WADY SHATI.—OLD JERMA.—ARRIVAL IN MÚRZUK.
There are three roads from el Hasi: the westernmost called Trík eʾ duésa,
after a small cluster of palm-trees; the second, called Trík eʾ safar,
stony and more desolate than the former, but half a day shorter; and
the third, or eastern, leading directly to Bírgen. When we at length
left our uncomfortable encampment at el Hasi, our camel-drivers chose
the middle road, which proved to be dismal and dreary. But the first
part of it was not quite so bad, the appearance of granite among the
rocks causing a little variety, while tamerán and shíʿah clothed the
bottoms of the valleys; and we had a single specimen of a beautiful and
luxuriant batúm-tree. When, however, we began to enter the region of the
sand-hills, intermixed with rocky ridges and cliffs, the character of the
country became desolate in the extreme.
We travellers, being in advance, chose our resting-place for the first
night near a high rocky mass called el Medál, against the wish of the
camel-drivers, who would rather have encamped in the Shʿabet eʾ talha,
further on. The summit of the rocky eminence afforded a very interesting
prospect over this singular district; and our younger shoush discovered,
lower down, some scrawled figures. He came running up to inform me of his
discovery; but it was of no interest, a cow and a sheep being the only
figures plainly recognizable. The Fezzáni people come hither in spring,
when the rain-water collects in the cavities of the rocks, and stay some
months, in order to allow the camels to graze on the young herbage, which
then shoots up here in profusion. Ben Sbaeda during such a stay here had
lost a son, near whose tomb the camel-drivers said a prayer, or zikr,
early the next morning.
Continuing our march, we soon came to the Shʿabet eʾ talha, the bottom of
which is clothed with the brushwood called arfísh, and with the rétem,
or broom. Further on, when we came upon the higher rocky ground, the
country grew more sterile, though we were so fortunate as to catch two
gazelles. Black masses of sandstone jutted out on all sides, and gave
a wild air to the desolate region through which we were passing. The
sterile character of the scene underwent no change till next morning,
when, on advancing about a mile and a half, we came to the Wady Siddre,
which was enlivened by a few talha-trees. A narrow defile led us from
this place to the Wady Boghár, whence we entered another defile. Mid-day
was past, when we obtained a distinct view of the date-grove in Wady
Sháti, and the high sand-hills which border the valley on the south.
Towards the north it was rather open, and we hastened on to escape from
the hot desert through which we were marching; but a good while elapsed
before we reached the border of the valley, which on this side abounded
in herbage. After a mile and a half we reached the first wild palm-trees,
thriving in separate and casually formed groups. Then followed a belt of
bare black ground, covered with a whitish crust of salt. The town, on
the top of a broad terraced rock, seemed as far off as ever. But I urged
on my Bu-Séfi along the winding path over the hard ground; Richardson
and Overweg followed close behind, while the camel-drivers had fallen
back to exchange their dirty costume for one more decent. At length we
reached the north-western foot of the picturesque hill, and chose our
camping-ground beyond the shallow bed of a torrent between the date-trees
and the corn-fields, near the largest fountain,—a very agreeable
resting-place, after the dreary desert which we had traversed.
We had felt tired so long as the place was yet ahead of us; but we had no
sooner reached it than all fatigue was gone, and Overweg and I, under the
guidance of a mʿallem, went forth to view the interesting features of the
locality. It is certainly a very rare spectacle in this quarter of the
world, to see a town on the top of a steep terraced hill in the midst of
a valley, and occupying an advantageous position which might be supposed
to have given the place great importance from very ancient times. Éderi
seems to have been a considerable place till fourteen years ago, when
the independent spirit of its inhabitants was broken by the despotism of
ʿAbd el Jelíl ben Séf eʾ Nasr, the famous chief of the Welád Slimán. The
old town on the top of the hill having been destroyed, and there being no
longer a necessity for a fortified residence, under the civilized though
exhausting government of the Turks, the new village was built at the
northern foot of the hill, on which side lies the chapel of the Merábet
Bu-Derbála, and another of less fame, a little east of the former, called
Sidi ʿAbd eʾ Salám.
