156 AUGILA. Book IV. 182. Next to the Ammonians, at the distance of ten days' journey along the ridge of sand, there is a second salt-hill like the Ammonian, and a second spring. The country round is inhabited, and the place bears the name of Augila. Hither it is that the Nasamonians come to gather in the dates.1 183. Ten days' journey from Augila there is again a salt-hill E. T.) Sir G. Wilkinson experimented with the thermometer at Zubbo, in the Little Oasis, where there is a similar spring. The result, in his own words, was the following: "The water of the pond at Zubbo, soon after sunrise (Feb. 8th), the external air being 51 Fahr., I found to be 73%, and quite warm to the hand; at mid-day, the external air being 65, it was 794, and cold to the hand; and in the evening, at 9 o'clock, the external air being 601, the water was 77 Fahr. and consequently warm to the hand. This pond was about 30 ft. wide, and was not more than 5 or 6 ft. in the deepest part. Two other springs (at Bowitti and El Kasr) were 923 Fahr., and 93. The boiling water was a natural mistake, from the numerous bubbles which rise in these sulphureous ponds. These springs and ponds were in the Little Oasis, which is called Wah el Behnesa, and in Coptic Quahe Pemge." 9 Vide supra, ch. 172. Pacho, remarking on the veracity of Herodotus in the account which he gives of Augila, observes :-"Il a parlé de ses forêts de palmiers, de la qualité exquise de ses dattes, et nous avons dit qu'elles sont la plus grande ressource que possède encore Augiles. La seule fontaine qu'on y trouvait de son temps, est la seule qu'on y trouve de nos jours; c'est Sibilleh. La seule colline qui d'après l'historien, existait dans ce canton, est la seule qui interrompe la monotonie de son immense plaine de sables: elle occupe la partie nord da village principal. De plus, il ajoute que cette colline, comme celle d'Ammon, était de sel; et dans le monticule de spath calcaire d'Augiles, comme aux collines d'Ammon, nous trouvons des masses de sel gemme." The distance between the Ammonians (Siwah) and Augila is correctly stated. Horneman travelled it in nine days, but at more than the ordinary rate. (Travels, pp. 45, 46). The Augilians of the present day reckon it a ten days' journey. (Minutoli, p. 172.)-["Augila is about 220 miles west of Siwah."—G. W.] The right of gathering dates is still claimed in certain district by the Arabs; and the various small Wahs (Oases), or spots in the desert having springs and date-trees, westward of the Egyptian Oases, are still occupied or claimed by the Blacks, as of old; the Nasamones being, as before observed, the Nahsiamones, or negroes of the Ammonian district. (See n. 9 on Book ii. ch. 32.) The adoption of the palm-tree as an emblem of victory, or of success, doubtless arose from this right of gathering dates in a conquered country. It is well known that the date.tree will not grow except where there is water, or in irrigated land; and the palm-tree of the desert, like the pelican of the wilderness (a fish-eating bird), must be taken in a restricted sense, meaning that it was found in spots away from the habita. tions of men.-[G. W.] Mr. Hamilton informs us that the Zowayah Arabs, who inhabit the oasis of El Ijherri, north-east of Jalo, regu. larly move southwards in autumn to gather the dates and figs from the uninhabited oases of El Koffra. When they have left them, parties of the Tibboos often come to glean the dates which remain. (Wanderings,' pp. 181, 191, and 197.) 2 157 and a spring; palms of the fruitful kind grow here abundantly, as they do also at the other salt-hills. This region is inhabited by a nation called the Garamantians, a very powerful people, who cover the salt with mould, and then sow their crops. From thence is the shortest road to the Lotophagi, a journey of thirty days. In the Garamantian country are found the oxen which, as they graze, walk backwards. This they do because their horns curve outwards in front of their heads, so that it is not possible for them when grazing to move forwards, since in that case their horns would become fixed in the ground.5 Only herein do they differ from other * Heeren and Rennell identify the country of the Garamantians with the modern Fezzan. Ritter adopts the same view. (Erdkunde, i. p. 989.) The chief grounds seem to be, 1. Fezzan is due south of the country of the Nasamonians, who line the shore of the Greater Syrtis (supra, ch. 174). 2. It is the first well-peopled tract, and the first which possesses springs west of Augila. 3. It has a ruined city, Germa (Garama), once the capital. 4. Its name is preserved in the appellation Gamphasantes (= Garm-Pha. santes, or Garam-Phasantes), found in the place of Garamantes in some writers. (Plin. H. N. v. 8; Mela, i. 8). 5. It is the only tract, where a great and powerful nation could live, in these parts. These reasons appear conclusive. The distance from Augila is misstated. Rennell imagines that the eastern border of the Garamantiang might be within the distance of 10 days from the western limits of the Augilians. (Geogr. p. 615.) But this does not seem to be possible. It takes 16 days at the least to cross the desert between Augila, which is at the edge of the Oasis, and Temissa, the first village in Fezzan. (Horneman, p. 47.) Heeren conjectures that Herodotus, or his informant, here (as between Thebes and the Ammonians) accidentally omitted a station; and that the resting-place here spoken of was not ten, but twenty days' journey from Augila. (Af. Nat. i. p. 219, E. T.) Traghan, near Zuila, where there is a celebrated spring of water, he imagines to be the site (p. 217). See also Lyon's Travels (p. 206). 