present state of decay, great historical interest with that attaching to
a conspicuous and remarkable feature in the country. Whether her eastern
sister, Gharíya e’ sherkíya, awakens an equal or a still greater
interest, it is difficult to say; but it seems to have quite the same
elements of attraction as the western place, namely, a date-grove and
Roman ruins. I had a great desire to visit it; but that was not
possible, as we were to start next day from Taboníye.
According to our Zintáni, the path leading to it from the western
village first lies over the hammáda, then crosses a ravine called Wadi
Khatab, leads again over the plateau, crosses another wadi, and at
length, after about ten miles, as it seems, reaches the ravine of
Gharíya e’ sherkíya[46] stretching from W. to E., the grove, of about
the same extent as in the other oasis, being formed at the N. and W.
bases of the rocky height upon which the place stands. At the side of
the village there is, he said, a large Roman castle, far larger than
that in the western one, of about eight or ten feet elevation at
present, but without an arched gateway of that kind, and without
inscriptions. On the east side of the eminence are only a few palms, and
on the south side none. The village is distinguished by a merábet called
Bu-Sbaeha. Neither from the Zintáni nor from anybody else did I hear
that the inhabitants of these two solitary ksúr are called by the
peculiar name Warínga; I learnt it afterwards only from Mr. Richardson’s
statement[47], and I have reason to think that the name was intended for
Urínsa.
We returned by a more northern path, which at first led us through a
rather difficult rocky passage, but afterwards joined our path of
yesterday. Overweg and I had no time to lose in preparing for our
journey over the hammáda, or plateau, while Mr. Richardson was obliged,
by the conduct of the ill-provided and ill-disciplined blacks who
accompanied him, to follow us by night. We therefore got up very early
next morning, but lost a good deal of time by the quarrels among our
camel-drivers, who were trying, most unjustly, to reserve all the heavy
loads for the camels of the inexperienced Tarki lad ʿAli Karámra, till
they excited his indignation, and a furious row ensued. This youth,
though his behaviour was sometimes awkward and absurd, excited my
interest in several respects. He belonged to a family of Tawárek, as
they are called, settled in Wadi el Gharbi, and was sent by his father
to Tripoli with three camels, to try his chance of success, although
members of that nation, with the exception of the Tinylkum, rarely visit
Tripoli. He was slender and well-formed, of a glossy light-black
complexion, and with a profile truly Egyptian; his manners were
reserved, and totally different from those of his Fezzáni companions.
At length we were under way, and began gradually to ascend along the
strip of green which followed the shelving of the plateau into the
valley, leaving the Roman sepulchre at some distance to our right. The
flat Wadi Lebaerek, which is joined by Wadi Shák, was still adorned with
gattúf and rétem. It was not till we had passed the little hill called
Lebaerek, and made another slight ascent, that we reached the real level
of the terrible Hammáda; the ascent, or shelving ground, from Taboníye
to this point being called el Mudhár mtʿa el Hammáda, and the spot
itself, where the real Hammáda begins, Bú-safár, a name arising from the
obligation which every pilgrim coming from the north, who has not before
traversed this dreaded district, lies under, to add a stone to the heaps
accumulated by former travellers.
But, notwithstanding all the importance attached to the dreary character
of this region, I found it far less naked and bare than I had imagined
it to be. To the right of our path lay a small green hollow, of cheerful
appearance, a branch of which is said, probably with some degree of
exaggeration, to extend as far as Ghadámes; but the whole extent of the
Hammáda is occasionally enlivened with small green patches of herbage,
to the great relief of the camel. And this, too, is the reason why the
traveller does not advance at a rate nearly so expeditious as he would
expect. In the latter part of our preceding journey we generally had
made almost as much as two and a half miles an hour; but we scarcely got
over two on this level open ground. Of course, the wider the space the
wider the dispersion of the straggling camels; and much time is lost by
unsteady direction. At the verdant hollow called Garra mtʿa e’ Nejm the
eastern path, which is called Trík el mugítha (_via auxiliaris_), and
passes by the village of Gharíya, joined our path.