The new village has two gates. Crossing it, we ascended the steep narrow
streets of the old town, which seems to have been densely inhabited, and
from the highest part, which is one hundred and ninety feet above the
bottom of the valley, obtained a very interesting view over a great part
of the wady, with its varied features,—here, black sandstone, which in
several places forms hills of considerable extent; there, green fields
of wheat and barley; then, again, a large grove of date-trees scattered
in long narrow strips behind the high sand-hills bordering the valley
on the south. The black ground, covered with a whitish crust, lay bare
and naked in many parts, while in others it was entirely overgrown with
herbage. Towards the south the slope of the rock on which, the town
stands is rather steep and precipitous. On this side lies the caverns
which have been already noticed by Oudney, and which are interesting only
on account of the oval-shaped form in which they have been excavated,
as they are neither remarkable for dimensions nor for regularity; their
general shape is this. A larger group of caverns has been made in a
detached rocky eminence, upon which at present the cemetery is situated;
but it is only seventy-two feet in length, and its ground-plan is far
from being regular.
[Illustration]
From this place I went through the adjoining grove, which, with a little
more care, might easily become a very beautiful plantation; for there are
a great many wells of very little depth, and the water is led through the
channels with slight trouble. Our encampment in the beautiful moonlight,
with not a breath of wind to disturb the tranquillity of the scene, was
pleasant in the extreme, and we all felt much delighted and greatly
restored.
Early on Sunday morning, after having finished my sketch of the village
on the hill, with our encampment in the foreground, I took a walk all
round the scattered groups of the plantation, which must have suffered
a great deal from ʿAbd el Jelíl, even though the number of six thousand
trees, which he is said to have cut down, be an exaggeration. Towards
the east side the salt crust is still thicker than on the west, and is
very unpleasant for walking. I found here that, in addition to wheat and
barley, much amára was cultivated in the garden-fields, besides a few
figs; but I saw no grapes. Several families were living here outside
in light huts or sheds made of palm-branches, and seemed to enjoy some
degree of happiness. At the south-east end of the plantation rose a
hill also formed of marl, and very similar to that on which the town is
situated. The names of the villages along the valley, proceeding from
west to east, are the following: after Éderi, Témesán; then Wuenzerík,
Berga (a couple of villages distinguished as B. el foka and B. el
utíyah), Gúta, Turut, El Ghurda, Meherága, Agár, Gógam, Kosaer Sellám,
Támezawa, Anerúya, Zeluáz, Abrák, Gíreh, Debdeb, and Ashkiddeh. The
valley has two kaíds, one of whom, ʿAbd el Rahmán, resides at present in
Temesán, while the residence of the other ʿAgha Hassan eʾ Rawi, is in
Támezawa. Meherága seems to be the most populous of the villages. Abrák
has the advantage of a school.
We left our picturesque encampment in order to commence the passage over
the sand-hills which separate the shallow “rent” of Wady Shiyáti from
the deeper valley the Wady el Gharbi, the great valley _par excellence_.
It is rather singular that even the higher ground, which is elevated
about fifty feet above the bottom of the valley, is entirely covered
with a crust of salt. Having traversed this, we began the ascent of the
sand-hills, which in several favoured spots presents small clusters of
palm-trees, which too have their proprietors. Mukni, the father of Yusuf,
Mr. Richardson’s interpreter, is said to have killed a great many Welád
Slimán hereabouts. The most considerable of the depressions or hollows
in the sand, which are decked with palm-trees, is the Wady Shiúkh, which
afforded in truth a very curious spectacle,—a narrow range of palm-trees
half-buried between high sand-hills, some of them standing on the tops of
hillocks, others in deep hollows, with the head alone visible. At length
after a good deal of fatigue, we encamped in Wady Góber, another shallow
cavity between sand-hills with brackish water and a few palm-trees. Here
our camel-drivers themselves possessed a few trees, and, of course, were
more interested in the inspection of their own property than in starting
at an early hour the next day.
