Particular interest attaches to Wilkinson’s account of the tradition, not only because of its being the earliest, and therefore less likely to be coloured by imagination than later versions, but also because of the remarkable fact that although some of the other places named in the above extract were unknown to European geographers at the time, they have all since been discovered; “Gebabo” and “Tazerbo” by Rohlfs, and “Rebeeana” by Mrs. Forbes and Hassanein Bey. The weak point in the account is the loose Arab way of stating directions. Gebabo (Kufra) is not _west_ of the Baharia-Farafra road, but south-west. If we amend the bearing in the first account accordingly, and take Zerzura at about midway between the Baharia- Farafra road and Kufra, it must lie near the intersection of the parallel of 26° with the meridian of 26°, or some 200 kilometres east of the Mehemsa Hattia, and some 150 kilometres north-west of Rohlfs’ “Regenfeld” camp. In the second account given by Wilkinson, the words “due west” suggest that the bearing is more certain. Two or three days (say 120 kilometres) due west of Dakhla would put Zerzura in about latitude 25½°, longitude 27½°, or about 30 kilometres north of Rohlfs’ “Regenfeld.” There is thus a difference of more than 100 kilometres between the two positions indicated by the accounts given to Wilkinson. Rohlfs evidently knew of the traditions regarding Zerzura before making his attempt to reach Kufra from Dakhla in 1874; and since such an intermediate oasis, if it really existed, would be an immense aid to him in attaining his objective, he made careful inquiries concerning it before leaving Dakhla. But he found that though every one in Dakhla knew the names of Zerzura and Kufra, no one could tell him where Zerzura was, nor how far it lay from Dakhla.[27] Evidently Rohlfs placed little faith in its existence, for during his journey he gave the name “Zerzura” to a locality, about 120 kilometres west-south-west of Dakhla, where he found nothing but very sparsely scattered vegetation.[28] Ascherson, who was with Rohlfs in Dakhla, was however informed by Hassan Effendi, one of the principal inhabitants of Mut, that about a hundred years before (_i.e._ about 1770) there had been frequent raids on Dakhla by Arabs from the south-west; and that in order to stop these raids the Mameluke Government of the time installed a military colony, called the Surbaghi, in the village of Qalamun. These Surbaghi went out and destroyed all the wells for seven or eight days’ distance along the road by which the raiders had come. This road, which up to that time had served as a trade route from Darfur, before the road through Kharga was opened, was in consequence forsaken. The road was said still to exist, and to lead into the desert from Mut. At a day-and-a-half’s journey from Mut there were said to be two “pillars,” half an hour’s distance apart, which Hassan Effendi’s guard likened to minarets. In the neighbourhood there were