continued
our route for a short time along its banks, and then ascended
the range of hills called Selem, which branches off from the Ter