When we resumed our march we found our work more difficult than before,
the sand-hills assuming a steepness most trying for the camels,
particularly at the brink of the slopes. We were several times obliged to
flatten away the edges with our hands, in order to facilitate the camel’s
ascent. I went generally a little in front, conducted by Mohammed ben
Sbaeda, one of our camel-drivers, who, from the moment we had entered
Fezzán, had exchanged the quarrelsome character by which he had made
himself disagreeable to us, for very obliging and pleasing manners, and
was anxious to give me every information. He told me that this belt of
sand extended in south-west and north-east direction from Dwésa as far as
Fukka, a place, according to him, five days’ march on this side of Sókna.
He added, that, however high and steep we might think these sand-hills,
they were nothing in comparison with those in the direction of the
natron-lakes; but, in making this remark, I think he wanted to excuse
himself and his companions for taking us this long way round by the west.
He knew that it was our desire to visit the natron-lakes, and that our
direct way to Murzuk led by those lakes, while their object was to take
us to their native village Ugréfe. Mohammed stated that each district in
Fezzán has its own peculiar dialect; and he contended that, while the
inhabitants of Wady Sháti speak a good sort of Arabic, similar to that
spoken in Mizda, the people of the great wady (Wady el Gharbi) make use
of a corrupt dialect.
Meanwhile the caravan remained very far behind, and we thought it prudent
to wait for them in Wady Tawíl, particularly as the path divided here. It
was so hot that my camel, when I let it loose to browse a little would
not touch anything. When the other camel-drivers at length came up, there
was a dispute as to the path to be followed; but the truth was, that
while there could be no doubt about the direct road to Múrzuk, some of
the camel-drivers wished to take us to Ubári. But at length the other
party, interested only in carrying us westward as far as Ugréfe, which
was a great deal out of our route, got the upper hand, and we left the
road to Ubári, which passes only two wadys, or hollows, called Tekúr and
Uglah, both with bad water, to the west, and followed the road to Ugréfe.
About four o’clock in the afternoon we encamped in the Wady Mukméda,
near the sand-hills bordering its southern side, under the shade of a
wild palm-bush. Close to it was very good water only two feet below
the surface; but as the hole had only just been made, it contained much
sulphuretted hydrogen. The following day we crossed several smaller
valleys with a few palm-trees (but a larger grove adorned the Wady
Jemál), all belonging to one of our camel-drivers of the name of Bu Bakr.
He also possessed here a magazine, built of bricks, and probably several
centuries old, but entirely covered with sand, where he had deposited
forty camel-loads of dates. They were of the kind called tefsirt, of very
large size and exquisite taste, and were eagerly devoured by our people.
After having refreshed ourselves for a moment, we went on, having just
before us the very steepest ascent that occurs on the whole road. I was
obliged to dismount from my beautiful Bu-Séfi in order to get him over
it. This ridge being once behind us, we were told that all the “wár” was
over; there were, however, still a few “difficult passes” before us. In
the Wady Gellah, which we next crossed, we found the footsteps of a flock
of sheep and of a single camel, which latter animal finds plenty of food
in this sandy district, and, at the shallow well in Wady Uglah, is able
to quench its thirst without the assistance of man. Thence we descended
into Wady Tigidéfa, where we encamped near a couple of palm-trees, the
only ones in the wady; a copious well of very good water was near them,
overshadowed by a thick cluster of palm-bushes. It was altogether a very
satisfactory camping-ground, except that it swarmed with camel-bugs, as
such places in the desert generally do.