At Wadi Mʿamúra I first observed the little green bird generally called
asfír, but sometimes mesísa, which lives entirely upon the caravans as
they pass along, by picking off the vermin from the feet of the camels.
In the afternoon we observed, to our great delight, in the green patch
called el Wueshkeh, a cluster of stunted palm-trees. Hereabouts the
camel-drivers killed a considerable number of the venomous lizard called
bu-keshásh; and the Tarki in particular was resolute in not allowing any
which he saw to escape alive. After a moderate march of little more than
ten hours and a half, we encamped in a small hollow called, from a
peculiar kind of green bush growing in it, el Jederíya. A strong cold
wind, accompanied by rain, began to blow soon after we encamped. The
tent, not being sufficiently secured, was blown down in the night; and
we had some trouble in pitching it again.
Continuing our march, we passed, about ten o’clock in the morning, a
poor solitary talha-tree bearing the appellation of el Duhéda. Further
on we found truffles, which in the evening afforded us a delicious
truffle-soup. Truffles are very common in many parts of the desert; and
the greatest of Mohammedan travellers (Ebn Batúta) did not forget them
in relating his journey from Sejelmása to Waláta, in the middle of the
14th century.[48] The sky was very dark and hazy; and the moon had an
extraordinary “dára,” or halo. We slept this night without a tent, and
felt the cold very sensibly.
[Sidenote: April 19th.]
The march of the following day was a little enlivened by our meeting
with two small caravans: the first, of five camels; the second,
belonging to Ghadámsi people, and laden with ivory, of fifteen. With the
latter was also a woman, sitting quite comfortably in her little cage.
Shortly after half-past one o’clock in the afternoon, we had reached the
highest elevation of the Hammáda, indicated by a heap of stones called,
very significantly, Rejm el erhá, 1568 feet above the level of the sea.
We encamped soon after, when a very heavy gale began to blow from
N.N.W., driving the swallows, which had followed our caravan, into the
tent and the holes formed by the luggage; but the poor things found no
protection, for our tent, which was light and high-topped, was blown
down again during the night, while a heavy rain accompanied the storm,
and we as well as our little guests were left awhile without shelter, in
a very uncomfortable situation.
We started rather late the following morning, entering now upon the very
dreariest part of the Hammáda, called el Hómra. So far there had been
only one track over this stony plateau; but in the afternoon a path,
called Msér[49] ben Wáfi, branched off towards the left. This path,
which leads to the eastern parts of Wadi Sháti, formed formerly the
common road to Fezzán, the road by way of el Hasi being considered as
too insecure, on account of the robberies of the Urfílla. Hence the
latter is still called the new road, “Trík el jedíd.” Richardson, who
had had enough of the inconveniences of travelling by night, easily got
in advance of us this morning, after our short march of yesterday, and
had advanced a good way by daytime. We were therefore anxious to come up
with him; and on our way we encountered a heavy shower of rain before we
pitched our tent.
[Sidenote: Sunday, April 21st.]
The whole caravan being once more united, the increased variety of our
own party relieved a good deal of the feeling of monotony arising from
the desolate character of the country through which we travelled. After
marching about seven miles, we arrived at the greenest and largest
hollow of the Hammáda, called Wadi el Alga, which we ought to have
reached yesterday, in order to be able to get this day as near the well
as possible.
As it was, when we encamped in the afternoon, we had still a long day’s
march before us, and therefore the next day, from general impulse, in
order to make sure of our arrival at the well, we started at an early
hour, keeping the caravan together by repeated shouting. After a march
of about twelve miles, we reached the first passage leading down from
the Hammáda and called Tníe[50] Twennín; but it was too steep and
precipitous for our rather heavily laden caravan, and we had to continue
till we reached the Tníe el ʿArdha, a little after eleven o’clock, when
we began to descend from the plateau along a rough winding pass. The
sandstone of which it is formed presented to us a surface so completely
blackened, not only in the unbroken walls of the ravine, but also in the
immense blocks which had been detached from the cliffs, and were lying
about in great confusion, that at first sight anybody would have taken
it for basalt; but when the stones were broken, their real nature became
apparent. Over this broad layer of sandstone, which in some places
covered a bed of clay mixed with gypsum, there was a layer of marl, and
over this, forming the upper crust, limestone and flints.
