when in a state of repair, I have no doubt Tegerliy might make a very good defence. The sultans of Fezzan probably think that the only means of keeping these people in order is by keeping them poor. Their only produce is dates, but those are of excellent quality. No vegetables are raised here, and we could not even procure an onion. Almost every town in Africa has its charm or wonder, and Tegerhy is not without one. There is a well just outside the castle gates, the water of which, we were told most gravely, “ always rose when a kafila was coming near the town! that the inhabitants always prepared what they had to sell on seeing this water increase in bulk, for it never deceived them! ’W in proof of this assertion, they pointed out to me how much higher the water had been previous to our arrival than it was at the moment we were standing on the brink. This I could have explained by the number of camels that had drank at it, but I sawr it was better policy to believe what every body allowed to be tru e : even Boo-Ivhaloom exclaimed, “ Allah! God is great, powerful, and wise! How wonderful! Oh! ” Over the inner gate of the castle there is a large hole through to the gateway underneath, and they tell a story of a woman dropping from thence a stone on the head of some leader who had gained the outer wall, giving him, by that means, the death of Abimelech in sacred history. The situation of Tegerhy is rather pleasing than otherwise: it is surrounded by date trees, and the water is excellent; a range of low hills extends to the eastward; and snipes, wild-ducks, and geese, frequent the salt-pools, which are near the town. The natives are quite black, but have not the negro face: the men are slim, very plain, with high cheek bones, the negro nose, large mouth, teeth much stained by the quantity of tobacco and trona (or muriate of soda) which they eat; and even snuff, when given to them, goes directly into their mouths. The young girls are most of them pretty, but less so than those of Gatrone. The men always carry two daggers, one about eighteen inches, and the other six inches, the latter of which is attached to a ring and worn on the arm or wrist. A Tibboo once told me, pointing to the long one, “ this is my gun; and this,” showing the smaller of the two, “ is my pistol.” The women make baskets and drinking- bowls of palm leaves with great neatness. On the 13th, we left Tegerhy, and proceeded on the desert: it was scattered with mounds of earth and sand, covered with athila (a plant the camels eat with avidity), and other shrubs. After travelling six miles we arrived at a well called Omah, where our tents were pitched, and here we halted three days. On the 16th, after clearing the palm trees, by which Omah is surrounded, we proceeded on the desert. About nine we had a slight shower of rain. At three in the afternoon, we came to a halt at Ghad, after travelling ten miles. Near the wells of Omah, numbers of human skeletons, or parts of skeletons, lay scattered on the sands. Hillman, who had suffered dreadfully since leaving Tegerhy, was greatly shocked at these whitened skulls, and unhallowed remains; so much so, as to want all the encouragement I could administer to him. Dec. 17.—We continued our course over a stony plain, without the least appearance of vegetation. Coarse opal and sand-stone * strewed the path. We saw Alowere-Seghrir, a ridge of hills, bearing east by south; Alowere-El-Kebir, a still higher ridge, lies more * The sand o f a fine cream colour: yesterday it had many particles o f a black substance mixed with it. Exposed rocks, sandstone o f different kinds, mostly red, and a black kind like basalt from iron ; fine specimens o f petrified wood; the centre, sap, vessels and knots filled with a calcareous matter, the woody fibre changed into a siliceous substance; beautiful conical layers, and lines running like rays, from the centre to the circumference. Many columnar mounds o f d a y in the first basin, about ten feet high—the clay as if semi-baked: many are round, and the one we went to about thirty feet in circumference; these were probably the original height o f the surface: the present form arises from the other part being washed away.
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