3 The soil of Fezzan is strongly impregnated with salt. It is only by a liberal application of manure that any produce can be raised. (Lyon, p. 271.) The conjecture of Heeren, that this is another caravan route, and indicates the line of traffic between Carthage and the Negro countries, seems to be an extremely happy one. At the present day Murzuk, the capital of Fezzan, is the centre from which three great roads diverge: one leading to Egypt by way of Augila and Siwah (Ammon), another to Soudan, or Nigritia, across the Great Desert, and a third to Tripoli and Tunis, by way of Sokna, Bonjem, and Lebida. This last is the route here spoken of. It was traversed by Captain Lyon in 1820, who took 36 days from Murzuk to the coast near Lebida, stopping, however, exactly six days at Sokna. The Lotophagi, including in them the Gindanians, commenced about Lebida. (Vide supra, ch. 176, note ".) 5 No oxen of this kind have been observed by modern travellers, though the same account is given by many of the ancients. (Alex. Mynd. ap. Athen. V. 20, p. 221, E.; Plin. H. N. viii. 45; 158 THE ATARANTIANS. Book IV. oxen, and further in the thickness and hardness of their hides. The Garamantians have four-horse chariots, in which they chase the Troglodyte Ethiopians, who of all the nations whereof any account has reached our ears are by far the swiftest of foot.8 The Troglodytes feed on serpents, lizards, and other similar reptiles. Their language is unlike that of any other people; it sounds like the screeching of bats.9 184. At the distance of ten days' journey from the Garamantians there is again another salt-hill and spring of water; around which dwell a people, called the Atarantians,' who alone of all known nations are destitute of names. Mela, i. 8.) Heeren conjectures that the horns were made to grow in this way. The neatherds of Africa, he says, frequently amuse themselves in giving an artificial form to the horns of their cattle, by continually bending them. (Af. Nat. i. p. 222, E. T.) But it is difficult to assign a motive for their giving them so inconvenient a shape. 6 The thickness and hardness of the hides of the cattle in this part of Africa are noticed by modern travellers. (Horneman, p. 127.) 7 It is usual to regard the word Troglodyte here as a proper name. But perhaps it would be better to translate "the Ethiopians who dwell in holes." Troglodytes have always abounded in Africa. The most notorious are those along the shores of the Red Sea, of whom Strabo gives a full account (xvi. p. 1102). There were others upon the Nile. (Strab. xvii. p. 1159.) Those here spoken of must be distinguished from both. They dwelt probably in the region south of Fezzan, in the mountains of the Tibesti range, where the Tibboo Irschad, or Rock Tibboos, are still said to live in caves. (Horneman, p. 107; Denham, vol. i. p. 140.) 8 Great slave-hunts (Grazzie in the language of the country) are still common in Fezzan. Armed bodies of 800 or 1000 men set forth on these expeditions, and sweep the countries to the southward of their inhabitants, The title returning after an absence of months, is 9 "The people of Augila, in speaking of these tribes (the Tibboos)," observes Horneman, " say that their language is like the whistling of birds" (Journal, &c., p. 119.) 1 All the MSS. have Atlantians which was read evidently by Pliny (v. 8), and Mela (i. 8). The reading Atarantians is recovered from Eustathius (ad Dionys. Perieg. 66). The locality of this people is very uncertain. Heeren conjectures that the route described by Herodotus turns southward at the Garamantiau station, and that the Atarantians are the Bornous of Tegerry; but this view is quite incompatible with the words of Herodotus in chs. 181 and 185. We must regard him as proceeding westward, and seek for the Atarantians among the Tuariks of the Western Sahara. Oudney found salt-plains and springs in this country, towards Gadamis (pp. 96-99). CHAP. 183-185. THE ATLANTES. 159 of Atarantians is borne by the whole race in common; but the men have no particular names of their own. The Atarantians, when the sun rises high in the heaven, curse him, and load him with reproaches, because (they say) he burns and wastes both their country and themselves. Once more at the distance of ten days' journey there is a salt-hill, a spring, and an inhabited tract. Near the salt is a mountain called Atlas, very taper and round; so lofty, moreover, that the top (it is said) cannot be seen, the clouds never quitting it either summer or winter. The natives call this mountain "the Pillar of Heaven;" and they themselves take their name from it, being called Atlantes. They are reported not to eat any living thing, and never to have any dreams. 