After a winding course for an hour, the narrow ravine, shut in by steep,
gloomy-looking cliffs, began to widen, and our direction varied less;
but still the whole district retained a gloomy aspect, and the bottom of
the valley was strewn with masses of black sandstone, while the country
ahead of us lay concealed in a hazy atmosphere, which did not admit of
an extensive view. Eager to reach the well, the caravan being scattered
over a great extent of ground, we three travellers, with one of the
shoushes, pushed on in advance, the south wind driving the sand, which
lay in narrow strips along the pebbly ground, into our faces. We
cherished the hope of finding a cool little grove, or at least some
shade, where we might recline at ease after our fatiguing march; but, to
our great disappointment, the sand became deeper, and nothing was to be
seen but small stunted palm-bushes. But even these ceased near the well,
which was dug in the midst of the sandy waste, and had once been
protected by an oval-shaped building, of which nothing but crumbling
ruins remained.
It was a cheerless encampment after so fatiguing a march; but there was
at least no more fear of scarcity of water, for the well had an abundant
supply. No name could be more appropriate to this place than el Hasi
(the well). There is no need of any discriminating surname; it is “the
Well”—the well where the traveller who has successfully crossed the
Hammáda may be sure to quench his own thirst and that of his animals.
But it is not a cheerful resting-place, though it is the great watering-
place on this desert road, as he has to cross the fearful “burning
plain” of the Hammáda before he reaches the spot.[51] There are several
wells hereabouts, which might easily supply with water the largest
caravan in an hour’s time; for the water is always bubbling up, and
keeps the same level.
The well at the side of which we had encamped is rather narrow and deep,
and therefore inconvenient for a large party; but it is, though
slightly, protected by the ruins around against the wind, which is often
very troublesome, and was particularly so on the evening of our arrival.
Formerly there was here a sort of fortified khan, such as is very rarely
seen in these parts, built by the tribes of the Notmán and Swaíd[52], in
order to protect their caravans against the pillaging parties of the
Urfílla, originally a Berber tribe. This building consisted of simple
chambers, twenty, as it seems, in number, lying round an oval court
which has entrances from north and south. It is thirty paces long by
sixteen wide, the centre being occupied by the well, which, as it is dug
in the sandy soil, bears the general name Hasi. It has a depth of five
fathoms; and its temperature was found to be 71⅗° Fahr. The quality of
the water, in comparison with that of Taboníye, was very good. The
elevation of this place was found by Overweg to be 696 feet; so that we
had descended from the highest point of the Hammáda 742 feet.
[Illustration: Drawn by J. M. Bernatz, from a Sketch by Dr. Barth.
M. & N. Hanhart, lith. et impt.
EL HASI.
April 23rd. 1850.]
As it was, we felt heartily glad when our steady and heavy Tripolitan
tent being at length pitched, we were able to stretch ourselves without
being covered with sand. All the people were greatly fatigued, and
required repose more than anything else. Out of regard to the men as
well as to the camels, we were obliged to stay here the following day,
though the place was comfortless in the extreme, and did not offer the
smallest bit of shade. The accompanying sketch, which I made this day of
the place, with the slope of the Hammáda in the background, will give
but a faint idea of its desolate character. Scarcely any of our places
of encampment on the whole journey seemed to me so bad and cheerless as
this. If I had had an animal to mount, I would have gone on to a cluster
of three or four date-trees, which are said to be at the distance of
about three miles west from the well, and belong to the people of
Zintán, to enjoy a little shade; but our camels were too much
distressed.