With a general impulse of energy, we started this morning at a very early
hour,—twenty minutes past two o’clock in the morning—in order to get out
of the sands, and to arrive in “the Wady.” After seven hours’ constant
march, we at length got a fine view of the steep cliffs which enclose the
Wady on the south side, and which contrasted marvellously with the white
sand-hills in the foreground; for, stretching out in a horizontal dark
line which faded away at each end, they exhibited an illusive picture
of a lake spread out before us in the remote distance. The cool east
wind, which had blown in the morning, and promised a fine day, changed,
as is very common in these regions, towards noon into a hot south wind,
and made us very uncomfortable and susceptible of the fatigue of a long
march, particularly as the distance proved much greater than we had
expected. Indeed it was not till nearly two o’clock in the afternoon,
that Mr. Richardson and I, who were much in advance of the caravan,
reached the border of the Wady, and shortly afterwards the well Moghrás,
at the foot of two tall palm-trees, where we found a woman with two
neatly dressed children. They belonged to the Azkár-Tuarek, who, leaving
their miserable abodes, migrate to these more fertile districts, where
they build themselves light cottages of palm-branches, and indulge in a
patriarchal life, breeding camels and rearing sheep. Near almost every
village in the Wady, outside the palm-grove, in the bare naked bottom of
the valley, these poor people form a sort of suburb of frail huts; but
nevertheless they keep up family ties with their brethren near Ghát, and
respect in some degree the authority of the chief Nakhnúkhen. That this
state of things might become very unfavourable to Fezzán in an outbreak
of hostilities between the Turks and the Tuarek, is obvious; I shall
have occasion to say more on this subject further on. A belt of saline
incrustation, of more than half a mile in breadth, runs through the
middle of the valley, forming a line of demarcation between the separate
palm-groups and the continuous grove.
On reaching this grove we soon caught sight of the famous village Ugréfe,
the residence of our camel-drivers, which was to them the grand point
of attraction, and in truth the only cause of our taking this westerly
route. It consisted of about thirty light and low dwellings made of clay
and palm-branches, and lay near an open space where we were desired to
encamp: but longing for shade, we went a little further on, and encamped
near two splendid ethel-trees (_Tamarix orientalis_), the largest I ever
saw before I reached Égeri. When the camels came up and the tents were
pitched, the encampment proved most agreeable.
[Illustration]
Early next morning I was again in motion, roving over the plantation,
and was very much pleased with its general character. The corn, which
was a fine crop, was just ripe and about to be harvested; and close to
our camping-ground two negro slaves were employed in cutting it, while
three or four negresses carried it away to the stores. The negroes were
powerful young fellows; the women were rather ugly, excepting one, who
had a very handsome figure, and by coquettish demeanour tried to make
herself more attractive. All of them accompanied their work with singing
and wanton movements, and gave distinct manifestations of the customs
of this district, which is notorious for the familiarity of its female
inhabitants with the large caravans of pilgrims who annually pass through
the Wady on their way to or from Mekka. The fields are watered from large
holes or wells, which are sunk through layers of variegated marl.
