Travels and discoveries in North and Central Africa : $b Including accounts of Tripoli, the Sahara, the remarkable kingdom of Bornu, and the countries around Lake ChadBarth, Heinrich
History
Travels and discoveries in North and Central Africa : $b Including accounts of Tripoli, the Sahara, the remarkable kingdom of Bornu, and the countries around Lake Chad
Barth, Heinrich
Africa, Central -- Description and travel; Africa, North -- Description and travel
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
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