8 185. As far as the Atlantes the names of the nations inhabiting the sandy ridge are known to me; but beyond them my knowledge fails. The ridge itself extends as far as the Pillars of Hercules, and even further than these; 5 and Leo Africanus says of the Bornous "Quantum à quodam mercatore intelligere potui, qui longam cum his habuerat consuetudinem, nullum hic proprium nomen audias, sed omnes vel a longitudine, vel pinguitudine, aut alio quovis accidente nomen habent" (vii. p. 255, A). Salt (Travels in Abyssinia, p. 379) notices a similar custom among the negroes south and west of Abyssinia; but it does not by any means amount to the entire absence of names which is spoken of by Herodotus. He probably misunder. stood his informant. Ideler has shown (see Humboldt's Aspects of Nature, vol. i. pp. 144-146, E. T.) that there was a confusion in the Greek mind with respect to Atlas. The earlier writers (Homer, Hesiod, &c.) intended by that name the Peak of Teneriffe, of which they had some indistinct knowledge derived from Phoenician sources. The later, unacquainted with the great Western Ocean, placed Atlas in Africa, first regarding it as a single mountain, and then, as their geographical knowledge increased, and they found there was no very remarkable mountain in Northwestern Africa, as a mountain chain. Herodotus is a writer of the transition period. His description is only applicable to the Peak, while his locality is Africa-not, however, the western coast, but an inland tract, probably south-eastern Algeria. Thus his mountain, if it is to be considered as having any foundation at all on fact, must represent the eastern, not the western, extremity of the Atlas chain. 4 So Eschylus says of the giant Atlas πρὸς ἑσπέρους τόπους ἕστηκε, κίον' οὐρανοῦ τε καὶ χθονός ὤμοιν ἐμείδων, ἄχθος οὐκ εὐάγκαλον. - Ρ. V. 357. And Pindar, in like manner, calls Etna, Kiwv oùpavía. (Pyth. i. 19, ed. Diss.) The supposed height of the "pillar may be gathered from the Scholiast on Plato, who reports that its shadow extended to the distance of 5000 stades (ad Plat. Tim. p. 426, ed. Bekker). 5 Herodotus, it should be observed, knows that the African coast projects beyond the pillars. 160 HOUSES OF SALT. Book IV. throughout the whole distance, at the end of every ten days' journey, there is a salt-mine, with people dwelling round it who all of them build their houses with blocks of the salt. No rain falls in these parts of Libya; if it were otherwise, the walls of these houses could not stand. The salt quarried is of two colours, white and purple. Beyond the ridge, southwards, in the direction of the interior, the country is a desert, with no springs, no beasts, no rain, no wood, and altogether destitate of moisture.9 P. H. N. v. 5) mentions the salt houses of the African tribes bor. dering on the Great Desert. They have been found by Mr. Hamilton in The Oasis of Ammon, and by Oudney Denham's Travels, vol. i. p. 78) in the western part of Ferzan; and no Ò MÒT EXIST IN Many parts of the Sahara. Opdney's words are- Notwithstanding the nearness and fitness of the suone, the suit mould is preferred (for housespertags from the want of lime; and the case with which the house is excel. Another thing: so Ettle rain ss Pat there is no danger of the fabric in org Mr. hamon sare-"I saw no trove of antiquity in any of the build. gs; bet as of eld, the houses are dana na kicks of rock-salt, someDAWN SEAN Pure, cemented together From the dryness of the ense 1's kind of wall is perfectly (Wanderings 'p. 24) Owdney tells us that this part of A and entirely without rain, At that mon fils at intervals of five, and are years (p. 76). HumN& steak ng ina were general way, felspis, Salir sy ng ““Neither dew for min varde 1, ese desolate plains, or dempcre on ther glowing surface the gems of vegetable life; for heated alamins of air, everywhere ascending, sie te vapurs, and disperse ewed swifty-washing clend.” (Aspools of Nature, vol. i. p. 3, E. T.)` The rock suit of Atrica is, in fact, Africa," says Leo, of clove okurs "Avortex parte aliud sal non habet, præver id quod ex specuum calinis (the 1 Aéraλa of our author) velut marmor aut gessum, candidi, rubei, et cinerici coloris, effoditur" (p. 299, B). "The salt of the mountain Haddeffa," writes Dr. Shaw, "is of a reddish, or purple colour: yet what is washed down from these precipices by the dews attaineth another colour, becoming as white as . . . The salt of the mountains near Levotaiah and Jebel Miniss, is of a grey or bluish colour." (Travels, p. 229.) snow.... 8 He alludes to the great Sáhara. This sandy tract, diversified here and there by high table-land, low plains, isolated small hills and rocks, and undulating ground, produces in places some low desert shrubs and tufts of grass, like the little Sahara to the south of the Regency of Tunis. Among the plants of the Sahara mentioned to me by the neighbouring Arabs are the Sheea (the "She" of Lucas) and bytheran (Artemisia Judaica and inculta); the ruttum, or broom (Spartium monospermum); the prickly kadth; the guttuf (atriplex halimus); the rimth (a Salicornia); the methnán, &c. The ancients were not altogether unacquainted with the interior of Africa; and Ibn Batuta shows in the 14th century how much was known of Timbuctoo and the Soodán. [G. W.] The horrors of the great African desert have, both in ancient and modern times, been somewhat exag. gerated. "From the best and most recent intelligence," says Humboldt, "we learn that the desert of Sahara is composed of several detached basins, and that the number and the popula |