Being anxious to visit Old Jerma, and to convince myself of its identity
with the Garama of the Romans, I hired a miserable little donkey, and,
accompanied by the stupid young son of Sbaeda, set out on an exploring
expedition into the eastern part of the valley. Keeping in general
along the southern border of the plantation, and having on my right the
precipitous rocky cliff, of from 300 to 400 feet elevation, I went on
slowly till I reached the south-west corner of Jerma kadím, fortified
with a quadrangular tower built of clay, and exhibiting a very curious
arrangement in its interior. The whole circumference of the town, which
was deserted long ago, is about 5,000 paces. Here, near the town, there
are no Roman ruins whatever, but the remains of several large and
strong towers built of clay are to be seen a little further on; and
being unable to make out the sepulchre described by Dr. Oudney, I was
obliged to go to Tawásh, the village inhabited by the Merabetín. It is
divided into three distinct parts, a Tarki village, consisting of huts of
palm-branches, an outer suburb of scattered dwellings built of clay, and
a small quadrangular place of very regular shape, surrounded by earthen
walls, and furnished with two gates, one on the east, and the other on
the west side, and regular streets crossing at right angles. Having here
obtained a guide from Háj Mohammed Sʿaídi, a wealthy man and the owner
of almost all our camels, I started for the Roman monument, situated
in a wide opening of the southern recess. I found it in tolerably good
preservation, and without delay made a sketch of it, as it seemed to
me to be an object of special interest as the southernmost relic of
the Roman dominion. It is a remarkable fact, that several years before
the beginning of our era the Romans should have penetrated as far as
this place; and that their dominion here was not of a merely transitory
nature, this monument seems clearly to show. It is only one story high,
and seems never to have been loftier. This is evidently characteristic
of the age in which it was built; and I am persuaded that it is not
later than the time of Augustus. Those high steeple-tombs which I have
described above, seem not to have come into fashion before the middle of
the second century after Christ. The base measures 7 ft. 9½ in. on the
west and east sides, and at least 7 ft. 4 in. on the other two sides,
including a spacious sepulchral chamber or burial-room; but while the
base forms almost a quadrangle, the sides of the principal structure are
of very different dimensions, measuring not more than 5 ft. 8½ in. on the
north and south, and 7 ft. on the west and east sides. It is adorned with
pilasters of the Corinthian order. The whole monument is covered with
Tefínagh or Berber writing, which was not only intelligible to me, but
also to our young camel-driver ʿAli Carámra, whose family lives in this
part of the wady, in a homely little dwelling of palm-leaves. However,
as the writing was very careless, and my time was fully taken up with
sketching the more important subjects, I did not copy the inscriptions,
which indeed are only names; but of course even names might contribute
something towards elucidating the history of the country.
By a direct path I returned from this place to our encampment, and felt
rather fatigued, having been in motion during all the heat of the day.
The south wind still increased in the evening; and we could distinctly
see that it was raining towards the longed-for region whither we were
going, while we had nothing from it but clouds of sand. Overweg,
meanwhile, had ascended in the morning the highest cliff of the sandstone
rocks forming the southern border of the valley, and had found it to be
1,605 feet high or 413 feet above the ground at our encampment.
[Illustration]
Having heard, the day before, in the village of Merabetín, that Háj
Mohammed, the owner of our camels, ordered the boy who was with me to
tell Sbaeda, his father, that they should not start before this evening,
I was not surprised at our camel-drivers not bringing the camels in the
morning. It was almost four o’clock in the afternoon when Overweg and
I at length pushed on, entering the extensive grove of New Jerma,—a
miserable place, which being entirely shut in by the palm-grove, is
almost deserted. The grove, however, exhibited a very interesting aspect,
all the trees being furnished with a thick cluster of palm-bush at
their roots, while the old dry leaves were left hanging down underneath
the young fresh crown, and even lower down the stem, not being cut off
so short as is customary near the coast. But picturesque as the state
of the trees was, it did not argue much in favour of the industry of
the inhabitants; for it is well known to Eastern travellers that the
palm-tree is most picturesque in its wildest state. Beyond the town
the grove becomes thinner, and the ethel-tree predominates over the
palm-tree; but there is much palm-bush.
We entered another grove, which stretches far northward into the valley,
its produce being, according to our camel-drivers, entirely reserved for
the poor. Having passed Tawásh, with its little grove, we entered the
fine plantation of Brék, enlivened by the bleating of sheep and goats.
Here, in the small fields where corn is cultivated, the ground is thickly
encrusted with salt and soda. We at length encamped near the grove of
Tewíwa, close to the village of the same name, and to the north side of
the Merábet Sidi eʾ Salám.
The next morning, while the camels were loading, I visited the interior
of the village. The walls have given way in several places, and the whole
made the impression of a half-deserted place; but the little kasbah,
which is never wanting in any of these towns, was in tolerable condition.
