there were people at Mourzouk who had sufficient ability to cure a
simple fracture.
The houses of the Fezzans are miserably built; they are constructed
with stones or bricks made of a calcareous earth mixed
with clay, and dried in the sun. No other tools are used in the
building but the hands of the labourer. When the walls are completely
raised, the friends of the proprietor assemble, and assist him
to incrust and cover them with a mortar made with a white calcareous
earth. This work too is done only by the hand. The houses
are all extremely low, and the light enters by the door only.
As to diet, I never knew a more abstemious people than those of
Fezzan. Meat indeed is a food they can at no time abstain from
when set before them; but meat is not an article of food with the
people in general: to indicate a rich man, at Mourzouk, the usual
expression is, “ that he eats bread and meat every day.”
POSTSCRIPT.
T he particulars above communicated may give some general idea
of Mourzouk, and of the people and kingdom of Fezzan. Proposing'
shortly to return into that country, I may have an opportunity of
gaining more satisfactory intelligence, and of enlarging on some
points, and of rectifying any mistake in others; I will then draw up
for the Society a more full and amended account, having in view the
means of conveyance through one of my country-friends, who is
going with the caravan to Mourzouk, and proposes returning to
Tripoly in May or June 1800, when he will consign my papers
to the care o f the British Consul.
(Signed) FREDERICK HORNEMAN.
APPENDIX. No. I.
Observations on F. Horneman’s Description of the Country and Antiquities
of Siwah, with Reference to ancient Accounts o f the Oasis,
and Temple df Ammon. By Sir William Trung, Bart. Secretary.
T h e papers alluded to in Mr. Horneman’s Postscript have never
been received; and nearly two years having elapsed since the date
from which our expectation was referred, the above more summary
account of his Travels (as probably the only one extant)
is offered for perusal. Opportunities of correspondence from the
interior of Africa can rarely occur, but by the caravans passing
at certain, but distant, periods of time; and even by such conveyance,
any communication from an European and Christian traveller,
must be conducted with so particular a caution in avoidance
of offence to the bigotry and prejudices of the people, that Mr.
Horneman’s intentions of again writing may not only have been
delayed, but wholly precluded, by the circumstances of his situation.
The necessity of sustaining the character of a Mussulman unconnected
with those termed “ the Infidels of Christendom,” is strongly
impressed in his letters from Cairo, Aug. 31, 1798, wherein he earnestly
deprecates even inquiry concerning him, as liable to awaken
jealousies and suspicions in die natives who may be so questioned;
and any farther communications at present, from himself, maybe
matter of similar apprehension.
Under these considerations, it is become a duty to his public-spirited
employers, that such curious intelligence as their traveller has
already given, should no longer be withheld, even in its present
state, and for which they will make a just and candid allowance.
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