[Footnote 38: A copy of my drawing of this interesting monument, of its
ground-plan, and of the inscription, was sent by me to Dr. Patrick
Colquhoun in May, 1850; and a short and learned treatise on it was
published by John Hogg, Esq., in the Transactions of the Royal Society
of Literature, vol. iv. new series.]
[Footnote 39: Capt. Lyon’s Travels, p. 67.]
[Footnote 40: This might represent the subjugated nation or prince.]
[Footnote 41: Among these the following names can be made out with
certainty, leaving only the short vowels, which are not expressed, in
some doubt. Umaghmagh~d~úmer or úmaghem ghedúmer, Múthemaghe~m~.
besmeter. me~n~menýr. The letters underlined are not certain. It is
scarcely necessary to say that these inscriptions were made upon the
building at a later period, and that Mr. Hogg was wrong when, taking
them for Punic, and thinking that I had overlooked “the most remarkable
portions of this remain,” he believed them to be taken from some older
Punic building.]
[Footnote 42: This is a very probable conjecture of Mr. Hogg.]
[Footnote 43: Although the name ANTONINO has suffered a little in the
inscription, yet copying it, as I did, without any prejudice, I found
sufficient traces of the letters composing this name; and I hardly think
that I have been mistaken. If so, it is a curious and remarkable
instance of this title, which Severus Alexander is said to have refused.
See Gibbon, vol. i. p. 289.]
[Footnote 44: See note, p. 128.]
[Footnote 45: Plinius H. N. l. v. c. 5.: “Ad Garamantas iter
inexplicabile adhuc fuit. Proximo bello, quod cum Œensibus Romani
gessere auspiciis Vespasiani Imperatoris, compendium viæ quatridui
deprehensum est. Hoc iter vocatur _Præter caput saxi_.”]
[Footnote 46: It is scarcely necessary to mention that Mr. J. Hogg has
been greatly mistaken in identifying this place with Ghirza, which lies
at a great distance.]
[Footnote 47: Vol. i. p. 40.]
[Footnote 48: Journal Asiatique, 1843, série iv. tom. i. p. 189.]
[Footnote 49: The name Msér, being pure Arabic, testifies to its
antiquity; for at present no Arab hereabouts would call a track or path
by this name. It is properly the journey itself.]
[Footnote 50: Tníe, or rather thníye, ثنِيّةٌ is a classical and still
popular Arabic expression for a winding pass over high ground or up a
hill.]
[Footnote 51: El hammáda is a very common name in North Africa for a
stony level plain; but it is generally accompanied by a surname. The
name is mentioned and explained by Ebn Khaldún, vol. ii. p. 358., trans.
M. de Slane.]
[Footnote 52: The Swaíd were formerly a very powerful tribe in Algeria,
and are often mentioned by Ebn Khaldún. In vol. i. pp. 94. 101. their
subdivisions are enumerated.]
CHAP. VI.
WADI SHATI. — OLD JERMA. — ARRIVAL IN MURZUK.
[Sidenote: Wednesday, April 24th.]
There are three roads from el Hasi: the westernmost called Trík e’
duésa, after a small cluster of palm-trees; the second, called Trík e’
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 e’ 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.
[Sidenote: Thursday, April 25th.]
Continuing our march, we soon came to the Shʿabet e’ 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 Wadi
Siddre, which was enlivened by a few talha-trees. A narrow defile led us
from this place to the Wadi Boghár, whence we entered another defile.
Mid-day was past, when we obtained a distinct view of the date-grove in
Wadi Sháti[53], 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 e’ 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 e’ Salám.
[Illustration]
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 190 feet above the bottom of the valley,
obtained a very interesting view over a great part of the wadi, 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 lie 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: Drawn by J. M. Bernatz, from a Sketch by Dr. Barth.
M. & N. Hanhart, lith. et impt.
ÉDERI.
April, 26th. 1850.]
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.