One of the inhabitants, on being asked why the village was so much
decayed, told me that a torrent had destroyed a great portion of it nine
years ago, in consequence of which the greater part of its population had
dispersed abroad, only about twenty families now remaining. But this is
the condition of nearly all the places in Fezzán; and it can be partially
accounted for only by supposing that many of the male inhabitants
go off to Negroland, to avoid being made soldiers. A very extensive
grove belongs to Tewíwa; but the plain between the village and the
rocks is rather open, only a few patches of corn-field being scattered
thereabouts. Three vast and detached buttresses, which jut out from the
cliffs into the plain, give a very picturesque appearance to the groves
and villages which we passed on our route. We were just proceeding in the
best manner, when a halt was ordered, from very insufficient reasons, a
little south from the village Tekertíba, where we were to pass the heat.
Meanwhile I ascended a ridge of rocks which, a little further down,
crossed the valley from the southern border. The ridge was a narrow,
steep, wall-like cliff, which afforded a very interesting view of the
end, or rather beginning, of the fertile Wady, which was close at hand.
From the highest point of the ridge I descended northwards, crossing
a small defile, which is formed between the two rocky buttresses to
the north and south, the latter being the more considerable. Along it
runs a path, connecting the two valleys. Here I obtained a view of the
fresh green valley on the one side, and the destructive sand-hills on
the other, and directed my steps to the plantation, where young people
were busily engaged in drawing water from the large pond-like wells. The
beams, by means of which the water is drawn up, require to be strongly
constructed, the whole of the khattár having the height of from sixty to
eighty feet. These draw-wells are always placed in pairs; and a couple
of miserable asses, partners in suffering, do all the work. The young
male labourers all wore straw hats, and had an energetic appearance.
The northern border of the plantation is now menaced by the approach
of the sand-hills, which have already overwhelmed the last range of
palm-trees. There is a curious tradition in Tekertíba, that from the
highest peak of the cliffs bordering the valley on the south side, a
rivulet or brook, issuing from a spring, runs down into the valley
underground. There were, it is related, originally several canals or
stream-works leading down to this subterranean aqueduct; but they have
been all filled up. The village itself, on the south border of the
plantation, is tolerably large, but is inhabited by only forty families
at the utmost, though it is the most populous place in the valley next to
Ubári.
By the exertion of much energy, I at length succeeded in the afternoon in
getting our little caravan again under way; and we left the Great Wady
through the defile, which appears to have been once defended by walls,
and, having crossed some irregular depressed plains, encamped at seven
o’clock in the evening in a wady with a moderate supply of herbage.
Starting on the following morning, at an early hour, we soon emerged into
a more open level, beautifully adorned with fine talha-trees, and having
with difficulty dragged on our camel-drivers, who shortly afterwards
wanted to encamp in Wady Resán, we entered a dreary wilderness, from
which we did not emerge till we arrived at the plantation of Aghár, where
we encamped.
All the people were eager to reach to-day the first great station of our
journey; but owing to the straying of some of the camels, we were unable
to start quite as early as we wished. The country in general was very
sterile, presenting only a few small date-groves, which we passed at
greater or less distance, and at length, when we reached the plantation
of Múrzuk itself, we were far from finding in it that picturesque and
refreshing character which we had admired in the palm-groves of the Wady.
These had formed a dense beautiful shade and fine groups; while the
plantation of Múrzuk was scattered about in thin growth, so that it was
scarcely possible to determine exactly where it began or where it ended.
Thus we reached the wall of the town, built of a sort of clay glittering
with saline incrustations; and going round the whole western and northern
sides, which have no gate wide enough for a caravan, we halted on the
eastern side of the town, not far from the camp of the pilgrims who
were returning from Egypt to Marocco and Tawát, till Mr. Gagliuffi came
out of the town, and brought us in. Mr. Richardson had arrived about an
hour before us. I was lodged in a cool and airy room on the north-east
corner of Mr. Gagliuffi’s house, which had within the court a very
pleasant half-covered hall. Mr. Gagliuffi treated us with all possible
hospitality, and did all in his power to render our stay in the town
agreeable.
[Illustration: MURZUK.]